Understanding God - 3

Fellow partakers of God’s grace,
Greetings to you in the Name of our Lord Jesus. With love and prayers, we send you the third instalment of our series on “Understanding God.” Our prayer is that the Lord will continually reveal Himself to us all.

UNDERSTANDING GOD 3

In our previous studies, we looked at introductory matters, highlighted the difficulties associated with introducing God to men, encouraged us to learn the ways and mind of God and, in all, embrace His fear. In today’s study, we are exploring the attributes of God.

The Attributes of God
Again, we need to remind us that we are only sowing such seeds of understanding as will help our meditations and explorations concerning God. We will give you some highlights and leave you to do a detailed study on the attributes of God.
Our God has certain distinctive qualities. These qualities are so many that a random opening of the Bible to just any page will reveal one or more. For instance, each of the Names of God (as found in the Scriptures) reveals, at the least, one attribute of God. God is holy, just, kind, merciful, righteous, longsuffering, good and faithful. He is described as Love, Light, Truth, Life, Majesty and Peace. He is an all-powerful, all-seeing, all-wise and all-encompassing God. He is immortal, invisible, infinite, eternal, immutable and perfect. Indeed, He is much more.
In considering these attributes, what are the lessons we can learn? First of all, God is a mystery. This, in itself, is an attribute; yet it is a lesson (see Eph. 3:4, Col.2:2, Job. 11:7). For instance, Heaven is described as the place of His throne, yet He uses the earth as a footstool (Matt. 6:9, Isa. 66:1). King Solomon understood this, and acknowledged it. As he dedicated the magnificent temple that he built for God, he said: “But will God in very deed dwell with men on the earth? Behold, Heaven and the Heaven of heavens cannot contain thee: how much less this house which I have built!” (2 Chr. 6:18). Indeed, the Heavens cannot contain Him, for He fills up all things in every way (Psa. 139:7-10, Eph. 1:23). Even then, all things are found in Him, for in Him we live, and move and have our being (Ac. 17:28, Psa. 90:1, Rom. 11:36). He is a God of love, and yet a God of judgement. He is highly exalted, and yet He continually humbles Himself to relate with man. He is far from man, and yet so near. He is unseen, and yet He reveals Himself. He is a God of peace, and yet He is Jehovah, the Man of War.
The second lesson is that we must guard against a false balance, which God considers to be an abomination (Prov. 11:1). In general terms, a close look at God’s attributes will confirm that some of them (such as His love, holiness, kindness, faithfulness, righteousness, goodness and mercy) reveal His character, while others (such as His eternal and invisible nature, His immortality, His all-powerful, all-seeing and all-encompassing quality) reveal His ability. The potential for imbalance manifests in two major ways. In the fist instance, there is a tendency to overemphasize the attributes that reveal God’s ability (natural attributes) to the detriment of those that reveal His character (moral attributes). Within the context of a sign-seeking generation, this does not come as a surprise. Yet we must remember that, in God’s Kingdom, character is the foundation upon which ability is built. In fact, God wants to be remembered more for His character than His ability (see Jer. 9:23-24, Rom. 14:17). Likewise, He wants us to be remembered more for our godly character than our abilities (see Matt. 7:15-23, 1 Cor. 13:1-3).

Secondly, even when we focus on the attributes that reveal God’s character, there is a tendency to emphasize those that do not seem to place any special responsibility on our shoulders. For instance, today’s believer hears more about the goodness of God than the severity (or sternness) of God, whereas (if we may use an illustration) they are two sides of the same coin
(see Rom. 11:22, 2:4-11, 2 Sam. 22:26-28).

The third lesson is that we are entitled to manifest a measure of these attributes, especially those that reveal God’s character (see 2 Pet. 1:4, 1 Jn. 4:17-20, Heb. 6:5). As we can confirm from the listed passages of Scriptures, this includes (even) the opportunity to partake of “the powers of the world to come”. This prepares us to consider the Persons that make up the Godhead.