God tells us about Himself by telling us about Himself. It is all so interconnected together.
Let's Put It into Context
A Spirit and Transcendent
Because God is a Spirit, He transcends time and space and is superior to whatever being we put Him in a line up with – angel, Satan, demon, human.
- Since He is a Spirit, one way we worship God by praying to Him.
- God transcends time and space, yet He chooses to live in us when we imitate His character. He wants a strong, loving relationship with us.
- God’s thoughts and ways are transcendent to ours, but we must try to imitate Him.
Mysterious and Incomprehensible
Because God is mysterious and incomprehensible, He does keep secrets from us but reveals to us as we either need to know or as we grow to be able to comprehend.
- We can’t fully understand because He hasn’t fully revealed everything to us.
- When we feel we must know everything that God knows — that He shouldn’t keep secrets from us — we are not acknowledging His sovereignty. We are elevating ourselves to a place we were never meant to be.
- God withholds the things from us that we don’t need to know or can’t know. We need to trust Him.
Omnipotent, Omniscient, and Omnipresent
God’s omnipotence means God’s power is never ending and goes beyond what we can imagine, making nothing easy or hard for God.
- Things are either done or not done with Him. That takes it out of whether God can do it. It firmly puts it into it is God’s choice on what to do.
- God is powerful, but He is not a dictator. He allows us to make our own decisions. We will have to pay the consequences of those decisions, but He doesn’t force Himself on us.
- God’s holiness makes Him stately. It gives Him His dignity and power.
God’s omniscience means wisdom is part of God’s essence, making Him alone wise as He does not have to acquire wisdom.
- God’s wisdom can be seen throughout creation. His governance of man and nature show His greatness. God’s wisdom is sufficient that it puts Him in control.
- God had, has, and will always have the knowledge, wisdom, and control of His creation because His plan was always in place. He knows from beginning to end. He understands all. His Will will be accomplished.
- We know God is a thinker and a planner. He doesn’t just spontaneously do something. He knows all — past, present, and future.
God’s omnipresence means there is no place that God is not.
- If God is going to be perfect, He has to be omnipresent. He has to exist through all time and space. If He is perfect, He should be eternal. If God is not omnipresent and eternal, then His perfection and His power will be limited. He has to be present to act. He has to be present to create and to sustain the creation. His wisdom must be present.
Eternal, Self-Existent, and Unchangeable
Because God is eternal, He inhabits eternity and will continue to rule His creation throughout eternity.
- God occupies eternity, not just lives eternally. That makes it more of a space than a time.
- God is Ruler over all things and will be for eternity. He is Sovereign God. From Him all other life flows.
- God’s immutability is irrevocable. This not only speaks to God’s inability to change, but also to the inability to recall a decision. We see that in the fact that once God said something was a sin, it is always a sin.
God is self-existent because He was not created by another and is accountable to no other entity.
- God is self-sufficient because He can do it all — far more than we mere humans can do. There is nothing to which God can be measured. He is much higher than anything. God is self-sufficient because He is in control. He doesn’t need anyone to bring things about. He can.
God’s unchangeability means He hasn’t changed His mind since before the foundation of the world and won’t for the rest of eternity.
- Not only can He not change, but He also made the promise never to change if He could. His covenant is secure. Instead of holding the worldview that it would be better if God changed, we actually benefit that He is unchangeable.
- We generally think that God’s immutability means we don’t have to guess what He is thinking on a subject any given day. It also means that He can’t be corrupted. That means He won’t fail.
- God’s immutability makes Him dependable. He doesn’t change His mind to manipulate us into doing what He wants. That God is unchanging allows us to build a strong foundation on His Word.
Sovereign and Pure
God’s sovereignty means He has supreme power, giving Him control over all things without accountability to a higher power.
God’s purity stems from the fact that He cannot sin; therefore. He does not have the stain of sin.
- Sovereign God is clothed by His moral character.
- God is Sovereign because of His purity.
- We have to remember that God won’t do anything that is not in His nature. He will remain pure. God is holy and pure, so He cannot tolerate anything less — sin. He loves us, so He can offer us salvation. But there is one unpardonable sin, which I think is unbelief. If we can’t give up our sin and won’t submit our lives to Him, God can’t forgive that. God can’t alter His purity to accept our impurities. He can’t reconcile Himself to sin.
- Over all of God’s power, over His strength and holiness is His love. God loves us. Our Sovereign God is unique in His forgiveness and His works.
- Sovereign and Father is almost like a continuum. The majesty and splendor that is on the Ruler’s side, and love and tenderness is on the Father’s side. Power is offset by love and grace. But it isn’t so much a continuum. God does fall at one point one day and on the other side the next. God is at all points at all time.
Unified and Three in One
The Trinity is God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, three distinct Persons within one indivisible Divine nature.
- Scriptures are very clear that there is only one God. There can only be one infinite, omnipotent being that gives life to others. God has no rival or equal.
- We would never have been told to go proclaim the gospel “… in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Mt. 28: 19 CSB) if they were not Three in One.
Jealous and Wrathful
God’s jealousy means He does not tolerate His creation being unfaithful by worshiping anything other than Him. God’s wrath is the anger He expresses when we break His laws and commandments.
- In Old Testament times, idols could be anything from wooden carvings, images, or imageless worship. Today, we can worship anything from money, prosperity, celebrities, or science. The concept is still the same.
- What God looks like isn’t what is important. Who God is and what His character is has to be where we keep our focus.
- We aren’t going to be a spirit like God until we get our new bodies. So, here in this earth, we have to try to imitate His character. That is the way in which we grow to be like Him. If we boil this down to its elemental aspect, what we are talking about here is worshiping God the right way. That is why we were created.
- God wants us to focus on Him rather than forming alliances with worldview people.
- Because God is a jealous God, He will one day pass judgment on us when He “… pour[s] out [His] wrath …” (Zeph. 3: 8 NIV).
- Judgment will be used to purge this world from the sin that enslaves it. That will restore it to its previous state.
- God’s wrath will abate when we ask for forgiveness of our sins.
Glorious and Beautiful
God’s glory is, in part, the product of the adoration created when we praise God and give Him honor.
God’s beauty is the aura produced by genuine moral obedience.
- We have not seen the full display of God’s power.
- God can’t conceal everything from us, or He wouldn’t get the glory. God can’t conceal everything from us, but He has to have some mystery to receive glory.
- Mankind was made to glorify God.
Perfect, Holy, Just, Righteous, Faithful, and True
God’s perfection refers to His unspotted performance of all the other attributes, making Him spiritually whole and complete.
God’s holiness is the transcendent excellence of His nature that includes elements of purity, dedication, and commitment that lead to being set apart.
God’s justice is the order in He provides to creation.
God’s righteousness is the result of His being pure.
God’s faithfulness is the constancy He displays in His interaction with mankind based on His character, name, and Word.
God is both the One, true Sovereign God and one Who only speaks truth itself.
- God is totally perfect. All of His attributes do link together. He is perfect in them all. Being perfect tells us the status of the other attributes are spiritually whole and complete.
- God’s way is perfect because of His purity, an aspect of His holiness.
- Because God is pure — free from sin, He is holy.
- God can’t show us all of His holiness yet because this life is a trial for the next life. We aren’t in our perfected state yet. That goes along with God can’t and won’t reveal everything to us.
- God is just because He shows no favoritism.
- God is just even when He punishes those who break His laws and commandments. It is us that bring the punishment on ourselves, not Him. We choose to break His laws and commandments.
- His fair treatment of us is not dependent on us. That God is just stems from His mercy and compassion. Paul said that it has nothing to do with us.
- God is righteous because He is pure and works for us.
- If righteousness stems from His character — to me — that makes the “right” His character. His character is the holiness. He is holy because He is pure. He is pure because He doesn’t sin.
- Righteousness is the foundation of salvation. Righteousness originates with God. He shares it with us. Nothing we could do will ever earn us salvation and, therefore, righteousness.
- God’s whole purpose with the Plan of Salvation is to make us righteous again. We were before the original sin — He wants us to be again.
- The Gospel is the saving power of God because it infuses a morality of purity and completeness. It shows us Who God is. But it is built on the revelation of what righteousness is. We can’t be saved unless we understand what righteousness is.
- God wants to shower his righteousness on us.
- God’s righteousness is based on His purity.
- We’ve got to love God because He is God. We have to love Him for His character — His attributes — not for the rewards.
- God is going to be merciful and true regardless of our obedience or disobedience. What we gain by obedience is understanding of His ways.
- We can choose God for eternity because He is faithful to us. We know this because God has told us this — and He is faithful to His Word. God has promised us that, when we genuinely submit to Him, He will save us and bring us home to Heaven. We can rely in that. He loves us that much.
- Because of God’s righteousness — His purity in not sinning — we can be justified. We get this justification through our faith that God will be faithful in giving it to us when we submit to Him.
God keeps His word. It is more than being unchangeable. That is He can’t do anything differently. To me, being faithful is God doesn’t want to do things differently. He chooses to keep His word to us. - It does seem like we think most about God’s veracity. That is especially accurate when we couple truth with His faithfulness. I think we see God as the One true God more when we hook it onto His righteousness. All put together, it adds up to God’s perfection.
- When God promises to do something — or not do something — He does or doesn’t.
- Truth, along with faithfulness, is the avenue on which mercy is given.
- Because God is true, He does or doesn’t do something – but sometimes in a totally different way than we anticipate.
- Mercy doesn’t just come out of His love for us. God shows us mercy because of what He says He will do — and He is true to that word.
- God does not lie because He is wise. This, coupled with His love and faithfulness, negate the need to lie.
Loving, Gracious, Compassionate, Merciful, and Forgiving
God’s love is His all-encompassing favor that He has for us that is not dependent on our actions.
God’s grace is the product of the joy of a pure life and His love and mercy.
God’s mercy is an act of sovereign will that produces an unexpected and undeserved response from God as He responds in love to our needs.
God’s forgiveness is His ability to pardon us even though we have disobeyed Him by breaking His laws and commandments.
- Love is the foundations of all the other attributes being perfections. If God didn’t love, wisdom, power, and truth wouldn’t be perfect.
- If goodness is the feeling, mercy is the act. Or maybe it is the springboard.
- It is only by God’s grace that we gain salvation.
- If grace is a part of God, mercy is how He.
- God chooses to show us mercy in order to forgive us of our sins.
- God chose to forgive us because of His mercy. We didn’t deserve forgiveness, but in His mercy, He chose to give it to us anyway.
- So if grace is the gift, mercy is the way the gift is given. It is the emotion behind the gift.
- Mercy is given to us first, then grace. I can see that. The mercy carries with it the element of pity. God pities the sinful state we are in and then provides the grace through which we are saved.
- God, in His mercy, sent Jesus to be our Savior. That mercy is the start of our salvation.
- God’s abundant mercy stems from His love.
- God doesn’t have mercy for only certain sins. God has mercy for all sins.
- The abundance of God’s mercy impacts God’s forgiveness.
Providential and Caring
God’s Providence is His care of us because of His loving nature to provide.
- It was never in God’s plan to create us and the universe and leave us to our own designs. He always intended to implement the Plan of Salvation so that we might be restored to Him.
- God will provide for us what we need.
- God will withhold His provision when we are disobedient.
Goodness
God’s goodness is His holy, pure, and righteous behavior.
- God shows His goodness to believers and non-believers alike. It is one way in which He takes care of those made in His image.
- I see God’s goodness coming out of His purity. Regardless of the manifestation of His goodness, it stems from His sinlessness.
Main Nuggets
• Holiness is the inner expression and glory is the outward expression of God’s character (Attributes of God: Holy).
• Most of us think “Be still, and know that I am God …” (Ps. 46: 10 ESV) is an invitation. We also sometimes think we will only hear “be still” in times of trials. Instead, we should look at “be still” as a command that we have to obey every day (Promoting Silence in Our Soul).
Our Relationship with God
Silence of our soul starts out with being in the Presence of God. It is a fancy way of saying focus on God (Promoting Silence in Our Soul).
God’s work is the actions He takes through us to accomplish His plans, which are accomplished perfectly (Attributes of God: Perfect).
We don’t need to know everything that God does. We don’t need to have figured it out, and we don’t need to fully understand (Attributes of God: Glorious).
We say God has all these attributes and virtues, but we really don’t know His nature (Attributes of God: Glorious).
God’s beauty should be revealed as our inner beauty through our character (Attributes of God: Beautiful).
It doesn’t work when we try to bring God down to our unholiness (Attributes of God: Holy).
God desires us to have His character (Attributes of God: Holy).
When we focus on God, He will give us His peace — that is part of His work. In that way, we can be peaceful like Him — making the work perfect and complete. Complete equals perfect (Attributes of God: Perfect).
God wants us to submit to Him because He loves us and we love Him. He wants us to want to have the relationship with Him (Attributes of God: Perfect).
We worship God by imitating Him. That means we try to be perfect (Attributes of God: Perfect).
We are made in God’s image. That means, even though we may not currently be like Him, we can grow to have His character. We grow by the grace of God (Attributes of God: Perfect).
What we cannot forget is that God possesses the morals and attributes He is asking us to possess. That is why we are called to be imitators (Attributes of God: Just).
Judgment occurs when we sin. Righteousness is the reward when we don’t sin. The judgment and righteousness God bestows on us is not a negative (Attributes of God: Righteousness).
Being right with God brings us joy. We see the perfection. We feel the trustworthiness. We see that His commands are predicated on His Love for us. It makes us love and revere God more (Attributes of God: Righteousness).
God requires us to choose to live the way that honors Him (Attributes of God: Faithfulness).
It isn’t enough to just know of Him. It isn’t enough to just say we love Him. We have to make a conscious decision to live our lives in the way He wants us to live (Attributes of God: Faithfulness).
God wants to know that we’ve had a changed heart. He needs to know that we are submitting to Him. Anything less, we would still be saying, like Adam and Eve, that we don’t have to listen to God. We would be implying that we are — at a minimum — His equal. God is our Creator. He does not have to settle for anything less than our complete obedience (Attributes of God: Faithfulness).
We are to choose God because of Who He is, not what we gain from Him (Attributes of God: Faithfulness).
The product of our declaring and entwining the gospel with our lives is the change of character to godliness (Attributes of God: True).
God’s truth and faithfulness in carrying out His word is the foundation for our hope and trust. We have to have that foundation in order to believe in salvation (Attributes of God: True).
If we know God and try to imitate Him, we will imitate His love (Attributes of God: Loving).
In order to live correctly, we need to know God and become disciples. We are all made in His image and have the capacity to love in us. But we have to love in His pure way, not the worldview’s tolerant way (Attributes of God: Loving).
We are to open ourselves up to others. We need to let them in, and they need to see the real us. If we do that, they see the God we are imitating (Attributes of God: Loving).
All are offered the gift of salvation, but it is only given to those who accept it. Justification, adoption, etc. happens only when we turn our lives over to God (Attributes of God: Merciful and Forgiving).
If we don’t turn away from the desire to sin, we aren’t saved (Attributes of God: Merciful and Forgiving).
The contrast of the idol being fed and Sovereign God not dependent on mankind is huge. Mankind had to do everything for the idol. God doesn’t need a relationship with us. He wants a relationship with us (Attributes of God: Providential and Caring).
We can’t delude ourselves into thinking that, since God is a loving God, He is not going to hold us accountable (Attributes of God: Providential and Caring).
We have to keep God’s provision in perspective. We are not entitled to anything He gives us. We don’t even deserve it. God provides for us because of His unfailing love. That is just Who He is (Attributes of God: Providential and Caring).
God’s being just does not allow Him to accept sinful behavior. God will stay true to His character (Attributes of God: Just).
Once we are alone with God, we can truly search for and seek Him. He will spend the time with us to convict us and to answer our questions (Promoting Silence in Our Soul).
When we see peace as the absence of conflict, we take our eyes off of God. God wants us to see and know his peace within the conflict (Improving Silence in Our Minds).
The listening makes us docile — teachable. That is what God wants (Mastering Silence of the Tongue).
Our being in the temple has no bearing with God being in the temple. We could be indifferent, neglectful, or downright rebellious toward God. He will still be God in His temple (The Silence of Cheerfulness and Rejoicing).
Glossary
Obeying God’s Laws and Commandments
We aren’t going to keep all of God’s commandments if we don’t love Him (Attributes of God: Faithfulness).
God rewards our righteousness and punishes our unrighteousness. In a way, righteousness is its own reward. If righteousness is the result of being free from sin and the product of a solid relationship with Him, that means we have to choose to obey His laws and commandments (Attributes of God: Righteousness).
As Creator, He does have control of everything. He has not abdicated that control to anyone. We are accountable to Him (Attributes of God: Just).
Following God’s true instructions will bring us to lead godly lives (Attributes of God: True).
The whole purpose of Paul’s instruction was to show conformity with God’s previous vows to help us to redo ourselves for godliness. God receives the glory, and we receive salvation (Attributes of God: True).
We would say that the laws and the commandments are right. Since we know that the laws and the commandments show us God’s character, we can say that His character is right (Attributes of God: Righteousness).
“… Be holy, because I am holy” (I Pet. 1: 16 CSB) is to be our standard (Attributes of God: Holy).
We see God’s holiness through His laws and worship (Attributes of God: Holy).
If the laws show us holiness and the laws tell how we are expected not to sin, holiness means we are free from the stain of sin. God’s character is, therefore, pure and holy because He does not sin (Attributes of God: Holy).
It is our choice to obey God’s laws and commandments. It is arrogant of us to think we can disobey those laws and commandments and not suffer the consequences (Attributes of God: Just).
God is not unjust because He passes judgment on our actions (Attributes of God: Just).
We can’t gain righteousness just by keeping God’s laws. We’ve got to have the faith that goes with it (Attributes of God: Righteousness).
We can’t just do the lip service or just be a good person. Our mind has to be involved. I would add, so does our heart, soul, and strength (Attributes of God: Goodness).
God isn’t a dictator. He doesn’t make decrees and expect us to blindly follow them. Instead, God wants us to make conscious, informed decisions as to whether or not we are going to ABCD. Yes, we have an option to reject the Plan of Salvation. In order to make that informed decision, we have to actively listen to God. We have to let Him lead (Mastering Silence of the Tongue).
Returning to God broken is more of a concept of our knowing just how much we need God in our lives. We are broken in terms of struggling against and resisting Him (The Silence of Humble of Confession).
Glossary
Reflecting Him to Others
We are to be the outward expression of God’s holiness because we were made to worship Him (Attributes of God: Holy).
If loving God and loving others leads to perfection, we have to embrace God’s love upon conversion and keep it at the forefront of our redo for godliness (Attributes of God: Loving).
When we experiment with our faith, we use it to witness to others. We cannot quantify and qualify our faith until we have a good handle on it. What better way to solidify our faith than to share it with others? (Attributes of God: Goodness).
If some people believe there is nothing in the Scriptures that pertain to them, they are wrong. The Bible tells us clearly what happens when we choose God and when we don’t (Attributes of God: Faithfulness).
If God was the dictator worldview people want to paint Him, they would not have the free will to reject Him. They would be on their knees before Him now (The Rewards and Penalty of the Cross).
Worldview people call disciples intolerant when we mention the fact that we can only receive salvation through believing in Jesus. We are restating God’s position, not ours (Belief in the Christ of the Cross is Essential).
Whether worldview people think God’s salvation cannot save us or that it is not the only way, really matters not. Either way, they are rejecting God’s salvation. The result will be the same (Belief in the Christ of the Cross is Essential).
Religion on its own can’t save us. Church attendance — the ceremony and pageantry of it — means nothing without the personal relationship with God (Belief in the Christ of the Cross is Essential).
Glossary
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