Attributes Of God
Perfection - Matthew 5:48 - " Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in Heaven is perfect." God is all he ever could be in every possible way. He cannot be anything more than he is or anything less than he is, because if he could change in any way his perfection would not exist and he would be as changeable as his human creation. Perfection is not alterable! It was, is and will forever remain the same! God says, "I am God, I change not!" There is no other being in the universe who can make that claim, and since God is always the same, we can fully trust that he will do what he says. In Deuteronomy 32:4 the Bible says; "He is the rock, his work is perfect, for all his ways are judgment; a God of truth and without iniquity; just and right is he." It is impossible for an imperfect being to do perfect work as is evidenced by the history of mankind, yet this verse declares all God's work to be perfect! Perfection affects every other attribute of God because a perfect being doesn't change in any way. So then his perfection determines everything else about him. It is easy to understand then that God's love and wrath are both as perfect as they can be. God's mercy and judgment are also perfect as they can be. Everything that can be rightly said about God is proof that he is absolutely perfect and so he is unchangeable. Notice in Matthew 5:48 man is commanded to be perfect "as" his Father in Heaven is perfect. I believe that in a human being the word perfect applies only to doing the very best that we can be or do as humans trusting God to help us. Obviously we can't be perfect "like" God is because we would then be a god ourselves, and contrary to the teaching of some, the Godhead is closed. No more true and living gods will ever be created.
Eternity - Psalms 90:2 - "Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hast formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting thou art God." Eternal is the idea that God never had a beginning and he can never have an end. In addition, he is not affected by time as mankind and all of creation is. The Bible speaks in many places of eternity when speaking of God and when speaking of man. Everything began for mankind in Genesis Chapter 1, verse 26 when God said; "Let us make man in our image and in our likeness." To understand this verse we have to combine it with John 4:24 which says; "God is a Spirit, and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth." Did you catch the importance of that statement? Since we are formed in the image of God, then we too are "a spirit." Since we truly are spirits, then the body that surrounds our spirit is nothing but a temporary, feeble residence God created for us to live in as we walk this earth. Like God, our spirits are eternal and will never die. Our mortal bodies collapse in a heap at death because there is no spirit in them. The house is empty much like there is no life left in a house on earth when the whole family is not home. This, along with other supporting scriptures, gives great credence to the teachings of an eternal home, either on the new earth of 2 Peter 3:13 and Revelation 21:1 or the Lake of Fire described briefly in Revelation 20:14-15. There are some scripture teachers who mistakenly speak of an "eternal Hell" but they disregard this verse in Revelation 20 which states that death and Hell will be cast into the Lake of Fire. Some also teach of an eternal Heaven for mankind, but as my readers can see, the New Earth will be the final eternal destination of the redeemed children of God. Eternity then should be of great importance for all of us!
Holiness - I Samuel 2:2 - "There is none holy as the Lord, for there is none beside thee; neither is there any rock like our God." God's holiness is something we can only grasp at, but never fully understand. Since we are sinful by nature, the idea of absolute purity runs contrary to what we are and what we understand. God alone is perfectly holy and pure! This will be one of the most frightening attributes of God on the day of judgment, because in the light of his holiness and purity, every person who died without getting right with God will come before him vile and sinful, and his holiness will cause such shame in them that they will be terrified before him with no place to hide. The sins of every person who refused to acknowledge what Jesus Christ did for them on Calvary will be so glaring that there will be instant understanding that the punishment they receive is what they will deserve, and every argument will be silenced in his presence. The Bible says, "There will be weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth." Imagine, if you can, the unholy and profane suddenly bowing in abject terror before the Lord of the universe in all His holiness and power without the atoning blood of Christ. What a horrible day it will be for them to experience his justice and to feel his righteous wrath and indignation!
For those who loved and served him on earth his holiness will be a wonderful thing to behold, and yet I feel that we also will bow before him in deep humility and will worship him for who he is with gladness of heart and a much clearer understanding and appreciation of the depths of his mercy in redeeming us!
Omnipresence - Psalms 139:7-8 - "Whither shall I go from thy Spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into Heaven thou
art there; if I make my bed in Hell, behold thou art there." God's omnipresence simply means that there is nowhere you can go that God isn't there. Isaiah 66:1 declares; "Thus saith the Lord, The Heaven is my throne and the earth is my footstool." I Kings 8:27 says; "But will
God indeed dwell on the earth? behold the heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain thee." God is so vast that the heavens cannot contain him. He can come and go as he wills, and there is nothing and nobody that can stop him. Since God is infinite he has no size because size can be measured. So then God can fill any person, and there is still plenty of him left over to fill everyone and every thing else. As with other attributes touched by his perfection, there is no limit placed on where God can be because if he had limits to where he could be he would no longer be infinite or absolutely perfect.
Omnipotence - Psalms 62:11 - "God has spoken once; twice have I heard this; that power belongeth unto God." If we couple omnipotence with God's perfection we must come to the conclusion that there is no power existing in the universe that God does not own. The incredible thing about this is that God can be generous by our standards when he is bestowing power upon mankind because all the power we have is on loan to us and can be recalled any time God chooses. In other words, whatever power we have belongs to him so that in giving it to us he loses none of it. If God could be less powerful at any time or more powerful at any time he would cease to be infinite, perfect and unchanging. I feel like I am "beating a dead horse" as the old saying goes, but this wonderful perfection of God seals it in my heart that nothing about God can be changed one bit. Power does indeed belong to God, and mankind should be very thankful for any power that is given from his loving hand for our benefit. It is a great tragedy that mankind abuses this God-given power in so many ways, and in every case it is to the detriment of everyone involved including the persons abusing the power themselves. The more I think of this, the more I am saddened because of what could be accomplished if mankind would use this power in love and sincere concern for everyone. God has been patient with us beyond our meager understanding! God would give us so much more power if we could be entrusted to use it as we should!
Omniscience - Isaiah 40:13 "Who hath directed the spirit of the Lord or being his counselor hath taught him? Isaiah 40:28 - There is no searching of his understanding." Here again is the limitless knowledge, understanding and wisdom of God! A. W. Tozer wrote; "God knows everything, past, present and future, instantly and without effort." Can we get a handle on that? Before the earth was ever formed God knew that I would be creating this page of this website today. God knows every thought, word and deed of every person who ever lived, currently is alive and will be alive in the future perfectly and he knew them before the earth was formed and will know them long after the current earth is gone and throughout all eternity. God knows the number of hairs on every head or the lack thereof and every tear in anyone's eyes perfectly. There is not one particle of information that has ever existed that exists without his knowledge. When we pray for something, God knows the need before we ask. Like an earthly Father, he desires us to make our needs known to him as a matter of trusting he'll meet them. Philippians 4:19 makes it clear that he will do just that. When God does not give us what we request, we must understand that he knows what is best for us, and being the very best of Fathers, he withholds from us anything we don't need or that would be harmful or bad for us.
C R Lord © 2015