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The Attributes of God (page 2)
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1 Introduction; His
Physical Attributes
- Page 2 His Moral Attributes; Conclusion
- Page 2 His Moral Attributes; Conclusion
In this second part of our study on the attributes of God, we will examine His moral or emotional characteristics. Since we are created in His image, many of His moral attributes are similar to those found in mankind, but to a incomparably higher degree. For example, man has the ability to love, but not to the same degree as God. We'll look further at God's love as we continue our study.
His Moral Attributes
1.
God is love.
God's love is unconditional and selfless toward mankind, supremely
expressed when He sent His own Son Jesus as an atoning sacrifice for our
sins. "But God commendeth his love toward us," Paul wrote to
the Romans, "in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for
us." (Romans 5:8 KJV). The apostle John writes, "He that loveth
not knoweth not God; for God is love. In this was manifested the love
of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the
world, that we might live through him." (1 John 4:8-9 KJV). "God
is love," John wrote; the very essence of love is personified in
God and Christ. Probably the most well known of all Bible verses states,
"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son,
that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting
life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but
that the world through him might be saved" (John 3:16-17 KJV). Such
as man has different degrees of love, so God does also. A man may love
his neighbor, his parents, and his wife, but the love for each varies
by degrees based on how close and intimate the relationship is. So with
God, He has a special love for those who return His love and follow Him.
"The Father himself loveth you," Jesus told His disciples, "because
ye have loved me, and believed that I came out from God." Of the
twelve disciples, Jesus had the "inner circle", those who were
closest to Him - Peter, James and John. To these three, He revealed things
about Himself that the others did not see. Mark tells us in his gospel
that Jesus "taketh with him Peter, James, and John, and leadeth them
up into a high mountain apart by themselves: and he was transfigured before
them..... and there appeared unto them Elias (Elijah) with Moses: and
they were talking with Jesus." (Mark 9:2-9 KJV). When Jesus raised
the daughter of Jairus from the dead, He permitted no one to follow Him
to Jairus' house but Peter, James and John (Mark 5:35-43). During Jesus'
most trying time, as the hour of His crucifixion approached, He went to
the Garden of Gethsemane, and He told His disciples to sit down, while
He and Peter, James and John went a little further to pray (Mark 14:32-36).
Perhaps John had tapped into Jesus' love even more than the members of
the inner circle, for he referred to himself as "the disciple whom
Jesus loved" (John 21:20).
2.
God is good.
God is good, and all that He originally created before the Fall was
good (Genesis 1). God is good to His people giving them daily benefits.
"Blessed be the Lord," David wrote, "who daily loadeth
us with benefits" (Psalm 68:19 KJV). "God is good to Israel,
even to such as are of a clean heart." (Psalm 73:1 KJV). "Good
and upright is the Lord," said the Psalmist, "therefore will
he teach sinners in the way" (Psalm 25:8 KJV). "Praise ye the
Lord," David cried, "O give thanks unto the Lord; for he is
good" (Psalm 106:1 KJV). Jesus even said of Himself, "Why called
thou me good? There is none good but one, that is, God" (Matthew
16:17 KJV). God is good to His creation sustaining it and keeping it.
Psalms 104 says God makes the grass to grow for the cattle. He sends springs
of water into the valleys to give drink to every beast of the field. The
cedars of Lebanon He has planted, and in them the birds make their nests.
The high hills are a refuge for the wild goats. He makes the darkness
where "the young lions roar after their prey, and seek their meat
from God." The beasts of the sea "wait all upon thee; that thou
mayest give them their meat in due season." Jesus added to this in
His teaching, "Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither
do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth
them. " (Matthew 6:25-33). God is also good to the ungodly in His
mercy. Jesus said your Father "maketh his sun to rise on the evil
and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust"
(Matthew 5:45 KJV).
3.
God is full of mercy.
Our sins demand punishment and damnation, but God does not destroy
mankind. Instead He offers the gift of salvation through faith in Jesus
Christ. Solomon cried, "O Lord God of Israel, there is no God like
unto thee in the heaven, nor in the earth; which keepeth covenant, and
shewest mercy unto thy servants, that walk before thee with all their
hearts" (2 Chronicles 6:14 KJV). Nehemiah spoke of God's mercy in
his prayer, "I beseech thee, O Lord God of heaven, the great and
terrible God, that keepeth covenant and mercy for them that love him and
observe his commandments" (Nehemiah 1:5 KJV). David repeatedly throughout
the Psalms asked for God's mercy or praised His mercy. "His mercy
endureth forever" he penned in Psalm 136. God's mercy is extended
to the sinner and to the unjust. "Let the wicked forsake his way
and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord,"
Isaiah pleaded, " and he will have mercy upon him" (Isaiah 55:7
KJV). The prophet Micah said "Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth
iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage?
He retaineth not his anger for ever, because he delighteth in mercy"
(Micah 7:18 KJV). Paul said in his letter to the church at Ephesus that
they, in times past, were lustful and sought to fulfill the desires of
their flesh and mind. "But God, who is rich in mercy....." Paul
wrote, "hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly
places in Christ Jesus" (Ephesians 2:1-6 KJV). The Lord said through
the prophet Joel, "Turn ye even to me with all your heart, and with
fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning: and rend your heart, and
not your garments, and turn unto the Lord your God: for he is gracious
and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness" (Joel 2:12-13
KJV).
4.
God is patient.
God expressed His patience first with Adam and Eve, for He did not
destroy them as He could have done. He even made for them clothing from
animal skins to cover their nakedness. As humanity grew extremely wicked,
God was angry and regretted that He had even made man. He vowed to destroy
mankind, but waited patiently while Noah constructed the ark (1 Peter
3:20). Revelation tells us that God has again vowed to destroy the earth
and create in their place a new heaven and new earth. In the meanwhile,
God waits patiently giving all men a chance to repent. "The Lord
is not slack concerning his promise.....", Peter wrote, "but
is longsuffering to usward, not willing that any should perish, but that
all should come to repentance" (2 Peter 3:9) KJV). Paul wrote to
the Romans, "What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make
his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath
fitted to destruction: and that he might make known the riches of his
glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory"
(Romans 9:22-23 KJV). "But thou, O Lord," David wrote, "art
a God full of compassion, and gracious, longsuffering, and plenteous in
mercy and truth." (Psalms 86:15 KJV). John said in the opening of
Revelation, "I John, who also am your brother, and companion in tribuation,
and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ" (Revelation 1:9
KJV). Paul, again to the Romans, said that we who are strong should bear
the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves, even as Christ
did not. "Whatsoever things were written," Paul instructed,
"were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort
of the scriptures might have hope. Now the God of patience and consolation
grant you to be likeminded one toward another according to Christ Jesus
(Romans 15:1-5 KJV).
5.
God is truth.
God cannot lie, so said Paul to Titus (1:2) and again to the Hebrews
(6:18). God is truth, and is trustworthy in all He says and does. God
proclaimed before Moses, "The Lord, The Lord God, merciful and gracious,
longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth." (Exodus 34:6
KJV). His Spirit is called the "Spirit of truth" (John 14:17).
His Son called Himself, "The way, the truth, and the life" (John
14:6). God's word is described as truth in John 17:17, "Sanctify
them through thy truth," Jesus prayed to the Father, "thy word
is truth." David also described God's word as truth, "Thy law
is the truth," and again, "Thy commandments are truth"
(Psalm 119: 142, 151 KJV; See also 1 Thessalonians 2:13). David spoke
many times of God's truth in his Psalms, "Lead me in thy truth, and
teach me: for thou art the God of my salvation; on thee do I wait all
the day..... Thou hast redeemed me, O Lord God of truth..... Let thy truth
continually preserve me..... His truth endureth to all generations.....
Thy truth reacheth unto the clouds." Jesus said before Pilate, "For
this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the
truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice" (John 18:37
KJV). To those who continue in His word, Jesus promised, "Ye shall
know the truth, and the truth shall make you free" (John 8:32 KJV).
Truth is part of the armor of God (Ephesians 6:14): "Have your loins
girt about with truth," Paul instructed us. Because God is truth,
and in Him is no lie, God has promised to reveal His wrath against those
who "hold the truth in unrighteousness." God grows angry at
those who "when they knew God, they glorifed him not as God.... who
changed the truth of God into a lie." These people "know the
judgement of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death"
but they continue to "not only do the same, but have pleasure in
them that do them" (Romans 1:21-32 KJV).
6.
God is just.
God is fair, honest and just in His dealings with and treatment of
mankind. God hates sin and loves righteousness. He is just in condemning
fallen man to death, yet sent His Son to atone for our sin that we may
have life. "God was in Christ," Paul wrote to the Corinthians,
"reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses
unto them..... For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin,
that we might be made the righteousness of God in him" (2 Corinthians
5:19,21 KJV). The chorus of the angels in heaven resounds, "Great
and marvelous are thy works, Lord God Almighty, just and true are thy
ways, thou King of saints" (Revelation 15:3 KJV). Jesus said concerning
Himself, "I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge:
and my judgement is just, because I seek not mine own will, but the will
of the Father which hath sent me" (John 5:30 KJV). In Acts, the apostles
echoed Jesus' words by referring to Him as "the Holy One and the
Just" (Acts 3:14) and the "Just One" (Acts 7:52). Even
Pilate said of Christ, while washing his hands, "I am innocent of
the blood of this just person" (Matthew 27:24 KJV). His wife even
warned him, after having a terrible dream, "Have thou nothing to
do with that just man" (Matthew 27:19 KJV). Abraham while pleading
for Sodom and Gomorrah, said to God, "That be far from thee to do
after this manner, to slay the righteous with the wicked.... Shall not
the Judge of all the earth do right?" (Genesis 18:25 KJV). Knowing
that God will do what is just and fair, it is far better to trust God
than man. When David disobeyed God and numbered the people, God spoke
to Gad and told him to go to David and tell him that he has three choices
of punishment: three years of famine, three months of being overtaken
by their enemies, or three days of the sword of the Lord. David responded,
"Let me fall now into the hand of the Lord; for very great are his
mercies: but let me not fall into the hand of man." (1 Chronicles
21:8-13).
7.
God is faithful.
God will perform what He has revealed in His Word, and will carry
out His promises and warnings. His faithfulness should be of comfort to
all believers, and bring fear to those who walk in unrighteousness. Moses
said, "Know therefore that the Lord thy God, he is God, the faithful
God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep
his commandments to a thousand generations" (Deuteronomy 7:9 KJV).
The Psalms speak of God's faithfulness. David said "I have declared
thy faithfulness and thy salvation" (40:10). "The heavens shall
praise thy wonders, O Lord: thy faithfulness also in the congregation
of the saints" (89:5). "For ever, O Lord, thy word is settled
in heaven. Thy faithfulness is unto all generations: thou hast established
the earth, and it abideth" (119:90-91). The Psalmist in Psalm 92
proclaimed, "It is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord, and
to sing praises unto thy name, O most High: to shew forth thy lovingkindness
in the morning, and thy faithfulness every night." In David's distress,
he cried out, "Hear my prayer, O Lord, give ear to my supplications:
in thy faithfulness answer me, and in thy righeousness" (Psalm 143:1
KJV). Paul wrote in his letters to the Thessalonians, "The Lord is
faithful, who shall establish you, and keep you from evil..... I pray
God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the
coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is he that called you, who also
will do it" (2 Thessalonians 3:3 and 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24 KJV).
If we commit a sin, John tells us "he is faithful and just to forgive
us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (1 John
1:9 KJV).
In conclusion
To the New Testament believer, God's final revelation of His attributes and His character is found in Jesus Christ. If we want to understand fully who God is and what He is like, then we must look to Jesus, who was God in the flesh. Colossians 2:9 (KJV) states, "For in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily." The writer of Hebrews states, "In the past, God spoke to our forefathers at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe. The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word." (Hebrews 1:1-3 NIV).
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