essay on attributes of god

15 Amazing Attributes of God: What They Mean and Why They Matter

What are God’s attributes? When we talk about the attributes of God, we are trying to answer questions like, Who is God, What is God like,  and What kind of God is he?  An attribute of God is something true about him. While fully comprehending who God is impossible for us as limited beings, God does make himself known in a variety of ways, and through what he reveals about himself in his Word and in his creation, we can begin to wrap our minds around our awesome Creator and God.

God is unlike anything or anyone we could ever know or imagine. He is one of a kind, unique and without comparison. Even describing him with mere words truly falls short of capturing who he is – our words simply cannot to justice to describe our holy God.

Still, God possess attributes that we can know (even in just in part) and he’s given us his Word as a means to understand himself. We’ve complied a list of 15 of God’s attributes; some are what theologians call “incommunicable” (qualities possessed by God alone) and others are “communicable” (qualities that both God and we possess, though only he possesses them perfectly).

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Here are 15 attributes of God, what they mean and why they matter:

1. God Is Infinite – He is Self-Existing, Without Origin

"And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together." - Colossians 1:17

“Great is our Lord, and abundant in power; his understanding is beyond measure” – Psalm 147:5

The fact that God is self-existent -- that he was created by nothing and has always existed forever -- is perhaps one of the hardest attributes of God for the believer to understand. In our limitedness, grasping the nature of our limitless God is like holding onto water as it rages down a river. Indeed, Tozer writes this about the confusing, head-spinning attribute of God’s infinity:

‘To admit that there is One who lies beyond us, who exists outside of all our categories, who will not be dismissed with a name, who will not appear before the bar of our reason, nor submit to our curious inquiries: this requires a great deal of humility, more than most of us possess, so we save face by thinking God down to our level, or at least down to where we can manage Him.”

In his article on Christianity.com, Dr. Adrian Rogers writes about the self-existence of God: “The name Jehovah is used some 6,800 times in the Bible. It is the personal covenant name of Israel's God. In the King James Version of the Bible, it's translated Lord God. Not only does it speak of God's strength, but also it speaks of the sovereignty of God and the goodness of God. The root of this name means "self-existing," one who never came into being, and one who always will be. When Moses asked God, "Who shall I tell Pharaoh has sent me?" God said, "I AM THAT I AM." Jehovah or Yahweh is the most intensely sacred name to Jewish scribes and many will not even pronounce the name. When possible, they use another name.”

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2. God Is Immutable – He Never Changes

“I the Lord do not change. So you, the descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed.” Malachi 3:6

God does not change. Who he is never changes. His attributes are the same from before the beginning of time into eternity. His character never changes – he never gets “better” or “worse.” His plans do not change. His promises do not change.

This ought to be a source of incredible joy for believers. Sam Storms writes this about the good news of God’s unchanging nature: “What all this means, very simply, is that God is dependable! Our trust in him is therefore a confident trust, for we know that he will not, indeed cannot, change. His purposes are unfailing, his promises unassailable. It is because the God who promised us eternal life is immutable that we may rest assured that nothing, not trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword shall separate us from the love of Christ. It is because Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever that neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, not even powers, height, depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord ( Rom. 8:35-39 )!”

3. God Is Self-Sufficient – He Has No Needs

“For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself.” – John 5:26

As limited humans, we have incredible needs, which left unfulfilled, result in death. God, however, has never once been in need of anything.  As Tim Temple writes , “God is perfectly complete within his own being.”

In a blog post on Reformation21.org, Scott Swain writes that the self-sufficiency of God means he “possesses infinite riches of being, wisdom, goodness, and power in and of himself (Gen 17:1;  John 5:26 ;  Eph 3:16 ). Because he possesses these unfathomable riches in the perfect knowledge and love of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (Matt 11.25-27;  John 17:24-26 ), God is the "blessed" or "happy" God (1 Tim 1.11; 6:15).” 

Because God is self-sufficient, we can go to him to satisfy all our needs. We never have to worry about “drying up” his never-ending well of goodness, peace , mercy and grace. “Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us…” ( Ephesians 3:20 )

4. God is Omnipotent – He Is All Powerful

“By the word of the LORD the heavens were made, their starry host by the breath of his mouth.” – Psalm 33:6

“Can you fathom the mysteries of God? Can you probe the limits of the Almighty? They are higher than the heavens above—what can you do? They are deeper than the depths below—what can you know? Their measure is longer than the earth and wider than the sea. If he comes along and confines you in prison and convenes a court, who can oppose him? Surely he recognizes deceivers; and when he sees evil, does he not take note?” – Job 11:7-11

Omnipotent means to have unlimited power (omni = all; potent = powerful). God is able and powerful to do anything he wills without any effort on his part.

It’s important to note the “anything he wills” part of that statement because God cannot do anything contradictory or contrary to His nature. Hebrews 6:18 puts it like this: “God did this so that, by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope set before us may be greatly encouraged.”

In his devotional Forward,  Ron Moore puts it like this : “God's attribute of omnipotence means that God is able to do all that He desires to do. When He plans something, it will come to be. If He purposes something, it will happen. Nothing can prevent His plan. When His hand is stretched out to do something, no one can turn it back. Omnipotence comes from two Latin words.  Omni  means "all," and  potens means "powerful." God's decisions are always in line with His character, and He has all the power to do whatever He decides to do.”

“ Scripture is clear that God is strong and mighty ( Psalm 24:8 ). Nothing is too hard for Him to accomplish  ( Genesis 18:14 ;   Jeremiah 32:17 , 27;   Luke 1:37 ). Often God is called "Almighty," describing Him as the One who possesses all power and authority  ( 2 Corinthians 6:18 ; Revelation 1:8 ). In fact, Paul says that God is "able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine"  ( Ephesians 3:20 ).”

“Although such power might seem frightful, remember that God is good. He can do anything according to His infinite ability, but will do only those things that are consistent with Himself. That’s why He can’t lie, tolerate sin, or save impenitent sinners.” – John MacArthur

5. God Is Omniscient – He Is All-Knowing

“Remember the former things, those of long ago; I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me. I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say: My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please” - Isaiah 46:9-10

God is omniscient, which means he knows everything. Debbie McDaniel writes this about the omniscience of God , “He can be everywhere, at the same time. And He never sleeps or slumbers, He's aware every moment of every day, exactly what we're up against. He knows our way, and is with us always. There's no place on this earth we can go that He doesn't see and know of.”

Tozer writes this about God’s omniscience: “God perfectly knows Himself and, being the source and author of all things, it follows that He knows all that can be known. And this He knows instantly and with a fullness of perfection that includes every possible item of knowledge concerning everything that exists or could have existed anywhere in the universe at any time in the past or that may exist in the centuries or ages yet unborn.”

Because God is all-knowing, we can trust that he knows everything we’re going through today and everything we will go through tomorrow. When we meditate on this truth, especially in light of his other attributes of goodness and love, it makes it easier to trust him with all we have going on in our lives, from the very serious to the silly and mundane.

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6. God Is Omnipresent – He Is Always Everywhere

“Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? If I ascend to heaven , You are there; If I make my bed in Sheol, behold, You are there. If I take the wings of the dawn, If I dwell in the remotest part of the sea, even there Your hand will lead me, And Your right hand will lay hold of me.” Psalm 139:7-10

“‘Am I a God at hand,’ declares the Lord, ‘and not a God afar off? Can a man hide himself in secret places so that I cannot see him?’ declares the Lord. ‘Do I not fill heaven and earth?’ declares the Lord” - Jeremiah 23:23-24

To be omnipresent is to be in all places, at all times. Yet, it is important to understand that for God, “to be” in a place is not the same way we are in a place. “God’s being is all together different from physical matter,” the website Ligonier.org explains . “He exists on a plane wholly distinguishable from the one readily available to the five senses.”

Nevertheless, he is with us. The fullness of his presence is all around us. “Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there! If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me.” The psalmist proclaims God’s omnipresence in Psalm 137 .

This ought to bring deep comfort to Christians who struggle with loneliness and deep sorrow. In a very real way, God is always near us, “closer than our thoughts,” writes Tozer. “The knowledge that we are never alone calms the troubled sea of our lives and speaks peace to our soul.”

7. God Is Wise – He Is Full of Perfect, Unchanging Wisdom

“Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways!” – Romans 11:33

Wisdom is more than just head knowledge and intelligence. A truly wise person is someone who understands all the facts and makes the best decisions. A wise person uses his heart, soul, and mind together with skill and competence. But even the wisest man on earth would never come close to being as wise as God.

God is infinitely wise, consistently wise, and perfectly wise. Tozer writes, “Wisdom, among other things, is the ability to devise perfect ends and to achieve those ends by the most perfect means. It sees the end from the beginning, so there can be no need to guess or conjecture. Wisdom sees everything in focus, each in proper relation to all, and is thus able to work toward predestined goals with flawless precision.”

Indeed, when we see wisdom like this, we realize just how much our limited, finite wisdom compares with the limitless, infinite wisdom of God. And how comforting and wonderful this is for man to dwell on! The fact that God can never be more wise means he is always doing the wisest thing in our lives. No plan we could make for our lives could be better than the plan he has already crafted and is carrying out for us. We might not understand his ways today, but we can trust that because God is infinitely wise, he truly is working all things out in the best possible way.

8. God Is Faithful – He Is Infinitely, Unchangingly True

"Know therefore that the LORD your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commands." - Deut 7:9

“[I]f we are faithless, he remains faithful— for he cannot deny himself.” 2 Timothy 2:13

As with all of God’s attributes, they are not separate, isolated traits but interconnected parts of his perfect whole being. So his faithfulness cannot be understood apart from his immutability, the fact that he never changes. So when we read that God remains faithful, for he cannot deny himself, we see these his attributes working together. The fact that he is unchanging means he can never not be faithful.

A. W. Pink writes this about God’s faithfulness : “God is true. His Word of Promise is sure. In all His relations with His people God is faithful. He may be safely relied upon. No one ever yet really trusted Him in vain. We find this precious truth expressed almost everywhere in the Scriptures, for His people need to know that faithfulness is an essential part of the Divine character. This is the basis of our confidence in Him.”

The fact that God is infinitely, unchangingly faithful means that he never forgets anything, never fails to do anything he has set out to do, never changes his mind or takes back a promise. And his faithfulness pours out from his love, so we can trust Paul’s word that “in all things God works for the good of those who love him.”

Of course, we don’t always understand or see how his plan is faithful. In our limited understanding and finite minds, God’s faithfulness might look a lot like abandonment. For how could a faithful God allow his children to suffer, to hurt, to die? But Christians can take comfort in these moments by remembering these attributes of God , for when we go through hard times, we know that God is nevertheless unchangingly faithful, good, always with us and wise. Faithfully trusting in who God says he is a great comfort. “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.” 1 Corinthians 13:12

9. God Is Good – He Is Infinitely, Unchangingly Kind and Full of Good Will

“O, taste and see that the Lord is good” – Psalm 34:8

According to Tozer, the goodness of God “disposes Him to be kind, cordial, benevolent, and full of good will toward men. He is tenderhearted and of quick sympathy, and His unfailing attitude toward all moral beings is open, frank, and friendly. By His nature He is inclined to bestow blessedness and He takes holy pleasure in the happiness of His people.”

Just like his other attributes, God’s goodness exists within his immutability and infinite nature so that he is unchangingly, always good. His mercy flows from his goodness. “In his goodness to us, we see that He has purposed to be good in a special way to his people” ( Ligonier.com ).

As with God’s other perfect attributes, Christians find it easier to affirm the goodness of God when things are going well. When life takes a nosedive, though, that’s when we begin to question God’s goodness to and for us.

When the Psalmist writes, “O, taste and see that the Lord is good,” ( Psalm 34 ), He is inviting us not just to believe that God is good but to experience God’s goodness. And, interestingly, as Desiring God writer Andrew Wilson notes in his article on the subject of God’s goodness, “the psalmist affirms his experience of God’s goodness from a place of suffering. In verse 19, he makes the remarkable announcement, “Many are the afflictions of the righteous.” Even with a good God, who is sovereign over everything and has the power to do whatever he likes, good people still suffer. His punchline, though, comes in the next phrase: “but Yahweh delivers him out of them all.” Evil happens, but “none of those who take refuge in him will be condemned” (34:22).

10. God Is Just – He Is Infinitely, Unchangeably Right and Perfect in All He Does

"The Rock! His work is perfect, For all His ways are just; A God of faithfulness and without injustice, Righteous and upright is He.” – Duet 32:4

What does it mean that God is just? It means more than he is simply fair.  It means he always does what is right and good toward all men. Likewise, although this is hard for many to accept, his sentencing of evil, unrepentant sinners to hell is also right and good. 

A natural question that arises from this is, how then can a just God justify the unjust (as each of us are without Christ!)? Tozer answers this by reminding us that we find the answer through the Christian doctrine of justification and redemption. “Through the work of Christ in atonement, justice is not violated but satisfied when God spares a sinner.”

In light of God’s other attributes of goodness, mercy, love, and grace, some might, in error, say that God is too kind to punish the ungodly. But to believe this means we dull the reality of his infinite, unchanging justice. God will have justice for sin, either from Christ’s atoning death or, for those who will not accept it, eternal wrath in hell.

“Let’s assume that all men are guilty of sin in the sight of God. From the mass of humanity, God sovereignly decides to give mercy to some of them. What do the rest get? They get justice. The saved get mercy and the unsaved get justice. Nobody gets injustice” - R. C. Sproul

11. God Is Merciful – He is Infinitely, Unchangeably Compassionate and Kind

“I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy." - Romans 9:15-16

As noted above, God’s mercy is inseparable from his justness. He is infinitely, unchangeably, unfailingly merciful – forgiving, lovingly kind toward us. He is inexhaustibly, actively compassionate. His mercy is also undeserved by us. Spurgeon writes that  “It is undeserved mercy, as indeed all true mercy must be, for deserved mercy is only a misnomer for justice. There was no right on the sinner's part, to the saving mercy of the Most High God. Had the rebel been doomed at once to eternal fire — he would have justly merited the doom; and if delivered from wrath, sovereign love alone has found a cause, for there was none in the sinner himself. “

Without the mercy of God, we would have no hope of heaven. Because of our disobedient hearts, we deserve death. “For all have sinned and fall short glory of God,” and “ the wages of sin is death .” But because of mercy, we don’t get what we deserve. Instead, because of the mercy of God, we get life through faith in Christ.

Tozer writes this about the mercy of God. “As judgment is God’s justice confronting moral inequity, so mercy is the goodness of God confronting human suffering and guilt. Were there no guilt in the world, no pain and no tears, God would yet be infinitely merciful; but His mercy might well remain hidden in His heart, unknown to the created universe. No voice would be raised to celebrate the mercy of which none felt the need. It is human misery and sin that call forth the divine mercy.”

12. God Is Gracious – God Is Infinitely Inclined to Spare the Guilty

"The LORD is gracious and merciful; Slow to anger and great in lovingkindness." – Psalm 145:8

If mercy is not getting what we do deserve (damnation), grace is getting what we don’t deserve (eternal life). “As mercy is God’s goodness confronting human misery and guilt,” Tozer writes, “so grace is His goodness directed toward human debt and demerit. It is by his grace that God imputes merit where none previously existed and declares no debt to be where one had been before.”

Because grace is a part of who God is and not just an action he bestows, it means we can trust that grace is eternal. His grace is something we do not earn or lose (“For it is by grace you have been saved , through faith – and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God…” Eph. 2:8 ). His grace is also sovereign. “I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious” ( Exodus 33:19 ).

When talking about the grace of God, theologians will often differentiate between God’s common grace and his saving grace. Christianity Today writer Patrick Mabilog writes this about the difference. “His common grace is a gift to all of mankind. It is the reason that everyone – Christian or non-Christian - enjoys the blessings of life, provision and abundance. Matthew 5:45 tells us, ‘For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.’”

While all of humanity benefits from common grace, only those who profess believe and put their faith in Christ receive saving grace. This is what results in our sanctification and our glorification of God, that we might live for him and enjoy him for all eternity.

13. God Is Loving – God Infinitely, Unchangingly Loves Us

“Beloved, let us love one another , for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.  Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love .” - 1 John 4:7-8

Love. The word “staggers before its task of even describing the reality,” writes R.C. Sproul in his book, God’s Love .  As with all attributes, we can only begin to comprehend God’s love in light of his other attributes. The love of God is eternal, sovereign, unchanging, and infinite.

“It is a strange and beautiful eccentricity of the free God,” Tozer writes,  “that He has allowed His heart to be emotionally identified with men. Self-sufficient as He is, He wants our love and will not be satisfied till He gets it. Free as He is, He has let His heart be bound to us forever. God’s love is active, drawing us to himself. His love is personal. He doesn’t love humanity in some vague sense, he loves humans. He loves you and me. And his love for us knows no beginning and no end.

14. God Is Holy – He is Infinitely, Unchangingly Perfect

“Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord Almighty” – Revelation 4:8

The word holy means sacred, set apart, revered, or devine. And yet none of those words is adequate to describe the awesome holiness of our God. John MacArthur writes this about God’s holiness : “Of all the attributes of God, holiness is the one that most uniquely describes Him and in reality is a summation of all His other attributes. The word holiness refers to His separateness, His otherness, the fact that He is unlike any other being. It indicates His complete and infinite perfection. Holiness is the attribute of God that binds all the others together.”

That God is holy means he is endlessly, always perfect. And his standard for us is perfection as well. “Therefore you are to be perfect, as your Heavenly Father is perfect,” Jesus says in Matthew 5:48 . That’s why we need Christ. Without Christ taking the place for us and dying for our sins, we would all fall short of God’s holy standard. Tozer says this about what God’s holiness demands:

“Since God’s first concern for His universe is its moral health, that is, its holiness, whatever is contrary to this is necessarily under His eternal displeasure. To preserve His creation God must destroy whatever would destroy it. When He arises to put down iniquity and save the world from irreparable moral collapse, He is said to be angry. Every wrathful judgment in the history of the world has been a holy act of preservation. The holiness of God, the wrath of God , and the health of the creation are inseparably united. God’s wrath is His utter intolerance of whatever degrades and destroys.”

Thankfully, the Christian will never have to experience God’s holy wrath poured out. Through Christ’s death and resurrection , the penalty for our sins was paid and we were imputed (credited) with Christ’s righteousness. Now, when God looks on us, he sees Christ’s perfect holiness. Hallelujah! It is only in this that we can hope to stand in the presence of the blindingly pure, perfect, Holy One of Israel.

15. God Is Glorious – He is Infinitely Beautiful and Great

“His radiance is like the sunlight; He has rays flashing from His hand, And there is the hiding of His power.” - Habakkuk 3:4

John Piper defines God’s glory like this : “The glory of God is the infinite beauty and greatness of God’s manifold perfections. The infinite beauty—and I am focusing on the manifestation of his character and his worth and his attributes — all of his perfections and greatness are beautiful as they are seen, and there are many of them. That is why I use the word manifold.”

Ligonier.org writes this about the glory of God : “When we think of the glory of the Lord, the image of brilliant light often comes to our minds. That is certainly appropriate, as Scripture often describes the glory of God in terms of a light that shines brighter than anything that we experience on earth.”

The glory of God is of course, inseparable from his other attributes, so God is eternally, infinitely, unchangingly glorious. His radiance and beauty emanate from all that his is and all that he does. Isaiah 43:7 says that man was created by God for his glory. So our whole existence and purpose is to glorify him, as we are created in his image and do the good work he has prepared for us to do. Inevitably, man will try to find glory in other things, or to try and make himself an object of glory. And when those things fail to bring us satisfaction, we must decide to humble ourselves and turn our gaze back to the only one who is worthy of glory.

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1000-Word Philosophy: An Introductory Anthology

Philosophy, One Thousand Words at a Time

The Concept of God: Divine Attributes

Categories: Philosophy of Religion , Metaphysics Author: Bailie Peterson Word Count: 1000

Theists believe God exists, atheists believe that God does not exist, and agnostics suspend judgment on the issue. But what do each of these mean by ‘God’? What is the concept of God that underlies the debate? [1]

This essay explains three important features of a widely-accepted idea of God and discusses some puzzles and paradoxes related to their application.

1. The “Omni-God” Conception

In the Abrahamic religious traditions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, the typical idea of God is that of a perfect [2] being who has, at a minimum, three properties or characteristics:

• omnipotence (being all-powerful),
• omni-benevolence (being wholly morally good), and
• omniscience (being all-knowing).

Other commonly attributed properties include:

• necessary existence (God exists, and could not fail to exist),
• aseity (God’s existence does not depend on anything else; God is uncaused),
• immutability (God does not change), and
• eternal or everlasting existence (God exists at all times or outside of time).

This essay focuses on the first three attributes, as these are often taken to be essential , meaning that a being would not be God unless it has all three of these properties. The latter attributes are more controversial; e.g., if God exists necessarily , then God exists , which is not accepted by everyone who is interested in the question of whether God exists. [3]

2. Omnipotence

Most people accept that the idea of God is that of an all-powerful, or omnipotent, being. What does this mean?

St. Augustine suggested that omnipotence means that God can do anything that God wills to do . [4] But what could God will? Could God will what’s logically impossible, e.g., that 2 and 3 added together make 4, or create an object that is both round and square at the same time? Most philosophers argue that omnipotence only includes the ability to bring about logically consistent, not contradictory, states of affairs. [5]

Even if omnipotence is restricted to what is logically possible, there are puzzles.

A classic paradox, discussed by Islamic philosopher Ibn Rushd, also known as Averroes, asks whether God’s omnipotence would allow God to create a stone so heavy God could not lift it. The paradox is this:

• If God can create such a stone, then God lacks the power to lift it, and so is not omnipotent. 
• But if God cannot create this stone, then God is not omnipotent since this is something God cannot do.

Responses often involve arguing that careful analysis of the case shows that there is no actual paradox, e.g., that creating the stone is not in fact logically consistent, as the stone is described as something that both can and cannot be lifted, a contradiction, and so an impossibility. [6]

3. Omnibenevolence

What is it to be omni-benevolent, or wholly morally good? Presumably, this means that such a being is perfectly virtuous: e.g., kind, generous and loving; never malicious or cruel; never causes or allows unnecessary harm; always does right and never does wrong.

Does being wholly morally good mean that one is unable to do anything morally wrong? Or could an omnibenevolent God choose to do wrong if God wished to, even if God never chooses to?

The first option might be problematic: if God’s nature or essence would prevent God from doing wrong, is this still goodness in any meaningful sense?

Compare this to human goodness, and imagine two people, Alex and Blair. Alex is kind and generous because she thinks it is the right thing to do and actively seeks to be this way even when tempted to do otherwise. Blair, however, is kind and generous because he literally cannot be any other way: Blair couldn’t do wrong even if he wanted to. Who is the better person here? Those who find Alex better might object to understanding God’s goodness as impeccability or the literal inability to do wrong. Others might deny that the freedom to do otherwise is required for genuine goodness and decide that God could be like Blair without any deficiency in goodness. [7]

This is closely related to a problem known as the Euthyphro dilemma: does God do what is good because it is good, or is what God does good because God does it? The first option seems to make God subject to an independent notion of goodness that even God must conform to. The second option, however, suggests that whatever God wills is automatically good. So, if God could will something horrific, that would make it good. [8]

4. Omniscience

Omniscience is often defined as knowing everything there is to be known. Things get complicated, however, when we consider whether God knows facts about the future, and if so, how this bears on our free will. [9] For example, if God knows that you will submit your term paper 4 minutes before the deadline, that seems to rule out the possibility that you are free to turn it in earlier. Philosophers differ in their reaction to this problem, often on the basis of what they believe it means to have free will and whether God, or anyone, can indeed know the future (and whether there are truths about the future now ).

5. Conclusion: Combining the Attributes

These attributes raise questions and puzzles considered on their own, but other concerns arise from how these attributes relate to each other.

For example, omnipotence and omniscience combined with complete benevolence seem to entail the absence of unnecessary and undeserved suffering: God would know when such bad events would take place, and presumably have the power to prevent them. As a benevolent being, God would want to eliminate such events, so there should not be any. However, such suffering is arguably a fact of our lives, which calls the compatibility of these attributes into question. [10]

The proposed attributes raise difficult questions, but awareness of these issues can help make debates about the nature and existence of God more productive, as well as just make it clearer what sort of God some people believe exists, others believe does not exist or still others suspend judgment about.

[1] It is important to note that some people use the word ‘God’ to refer to concepts other than the concept focused on here. For example, someone might think of ‘God’ as another name for ‘love’ or ‘nature.’ While people are free to use the word ‘God’ pretty much however they’d like, it is important to be clear on one’s own concept or idea, so it’s clear what is being said or thought. It is also important to clarify one’s concept of God before engaging in debate about whether God exists. Imagine two people are discussing the existence of God: the first has a concept of an all-good, powerful and knowledgeable being and claims that such a being exists. The second believes that ‘God’ is just another name for ‘nature.’ If we do not narrow things down to a single concept, it seems that the point would be lost (e.g., we wouldn’t want to say that both debaters are theists who believe that God exists), and it’s also clear that, since nature exists, “God” clearly exists in this sense of the word. In order to focus on a specific debate about the existence of God, we will focus on a more common notion, concept or idea of God.

[2] Considering God to be a perfect being is directly tied to holding God to have these three attributes: a perfect being would seem to have as much power, knowledge and goodness as it is possible to have.

[3] Some versions of the Ontological Argument hinge on this controversy, e.g., Plantinga’s Modal Ontological Argument. See The Ontological Argument for the Existence of God by Andrew Chapman.

[4] See, e.g., City of God Chapter 10.

[5] Many interpret Descartes, however, as having held that God can do anything, even if it is logically impossible, e.g., in his “Letter to Mersenne, 27 May 1630,” where he states that “[God] was free to make it not true that all the radii of the circle are equal” (1984: 25). See, e.g., Frankfurt (1977) and Geach (1973) for support of this view. See, e.g., La Croix (1984) for a rejection of this interpretation.

[6] Some contemporary philosophers, e.g., Mavrodes (1963) and Savage (1967), have raised interesting response to this problem. Savage argues that even if God cannot create a stone God cannot lift, this is no threat to omnipotence, since this is consistent with God lifting any stone God creates, and also creating stones of any weight. (In other words, if God creates it, God can lift it, and God can create any stone. While omnipotence requires creating stones of any weight, and lifting stones of any weight, it is asking too much to then ask God to create stones that are also unliftable.)

[7] The discussion of free will and moral responsibility is relevant to this question. See Free Will and Free Choice  by Jonah Nagashima, Alternate Possibilities and Moral Responsibility by Rachel Bourbaki and Free Will and Moral Responsibility  by Chelsea Haramia.

[8] For further discussion, see Because God Says So: On Divine Command Theory  by Spencer Case.

[9] Whether or not future-based propositions have present truth values is a matter of debate. Some philosophers think that future propositions do not have truth values until they are present, while others think that tensed facts are eternally true. It might seem that, e.g., it is true right now that in two minutes you will finish reading this article. Because God is often taken to be eternal, or outside of time, it seems that God should know all facts at all times, regardless of the details of time for beings like us.

[10] For further discussion of this issue, see The Problem of Evil by Thomas Metcalf

Aquinas, Thomas. ( 1259–1265) Summa contra Gentiles: On the Truth of the Catholic Faith , Translated by Pegis, Bourke, Anderson and O’Neil. Vol. I-IV. Hanover House (1955-1957). Online Resource edited by Joseph Kenny.

Averroes. (1180). Tahafut Al-tahafut: (The Incoherence of the Incoherence). Vol. 1 & 2. Gibb Memorial Trust, 2008.

Augustine of Hippo. (426). The City of God Against the Pagans. Translated by George E. McCracken The City of God: Books 1-3. Harvard University Press, 1957.

Descartes, Rene. “To Mersenne, 27 May 1630.” and “Sixth Objections.” in Cottingham, Stoothoff, Murdoch, and Kenny (1984) The Philosophical Writings of Descartes , Vol. II and III. Cambridge University Press, 1991.

Frankfurt, Harry. (1977). “Descartes on the Creation of the Eternal truths.” Philosophical Review 86 (1): 36-57.

La Croix, Richard R. (1984). “Descartes on God’s Ability to Do the Logically Impossible.” Canadian Journal of Philosophy 14 (3): 455-475.

Geach, P. T. (1973). “Omnipotence.” Philosophy 48 (183): 7-20.

Mavrodes, George I. (1963). “Some Puzzles Concerning Omnipotence.” Philosophical Review 72 (2): 221-223.

Plantinga, Alvin. (1974). The Nature of Necessity . Clarendon Press .

Savage, C. Wade (1967). “The Paradox of the Stone.” Philosophical Review 76 (1): 74-79.

Related Essays

Agnosticism about God’s Existence by Sylwia Wilczewska

Possibility and Necessity: An Introduction to Modality  by Andre Leo Rusavuk 

The Ontological Argument for the Existence of God by Andrew Chapman

Free Will and Free Choice by Jonah Nagashima

Alternate Possibilities and Moral Responsibility by Rachel Bourbaki

Free Will and Moral Responsibility by Chelsea Haramia

The Problem of Evil by Thomas Metcalf

Because God Says So: On Divine Command Theory by Spencer Case

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Bailie Peterson is an Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the University of Northern Colorado. Her main philosophical interests are metaphysics, epistemology, and pre-college philosophy. She lives with her husband, toddler, and two particularly benevolent cats. www.unco.edu/hss/philosophy/faculty-staff/bailie-peterson.aspx

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Guide to the Attributes of God

• wayne-grudem
• May 17, 2018
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Between the things God says and does, what other people say about him, and the life of Jesus, the Bible gives us numerous descriptions of God’s character. These passages are often sorted into “attributes of God,” a biblical framework we can use to talk about what God is like and how we know that. Exploring the attributes of God helps us prepare for evangelism, learn church doctrine, and most importantly, understand who God is.

There are several different methods for categorizing God’s attributes. This post will use the most common classification system, adapted from Wayne Grudem’s online systematic theology course .

The two general categories of God’s attributes

The most common way to classify God’s attributes divides them into incommunicable attributes (traits that God doesn’t share or “communicate” to others) and communicable attributes (traits that God shares or “communicates” with us).

Some of God’s incommunicable attributes include his:

• Eternal nature (he is infinite, but we are finite)
• Unchangeableness (he never changes, but we do)
• Omnipresence (God is everywhere at once, but we can only be in one place at a time)

Some of God’s communicable attributes include his:

• Love (God is love, and we’re capable of love)
• Knowledge (God has knowledge, and we can have it, too)
• Mercy (God is merciful, and we’re also capable of mercy)
• Justice (God is just, and we’re capable of justice)

This breakdown seems pretty straightforward, but while it can be helpful, it isn’t perfect. No attribute of God is completely communicable, and no attribute of God is completely incommunicable. We can be wise, but we can never be as wise as God. We can express and experience love, but we’ll never be infinitely loving like God. Really, we should say that “communicable” attributes are the ones that are somewhat shared with us.

Learn more in Wayne Grudems’s Systematic Theology online course .

Incommunicable attributes of God

Independence.

In several places, Scripture teaches that God is absolutely independent and self-sufficient. He’s independent because:

1. He doesn’t need creation for any reason. Paul proclaims to the men of Athens, “The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in shrines made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything , since he himself gives to all men life and breath and everything” (Acts 17:24–25).

God asks Job, “Who has given to me, that I should repay him? Whatever is under the whole heaven is mine ” (Job 41:11). No one can give God anything that he didn’t first give them.

2. He created everything. In John’s apocalyptic vision, the 24 elders proclaim, “You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being” (Revelation 4:11). John’s gospel opens with the claim that, “Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.”

• He created everything (Revelation 4:11, John 1:3, Romans 11:35–36)
• He’s eternal (Psalm 90:2)
• He’s completely unique (Isaiah 46:9)

Unchangeableness

Scripture shows us that God is unchanging in his being, perfections, purposes, and promises (Psalm 102:27, Malachi 3:6, James 1:17). God’s unchangeableness is also referred to as his immutability.

So what about passages where God appears to change his mind? For example:

• Moses prayed to prevent the destruction of the people of Israel (Exodus 32:9–14)
• God added fifteen years to the life of Hezekiah (Isaiah 38:1–6)
• The people of Nineveh repented and God withheld his promised wrath (Jonah 3:4, 10)

Aren’t these instances where God did change? These instances should all be understood as true expressions of God’s present attitude or intention towards the present situation. If the situation changes, then of course God’s attitude or expression of intention will also change. This is just saying that God responds differently to different situations.

God has no beginning, end, or succession of moments in his own being—he is timeless—and he sees past, present, and future equally vividly. The psalmist affirms that God is timeless in Psalm 90:2: “Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God.”

We read in Psalm 90:4, “For a thousand years in your sight are but as yesterday when it is past, or as a watch in the night.” The phrase “a thousand years” is a figurative expression for as long a time as one might imagine. This means all of past history is viewed by God with great clarity and vividness. To God, all of time since the creation is as if it just happened.

In the New Testament, Peter tells us, “with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day” (2 Peter 3:8). Since “a thousand years” is a figure of speech, one day lasts forever in God’s mind.

Taking these two considerations together, we can say the following: in God’s perspective, any extremely long period of time is as if it just happened. And any very short period of time (such as one day) seems to God to last forever. Thus, God sees and knows all events past, present, and future with equal vividness.

Omnipresence

Just as God is unlimited or infinite with respect to time, so God is unlimited with respect to space. God doesn’t have size or spatial dimensions and is present at every point of space with his whole being.

In Jeremiah, God rebukes the prophets who think their words or thoughts are hidden from God. He is everywhere and fills heaven and earth: “‘Am I a God at hand, says the Lord, and not a God afar off? Can a man hide himself in secret places so that I cannot see him?’ says the Lord. ‘Do I not fill heaven and earth?’ says the Lord” (Jeremiah 23:23–24).

David also declares God’s omnipresence:

“Whither shall I go from your Spirit? Or whither shall I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there! If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me.” —Psalm 139:7–10

There’s nowhere in the entire universe, on land or sea, in heaven or in hell, where one can flee from God’s presence.

When Scripture speaks about God’s attributes it never singles out one attribute as more important than the rest. Every attribute is completely true of God and God’s character. John can say that “God is light” (1 John 1:5) and then a little later say also that “God is love” (1 John 4:8). Each attribute is simply a way of describing one aspect of God’s total character or being. God himself is unified, completely integrated, and infinitely perfect in all of these attributes.

God’s whole being includes all of his attributes: he is entirely loving, entirely merciful, entirely just, and so forth. Every attribute of God that we find in Scripture is true of all of God’s being, and every attribute of God qualifies every other attribute.

We should never think, for example, that God is a loving God at one point in history and a just or wrathful God at another point in history. He is the same God always, and everything he says or does is fully consistent with all his attributes. It is not accurate to say, as some have said, that God is a God of justice in the Old Testament and a God of love in the New Testament. God is and always has been infinitely just and infinitely loving as well, and everything he does in the Old Testament as well as the New Testament is consistent with both of those attributes.

Communicable attributes of God

Spirituality.

God isn’t made of matter, has no parts or dimensions, cannot be perceived by our bodily senses, and is more excellent than any other kind of existence. He doesn’t have a physical body, nor is he merely energy, thought, or some other element of creation. God is spirit.

To think of God in terms of anything else in the created universe is to misrepresent him, to limit him, to think of him as less than he really is. While we must say that God has made all creation so that each part of it reflects something of his own character, we must also affirm that to picture God as existing or being like anything else in creation is misleading and dishonors who he is.

Invisibility

God’s total essence, all of his spiritual being, will never be seen by us, yet God still shows himself to us through visible, created things.

Many passages speak of God’s invisibility:

• “No one has ever seen God” (John 1:18).
• “Not that anyone has seen the Father except him who is from God” (John 6:46).
• "To the King of ages, immortal, invisible , the only God, be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen” (1 Timothy 1:17).
• “who alone has immortality and dwells in unapproachable light, whom no man has ever seen or can see ” (1 Timothy 6:16).

These passages were all written after events where people saw some outward manifestation of God. For example, in Exodus we read, “Thus the Lord used to speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend” (Exodus 33:11). Yet God told Moses, “You cannot see my face; for man shall not see me and live” (Exodus 33:20). Nevertheless, God caused his glory to pass by Moses while he hid Moses in a cleft of the rock, and then God let Moses see his back after he had passed by, but said, “my face shall not be seen” (Exodus 33:21–23). This passage and others like it in the Old Testament indicate that there was a sense in which God could not be seen at all, but that there was also some outward form or manifestation of God which at least in part was able to be seen by man.

So although God’s total essence will never be able to be seen by us, God still reveals himself to us through visible, created things.

Omniscience

Elihu says that God is the one “who is perfect in knowledge ” (Job 37:16), and John says that God “ knows everything ” (1 John 3:20). The quality of knowing everything is called omniscience, and because God knows everything, he is said to be omniscient (that is, “all-knowing”).

Here are a few examples of God’s limitless knowledge as portrayed in Scripture:

• He knows what we need before we ask him (Matthew 6:8)
• He knows the number of hairs on our heads (Matthew 10:30)
• He knows when we sit, when we rise, and what we think (Psalm 139:1–2)
• He knows words we will say before we speak them (Psalm 139:4)
• He knows the days of our lives before we are born (Psalm 139:16)
• He knows every possible future (1 Samuel 23:11–13)

Wisdom goes beyond knowledge and specifies that God always chooses the best goals and the best means to achieve those goals. Scripture affirms God’s wisdom in several places:

• He is called “the only wise God” (Romans 16:27).
• “With him are wisdom and might; he has counsel and understanding” (Job 12:13).
• “O Lord, how manifold are your works! In wisdom you have made them all; the earth is full of your creatures” (Psalm 104:24).

Christ is “the wisdom of God” to those who are called (1 Corinthians 1:24, 30), even though the cross is “foolishness” to those who reject it and think themselves to be wise in this world (1 Corinthians 1:18–20). Yet even this is a reflection of God’s wise plan:

“For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. . . . God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise . . . so that no human being might boast in the presence of God” —1 Corinthians 1:21, 27, 29.

Truthfulness (and faithfulness)

The God revealed in Scripture is real, and all other gods are idols. “The Lord is the true God; he is the living God and the everlasting King. . . . The gods who did not make the heavens and the earth shall perish from the earth and from under the heavens” (Jeremiah 10:10–11). Jesus says to his Father, “And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God , and Jesus Christ whom you have sent” (John 17:3).

God is reliable and faithful in his words. He always does what he promises to do, and we can depend on him never to be unfaithful to his promises. Thus, he is “a God of faithfulness” (Deuteronomy 32:4). This specific aspect of God’s truthfulness is sometimes viewed as a distinct attribute: God’s faithfulness means that God will always do what he has said and fulfill what he has promised (Numbers 23:19, 2 Samuel 7:28, Psalm 141:6). He can be relied upon, and he will never prove unfaithful to those who trust what he has said.

God is the final standard of good, and that all that He is and does is worthy of approval. Here are a few passages that speak of God’s goodness:

• “No one is good but God alone” (Luke 18:19).
• The Psalms frequently affirm that “the Lord is good” (Psalm 100:5).
• “O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good” (Psalm 106:1).
• “O taste and see that the Lord is good!” (Psalm 34:8).

Scripture also tells us that God is the source of all good in the world. “Every good endowment and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change” (James 1:17). God has given us some reflection of his sense of goodness, so that when we evaluate things in the way He created us to evaluate them, we approve what God approves and delight in things he delights in. When we realize that God is the definition and source of all good, we realize that God himself is the ultimate good that we seek.

John tells us that “God is love” (1 John 4:8). We see evidence that this attribute of God was active even before creation among the members of the Trinity. Jesus speaks to his Father of “my glory which you have given me in your love for me before the foundation of the world ” (John 17:24), indicating that there was love from the Father to the Son from all eternity. It continues at the present time, for we read, “The Father loves the Son, and has given all things into his hand” (John 3:35).

We imitate this communicable attribute of God, first by loving God in return, and second by loving others in imitation of the way God loves them. All our obligations to God can be summarized in this: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. . . . You shall love your neighbor as yourself ” (Matthew 22:37–38). If we love God, we will obey his commandments (1 John 5:3) and thus do what is pleasing to him. We will love God, not the world (1 John 2:15), and we will do all this because he first loved us (1 John 4:19).

Mercy, grace, patience

God’s mercy, patience, and grace may be seen as three separate attributes, or as specific aspects of God’s goodness. These three characteristics of God’s nature are often mentioned together, especially in the Old Testament. When God declared his name to Moses, he proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness” (Exodus 34:6). David says in Psalm 103:8, “The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.”

Mercy is often emphasized where people are in misery or distress. David says, for example, “I am in great distress; let us fall into the hand of the Lord for his mercy is great . . .” (2 Samuel 24:14). When Paul speaks of the fact that God comforts us in affliction, he calls God the “Father of mercies and God of all comfort” (2 Corinthians 1:3). We are to imitate God’s mercy in our conduct toward others: “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy” (Matthew 5:7).

God’s grace, or his favor toward those who deserve no favor but only punishment, is always freely given. God says, “I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy” (Exodus 33:19). In the New Testament, and especially in Paul’s letters, the entire Christian life can be seen as a result of God’s continuous offering of grace. As with most of the God’s attributes that we are to imitate, patience requires a moment-by-moment trust in God to fulfill his promises and purposes in our lives at his chosen time. Our confidence that the Lord will soon fulfill his purposes for our good and his glory will enable us to be patient. James makes this connection when he says, “You also be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand” (James 5:8).

God himself is the Most Holy One. He’s called the “Holy One of Israel” (Psalm 71:22, 78:41, 89:18; Isaiah 1:4, 5:19, 24). The seraphim around God’s throne cry, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory” (Isaiah 6:3). “The Lord our God is holy!” exclaims the psalmist (Psalm 99:9).

God’s holiness provides the pattern for his people to imitate. He commands them, “You shall be holy; for I the Lord your God am holy” (Leviticus 19:2). When God called his people out of Egypt and brought them to himself and commanded them to obey his voice, then he said, “You shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation ” (Exodus 19:4–6).

Peace (or order)

In 1 Corinthians 14:33 Paul says, “God is not a God of confusion but of peace.” Although “peace” and “order” have not traditionally been classified as attributes of God, Paul here indicates another quality that we could think of as a distinct attribute of God. Paul says that God’s actions are characterized by “peace” and not by “disorder” ( akatastasia , a Greek word meaning “disorder, confusion, unrest”). God himself is “the God of peace” (Romans 15:33, 16:20, Philippians 4:9). But those who walk in wickedness do not have peace: “‘There is no peace,’ says the Lord, ‘for the wicked’” (Isaiah 48:22, 57:21).

We can see an imitation of this attribute of God not only in “peace” as part of the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5:22–23, but also in the last-mentioned element in the fruit of the Spirit, namely, “self-control” (Galatians 5:23). When we as God’s people walk in his ways, we come to know more and more fully by experience that the kingdom of God is indeed “righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit” (Romans 14:17), and we can say of the path of God’s wisdom, “Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace ” (Proverbs 3:17).

Righteousness (or justice)

God always does what is right, and He is the final standard of what is right. Scripture attests to God’s righteousness and justice:

• “All his ways are justice . A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and right is he” (Deuteronomy 32:4).
• “Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right ?” (Genesis 18:25).
• “The precepts of the Lord are right , rejoicing the heart” (Psalm 19:8).
• “I the Lord speak the truth, I declare what is right ” (Isaiah 45:19).

Paul says that when God sent Christ as a sacrifice to bear the punishment for sin, it “was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins; it was to prove at the present time that he himself is righteous and that he justifies him who has faith in Jesus” (Romans 3:25–26). When Christ died to pay the penalty for our sins it showed that God was both righteous and just, because he paid the wages of sin (Romans 6:23) and forgave his people.

People sometimes have trouble thinking that jealousy is a desirable attribute in God. This is because for us, jealousy is almost always wrong. But jealousy can be a positive thing, too. Paul says to the Corinthians, “I feel a divine jealousy for you” (2 Corinthians 11:2). Here the sense is “earnestly protective or watchful.” This is the jealousy we attribute to God. He protects his honor. God deserves all honor and glory from his creation, and it is right for him to seek this honor.

He commands his people not to bow down to idols or serve them, saying, “for I the Lord your God am a jealous God” (Exodus 20:5). He desires that worship be given to himself and not to false gods. Therefore, he commands the people of Israel to tear down the altars of pagan gods in the land of Canaan, giving the following reason: “For you shall worship no other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God” (Exodus 34:14, Deuteronomy 4:24; 5:9).

This is also why pride is sinful for us: we do not deserve the honor that belongs to God alone (1 Corinthians 4:7; Revelation 4:11).

God loves all that is right and good, for rightness and goodness conforms to his moral character. So it shouldn’t be surprising that God intensely hates sin. Scripture’s narrative frequently describe God’s wrath, especially when God’s people sin against him.

• “I have seen this people . . . now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them.” (Exodus 32:9–10)
• “Remember and do not forget how you provoked the Lord your God to wrath in the wilderness. . . . Even at Horeb you provoked the Lord to wrath , and the Lord was so angry with you that he was ready to destroy you.” (Deuteronomy 9:7–8)
• “He who believes in the Son has eternal life; he who does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God rests upon him .” (John 3:36)
• “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and wickedness of men.” (Romans 1:18)

Christians shouldn’t fear God’s wrath. For although “we were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind” (Ephesians 2:3), we now trust in Jesus, “who delivers us from the wrath to come” (1 Thessalonians 1:10). Jesus Christ bore the wrath of God that was due to our sin, in order that we might be saved (Romans 3:25–26).

God approves and determines every action necessary for the existence and activity of himself and all creation.

Scripture frequently indicates God’s will as the final or most ultimate reason for everything that happens. Paul refers to God as the one “who accomplishes all things according to the counsel of his will ” (Ephesians 1:11). The phrase here translated “all things” ( ta panta ) is used frequently by Paul to refer to everything that exists or everything in creation (for example, Ephesians 1:10, 23, 3:9, 4:10; Colossians 1:16, 17; Romans 11:36; 1 Corinthians. 8:6, 15:27–28). The word translated “accomplishes” ( energeō , “works, works out, brings about, produces”) is a present participle suggesting continual activity. Paul’s statement might be more explicitly translated, “who continually brings about everything in the universe according to the counsel of his will.”

“Will” is a communicable attribute because we exercise choice and make real decisions regarding the events of our lives. Our ability to exercise will and make choices is one of the most significant marks of God-likeness in our existence.

God does whatever he pleases. Nothing in creation can hinder him from carrying out his will.

The Psalmist contrasts God’s power and freedom with the weakness of idols: “Our God is in the heavens; he does whatever he pleases ” (Psalm 115:3). Human rulers can’t oppose God’s will, for “the king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord; he turns it wherever he will” (Proverbs 21:1). Similarly, Nebuchadnezzar learns that God, “ does according to his will in the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand or say to him, ‘What are you doing?’” (Daniel 4:35).

While our will isn’t absolutely free in the way God’s is, he gives us relative freedom. When we use our will and our freedom to make choices that are pleasing to God, we reflect his character and bring glory to him.

Omnipotence (or power and sovereignty)

God’s omnipotence refers to his power to do what he decides to do. Omnipotence derives from two Latin words, omni , “all,” and potens , “powerful,” and means “all-powerful.” Numerous passages speak to God’s omnipotence:

• In context, the rhetorical question, “Is anything too hard for the Lord?” (Genesis 18:14; Jeremiah 32:27) implies that nothing is too hard for the Lord.
• Jeremiah also says to God, “ nothing is too hard for you” (Jeremiah 32:17).
• Paul says that God is “able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think” (Ephesians 3:20).
• God is called the “Almighty” (2 Corinthians 6:18; Revelation 1:8), a Greek term ( pantokratōr ) that suggests the possession of all power and authority.
• The angel Gabriel says to Mary, “With God nothing will be impossible” (Luke 1:37)
• Jesus says, “With God all things are possible ” (Matthew 19:26).

However, there are some things that God cannot do. God cannot do anything that denies his own character. For example, Scripture tells us that God can’t lie:

• In Titus 1:2 he is called (literally) “the unlying God” or the “God who never lies.”
• The author of Hebrews says that in God’s oath and promise “it is impossible for God to lie” (Hebrew 6:18, Grudem’s translation).
• 2 Timothy 2:13 says of Christ, “He cannot deny himself.”

Additionally, James says, “God cannot be tempted with evil and he himself tempts no one” (James 1:13). Thus, God cannot lie, sin, deny himself, or be tempted with evil. He cannot cease to exist, or cease to be God, or act in a way inconsistent with any of his attributes.

God completely possesses all excellent qualities. Additionally, there’s no quality of excellence that he does not have. He is “complete” or “perfect” in every way.

Jesus tells us, “You, therefore, must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:48). And David says of God, “His way is perfect” (Psalm 18:30).

Blessedness

God delights fully in himself and in all that reflects his character.

We imitate God’s blessedness when we find delight and happiness in things that please God. When we’re thankful for the specific abilities, preferences, and other characteristics with which God has created us as individuals, we imitate his blessedness. We find our greatest blessedness—our greatest happiness—in the source of all good qualities, God himself.

God is the sum of all desirable qualities. All of our good and righteous desires, all of the desires that really ought to be in us or in any other creature, find their ultimate fulfillment in God.

The beauty of our lives is so important to Christ that his purpose now is to sanctify the entire church “that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish” (Ephesians 5:27). Thus, we individually and corporately reflect God’s beauty in every way in which we exhibit his character.

Scripture presents God’s glory in two major ways. In one sense, God’s glory isn’t an attribute, but the superlative honor that everything in the universe should give to God (Isaiah 43:7, Romans 3:23, John 17:5).

But God’s “glory” also describes the bright light that surrounds his presence. It belongs to him alone and it’s the outward expression of his excellence. We see this glory in several places in Scripture. For example:

• When the angel of the Lord appears to the shepherds (Luke 2:9)
• The transfiguration (Matthew 17:2)
• The heavenly city in Revelation (Revelation 21:23)

God made us to reflect his glory. Paul tells us that even now in our Christian lives we all are being “changed into his likeness from one degree of glory to another” (2 Corinthians 3:18). There isn’t a visible light that surrounds us, but there is a brightness, splendor, or beauty about the life of a person who deeply loves God, and it’s often evident to those around them.

In many ways, God is nothing like us. He, as the creator, will always have unique attributes his creation cannot possess. But we’re also made in his image (Genesis 1:26–28), so in other ways, God shares his attributes with us. We are finite, created beings, made in the likeness of our infinite creator.

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Why Study The Attributes of God

It’s been said, “A man’s own character will necessarily be determined by the character of the god whom he worships.” Very true! A person’s entire life is affected by whom they worship. And to rightly worship the God of the Bible, we must have a correct understanding of his attributes.

For the next few weeks, I plan to do a series of blog posts concerning the Attributes of God. Each week, I hope to post one attribute of God amidst other posts.

In addition to one’s entire life being affected by whom they worship, here are 3 more reasons why I believe it is vital for us to study the attributes of God.

Reason 1: It pleases God.

Colossians 1:10 reminds us a life that is honoring and pleasing to the Lord is one that is continually “growing in the knowledge of God.” And since God is knowable only through his attributes, we can grow in the knowledge of God only if we study his attributes, as revealed to us in the Bible. And that’s what makes theology, which basically means “Study of God,” essential for Christian growth.

It’s a misunderstanding to think theology is solely for the scholarly branch of Christianity. On the contrary, theology is for every Christian. Why? Because every Christian should seek to please God by growing in their understanding of his nature!

Reason 2: It guards us against having a wrong view of God.

A lack of proper understanding of God’s attributes leads to a wrong view of God and hence a life that fails to please him. A.W. Tozer, in his book, The Knowledge of the Holy, wrote these words:

“A right conception of God is basic not only to systematic theology but to practical Christian living as well…there is scarcely an error in doctrine or a failure in applying Christian ethics that cannot be traced finally to imperfect and ignoble thoughts about God.”

So, it is vital to have a proper understanding of God’s attributes. Agreed, even a lifetime study of God’s attributes will not yield to us the complete understanding of his attributes because it is impossible for finite creatures to understand an infinite God fully.

However, we are created in the image of God. That means we have the innate capacity to correlate certain truths about God. And having been re-created in Christ [ 2 Cor 5:17 ] and with the ongoing illuminating work of the indwelling Holy Spirit [ 1 Cor 2:13 ], we can know God more and more even while we are in the human body. Even after 25 years of being in ministry, Paul’s persistent desire or goal was this: “I want to know Christ” [Phil 3:10]. May that be our continual goal as well.

Reason 3: It produces joy in our hearts.

The Westminster Catechism states the chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy him forever. As we grow in our understanding of God, our love for him increases, and so does our obedience. As a result, the Holy Spirit produces more joy in our lives. And “joy” is one of the characteristics of the fruit of the Spirit [ Gal 5:22 ].

How encouraging are the words of the renowned preacher of the past, Charles Spurgeon,

“Plunge yourself in the Godhead’s deepest sea; be lost in His immensity; and you shall come forth as from a couch of rest refreshed and invigorated. I know nothing which can so comfort the soul; so calm the swelling billows of sorrow and grief; so speak peace to the winds of trial, as a devout musing upon the subject of the Godhead.”

So, there we are. 3 reasons for studying the various attributes of God: (1) It pleases God (2) It guards us against having a wrong view of God, and (3) It produces joy in our hearts.

A Few Basic Truths Concerning the Attributes of God.

What it is. An attribute is a quality or characteristic that is inherent in a person about someone. When referring to God’s attributes, we are talking about the various qualities inherent in him and revealed to us in the Scriptures.

What it is not. The various attributes of God are not component parts of God. In other words, God is not 10% love, 15% holy, 5% mercy, etc. Each attribute describes his total being. For example, love is not a part of God’s nature; God in his whole being is love. Holiness is not a part of God’s nature; God in his total being is holy. Righteousness is not a part of God’s nature; God is in his total being is righteous. God will not compromise one of his attributes when exhibiting another attribute of his.

For example, the same God who is love is also the same God who exhibits wrath. So, it is important not to conclude that God is love means he will eventually save all people. He who is love is also One who is holy and one who is a God of wrath as well. The statement, God loves the sinner but hates the sin should be stated with great caution.

While God does rescue repentant sinners because of his loving nature, he must and will eventually judge unrepentant sinners by casting them into everlasting hell because of his holy character. God does not just punish the sin, but also the sinner who continues in sin without turning to him through his Son Jesus Christ.

We always need to remember that God is the sum of all perfections. That’s why when we study the attributes of God, we must be careful not to emphasize one attribute of his at the expense of the others.

The Categories of the Attributes of God.

Incommunicable Attributes: These are attributes that belong to God exclusively. They are not passed down to us. Examples would be God’s self-existence, eternality, omnipotence, omniscience, omnipresence, etc.

Communicable Attributes: These are attributes of God that humans can possess finitely. Examples would be love, mercy, kindness, etc.

Let me also be quick to admit that it is not always easy to classify some attributes as strictly belonging to one category and not the other. For example, while omniscience is an incommunicable attribute, humans do possess limited knowledge. So, we must be careful not to focus so much on the category of the attribute. Instead, the focus should be on the study of the attributes themselves.

I hope these preliminary thoughts help as we proceed to study a few of God’s attributes in future posts.

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Attributes of God

Introduction

Attributes of God refer to a collection of God’s descriptive features that are obtainable from the scriptures. God’s attributes are the things that God has revealed Himself to be (Pink, 2006). This implies that the attributes of God are truths that are revealed about Him in scripture through His actions depicting His real identity. Developing an understanding of God’s attributes would be important before giving a description of what attributes are revealed by Him. Attributes of God should be considered as His essence, i.e. more of His perspectives on His whole being rather than his parts (Tozer, 1965). For instance, God’s love is not a separate part of Him from His righteousness and our standard of love defines God Himself and not something in Him.

God’s attributes could be classified into two major categories i.e. the communicable and incommunicable. Communicable attributes of God refers to those attributes of God that are shared with his creatures to a given level, such as love while incommunicable attributes of God refers to those attributes that are only unique to Him and shared by no other creature like His eternity for example (Tozer, 1965). God has several attributes including eternality, holiness, immutability, impassable, infinite, omnipresent, omniscient, omnipotent, omniscient, self-sufficient, immaterial, self-existence, good, love, gracious, jealous, sovereign just to mention a few (Daley, 2000; Pink, 2006).

The attribute of God as an eternal God refers to His inability to end and his timeless nature. This implies that God will always exist forever as He has neither a beginning nor an end. The scriptures quote “For thus says the one who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity…” (Isaiah, 57:15). “To the King of ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen” (1 st Timothy, 1:7). God has been in existence in the very same way since the beginning of time, fully and completely as God (Pink, 2006). Isaiah 40:28 records that “Yahweh is the everlasting God.”

The attribute of God as love is evident in the love that He has for the world, which could be witnessed in His love for the church and Israel. 1 st John 4:16 records that “God is love.” The love of God was clearly depicted when He offered his only son, Jesus Christ, to die for the sins of the world (1 st John 4:9- 10; 1 st John 3:16). 1 st John 4:8 records that “He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.”As much as God is love, He is a God of jealousy. God is jealous of the faithfulness of his people and his glory (Daley, 2000). Several scriptures in the Bible record God’s jealousy. For instance, Exodus 20:5 quotes, “You shall not bow down to them or serve them; for I the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love and keep my commandments.”

God’s sovereignty relates to His kingship, omnipotence, freedom, and providence (Tozer, 1965). Sovereignty refers to the state of all control of God and the fact that not a sole or a thing can/would hinder Him from doing whatever that He pleases. He works out everything in accordance with His own free will (Ephesians, 1:11). The sovereignty of God is manifested in his Almighty power over all heaven and earth, and the fact that none can overpower His counsels, resist His will, or thwart His purpose (Psalms, 115:3). God is also attributed to be omniscient i.e. all-knowing. God is fully aware of everything including the past, the present, and the future (1 st John, 3:20; Hebrews, 4:13; Psalms, 147:5). Romans 16:27 refers to God as the “only wise God.”

  Significance of God’s Attributes to Christianity

The attributes of God are very significant to a Christian’s life as they have many lessons to draw from. To begin with, God’s sovereignty has a lot of significance to Christianity as it holds that God saves whom He wills and those saved owe nothing to anyone nor anything in/of themselves (Tozer, 1965). Christian salvation is owed to God’s graciousness to have saved mankind, chosen them in eternity, and called and regenerated them in history. This teaches Christians that they should not take credit for their faith because it is a God-given gift. The eternal attribute of God is an assurance to Christians that He will always be there for them. The fact that God is a jealous God implies that Christians need to commit themselves to Him in order to avoid getting Him jealous. Christians should accept and follow God as the one and only true God and also worship Him and Him alone (Tozer, 1965).

Christianity should aim at God’s standards as he assures them that He is the way, the truth, and the life, and the fact that he is all-knowing implies that nothing can be hidden from Him. Thus, Christians should always serve him in truth and faithfully. God’s attribute of love gives Christians an assurance that God will always care for them. God’s love also holds that whoever wants to know God should have love as not a soul can know who He really is without love, for He is Love.

God’s attributes as discussed above mainly refer to His characteristics as defined by He Himself and written in the scriptures. God’s attributes identify who God is and as a result, hold a lot of significance to Christianity. Christians need to understand God’s attributes in depth in order to comply with God’s desires, commands, and desires as he is defined through them.

Daley, M. J. (2000, Jun). Parenthood and the attributes of god.  America, 182 , 19-21. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/209673199?accountid=1611

Pink, A. W. (2006).  The Attributes of God . Baker Books.

Tozer, A. W. (1965).  The knowledge of the holy: The attributes of God, their meaning in the Christian life . Fig.

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The Immutability and Impassibility of God

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Immutability means God does not change in any way. Impassibility, a corollary to immutability, means that God does not experience emotional change in any way; he does not suffer.

Immutability and Impassibility are key, historic attributes the church has confessed, attributes that distinguish the infinite and eternal Creator from the finite and temporal creature. Immutability means God does not change in any way; he is unchanging and for that reason perfect in every way. Impassibility, a corollary to immutability, means God does not experience emotional change in any way, nor does God suffer. To clarify, God does not merely choose to be impassible; he is impassible by nature. Impassibility is intrinsic to his very being. Impassibility does not mean God is apathetic, nor does it undermine divine love. God is maximally alive; he is his attributes in infinite measure. Therefore, impassibility guarantees that God’s love could not be more infinite in its loveliness. Finally, impassibility provides great hope, for only a God who is not vulnerable to suffering in his divinity is capable of rescuing a world drowning in suffering.

Introduction

Ideas have consequences. As we look back at the twentieth century, one idea that had serious consequences was the common assumption that God suffers. Influential theologians, like Jürgen Moltmann, sought to provide hope to a suffering world, a world split apart by two world wars. Moltmann took a long and hard look at the atrocities of the Nazi concentration camps; when he heard Jews cry out, “Where is God?” Moltmann answered that God was there and he was suffering too. It was God who suffered in the gas chamber; it was God who hung from the gallows. For that reason, we have hope in a world of pain because we know God knows our pain.

Let’s be honest, Moltmann’s argument can be very persuasive and is emotionally appealing. Perhaps you’ve been to a Bible study where a close friend was in tears over a tragedy. If so, it is likely someone said, “Don’t worry, God is suffering with you. He is in just as much pain as you. He is just as overcome with grief as you.” The idea of a suffering God resonates with our relational instincts and appears to be a great comfort in times of suffering.

Yet it’s in those difficult moments, when tears flood our faces, that theology matters most. While it may seem comforting at the moment to tell a friend that God suffers too, on further reflection it’s a dangerous idea, one that gives little comfort or hope in the end.

Help! My house is on fire!

To bring this point home, consider an illustration from my book, None Greater: The Undomesticated Attributes of God. Imagine if your house suddenly caught on fire. As you escape the flames and watch from the street, you realize that your child is still inside. What if, in that moment, a neighbor ran up to you and, wanting to feel your pain and empathize with you, your neighbor lit themselves on fire?

Naturally, you would look at them in disbelief, perhaps even maddened by the insanity of their response. Who do you really need in that moment? You need that firefighter who can, with a steady, controlled confidence, survey the situation, run into the flames, and save your child from death’s grip. Only the firefighter who refuses to be overcome by emotional meltdown is your hope in that hellish experience.

Point is, a God who suffers, a God subject to emotional change, is not all that comforting on second thought. A God who suffers may be like us, but he cannot rescue us. In fact, an emotional God is just as helpless as we are. In times of suffering we need a God who does not suffer, one who can overcome suffering in order to redeem us and return justice to this evil world.

Retrieving an old word: Impassible

For this reason, the church—from the early fathers to the Westminster Confession—has believed that the God of the Bible is a God without passions; that is, he is impassible.

Up until the nineteenth century, the word “passions” was a word only to be applied to the creature, not the Creator. It was a word that had negative connotations, referring to someone or something that was vulnerable to change, subject to the emotional power of others. When our fathers denied passions in God, therefore, they were distinguishing him as the immutable, self-sufficient Creator from the ever-changing, needy creature (much as Paul does in Acts 17).

In this one word, “passions,” we see the difference between the Christian God and the gods of Greek mythology, gods susceptible to emotional fluctuation, overcome by a variation in mood, gods changed or manipulated by the will of another. One minute they are given to lust and the next fly off the handle in a fit of rage. By contrast, the Christian God, says Thomas Weinandy, “does not undergo successive and fluctuating emotional states; nor can the created order alter him in such a way so as to cause him to suffer any modification or loss.” 1 That is what it means for God to be im passible.

It must be clarified, then, that the house-on-fire illustration has a flaw (don’t all illustrations?). In that moment of panic and chaos, the firefighter chooses not to be overcome by emotional fluctuation; however, God is impassible not merely by choice but by nature. He is impassible. Passibility, in other words, is contrary to his very essence; he is incapable of being passible.

Why, you ask? There are many reasons why, but one important reason is because a passible God is susceptible to change , emotional change. But we know from Scripture that God does not change (Mal 3:6; Jas 1:17); he is immutable. Impassibility, then, is the natural corollary to God’s unchanging nature. It is essential to who God is , not merely what he does.

If God is impassible, does that mean that he is stoic, lifeless, indifferent, apathetic, and incapable of love or compassion? That is, unfortunately, the all-too-common caricature. Actually, impassibility ensures just the opposite: God could not be more alive or more loving than he is eternally.

Remember, Scripture not only says God is immutable but also says he is infinite (Psa 147:5; Rom 11:33; Eph 1:19; 2:7). He is immeasurable, unlimited not merely in size but in his very being. He has no limitations; he is absolute perfection. If God is infinite, then never is it the case that something in God is waiting to be activated to reach its full potential. To use fancy theological language, there is no passive potency in God. Rather, God is his attributes in infinite measure. Put otherwise, he is maximally alive ; he could not be more alive than he is eternally. The church fathers liked to make this point by calling God pure act ( actus purus ). He cannot be more perfectly in act than he is, otherwise, he would be less than perfect, finite and in need of improvement.

Apply this truth to an attribute like love, for example, and it becomes plain why impassibility makes all the difference. If God is impassible, then he does not merely possess love, he is love and he is love in infinite measure. He cannot become more loving than he already is eternally. If he did, then his love would be passible, it would change, perhaps from good to better, which would imply it was not perfect to begin with.

In that light, impassibility ensures that God is love in infinite measure. While the love of a passible God is subject to change and improvement, the love of an impassible God changes not in its infinite perfection. Impassibility guarantees that God’s love could not be more infinite in its loveliness. God does not depend on others to activate and fulfill his love; no, he is love in infinite measure, eternally, immutably, and independently from the created order.

All that to say, it may seem counterintuitive, but only impassibility can give us a personal God who is eternal, unalterable love. Far from apathetic or inert, impassibility promises the believer that God could not be any more loving than he is eternally. That is something a passible God cannot promise.

Impassibility is our real hope in times of suffering.

I’ll say it again: ideas have consequences. Although it may not seem like it at first, a passible, suffering God is one dangerous idea. It is dangerous because it undermines the Christian’s confidence and assurance—even the Christian’s hope—especially in times of real hardship. If God is subject to emotional change, how do we know whether he will stay true to his promises? His gospel promises might change as quickly as his mood swings. And if God is vulnerable to emotional fluctuation, what confidence do we have that his own character will remain constant? His love might not remain steadfast, his mercy may no longer be eternal, and his justice can guarantee no future victory.

But it’s also a depressing idea. As Katherin Rogers confesses, “Myself, I find the idea of a God who is made to suffer by us, and who needs us to be fulfilled, a depressing conception of divinity.” 2 It’s depressing because it does not turn us to God as our rock and our fortress (Psa 18:2), but instead makes us pity God as one who is just as impotent in suffering as we are as his finite creatures.

The good news of impassibility, however, is one of hope. When life’s most difficult trials hit hard, the inscrutable plan of our personal and loving God does not waver because he is a God who is immutably impassible. Although the pain strikes a heavy blow, we will rise with Luther and sing,

A mighty fortress is our God,

A Bulwark never failing.

Further Reading

• None Greater: The Undomesticated Attributes of God , Matthew Barrett (Baker Books)
• Does God Suffer? Thomas Weinandy, First Things
• Credo Podcast: The undomesticated attributes of God, Matthew Barrett: Part 1 and Part 2 .
• Credo Podcast: Does God Suffer? — Matthew Barrett with Thomas Weinandy
• Credo Podcast: Does God’s Immutability Need to Change? Matthew Barrett with Paul Smalley
• Confessing the Impassible God , Richard Barcellos et al.

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