Theology Proper: What is God Like?

COACH Institute of Intercultural Studies
Theology Proper

Theology Proper:
What is God Like?
A Study of the Attributes and
Nature of God

WHY THE STUDY OF GOD
IS IMPORTANT
• The fear of the Lord is the beginning of
wisdom (Ps. 111:10; Prov. 9:10). The
way to grow in the fear of God is to
know God. The way to know God is to
study His attributes. So, if we wish to
live wisely in the world we will do well
to know God (through the study and
meditation of His attributes).

“A divine attribute is a property that is
intrinsic in God by which God is
distinguished or identified. By abstract
thinking God may be conceived apart
from His attributes; but He is known by
His attributes, and apart from them He
would not appear to be what He is.”
Walvoord, Chafer’s Systematic Theology.

IS IMPORTANT
wisdom.
• There is a danger in not knowing God.
 Not knowing God may lead to idolatry.
 Not knowing God will lead to sin.
 Not knowing God will lead to eternal death.
 Knowing God will stimulate spiritual
discernment.
 Knowing God will produce rest and trust in Him.

Come, behold the works of the Lord,
Who has wrought desolations in the earth.
He makes wars to cease to the end of the earth;
He breaks the bow and cuts the spear in two;
He burns the chariots with fire.
“Cease striving and know that I am God;
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth.”
The Lord of hosts is with us;
The God of Jacob is our stronghold. Selah.
(Ps. 46:8-11)

IS IMPORTANT
wisdom.
• There is a danger in not knowing God.
 Studying the attributes of God will allow us to
know more about God, leading us to salvation
and ultimately to knowing Him (not just about
Him) more intimately, and sparing us from His
eternal wrath.

“The foundation of all true knowledge of
God must be a clear mental apprehension
of His perfections as revealed in Holy
Scripture. An unknown God can neither
be trusted, served, nor worshipped.”
A. W. Pink, Attributes of God.

“What comes into our minds when we think
about God is the most important thing about
us.…
“For this reason the gravest question before the
Church is always God Himself, and the most
portentous fact about any man is not what he at
a given time may say or do, but what he in his
deep heart conceives God to be like.…

“…We tend by a secret law of the soul to move
toward our mental image of God. This is true
not only of the individual Christian, but of the
company of Christians that composes the
Church. Always the most revealing thing about
the Church is her idea of God, just as her most
significant message is what she says about Him
or leaves unsaid, for her silence is often more
eloquent than her speech.”
Tozer, The Knowledge of the Holy.

HOW DO WE KNOW GOD
EXISTS?
• God’s existence is assumed by the
Scriptures (e.g., Gen. 1:1).
• Argument from cause (cosmological
argument)
• Argument from design (teleological
argument) [telos = “end”]
• Argument from man (anthropological
argument)
• Argument from morality
• Arguments against God

Arguments against God
• Atheism
• Agnosticism
• Polytheism
• Pantheism
• Deism

"It's not for lack of evidence that people turn
from God; it's from their pride or their will. God
is not going to force anyone into the fold. Love
never works coercively. It only works
persuasively. And there's plenty of persuasive
evidence there.”
Norman Geisler, The Case for Christ; quoted in
Servant.

HOW DO WE STUDY THE
ATTRIBUTES OF GOD?
• The attributes are in harmony with one
another. That is, they complement one
another, work together with one
another, are not in conflict with one
another, and no attribute is superior or
inferior to any other. All His attributes
are always fully active. So, God can be
just and loving without the one being in
conflict with the other. This
demonstrates the SIMPLICITY of God.

“The harmony of His being is the result not of
perfect balance between the parts but of the
absence of parts. Between His attributes no
contradiction can exist. He need not suspend
one to exercise another, for in Him all His
attributes are one. All of God does all that God
does; He does not divide Himself to perform a
work, but works in the total unity of His being.”
A. W. Tozer, Knowledge of the Holy.

HOW DO WE STUDY THE
ATTRIBUTES OF GOD?
• The attributes are in harmony with one
another.
• We recognize that all God’s attributes
are infinite, i.e., they are complete (not
maturing or changing), they have
always existed completely and always
will exist completely. Thus, He is a
unique, singular God. There is no one
like Him and all other beings exist from,
through, and for Him (1 Cor. 8:6). This
demonstrates the UNITY of God.

WHAT ARE THE
ATTRIBUTES OF GOD?
“An attribute of God is whatever God has in any
way revealed as being true of Himself.…An
attribute, then, is a part of God. It is how God
is, and as far as the reasoning mind can go, we
may say that it is what God is, though…

WHAT ARE THE
ATTRIBUTES OF GOD?
“… exactly what He is He cannot tell us. Of what
God is conscious when He is conscious of self, only
He knows. ‘The things of God knoweth no man,
but the Spirit of God.’ [1 Cor. 2:11] Only to an equal
could God communicate the mystery of His
Godhead; and to think of God as having an equal is
to fall into an intellectual absurdity.”
Tozer, Knowledge of the Holy.

WHAT ARE THE
ATTRIBUTES OF GOD?
• God’s INCOMMUNICABLE attributes
have nothing analogous in God’s
created beings.
 INFINITY — “God is free from all limitations to
His Being and attributes by the bounds of the
spacio-temporal horizon of the universe.” God is
limitless, measureless and knows no bounds (Job
5:9; 9:10; Ps. 145:3).

WHAT ARE THE
ATTRIBUTES OF GOD?
• God’s INCOMMUNICABLE attributes.
 INFINITY
 ETERNALITY — God is without beginning or
end; He is free from all succession of time;
He is the cause of time.

Before the mountains were born
Or You gave birth to the earth and the world,
Even from everlasting to everlasting,
You are God.
Psalm 90:2

“‘From everlasting to everlasting, thou art God,’
said Moses in the Spirit. ‘From the vanishing
point to the vanishing point’ would be another
way to say it quite in keeping with the words as
Moses used them. The mind looks backward in
time till the dim past vanishes, then turns and
looks into the future till thought and imagination
collapse from exhaustion; and God is at both
points, unaffected by either.”
A. W. Tozer.

WHAT ARE THE
ATTRIBUTES OF GOD?
 INFINITY
 ETERNALITY
 IMMENSITY— He cannot be localized in one
place. God transcends all spatial limitations;
He is present in every point in space with His
entire being.

“But who is able to build a house for
Him, for the heavens and the highest
heavens cannot contain Him? So who
am I, that I should build a house for
Him, except to burn incense before
Him?”
2 Chronicles 2:6

WHAT ARE THE
ATTRIBUTES OF GOD?
 INFINITY
 SELF-EXISTENCE — “The ground of His
existence is in Himself.”

God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM”; and He said,
“Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, ‘I AM has sent
me to you.’” God, furthermore, said to Moses, “Thus
you shall say to the sons of Israel, ‘The LORD, the God
of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac,
and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.’ This is My
name forever, and this is My memorial-name to all
generations.’”(Ex. 3:14-15)
“For just as the Father has life in Himself, even so He
gave to the Son also to have life in Himself” (Jn. 5:26)
“…nor is He served by human hands, as though He
needed anything, since He Himself gives to all people life
and breath and all things;” (Acts 17:25)

“I AM THAT I AM. Everything God is,
everything that is God, is set forth in that
unqualified declaration of independent being.
Yet in God, self is not sin but the quintessence
of all possible goodness, holiness and truth.
The natural man is a sinner because and only
because he challenges God’s selfhood in
relation to his own. In all else he may willingly
accept the sovereignty of God; in his own life he
rejects it.…

For him, God’s dominion ends where his
begins. For him, self becomes Self, and in this
he unconsciously imitates Lucifer, that fallen
son of the morning who said in his heart, ‘I will
ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne
above the stars of God.…I will be like the most
High.’ [Is. 14:13-14]”

WHAT ARE THE
ATTRIBUTES OF GOD?
 INFINITY
 SELF-EXISTENCE
 IMMUTABILITY — “God undergoes no change
in being, perfections, purposes and promises.”
God never grows, develops or differs with
Himself

• Disclaimer #1: Immutability does not imply
immobility. God is a God who is always in
action in His relationship with man. But in His
being, attributes, purpose and promises there
is a complete absence of change.
• Disclaimer #2: When Scripture says that
God “changes” or “repents,” it does not mean
that God has changed. It is an expression of
His permissive will in response to man’s
fulfillment of a condition in accordance with
His preceptive (decreed) will. Remember, God
can do nothing that is inconsistent with any
part of His nature.

• God does not change in relation to His
being (Ex. 3:14; Heb. 1:11-12)
perfections (Rom. 1:23)
purposes (1 Sam. 15:29; Dt. 28-30)
promises (Num. 23:19)
• God does not change (Mal. 3:6; Js.
1:17)

“For I, the LORD, do not change; therefore
you, O sons of Jacob, are not consumed.”
(Mal. 3:6)
Every good thing given and every perfect
gift is from above, coming down from the
Father of lights, with whom there is no
variation or shifting shadow. (Js. 1:17)

WHAT ARE THE
ATTRIBUTES OF GOD?
 INFINITY
 SELF-EXISTENCE
 IMMUTABILITY
 UNITY — God is numerically one and is unique.
All other beings exist of, through, and unto Him.
God is not composite and is not susceptible of
division into parts. The three persons of the
triune Godhead are not parts of which the Divine
essence is composed.

…yet for us there is but one God, the Father,
from whom are all things and we exist for
Him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, by whom
are all things, and we exist through Him.
(1 Cor. 8:6)

Theology Proper:
What is God Like?
A Study of the Attributes and
Nature of God
(Part 2)

WHAT ARE THE
ATTRIBUTES OF GOD?
• God’s incommunicable attributes.
• God’s COMMUNICABLE attributes are not
experienced completely in man, but man does
demonstrate something of God’s nature in him
(Gen. 1:27a).

“There are many of the divine attributes that, if
God had not created the world, never would
have had any exercise — the power of God, the
wisdom of God, the prudence and contrivance
of God, the goodness and mercy and grace of
God, the justice of God…”
John Piper, God’s Passion for His Glory.

WHAT ARE THE
ATTRIBUTES OF GOD?
• God’s COMMUNICABLE attributes.
 HOLINESS — God is “set apart, distinct,”
that is, He is free from and set apart from sin.
God’s holiness cannot and does not tolerate
sin. His holiness refers both to the absence
of sin in God and the presence of infinite
purity in Him.

“but like the Holy One who called you, be
holy yourselves also in all your behavior;
because it is written, “YOU SHALL BE HOLY,
FOR I AM HOLY.”
1 Pt. 1:15-16

“We cannot grasp the true meaning of the divine
holiness by thinking of someone or something very
pure and then raising the concept to the highest
degree we are capable of. God’s holiness is not
simply the best we know infinitely bettered. It
stands apart, unique, unapproachable,
incomprehensible, and unattainable. The natural
man is blind to it. He may fear God’s power and
admire His wisdom, but His holiness he cannot
even imagine.”

WHAT ARE THE
ATTRIBUTES OF GOD?
 HOLINESS
 OMNISCIENCE — God is all (Latin, omni)
knowing. His knowledge is perfect and
complete, knowing all that is actual and all
that is possible. And His knowledge is
intuitive — it is immediate (not coming
through the senses), simultaneous (not
acquired through observation or reason),
actual (complete), and according to reality.

• Ps. 139:1-6 — God knows all things that
actually exist.
• Mt. 11:21 — God knows all the variables
concerning things that have not occurred.
• Dan. 2:36-43; 7:4-8 — God knows all
things that will yet transpire.
God is omniscient

“God sees you as much as if there were
nobody else in the world for Him to look at.
If I have as many people as there are here to
look at, of course my attention must be
divided. But the infinite mind of God is able
to grasp a million objects at once and yet to
focus as much on one as if there were
nothing else but that one.”
C. H. Spurgeon.

WHAT ARE THE
ATTRIBUTES OF GOD?
 HOLINESS
 OMNISCIENCE
 OMNIPOTENCE — God can do anything that
he wills to do and anything that is in harmony
with His perfections.

“All the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as
nothing,but He does according to His will in the
host of heaven and among the inhabitants of earth;
and no one can ward off His hand or say to Him,
‘What have You done?’” (Dan. 4:35)
“Is anything too difficult for the LORD? At the
appointed time I will return to you, at this time next
year, and Sarah will have a son.” (Gen. 18:14)
“And he laid hold of the dragon, the serpent of old,
who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a
thousand years;” (Rev. 20:2)

“Nothing is too hard for Him. If God were stinted in
might and had a limit to His strength we might well
despair. But seeing that He is clothed with
omnipotence, no prayer is too hard for Him to
answer, no need too great for Him to supply, no
passion too strong for him to subdue; no
temptation too powerful for Him to deliver from, no
misery too deep for Him to relieve. ‘The Lord is the
strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?’ (Psa.
27:1).”
Pink, Attributes of God.

WHAT ARE THE
ATTRIBUTES OF GOD?
 HOLINESS
 OMNISCIENCE
 OMNIPOTENCE
 OMNIPRESENCE — God is everywhere
present and everything is immediately in his
presence.

“The God who made the world and all things in it, since He is
Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with
hands; nor is He served by human hands, as though He needed
anything, since He Himself gives to all people life and breath
and all things; and He made from one man every nation of
mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined
their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation, that
they would seek God, if perhaps they might grope for Him and
find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; for in Him we
live and move and exist, as even some of your own poets have
said, ‘For we also are His children.’” (Acts 17:24-28)
“…teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I
am with you always, even to the end of the age.” (Mt. 28:20)
“Make sure that your character is free from the love of money,
being content with what you have; for He Himself has said, “I
WILL NEVER DESERT YOU, NOR WILL I EVER FORSAKE YOU”
(Heb. 13:5)

“Living becomes and awesome business
when you realize that you spend every
moment of your life in the sight and
company of an omniscient, omnipotent
Creator.”
J. I. Packer, Knowing God.

WHAT ARE THE
ATTRIBUTES OF GOD?
 HOLINESS
 OMNISCIENCE
 OMNIPOTENCE
 OMNIPRESENCE
 WISDOM — the perfection of God whereby
He applies His knowledge to the attainment of
His ends in a way which glorifies Him most.
I.e., how God applies His knowledge.

“Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and
knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His
judgments and unfathomable His ways! For WHO
HAS KNOWN THE MIND OF THE LORD, OR WHO
BECAME HIS COUNSELOR? Or WHO HAS FIRST
GIVEN TO HIM THAT IT MIGHT BE PAID BACK TO
HIM AGAIN? For from Him and through Him and to
Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever.
Amen.” (Rom. 11:33-36)
“…also we have obtained an inheritance, having
been predestined according to His purpose who
works all things after the counsel of His will, to the
end that we who were the first to hope in Christ
would be to the praise of His glory.” (Eph. 1:11-12)

“Many today who profess to be Christ’s
never learn wisdom, through failure to
attend sufficiently to God’s written
word.…What fools some of us are! — and
we remain fools all our lives, simply
because we will not take the trouble to do
what has to be done to receive the wisdom
which is God’s free gift.”
J. I. Packer, Knowing God.

WHAT ARE THE
ATTRIBUTES OF GOD?
 HOLINESS
 OMNISCIENCE
 OMNIPOTENCE
 OMNIPRESENCE
 WISDOM
 SOVEREIGNTY — “That perfection whereby
He, in a most simple act, is His own faculty of
self-determination, which, when extended to
His creatures makes Him the ground of their
being and continued existence.”

• 1 Thess. 4:3; Eph. 5:17 — God’s preceptive
will — which may be disobeyed.
• Jn. 6:37-44 — God’s decreed will — which
will always be accomplished
• Dt. 29:29 — “The secret things belong to the
LORD our God, but the things revealed belong
to us and to our sons forever, that we may
observe all the words of this law.”
God is sovereign

“…ultimately, there are only two options.
Either God is sovereign and has absolute
control over the world and universe or God
does not have sovereign control, and the
world and universe carry on in defiance of
His holy will.”
Paul Enns, Moody Handbook of Theology.

“Nothing touches me that has not passed through
the hands of my heavenly Father. Nothing.
Whatever occurs, God has sovereignly surveyed
and approved. We may not know why (we may
never know why), but we do know our pain is no
accident to Him who guides our lives. He is in no
way surprised by it all. Before it ever touches us,
it passes through Him. [Moreover], everything I
incur is designed to prepare me for serving
others more effectively. Everything.”
Charles Swindoll, Improving Your Serve.

WHAT ARE THE
ATTRIBUTES OF GOD?
 SOVEREIGNTY
 LOVE — “The perfection of the divine nature by
which God is eternally moved to communicate
Himself. It is not a mere emotional impulse, but
a rational and voluntary affection, having its
ground in truth and holiness and its exercise in
free choice.” [Thiessen] The object of God’s
love is ultimately not people but Himself — that
is, He loves people as an expression of His love
for Himself and as the means for the greatest
display of His glory.

“The LORD did not set His love on you nor choose you
because you were more in number than any of the
peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples, but
because the LORD loved you and kept the oath which
He swore to your forefathers, the LORD brought you
out by a mighty hand and redeemed you from the
house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of
Egypt.” (Dt. 7:7-8)
“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only
begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not
perish, but have eternal life.” (Jn. 3:16)
“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one
another, even as I have loved you, that you also love
one another.” (Jn. 13:34)

“By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God
has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that
we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we
loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be
the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved
us, we also ought to love one another.”
(1 Jn. 4:9-11)

God’s Love — a summary
• Dt. 7:7-8 — His love is not earned or
merited, but is a gift of grace.
• Jn. 3:16; 13:34 — He has love for all men,
but a particular love for those who are His.
• 1 Jn. 4:9ff — His love is the means by
which we love others; the reception of His
love necessitates the extension of love to
others.

“We must understand that it is God’s very nature to love.
The reason our Lord commanded us to love our enemies
is ‘in order that you may be sons of your Father who is
in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and
the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the
unrighteous’ (Matt. 5:45; NASB). That passage and the
verses in its immediate context refute Arthur Pink’s
claim that Jesus never told sinners God loved them.
Here Jesus clearly characterized His Father as One who
loves even those who purposefully set themselves at
enmity against Him.”
John MacArthur, The love of God.

WHAT ARE THE
ATTRIBUTES OF GOD?
 SOVEREIGNTY
 LOVE
 JEALOUSY — The expression of God’s love so
that He works with infinite power and
authority to preserve the truth. With regard
to Himself and the truth, He is jealous to
preserve His name; with regard to His people,
He works to preserve both them and His
relationship with Him.

“You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any
likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth
beneath or in the water under the earth. You shall
not worship them or serve them; for I, the LORD
your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of
the fathers on the children, on the third and the
fourth generations of those who hate Me” (Ex.
20:4-5)
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ, who according to His great mercy has
caused us to be born again to a living hope through
the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to
obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and
undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven
for you, who are protected by the power of God
through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in
the last time.” (1 Pt. 1:3-5)

The Jealousy of God summarized
• Ex. 20:4-5 — God is jealous for His name
• 1 Pt. 1:3-5 — God uses His power to protect
the inheritance of His people
• Hosea 1-3 — God is jealous for the fellowship
of His people.

WHAT ARE THE
ATTRIBUTES OF GOD?
 SOVEREIGNTY
 LOVE
 JEALOUSY
 GRACE — Grace is God’s unmerited and
undeserving favor to those who are under
condemnation (i.e., all humanity). The great
act of God’s grace is in his provision of
salvation for lost humanity.

The grace of God —
God’s grace can be distinguished from His
compassion and mercy this way —
• God’s compassion is that emotion that
compels Him to have pity on those who are
estranged from Him through sin.
• In His mercy, God withholds that judgment
which the sinner rightly deserves.
• In His grace, God gives His salvation and
imputes Christ’s righteousness to the
undeserving sinner.

“being justified as a gift by His grace through
the redemption which is in Christ Jesus…”
(Rom. 3:24)
“What if God, although willing to demonstrate
His wrath and to make His power known,
endured with much patience vessels of wrath
prepared for destruction? And He did so to
make known the riches of His glory upon
vessels of mercy, which He prepared
beforehand for glory, even us, whom He also
called, not from among Jews only, but also
from among Gentiles.” (Rom. 9:22-24)

“In Him we have redemption through His
blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses,
according to the riches of His grace…”
(Eph. 1:7)
“For by grace you have been saved through
faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of
God; not as a result of works, so that no one
may boast. For we are His workmanship,
created in Christ Jesus for good works, which
God prepared beforehand so that we would
walk in them.” (Eph. 2:8-10)

“You’ll never run into a stratum in God that is hard.
You’ll always find God gracious, at all times and
toward all peoples forever. You’ll never run into any
meanness in God, never any resentment or rancor
or ill will, for there is none there. God has no ill will
toward any being. God is a God of utter kindness
and cordiality and good will and benevolence. And
yet all of these work in perfect harmony with God’s
justice and God’s judgment.”
A. W. Tozer, The Radical Cross.

WHAT ARE THE
ATTRIBUTES OF GOD?
 SOVEREIGNTY
 LOVE
 JEALOUSY
 GRACE
 PATIENCE — The expression of God’s love in
His bearing with (and withholding judgment
of0 those who persist in doing evil and
disobeying God despite both God’s general
and special revelation to them.

“…who once were disobedient, when the
patience of God kept waiting in the days of
Noah, during the construction of the ark, in
which a few, that is, eight persons, were
brought safely through the water.” (1
Pt. 3:20)
“The Lord is not slow about His promise, as
some count slowness, but is patient toward
you, not wishing for any to perish but for all
to come to repentance.” (2 Pt. 3:9)

WHAT ARE THE
ATTRIBUTES OF GOD?
 SOVEREIGNTY
 LOVE
 JEALOUSY
 GRACE
 PATIENCE
 GOODNESS — “That perfection which
prompts God to deal bountifully and kindly
with all His creatures.” This goodness is not
an added quality, but of His very essence and
infinite in scope. Nothing can be added to
His goodness to make Him more good.

And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call Me
good? No one is good except God alone.”
(Mk. 10:18)
“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you
will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.
For everyone who asks receives, and he who
seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be
opened. Or what man is there among you who,
when his son asks for a loaf, will give him a
stone? Or if he asks for a fish, he will not give
him a snake, will he? If you then, being evil,
know how to give good gifts to your children,
how much more will your Father who is in
heaven give what is good to those who ask
Him!” (Mt. 7:7-11)

“When Christian theology says that God is good, it is
not the same as saying that He is righteous or
holy.…The goodness of God is that which 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.”
A. W. Tozer, Knowledge of the Holy.

WHAT ARE THE
ATTRIBUTES OF GOD?
 LOVE
 JEALOUSY
 GRACE
 PATIENCE
 GOODNESS
 RIGHTEOUSNESS — As a complement to
God’s holiness, God is right (His holiness)
and always does what is right in relation to
His people. His holiness is a consideration of
His inherent purity; His righteous is a
consideration of His inherently right actions.

For in it the righteousness of God is
revealed from faith to faith; as it is written,
“BUT THE RIGHTEOUS man SHALL LIVE BY
FAITH.” For the wrath of God is revealed
from heaven against all ungodliness and
unrighteousness of men who suppress the
truth in unrighteousness (Rom. 1:17-18)
“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and
righteous to forgive us our sins and to
cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
(1 John 1:9)

“Wrath in God must not be conceived of in terms of the
fitful passion with which anger is frequently associated
in us. But to construe God’s wrath as consisting simply
in his purpose to punish sin or to secure the connection
between sin and misery is to equate wrath with its
effects and virtually eliminate wrath as a movement in
the mind of God. Wrath is the holy revulsion of God’s
being against that which is the contradiction of his
holiness. The reality of God’s wrath in this specific
character is shown by the fact that it is ‘revealed from
heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of
men.’”
John Murray, Romans.

WHAT ARE THE
ATTRIBUTES OF GOD?
• INCOMMUNICABLE
 INFINITY
 SELF-EXISTENCE
 IMMUTABILITY
 UNITY
• COMMUNICABLE
 HOLINESS
 OMNISCIENCE
 OMNIPOTENCE
 OMNIPRESENCE
 WISDOM
 SOVEREIGNTY
 LOVE
 JEALOUSY
 GRACE
 PATIENCE
 GOODNESS
 RIGHTEOUSNESS
 TRUTH

“God is omniscient; He knows everything. God is
infallible; it is impossible for Him to fail. God is
inerrant; He never errs. Not only does God not
commit error, but He does not inspire error. God is
neither the source of nor the inspirer of error. What
comes from His divine mind is truth. What He
inspires is truth.…If a book has errors, it is not the
Word of God. If a book is the Word of God, it does
not have errors. We cannot have a book that is both
the Word of God and errant.”
Sproul, One Holy Passion.

THE TRINITY OF GOD
• Definition — God exists eternally in three
distinct and separate persons — the
Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit —
yet those three Persons exist as one
God. Some have even called this
doctrine “Tri-Unity,” attempting to
emphasize the oneness of God.

THE TRINITY OF GOD
 God is one in essence. This oneness is taught
in Dt. 6:4, affirming both the uniqueness and
unity of God.
“It means all three Persons possess the
summation of the divine attributes but yet the
essence of God is undivided. Oneness in
essence also emphasizes that the three Persons
of the Trinity do not act independently of one
another.” [Enns, p. 200.]

THE TRINITY OF GOD
 God is one in essence.
 God is three in Person. That is, God does not
exist in three different ways or modes, but He
exists in three distinct Persons that are unified
as one God (e.g., Is. 48:16; 61:1).
 The Father is called God (1 Cor. 8:6)
 The Son is called God (John 1:1; Heb. 1:8-10)
 The Holy Spirit is called God (Acts 5:4)

THE TRINITY OF GOD
 God is three in Person.
• The three have distinct relationships.
“The Father is not begotten nor does He proceed
from any person; the Son is eternally begotten
from the Father (John 1:18; 3:16, 18; 1 John
4:9).…The Holy Spirit eternally proceeds from
the Father and the Son (John 14:26; 16:7).”
[Enns, p. 200.]
Yet these different relationships do not imply
inferiority or superiority within the Godhead.

THE TRINITY OF GOD
• The three Persons are equal in authority.
“The Father is recognized as authoritative and
supreme (1 Cor. 8:6); the Son is also recognized
as equal to the Father in every respect (John
5:21-23); the Spirit is likewise recognized as
equal to the Father and the Son (cf. Matt.
12:31).” [Enns, p. 200.]

THE TRINITY OF GOD
• The three Persons are equal in authority.
• The three persons are all active in the great
acts of God in history and redemption —

THE TRINITY OF GOD
• The three persons are all active in the great
acts of God in history and redemption —
 Creation (Gen. 1:1; Col. 1:16; Ps. 104:30)
 Incarnation (Lk. 1:35)
 Christ’s baptism (Mt. 3:16-17)
 Atonement (Heb. 9:14)
 Resurrection (Acts 2:32; Jn. 10:17-18; Ro. 1:4)
 Salvation (1 Pt. 1:2)
 Indwelling of the believer (Jn. 14:15-23)

THE TRINITY OF GOD
“…how much more will the blood of Christ, who through
the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to
God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve
the living God?” (Heb. 9:14)
“…according to the foreknowledge of God the Father,
by the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to obey Jesus
Christ and be sprinkled with His blood: May grace and
peace be yours in the fullest measure.” (1 Pt. 1:2)

THE TRINITY OF GOD
These truths combine to produce a picture of God wherein all
the members of the Godhead work together, each in their
own divine roles, to produce a people that are justified and
sanctified to forever glorify the Son.

THE TRINITY OF GOD
• Three common errors about the Trinity:
 Tri-theism —the 3 persons of the godhead
are all God, but they were not one God.
 Modalism (Sabellianism) — there is one God,
but He exists in three different modes or
manifestations.
 Arianism — the Son is subordinate to the
Father — they are not co-equal — leading to a
denial of the deity of Christ.

THE TRINITY OF GOD
“For not even the Father judges anyone,
but He has given all judgment to the Son,
so that all will honor the Son even as they
honor the Father. He who does not honor
the Son does not honor the Father who
sent Him.” (Jn. 5:22-23)

“There is only one fountain of lasting joy —
the overflowing gladness of God in God.
Without beginning and without ending,
without source and without cause, without
help and assistance, the spring is eternally
self-replenishing. From this unceasing
fountain of joy flow all grace and all joy in
the universe…Let everyone who is thirsty
come.”
Piper, The Pleasures of God.

Theology Proper: What is God Like?

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