The Attributes of God 

Systematic Theology: The Attributes of God

We have been studying theology that directly applies to God himself. Theology Proper. You'll notice that all these topics are interwoven, they all relate to each other, He is the focal point that gives us understanding about every other topic and doctrine we learn about in the Bible. Today we’ll get a little more understanding of the study of God himself and how it relates to us. 

Communicable(shared) and Incommunicable (non-shared)

Children share common attributes with their parents. Those physical characteristics or attributes were transmitted from us to them. Their hair, facial features etc. 

Genesis 1:26 

Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God, he created him; male and female he created them.

Genesis 5:1-3

This is the book of the generations of Adam. When God created man, he made him in the likeness of God. 2 Male and female he created them, and he blessed them and named them Man when they were created. 3 When Adam had lived 130 years, he fathered a son in his own likeness, after his image, and named him Seth.

When we talk about God's characteristics we can categorize them into two main categories, Those which we share with God, his communicable attributes, and those attributes which are exclusive to him, his incommunicable attributes. 

When we use the word communicate 99.9% of the time we are referring to language that is transferring information from one person to another. However, the word communicate can also be used when we transmit something to others. When theologians talk about God's communicable attributes they are talking about God’s attributes that are transmitted or communicated to human beings. Because God used himself as the example by which he made human beings we share some attributes with God. However limited, we still share them. That is what is called God’s communicable attributes. 

com·mu·ni·cate

verb

1. share or exchange information, news, or ideas.

"the prisoner was forbidden to communicate with his family"

2. pass on (an infectious disease) to another person or animal.

"the disease is communicated from one person to another"

When we speak of God's incommunicable attributes we are talking about the attributes that are exclusive to God. for example because God had no beginning He is eternal which means that God alone has that attribute and is part of what makes him God. In the Christian perspective God by definition has to be eternal, unlike the Latter Day Saints aka Mormons who classify God the Father as once being a person like you and me, having a beginning, and then becoming a god. 

God being Eternal is just one of the attributes that are exclusive to him which cannot be transmitted to any of his creatures. 

Now when it comes to those attributes that God does transmit to us, we share them in common with God but not to the same degree. We have love, but God is Love, we have degrees of justice but God is Just, and we can be good at times but God is good all the time. God is wholly love, just, and grace, we are sometimes those things and even then never to the degree, God is.

What we can say about God is that his attributes are completely and fully all of His and they are all interlinked. God's attributes relate to one another in a way that you can't have one without the other. For example, God is Love, Holy, Just,  and Eternal and they are linked so that His Justice is Perfect (Holy) Eternal, and Loving. Or another way to look at it is that God's justice is holy, His love is Holy, and He has been eternally holy. God's attributes define one another. That's to say that God is not made up of parts. There isn't a part of God that is Loving and other parts that are Just. God is altogether Holy, all together omnipotent, and altogether just. We can apply that to the person and work of Jesus so that we can understand that when Jesus says “before Abraham was I AM” he is the same God with all his attributes as we read in the OT. 

Hebrews 13:8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. 

The important thing about knowing the differences between the attributes we share and don't share with God is that we get a clear understanding of the differences between God and his creation. No creature can ever be like God. A prime example is the aseity of God

A sei is Latin for “from oneself”. Aseity means God's self-existence. 

Acts 17:28  says that 

 For “‘In him we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your own poets have said, “‘For we are indeed his offspring.’

but God on the other hand has no author, no dependence, nor is he self-created. God simply is

We get a sense of that when God tells Moses “I Am Who I Am” Ex 3:14

To The Glory of God

What should this information do to our hearts, this knowledge shouldn't be something that we just put on a shelf but in the forefront of our minds. These are things we should meditate on, think about and drive us toward change and worship. Especially when we consider that the God who has no needs, is all-powerful, holy, and just came into the world and became like one of us, needing sleep, food, water, and shelter, to die to take our place on the cross to pay for our crimes against God in order to buy us back to himself. At the cross, we can see God's attributes on display in Jesus. We see the just punishment of God in Jesus when he took the hit for the crime of unfaithfulness and sin toward God, and we see the extent of God's Love when He dies for his enemies to reconcile us to himself. 

Romans 5:10

 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.

It's true that we have been saved once and for all, but we are also being saved from our sins every day we pick up our cross and follow Christ.  Knowing which attributes God shares with us, helps us to seek to live and strive towards a goal with the help Of the Holy Spirit. Through Christ, we are reborn and are being transformed with the help of the Holy Spirit through obedience. 

EPHESIANS 5:1–2

"Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God."

Eph 4:22-24

We must learn” to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness”  

Incommunicable Attributes:

Attributes which are exclusively Gods

Omniscient  / All-Knowing:

1 Kings 8:39

39 then hear in heaven your dwelling place and forgive and act and render to each whose heart you know, according to all his ways (for you, you only, know the hearts of all the children of mankind),

1 John 3:20 

20 for whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything.

Matthew 10:29–30 

29 Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. 30 But even the hairs of your head are all numbered.

Eternal / Everlasting to Everlasting

Psalm 41:13 

Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel,

from everlasting to everlasting!

Amen and Amen

Romans 1:20

20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse

Aseity / Self-existent

God is the uncaused Cause, the uncreated Creator. 

Acts 17:28

Isaiah 46:9 (ESV)

 remember the former things of old;

for I am God, and there is no other;

I am God, and there is none like me,

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.

Immutable / Unchanging

Malachi 3:6 

 “For I the Lord do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed.

James 1:17 

Every good gift 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.

Numbers 23:19

 God is not man, that he should lie,

or a son of man, that he should change his mind.

Has he said, and will he not do it?

Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it?

James 1:17 (ESV)

17 Every good gift 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.

Sovereign / Supreme Ruler

Isaiah 46:10 

10  declaring the end from the beginning

and from ancient times things not yet done,

saying, ‘My counsel shall stand,

and I will accomplish all my purpose,

Omnipotent / All Powerful

Gen 1-3

Job 38-42

John 19:11 (ESV)

11 Jesus answered him, “You would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given you from above. Therefore he who delivered me over to you has the greater sin.”

Revelation 19:1 (ESV)

19 After this I heard what seemed to be the loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, crying out, “Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God

Omnipresent / Everywhere at all times

Psalm 46:1 

God is our refuge and strength,

a very present help in trouble

Psalm 33:13–14 (ESV)

 The Lord looks down from heaven;

he sees all the children of man;

  from where he sits enthroned he looks out

on all the inhabitants of the earth,

Psalms 139:7  

Where shall I go from your Spirit?

Or where shall I flee from your presence?

Communicable attributes of God:

Attributes which God transmits to His creation. 

Rational thought, and Relationality.

Philippians 4:8

8 Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.

Grace, 

Colossians 4:6  

Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.

Mercy, 

James 2:13 

For judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment

Goodness, 

Romans 12:9 

Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good.

Truthfulness

Galatians 5:22 

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things, there is no law.

Creativity 

Exodus 35:35

35 He has filled them with skill to do all kinds of work as engravers, designers, embroiderers in blue, purple and scarlet yarn and fine linen, and weavers—all of them skilled workers and designers.

Psalm 96:1 

 Oh sing to the Lord a new song;

sing to the Lord, all the earth!

https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/obey-god-with-your-creativity 

Justice

Proverbs 21:15

When justice is done, it is a joy to the righteous but terror to evildoers

Love

Mark 12:30-32

And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ 31 The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” 32 And the scribe said to him, “You are right, Teacher. You have truly said that he is one, and there is no other besides him.

Discussion Questions

What two characteristics are attributed to Jesus in Hebrews 13:8?

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. 

How can Hebrews 13:8 be used to defend the doctrine of the Trinity?

Assignment:

Take time to pray and meditate on which attributes you are strong in and which you may need to strengthen. 

Have a conversation with a friend, a spouse, or a sibling- someone who knows you well. Ask, which one of these attributes you can grow in and which areas they feel you are strong. 

Additional notes on Sanctification

Philippians 2:12-13

Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, 13 for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure

Sanctification is a synergistic operation. The means of Grace by which God works our sanctification are Prayer, Bible Study, Worship, Fellowship, Witnessing, and Service. 

Quietism: Let go and let God. The Heresy that we should quit striving towards our sanctification/holiness remain silent and wait for God to do it for us because this is something that only God can make happen.

Activism: Heresy The only way to be sanctified is to vigorously apply me with no dependency on God. Pulling oneself up by their own spiritual bootstraps. 

1 Peter 1:14-16

As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance,  but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9NxsRXxwVI 

https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/obey-god-with-your-creativity 

https://www.gotquestions.org/God-is-sovereign.html

https://www.gotquestions.org/God-omnipresent.html

https://www.gotquestions.org/immutability-God.html

https://www.gotquestions.org/God-omnipotent.html

https://www.gotquestions.org/eternal-God.html

https://www.gotquestions.org/aseity-of-God.html

https://www.gotquestions.org/God-omniscient.html