By Lewis Sperry Chafer
[Author’s Note: This article continues the general theme of Theism and specifically the attributes of God, which is concluded with these pages.]
II. Attributes
1. Personality
b. Sensibility
By this term the second element in personality is introduced. Both in philosophical and theological usage, the designation sensibility includes the higher forms of feeling and stands as much for the rational and moral as for the lower appetences. Though a difference as to degree and essential purity is recognized between the divine and the human sensibility, the reality of the divine cannot be questioned. To dispose of the vast body of Scriptures bearing on this theme by maintaining that divine sensibility as set forth in the Bible is no more than an anthropomorphism does not meet the exigency; rather, and far more in agreement with the truth, the human sensibility but feebly reflects that which subsists in God to the degree of infinite perfection. The fact that in God the emotions of love, patience, and the attributes of holiness, justice, goodness, mercy, faithfulness, exist goes far to indicate the true quality of God as in contrast to the errors of Deism and Pantheism. Too frequent, indeed, have been the efforts of theological writers to remove from the thoughts of men the warm and sentient nature which, by every form of utterance, the Scriptures seek to uphold. Defining God by negatives is justified only when the elements of weakness and imperfection which are resident in man are to be eliminated. This procedure is carried too far when God is presented as pure intelligence and action apart from those emotions which sustain the divine attitude and motivate the divine action. Sensibility in God is as well defined as are the other essentials of personalit—intelligence and will. Apart from the feeble experience of human love, men could comprehend nothing of the revelation set forth in the words of Christ to His Father, “For thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world,” and the words of Christ to men, “God so loved the world.” It is no limitation in God that He requires an object for His love, or that His love varies with different objects. There is peculiar force in the words addressed to Israel, “I have loved thee with an everlasting love” (Jer 31:3), and in the words, “Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated” (Rom 9:13; cf. Mal 1:2–4).
The sensibility of God includes His rational Being. In the universe He has expressed His ultimate desire, and of that universe, in its original form, He could say, “It is very good.” Having contemplated the beautiful in creation, none could doubt the aesthetic nature in God. That man derives his aesthetic nature from God, is well stated by Hugh Miller: “I must hold that we receive the true explanation of the man-like character of the Creator’s workings ere man was, in the remarkable text in which we are told that ‘God made man in his own image and likeness.’ There is no restriction here to moral quality: the moral image man had, and in large measure lost; but the intellectual image he still retains. As a geometrician, as an arithmetician, as a chemist, as an astronomer—in short, in all the departments of what are known as the strict sciences—man differs from his Maker, not in kind, but in degree-not as matter differs from mind, or darkness from light, but simply as a mere portion of space or time differs from all space or all time. I have already referred to mechanical contrivances as identically the same in the divine and human productions; nor can I doubt that, not only in the pervading sense of the beautiful in form and color which it is our privilege as men in some degree to experience and possess, but also in the perception of harmony which constitutes the musical sense, and in that poetic feeling of which Scripture furnishes us with at once the earliest and the highest examples, and which we may term the poetic sense, we bear the stamp and impress of the divine image.”[1] Similarly Bowne writes: “We hold, therefore, that God is not only pure thought, but he is also absolute intuition and absolute sensibility. He not only grasps reality in his absolute thought, but he sees it in his absolute intuition, and enjoys it in his absolute sensibility. We cannot without contradiction allow that there is any thing in the world of the thinkable which is excluded from the source of all thought and knowledge. Our notion of God as pure thought only would exclude the harmonies of light, sound, and form from his knowledge; and limit him to a knowledge of the skeleton of the universe instead of its living beauty. The notion of God as sensitive appears as anthropomorphic only because of mental confusion. To the thoughtless, sensibility implies a body; but in truth it is as purely spiritual an affection as the most abstract thought. All the body does for us is to call forth sensibility; but it in no sense produces it, and it is entirely conceivable that it should exist in a purely spiritual being apart from any body. There can hardly be a more irrational conception of the divine knowledge than that which assumes that it grasps reality only as it exists for pure thought, and misses altogether the look and the life of things. On the contrary, just as we regard our reason as the faint type of the infinite reason, so we regard our intuitions of things as a faint type of the absolute intuition; and so also we regard the harmonies of sensibility and feeling as the faintest echoes of the absolute sensibility, stray notes wandering off from the source of feeling and life and beauty.”[2]
There are certain modes to be observed of divine, moral sensibility, and each of these, in turn, are well-defined attributes of God.
(1) Holiness
The holiness of God is active. As a primary motive, it incites all that He does; therefore He is righteous in His ways. Though infinitely holy, He, nevertheless, maintains a relation to fallen creatures; not a quiescent aloofness from them, but a vital, pulsating nearness. His is not a holiness which is engendered by a sustained effort nor preserved by segregation from other beings. The holiness of God is intrinsic, uncreated, and untarnishable; it is observable in every divine attitude and action. It embraces not only His devotion to that which is good, but is also the very basis and force of His hatred of that which is evil. Thus there is in divine holiness the capacity for reaction toward others which is both positive and negative.
The following Scriptures, selected from the great volume of Biblical testimony on this theme, will serve to declare the holiness of God: “And he said, Draw not nigh hither; put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground” (Exod 3:5); “Speak unto all the congregation of the children of Israel, and say, unto them, Ye shall be holy: for I the LORD your God am holy” (Lev 19:2); ”There is none holy as the LORD: for there is none beside thee: neither is there any rock like our God” (1 Sam 2:2); “Behold, he putteth no trust in his saints; yea, the heavens are not clean in his sight” (Job 15:15); “But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel” (Ps 22:3); “God reigneth over the heathen: God sitteth upon the throne of his holiness” (Ps 47:8); “He sent redemption unto his people: he hath commanded his covenant for ever: holy and reverend is his name” (Ps 111:9); “And ‘one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory” (Isa 6:3); “For thus saith the high and lofty Qne that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble and to revive the heart of the contrite ones” (Isa 57:15); “This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:5) “And the four beasts had each of them six wings about him; and they were full of eyes Within: and they rest not day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come” (Rev 4:8); “And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?” (Rev 6:10); “Who shall not fear thee, O Lord, and glorify thy name? for thou only art holy: for all nations shall come and worship before thee; for thy judgments are made manifest” (Rev 15:4).
(2) Justice
This is a legal term and refers to the essential character of the divine government in that highest excellence agreeable to which that government ever advances. At this point it is well to observe that God has absolute right and authority over His creatures. In his rebellion against God, the creature steadfastly refuses to recognize the truth concerning the Creator’s right and authority. God could have created or not at His pleasure. Other beings than those made might have been made and those made might have been left without existence. He has perfect right to dispose of all His works as it may please Him. If reflection is pursued on these relationships, it will be evident that man’s rightful sphere is that of the dependent creature, and that man’s highest destiny will be reached, not by resisting the Creator, but by a complete conformity to His will. Since the Creator’s authority is absolute, it is a superlative cause for gratitude that God is perfect in justice. What wretchedness would be the creature’s portion if it were otherwise!
Divine justice is exhibited in the fact that righteous laws are given to men; that these laws are sustained by proper sanctions; and that these laws are given an impartial execution. No favoritism is ever indulged, though infinite favor is extended to those who come under the righteous provisions for salvation made possible through Christ’s sacrifice for sin. Of this it may be remarked that, at no point is divine justice, more observable than in the plan of redemption. What is done on the divine side for lost men through Christ’s sacrifice, is wrought in perfect justice—such justice, indeed, as is consonant with infinite holiness. Justice demands that the penalty having fallen upon Another and that benefit having been embraced as the ground of hope by the offender, it shall not fall again upon the offender. Holiness dictates that there shall be no leniency toward evil on the part of God. It is true that He considers our frame and remembers that we are dust; but God never condones sin. God is not said to be merciful or kind when He justifies the one who believes on Christ; He is said to be just (Rom 3:26). To the same end, when forgiving and cleansing the Christian who confesses his sin, God is said to be faithful and just (1 John 1:9; cf. 1 Cor 11:31, 32). In His administrative and theocratic dealing with nations-especially Israel-, there are extensions of both His blessings and judgments on into succeeding generations. None of these extensions of judgment or penalty became a finality of divine dealing with the individual in God’s distributive justice, which renders to each individual according to his personal relation to God. One, and only one, provision has been made-and that at infinite cost-whereby the wicked may escape the penalties of outraged justice. To reject this open door of salvation which Christ is, and wherein God without impairment to His holy justice can execute complete and perfect grace toward the sinner, becomes at once the final, all-condemning sin.
Finally, the justice of God will be seen in His disposition of all creatures in the end—eternal glory to those who through redemption have come into those relations with Him which give Him freedom to do for them in perfect justice all His infinite love disposes, and eternal reprobation on those who persistently repudiate Him. Justice requires that saints shall be rewarded for faithfulness-some more and some less. With the same consistency, justice demands that there shall be degrees of experience in the estate of the lost. It is written: “For as many as have sinned without law [the law of Moses] shall also perish without law [the law of Moses]: and as many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law...In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel” (Rom 2:12–16). It is true that the crime increases in God’s sight in ratio to the light accorded the sinner. It is not intended in the above passage to imply that those without the Mosaic law (cf. 1 Cor 9:21) will escape judgment (these have sinned against a law as is stated in verses 14 and 15), but the Jew to whom more light was given will be subject to the greater condemnation. The normal experience is that all shall “perish” (cf. vs. 12, also John 3:15; 10:28). The abnormal experience is that the Jew, to whom the Mosaic law was given, shall suffer greater condemnation. Vincent writes: ”Both classes of men shall be condemned; in both the result will be perishing, but the judgment by the law is confined to those who have the law.” And Godet adds: “The Jew alone will be, strictly speaking, subject to a detailed inquiry such as arises from the applying of the particular articles of the code.” They, one and all, shall be lost eternally (cf. Rev 20:12–15).
The Scriptures testify to the justice of God: “Wherefore now let the fear of the LORD be upon you; take heed and do it: for there is no iniquity with the LORD our God, nor respect of persons, nor taking of gifts” (2 Chron 19:7); “Shall mortal man be more just than God? shall a man be more pure than his maker?” (Job 4:17); “The fear of the LORD is clean, enduring for ever; the judgments of the LORD are true and righteous altogether” (Ps 19:9); “Justice and judgment are the habitation of thy throne: mercy and truth shall go before thy face” (Ps 89:14); “Tell ye, and bring them near; yea, let them take counsel together: who hath declared this from ancient time? who hath told it from that time? have not I the LORD? and there is no God else beside me; a just God and a Saviour; there is none beside me” (Isa 45:21); “Because he hath appointed a day, in which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead” (Acts 17:31); “And they sing the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints” (Rev 15:3).
(3) Love
Certain terms-three in all-are used in the Scriptures as comprehensive descriptions of God, namely, Spirit-“God is a Spirit” (John 4:24)—; Light—“God is light” (1 John 1:5)—; and Love—“God is love” (1 John 4:8). By the word comprehensive it is asserted that the terms Spirit, Light, and Love refer not merely to peculiar virtues among many which are in God, but that God is Himself precisely what these terms denote. More specifically concerning Love: God has not attained unto love, nor does He by an effort maintain love; it is the structure of His being. He is the unfailing source of all love. It is, because of this fact, preëminently the thing which He requires. “Love is the fulfilling of the law.” Without the attribute of Love, God would not be what He is. As no other attribute, love is the primary motive in God, and to satisfy His love all creation has been formed. It is because of the fact that God has no need which He depends on others to supply, that He is ever bestowing and imparting. It is essential, also, that He shall have those upon whom His benevolence may be conferred; hence the innumerable creatures who are above all else the objects of His affection. Christians are addressed under the meaningful title, Beloved, which title means simply that they are to be loved of God.
That infinite love has always existed between the Persons of the Godhead and that God in the most worthy sense loves Himself supremely, cannot be questioned. The divine love thus did not begin to be exercised only when creatures—the objects of His love—were created. Even His love for the creature was in His anticipation. Within God himself it is true that from all eternity “Mercy and truth have met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other” (Ps 85:10). It is the advent of evil into God’s creation that set up a conflict within the attributes of God. Holiness condemns sin while the love of God seeks to save the sinner. Love alone could make the sacrifice requisite that the sinner might be saved. This undertaking should not be interpreted as though one God (Christ) is saving the sinner from another God (the Father). It is within the very nature of God that adjustment between the attributes has been wrought. “God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself” (2 Cor 5:19). Divine love, though so measureless in itself, is ever amenable to divine reason and divine righteousness. The adjustment between holiness and love, as these attributes are affected by sin, though wrought out in time and at the cross, were anticipated from all eternity. Of Christ it is said that He is a “Lamb slain from the foundation of the world” (Rev 13:8). The love of God had its perfect manifestation in the death of Christ (John 3:16; Rom 5:8; 1 John 3:16). It is not a mere affection, but is rather a free-choice of God which may be recognized in all that He does. “God is love.”
(4) Goodness
This attribute, if contemplated as that which is within God, is akin to His holiness; if contemplated as that which proceeds from God, is akin to love. The infinite goodness of God is a perfection of His being which characterizes His nature and is itself the source of all in the universe that is good. The specific terms employed in setting forth the goodness of God are (a) Benevolence, which is goodness in its generic sense as embracing all His creatures and securing their welfare; (b) Complacency, which is that in God which approves all His own perfections as well as all that conforms to Himself; (c) Mercy, which is God’s goodness exercised in behalf of the need of His creatures; and (d) Grace, which is God’s free action in behalf of those who are meritless, which freedom to act has been secured through the death of Christ. The terms, Mercy, Love, and Grace are too often confused. They appear in the limited context of Ephesians 2:4, 5 and are there used with due discrimination: “But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ (by grace ye are saved;)...”
There is a threefold, present and immediate exercise of divine mercy. First, God is said to be merciful to those who put their trust in Him. To them He is “the Father of mercies” (2 Cor 1:3), and they are invited to draw near to His throne of grace where, they are assured, they will now “obtain mercy” (Heb 4:16). Second, the divine mercy will yet be manifested in behalf of Israel when they are regathered into their own land (Isa 54:7). Third, mercy is exercised, also, when the individual sinner is called from his lost estate and saved by the grace of God (Rom 9:15, 18; 1 Tim 1:13). However, the mercy of God has had its supreme manifestation in the giving of His Son for the lost of this world. Sinners who believe are not now said to be saved through the immediate and personal exercise of divine mercy; but rather, since the mercy of God has provided a Savior who is the perfect Substitute for them, both as a sin-bearer, that they might be forgiven all trespasses, and as the righteous ground of a complete justification, God is said to be “just” when He justifies the one who does no more than to “believe in Jesus” (Rom 3:26). Thus, from every angle! of approach, God is seen to be “rich in mercy.”
(5) Truth
The character of God is in view when He is called the God of Truth. He not only advances and confirms that which is true, but in faithfulness abides by His promise, and executes every threat or warning He has made. Apart from the element of truth in God there would be no certainty whatsoever in this life, and men would wander on in comfortless perplexity not knowing whence they came or whither they are going. Without truth in God, a revelation is only a mockery. On the contrary, as asserted in the Bible, “Let God be true, but every man a liar” (Rom 3:4). Though men deceive, the veracity of God can never be questioned to the slighest degree.
Truth in God is surety that what He has disclosed is according to the nature of things and that His disclosures may be depended upon with plenary certainty. This certainty characterizes alike every revelation from God by whatever means. God has given to men their senses which, under normal conditions, give true and accurate information regarding objects which God would have men recognize. The very philosophers who contend that matter does not really exist but is only an impression within the mind, do themselves contradict their notions by avoiding the dangers and forces of nature. Again, reason, though not sufficient in itself, is, where its conclusions are grounded on fact, another disclosure of divine reality. The final setting forth of God’s truth is in the Bible. It being the Word of God is true in all its parts. There is a vast array of truth, themes, and subjects about which man of himself could know nothing. The Bible supplies this dependable information. “The words of the LORD are pure words; as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times” (Ps 12:6). He is declared to be a covenant-keeping God. Some of His covenants contain only promises and some contain promises and warnings. He is faithful to every word He has said. “God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?” (Num 23:19). “He is faithful that hath promised” (Heb 10:23). In case man fails in his part of a conditional covenant, God is free from that covenant. If He then does otherwise than proposed in the covenant, He is not untrue. Having promised Abraham without a condition that Abraham’s seed would be delivered from Egypt (Gen 15:13, 14), it is written: “And it came to pass at the end of four hundred and thirty years, even the self-same day it came to pass, that all the hosts of the LORD went out of the land of Egypt” (Exod 12:41). It is ever true, because God is true, that “There shall not fail one good word of all that the LORD our God hath spoken.”
God is equally true in the execution of all threatenings, but there is implied a release for those who turn to Him. He declares: “At what instance I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, and to pull down, and to destroy; if that nation, against whom I have pronounced, turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them” (Jer 18:7, 8). In like manner, it is declared that God reckons the unsaved to be already under condemnation, and that, “He that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth upon him.” But, on the other hand, it is promised, “He that believeth hath everlasting life” (John 3:36). There is no greater certainty of perdition than is found in the fact that God, who cannot lie, has said that it shall be so.
The faithfulness of God is the unfailing source of comfort and assurance to those who are right with Him, or partakers of His covenants of promise. It was a word of great meaning when Christ said, “I am the...truth” (John 14:6).
c. Will
The third essential element in personality is will, and of the will of God very much may be observed. Will is that in God which puts into effect all He has designed. Evidence that will belongs to God is established by the fact that it belongs to personality, that it belongs to perfection, that it belongs to independence, that it has been exercised in creation, and that it is directly ascribed to God in the Scriptures (John 1:13; Rom 8:27; 12:2; 1 Cor 1:1; Eph 1:5). The will of God may be considered as free, and omnipotent.
(1) Free
The will of God is free. It acts in the way of wisdom, is exercised by infinite power, and upholds only His righteous purposes and ways; yet it is free in the sense that it is independent of all His creatures as well as of all their actions. When reflecting upon this aspect of the will of God, theologians sometimes distinguish between the decretive will of God and the preceptive will of God. The decretive will is yet to be considered more fully in the next section of this treatise. This aspect of the divine will is His efficacious purpose concerning all that is, or will be, in the creation He has wrought. Over against this, the preceptive will of God is that which merely commands but does not compel His creatures. These two aspects of will are not in conflict. Preceptive will may be resisted, as it too often is. Each rejection of His command, though foreknown, is not approved by Him. Preceptive will offers a precept which men may receive or reject. The will of God does not determine what is right or wrong. The idea sometimes obtains that God by sovereign decree might cause wrong to be right and right to be wrong. What God wills is right because it expresses His holy character. However, it was concerning things, some of which were good and some evil, that Christ prayed: “Yea, Father, for so it was well pleasing in thy sight” (Matt 11:26).
Another distinction in the free will of God is that some of His purposes are secret, termed beneplacitum, and some are revealed, termed signum. God commanded Abraham to offer his son, yet it was in the secret will of God that Abraham would be spared that ordeal. The distinction between beneplacitum and signum is stated in Deuteronomy 29:29: “The secret things belong unto the LORD our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law” (cf. Ps 36:6; Rom 11:33, 34).
(2) Omnipotence
The infinite power of God, which is termed omnipotence, is employed in the realization of all that God wills. Much that God does is by a direct volition apart from means and agencies. God said, “Let there be light, and there was light.” This is omnipotence operating through volition. The will of man is restricted to thoughts, purposes, volitions, and certain bodily movements. Man can cause nothing to exist by the force of his will. The divine ability to bring a universe into existence out of nothing by volition is the grand manifestation of power. Such power belongs alone to God. He is able to do whatever He wills, but He may not will to do to the full measure of omnipotence. His will is directed in the way of holy and worthy ends. He cannot contradict Himself. Howe has said, “It belongs to self-existent beings, to be always full and communicative, and to the communicated, contingent being, to be ever empty and craving.”
Dr. Richard Watson has written somewhat at length on divine omnipotence. The following is vital: “In the revelation which was thus designed to awe and control the bad, and to afford strength of mind and consolation, to the good under all circumstances, the omnipotence of God is therefore placed in a great variety of impressive views, and connected with the most striking illustrations.
“It is presented by the fact of creation, the creation of beings out of nothing, which itself, though it had been confined to a single object, however minute, exceeds finite comprehension, and overwhelms the faculties. This with God required no effort—’He spake and it was done, he commanded and it stood fast.’ The vastness and variety of his works enlarge the conception. ‘The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament showeth his handy work.’ ‘He spreadeth out the heavens, and treadeth upon the waves of the sea; he maketh Arcturus, Orion, and Pleiades, and the chambers of the south; he doeth great things, past finding out, yea, and wonders without number. He stretcheth out the north over the empty place, and hangeth the earth upon nothing. He bindeth up the waters in the thick clouds, and the cloud is not rent under them; he hath compassed the waters with bounds until the day and night come to an end.’ The ease with which he sustains, orders, and controls the most powerful and unruly of the elements, presents his omnipotence under an aspect of ineffable dignity and majesty. ‘By him all things consist.’ He brake up for the sea ‘a decreed place, and set bars and doors, and said, Hitherto shalt thou come and no farther, and here shall thy proud waves be stayed.’ ‘He looketh to the end of the earth, and seeth under the whole heaven, to make the weight for the winds, to weigh the waters by measure, to make a decree for the rain,, and a way for the lightning of the thunder.’ ‘Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, meted out heaven with a span, comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the winds in a balance?’ The descriptions of the Divine power are often terrible. ‘The pillars of heaven, tremble, and are astonished at his reproof; he divideth the sea by his power.’ ‘He removeth the mountains, and they know it not; he overturneth them in his anger, he shaketh the earth out of her place, and the pillars thereof tremble; he commandeth the sun and it riseth not, and sealed up the stars.’ The same absolute subjection of creatures to his dominion is seen among the intelligent inhabitants of the material universe, and angels, men the most exalted, and evil spirits, are swayed with as much ease as the least resistless elements. ‘He maketh his angels spirits, and his ministers a flame of fire.’ They veil their faces before his throne, and acknowledge themselves his servants. ‘It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabintants thereof are as grasshoppers,’ ‘as the dust of the balance, less than nothing and vanity.’ ‘He bringeth princes to nothing.’ ‘He setteth up one and putteth down another,’ ‘for the kingdom is the Lord’s, and he is governor among the nations.’ ‘The angels that sinned, he cast down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment.’ The closing scenes of this world complete these transcendent conceptions of the majesty and power of God. The dead of all ages shall rise from their graves at his voice; and the sea shall give up the dead which are in it. Before his face heaven and earth flee away, the stars fall from heaven, and the powers of heaven are shaken. The dead, small and great, stand before God, and are divided as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats; the wicked go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into life eternal.
“Of these amazing views of the omnipotence of God, spread almost through every page of the Scripture, the power lies in their truth. They are not eastern exaggerations, mistaken for sublimity. Every thing in nature answers to them, and renews from age to age the energy of the impression which they cannot but make upon the reflecting mind. The order of the astral revolutions indicates the constant presence of an invisible but incomprehensible power:—the seas hurl the weight of their billows upon the rising shores, but every where find a ‘bound fixed by a perpetual decree;’—the tides reach their height; if they flowed on for a few hours, the earth would change places with the bed of the sea; but under an invisible control they become refluent. ‘He toucheth the mountains and they smoke,’ is not mere imagery. Every volcano is a testimony of that truth to nature which we find in the Scriptures; and earthquakes touch, that before him, ‘the pillars of the world tremble.’ Men collected into armies, and populous nations, give us vast ideas of human power: but let an army be placed amidst the same storms and burning winds of the desert, as, in the east, has frequently happened or before ‘his frost,’ as in our own day, in Russia, where one of the mightiest armaments was seen retreating before, or perishing under an unexpected visitation of snow and storm; or let the utterly helpless state of a populous country which has been visited by famine, or by a resistless pestilential disease, be reflected upon, and it is no figure of speech to say, that ‘all nations are before him less than nothing and vanity.’
“Nor in reviewing this doctrine of Scripture, ought the fine practical uses made of the omnipotence of God, by the sacred writers, to be overlooked. In them there is nothing said for the display of knowledge, as, too often, in heathen writers; no speculation without a moral subservient to it, and that by evident design. To excite and keep alive in man the fear and worship of God, and to bring him to a felicitous confidence in that almighty power which pervades and controls all things, we have observed, are the reasons for those ample displays of the omnipotence of God, which roll through the sacred volume with a sublimity that inspiration only could supply. ‘Declare his glory among the heathen, his marvellous works among all nations; for great is the Lord and greatly to be praised. Glory and honour are in his presence, and strength and gladness in his place. Give unto the Lord, ye kindreds of the people, give unto the Lord glory and strength; give unto the Lord the glory due unto his name. The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid? If God be for us, who then can be against us? Our help standeth in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth. What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee.’ Thus, as one observes, ‘our natural fears, of which we must have many, remit us to God, and remind us, since we know what God is, to lay hold on his almighty power.’
“Ample however as are the views afforded us in Scripture of the power of God, we are not to consider the subject as bounded by them. As when the Scriptures declare the eternity of God, they declare it so as to unveil to us something of that fearful peculiarity of the Divine nature, that he is the fountain of being to himself, and that he is eternal, because he is the ‘I AM;’ so we are taught not to measure his omnipotence by the actual displays of it which have been made. They are the manifestations of the principle, but not the measure of its capacity; and should we resort to the discoveries of modern philosophy, which, by the help of instruments, has so greatly enlarged the known boundaries of the visible universe, and add to the stars, visible to the naked eye, new exhibitions of the Divine power in those nebulous appearances of the heavens which are resolvable into myriads of distinct celestial luminaries, whose immense distances commingle their light before it reaches our eyes; we thus almost infinitely expand the circle of created existence, and enter upon a formerly unknown and overwhelming range of Divine operation; but we are still reminded, that his power is truly almighty and measureless-’Lo, all these are parts of his ways, but how little a portion is known of him, and the thunder of his power who can understand?’ It is a mighty conception to think of a power from which all other power is derived, and to which it is subordinate; which nothing can oppose; which can beat down and annihilate all other powers whatever; a power which operates in the most perfect manner; at once, in an instant, with the utmost ease: but the Scriptures lead us to the contemplation of greater depths, and those unfathomable. The omnipotence of God is inconceivable and boundless. It arises from the infinite perfection of God, that his power can never be actually exhausted; and in every imaginable instant in eternity, that inexhaustible power of God can, if it please him, be adding either more creatures to those in existence, or greater perfection to them.”[3]
2. Constitutional Attributes
In the previous discussion, the attributes of God related to personality have been contemplated with little or no regard for their classification as either constitutional or characterizing. Insuperable difficulty must be confessed by every attentive student who attempts an arbitrary classification of all the attributes of God. The present grouping of the attributes includes those which are distinctively constitutional and these complete the list of the characteristic predicates of God. These are predicables of His essential Being. They are not communicated to other beings. The fact that they are peculiar to God and absent in all others at once creates a difficulty not met with in the study of attributes which are, to some degree, reflected in the creature’s sphere. Having some vital relation to good as in contrast to evil, man may by analogy reason from his ideals of that which is good on to the perfect righteousness of God; but such a basis of reason or such a source of impression does not exist when the constitutional attributes are investigated. The entire theme is abstract, theoretical, and abstruse, so far as human experience is involved. The designation, constitutional attributes, is employed only for want of a better term. There is a very worthy question to be raised as to whether simplicity, infinity, omnipresence, immutability, eternity, and sovereignty are attributes at all. These predicables arise outside the perfection of His personal attributes and are equally a reality of each. The holiness, love, and justice of God are all infinite in their scope, and that which characterizes other attributes can hardly itself be an attribute. These constitutional attributes are:
a. Simplicity
By this term it is indicated that the divine Being is uncompounded, incomplex, and indivisible. Man is a compound of spirit and matter. Angels, if they are without bodies adapted to the sphere in which they exist, would be nearer the ideal of divine simplicity than men, but would lack the perfection of simplicity which belongs to God alone. Complexity is not the highest ideal in any being. As in works of art, the more simplified a thing is the more its properties satisfy and abide. Thus it is with God. He being the perfect One, is to be worshiped as the finality and infinity of simplicity. On the simplicity which God is, Dr. A. A. Hodge writes:
“The term simplicity is used, first, in opposition to material composition, whether mechanical, organic, or chemical; second, in a metaphysical sense in negation of the relation of substance and property, essence and mode. In the first sense of the word human souls are simple, because they are not composed of elements, parts, or organs. In the second sense of the word, our souls are complex, since there is in them a distinction between their essence and their properties, and their successive modes or states of existence. As, however, God is infinite, eternal, self-existent from eternity, necessarily the same without succession, theologians have maintained that in him essence, and property, and mode are one. He always is what he is; and his various states of intellection, emotion, and volition are not successive and transient but coexistent and permanent; and he is what he is essentially, and by the same necessity that he exists. Whatever is in God, whether thought, emotion, volition, or act, is God.
“Some men conceive of God as passing through various transient modes and states just as men do, and therefore they suppose the properties of the divine nature are related to the divine essence as the properties of created things are related to the essences which are endowed with them. Others press the idea of simplicity so far that they deny any distinction in the divine attributes in themselves, and suppose that the only difference between them is to be found in the mode of external manifestation, and in the effects produced. They illustrate their idea by the various effects produced on different objects by the same radiance of the sun.
“In order to avoid both extremes theologians have been accustomed to say that the divine attributes differ from the divine essence and from one another, 1st, not realiter or as one thing differs from another, or in any such way as to imply composition in God. Nor 2d, merely nominaliter, as though there were nothing in God really corresponding to our conceptions of his perfections. But 3d, they are said to differ virtualiter, so that there is in him a foundation or adequate reason for all the representations which are made in Scripture with regard to the divine perfections, and for the consequent conceptions which we have of them.”[4]
When attempting to definite simplicity as manifest in God, confusion sometimes arises. (1) Simplicity of Being in God is not a contradiction of the Trinity of Persons in which mode He subsists. The fact of the Trinity does not predicate three Essences; it rather predicates one Essence and the one Essence is simple in itself. The whole of the Essence is in each Person. (2) The attributes of God are not detached portions of His Being which when compounded compose God. His Essence is in every attribute and each attribute sets forth some fact related to His uncompounded Essence. As Bruch has stated: “The divine attributes belong to God, not as though they made up His nature, as though His whole being consisted only of the combination of the same; but because they are the forms and outward expressions, in which His being is revealed and becomes manifest.” And (3) God, being infinite simplicity, is not diffused as an efflux of particles might go out from a source to form new entities of existence. As Creator, He is the Author of all things. He breathed into man the breath of life and man was so made that he manifests the “image” and “likeness” of God; but human life is not a part of God as a contributing element in the Being of God. Whatever is God retains its uncomplicated character as God, indivisible and undiminishable. Nothing can be compounded without the possibility of its being divided. Added to this is the fact that a thing which is compounded is the workmanship of some other being and God is the First Cause of all things and Himself compounded or created by none. The simplicity of God is essential to the very mode of His Being.
b. Unity
Closely allied to the attribute of simplicity is that of unity; the difference being that though God were compounded in contradistinction to His simplicity, He would still be a unity, or One in Himself. He would still be a unity or single entity if He, like man, were composed of matter and spirit. If there were but one man in the world, to him the word unity would apply, and if there could be but one man in the universe to him the designation essential unity would apply. Similarly, the word unity is to be distinguished from the fact that God is a Spirit since He could be more than pure Spirit and yet retain His unity.
The theological import of the word unity as applied to God is that God is one essense. Trinitarianism is not Tritheism. Unitarians are no more committed to the doctrine of divine unity than are trinitarians. “The LORD our God is one LORD” (Deut 6:4). The entire Bible emphasizes the fact of the unity of God and in no portion more than in the Decalogue. In like manner it is written: “See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no god with me” (Deut 32:39); “Thus saith the LORD the King of Israel, and his redeemer the LORD of hosts; I am the first, and I am the last; and beside me there is no God” (Isa 44:6); ”there is none other God but one” (1 Cor 8:4). This sublime theme could hardly be stated more convincingly or adequately than it is in the Athanasian Creed. It declares: ‘that we worship one God in trinity, and trinity in unity; neither confounding the persons nor dividing the substance; for there is one person of the Father, another of the Son, and another of the Holy Ghost; but the Godhead of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost is all one; the glory equal, the majesty coeternal. So the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Ghost is God; and yet there are not three Gods, but one God.”
The unity of God is a predicable. It does not determine what God is in Himself. It has to do only with His mode of existence. Unity, therefore, by some theologians is refused a place among the attributes of God. The logical place for its full consideration is under the treatment of the Trinity, which see.
C. Infinity
This, a negative predicate of God, is negative only in the sense that God is infinite and, therefore, not finite. The fact of the infinity of God relates itself to all attributes in that they are what they are to an infinite degree, or without termination. God transcends all limitations which time or space impose. He cannot be imprisoned either in time or space. In like manner, He knows all things perfectly. He is able to brings things to pass, even to create as He will apart from means or material, and always in measureless perfection. In every moral quality He is complete to infinity.
God has been styled “The Absolute,” which is an attempt to express the fact that He exists eternally by no cause whatsoever outside Himself and that He alone is the sufficient cause of all that is. This is infinity in its outmost demonstration.
d. Eternity
By the word Eternity, the relation which God sustains to duration is denoted. God, being the Author of time, is in no way conditioned by it. He is free to act in relation to time and is equally free to act outside its limitations. Acting in time He said to Abraham, “Is anything too hard for the LORD? At the time appointed I will return unto thee, according to the time of life and Sarah shall have a son” (Gen 18:14). Thus, again, “But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son” (Gal 4:4).
The word Eternity is employed in two ways: (1) to describe that which is either from eternity past, or that which is unto eternity to come. Creation has no part in the eternity which is past, since it had a beginning. On the other hand, both men and angels have a relation to eternity to come, since they can never cease to exist. (2) Eternity is more properly the designation of eternity as gathered into one conception. It is in this aspect of eternity that God is said to be “the eternal God.” He is, from everlasting to everlasting. The problem as to how time is disposed of in eternity is beyond the penetration of finite minds. In like manner, it is of little profit to speculate as to how and by what means time began and what, if ever, will be the cause of its end. The pure idea of eternity is too vast for human thought. On this obvious truth, Dr. Samuel Harris has written:
“The eternal Being exists without beginning or end. Existence limited in time must have a beginning and may have an end. A dependent being has no guarantee of itself that it will exist forever. Its existence may be terminated by the power on which it depends. These limitations are denied of God. In respect to these no difficulty is usually felt.
“Another limitation of a being in time is that its existence is transitional through a succession of events. This commonly occasions more difficulty. The following statement, so far as it goes, seems to give a real meaning. God as the absolute Spirit exists independent of time. Time, with the universe conditioned by it, is dependent on him. Acting in time God remains through all its succession and changes immutable and the same. He is not in the chain of causes and effects. He does not exist in transition through successive forms of being. In his being and his essential attributes as personal Spirit, he is immutably the same, the eternal One from whom all succession of events issues and by comparison with whom as the unchanging standard succession is possible. He is the I AM. Even in our own being we find an analogy with this. Every personal being persists in identity, while the subject of successive acts and events. A man, in the likeness of God in his rational free personality, is also an I AM; he abides one and the same person, unchanging in his personality and its essential attributes, through all the transitions and changes of his life. Matter is in constant action and flux. Yet even this gives us a faint analogy. We are obliged to think of ultimate atoms unchanged and unabraded by all the collision and grinding of this energetic action ever since the worlds were made. God is unchanged and eternal not only in his being and his essential attributes, but also in the fulness of his knowledge, without increase or diminution, and therefore without succession. But as God’s exemption from limitation in time does not preclude his presence and acting in it, so it does not preclude his knowledge of the distinctions of time and of events as present, past, or future. The universe in its whole existence is archetypal in the reason of God; he sees in it the map or plan of all that is being progressively realized in time. But he sees the difference between a being existing in time and another seen only ideally as about to exist in a distant future or that has existed in the past and exists no longer. If he could not know this he would be limited in time. He would be not only unable to act in it, but even to see into it. But his Reason is an open eye, seeing all which is, has been, or will be, and seeing it in its relation to time as actually measured by events.... God’s purpose to realize this archetypal plan in the finite universe in the forms of space and time is an unchanging and eternal plan. Yet immanent and ever active in the universe, he is progressively realizing it by his action in time. And his love, which constitutes his character, is an eternal and unchanging love which He is continuously and progressively expressing in all his action of creation, preservation, providence, and redemption.
“The result which we have reached is, not eternity as immeasurable time, but the eternal and immutable God existing in all time and progressively revealing himself in the universe as it exists in time. God is the I AM. The universe is that which becomes. God is eternal. The universe is the progressive and never-completed revelation of him in time and space.
“The eternity of God is involved in his self-existence. He is uncaused. Therefore he must be without beginning. He transcends the whole chain of causes and effects. Therefore he can never cease to be.”[5]
e. Immutability
As defined by the Standard Dictionary, immutability is that which is, “Not capable or susceptible of change, either by increase or by decrease, by development or by self-evolution; unchangeable; invariable; permanent; as, God is immutable.” In no sphere or relationship is God subject to change. He could not be less than He is, and, since He filleth all things, He could not be more than He is. He could be removed from no place, nor is His knowledge or holiness subject to change. The Scriptures state:
“I said, O my God, take me not away in the midst of my days: thy years are throughout all generations. Of old hast thou laid the foundation of the earth: and the heavens are the work of thy hands. They shall perish, but thou shalt endure: yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment; as a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be changed. But thou art the same, and thy years shall have no end” (Ps 102:24–27); “Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure” (Isa 46:9, 10); “For I am the LORD, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed” (Mal 3:6); “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning” (James 1:17).
Not only is there no change in God Himself, but the moral principles which He has published are abiding. Of this Dr. Miley writes: “Sacred history discloses a changing frame-work of expediency in the older dispensations of revealed religion, and a great change from the elaborate ceremonials of Judaism into the simple forms of Christianity, but the same moral principles abide through all these economies. Change within the sphere of expediency is entirely consistent with the unchangeableness of God, while the changeless moral principles are a profound reality of his immutability. That he regards the same person now with reprehensive displeasure, and again with approving love, is not only consistent with his immutability, but a requirement of it in view of the moral change in the object of his changed regards.”[6]
As intimated by Dr. Miley, certain passages seem at first sight to teach that God is subject to change. The statement set forth in Genesis 6:6 that, “it repented the LORD that he had made man,” must be considered in the light of Numbers 23:19, “God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent.” In one chapter—1 Samuel 15—it is recorded that God said “It repenteth me that I have set up Saul to be king” (vs. 11); yet He also said through Samuel, “And the Strength of Israel will not lie nor repent: for he is not a man that he should repent” (vss. 29, 35). God though immutable, is not immobile. If He consistently pursues a righteous course, His attitude must be adapted to every moral change in men. “God’s unchanging holiness requires him to treat the wicked differently from the righteous. When the righteous become wicked, his treatment of them must change. The sun is not fickle or partial because it melts the wax but hardens the clay,—the change is not in the sun but in the objects it shines upon. The change in God’s treatment of men is described anthropomorphically, as if it were a change in God himself,—other passages in close conjunction with the first being given to correct any possible misapprehension. Threats not fulfilled, as in Jonah 3:4, 10, are to be explained by their conditional nature. Hence God’s immutability itself renders it certain that his love will adapt itself to every varying mood and condition of his children, so as to guide their steps, sympathize with their sorrows, answer their prayers. God responds to us more quickly than the mother’s face to the changing moods of her babe.”[7]
f. Omnipresence or Immensity
The relation God sustains to space is introduced by the terms Omnipresence and Immensity. The conception of God which is sustained by the Scriptures is that He is everywhere present. Such an apprehension is indeed hard for the finite mind to form. It is equally declared in the Bible that God—each of the three Persons—is resident in one place at a given time. Of the Father, the statement is: “Our Father which art in heaven” (Matt 6:9); of the Son it is said that He, upon ascending from the earth, “Sat down on the right hand of the majesty on high” (Heb 1:3); and of the Spirit in relation to the Church it is written, “In whom ye are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit” (Eph 2:22; cf. Ps 113:5; 123:1; Rom 10:6, 7; 1 Cor 3:16; 6:19). On the other hand, the Father is said to be in the Son as the Son is in the Father (John 17:21); the Father is “above all, and through all, and in you all” (Eph 4:6); the Son is present where two or three are met together unto His name (Matt 18:20; cf. Matt 28:20; Col 1:27). The Spirit, like the Father and the Son, is said to indwell every believer (Rom 8:9).
The difficulty for the finite mind arises when both revelation and abstract reason assert the Ubiquity, or Omnipresence, of God. All other beings known to man, including angels, are restricted to a given place at a given time. When they are here they are not there. Material things occupy some part of space, but never all of it. Space has been defined as “Extension void of matter or body, and capable of receiving matter or body.” It is thus that space exceeds all that it contains. God is the cause of space and is therefore not subject to it (cf. 1 Kings 8:27). Respecting His creation, including space, God is both immanent and transcendent. If space is defined by bounds, He exceeds it by infinity.
It is probable that the terms Omnipresence and Immensity represent somewhat different ideas. Omnipresence naturally relates God to the universe where other beings are, and as present with them; while Immensity surpasses all creation and extends on without end.
There are at least three arguments for the divine Immensity and Omnipresence which abstract reason advances. (1) The perfection of God demands that He be everywhere present. If some place were void of Him, the human mind could conceive of a greater being who filled all places and thus God would be imperfect to the degree in which He did not answer the idea of Immensity. On this important consideration Dr. Dick writes: “The result is, that in our opinion it is better for a being to be in many places than in few, to be in all places than in many. To suppose, therefore, God to exist only in one part of the universe, to be in heaven but not upon earth, to circumscribe his essence within any boundaries however widely extended, would be to conceive of him as similar to his creatures. It would be easy to imagine a being still more perfect, for certainly he would be more perfect who was present at the same time in heaven and on earth. Thus it appears that it is agreeable to reason to ascribe immensity to God.”[8] (2) The very nature of God requires that He be everywhere present. The exercise of His attributes is not restricted to locality but is ubitquitous, hence, as He is where His attributes are, He is Himself ubiquitous. (3) Reason further contends that, since God used no mechanism or agents in creation and since all came into being at the same time, He was present at that time wherever creation took place.
The error of Pantheism which claims that God is the sum total of all life that exists—the soul of the universe—, has before been pointed out; but there is danger that the mind, when attempting to make real the ubiquity of God, will think Him as diffused abroad in the sense that only a minute, part of Him is present in a given place, as human life is but partially present in any particular part of the body which it occupies. God, however, is wholly present in every place. If the divine nature is resident in many places, that is not accomplished by diffusion to the end that each may share a small portion of that nature. He is wholly present as fully as though He were no where else—Father, Son, and Spirit—in every human temple in which He dwells, and in every part of His dominion. Dr. Clark has well said: “that which we can most safely affirm, and which no atheist can say is absurd, and which nevertheless is sufficient to all wise and good purposes, is this; that whereas all finite and created beings can be present but in one definite place at once, and corporeal beings even in that one place very imperfectly and by the successive motion of different members and organs; the Supreme Cause, on the contrary, being an infinite and most simple essence, and comprehending all things perfectly in himself, is at all times equally present, both in his simple essence, and by the immediate and perfect exercise of all his attributes, to every point of the boundless immensity, as if it were really all but one single point.”[9]
It is in no way reasonable for the finite mind to suppose that it can understand the divine mode of Omnipresence. The words of the Psalmist express the thoughts of the wisest of men: ”Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain unto it” (Ps 139:6). The Scriptures abound with declarations regarding the divine ubiquity, and no passage is more direct and conclusive than Psalm 139:7–12, “Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me. If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me; even the night shall be light about me. Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee; but the night shineth as the day: the darkness and the light are both alike to thee.” To this may well be added Amos 9:2, “Though they dig into hell, thence shall mine hand take them; though they climb up to heaven, thence will I bring them down.”
To reasonable men, the Omnipresence of God becomes a power to stay the impulse to wrong action. “Thou God seest me” (Gen 16:13). With similar effectiveness, the Omnipresence of God is an indispensable consolation to the righteous. On this aspect of this theme Dr. Dick writes with his unique eloquence: “Lastly, to the righteous this doctrine is a source of abundant consolation. In every place they meet a friend, a protector, and a father. Does the voice of thunder, or the raging of the ocean, or the fury of the tempest, announce his presence? They have nothing to fear, for love to them presides over the commotions of the elements. Do they perceive Him in the more tranquil scenes of nature, in the silent progress of vegetation, in the smiles of the heavens, and in the regular beneficence which supplies their returning wants, and diffuses so much happiness among all classes of animated beings? Oh! how delightful the thought that He, in whom they repose confidence, is so near that they may always assure themselves of ready and effectual aid! This thought is fitted to enliven every scene, and to sweeten every condition. It will make the springs of joy burst out in the parched and thirsty wilderness, and clothe the naked and cheerless waste with verdure. It will give a relish to a dry morsel, and a sup of cold water. It will lighten the pressure of poverty, and soothe the pangs of affliction. It will dissipate the horrors of a dungeon, and console the exile from his country and friends. How transporting the thought, that we cannot go where God is not! A good man may be bereaved of his reputation, his liberty, his earthly all; but the deadly hatred of his enemies can never so far succeed as to draw from him the mournful complaint, ‘Ye have taken away my God, and what have I more?’ With whatever affections his faith and patience may be tried, and whatever change of circumstances a wise providence may appoint him to undergo, although there should be no human heart to sympathise with him, and no kind hand to perform the offices of friendship, he can express his faith and joy in the words of an ancient saint, ‘Nevertheless I am continually with thee; thou holdest me by my right hand. Thou wilt guide me by thy counsel, and afterward receive me to glory’ (Ps lxxiii, 23, 24).”[10]
g. Sovereignty
By many writers, Sovereignty is not included among the attributes of God. It is more properly a prerogative of God than an attribute and owes all its reality to the divine perfections which have here been named. Sovereignty is the very foundation of the doctrine of Decrees—yet to be attended. However, when contemplating the transcendent completeness of the divine Person, it is required that His sovereignty shall be included.
The sovereignty of God is discerned in the absolute manner in which all things have been assigned their respective places in creation; in appointing to men their day and generation as well as the bounds of their habitation; and in the exercise of saving grace. There is perfect peace and highest destiny for those who, knowing the will of God, are subject to it. There is distress and anguish awaiting those who, knowing the will of God, disregard it. Because of divine Sovereignty, the saving gospel of Christ is, in various Scriptures, presented as something to be obeyed. Again, the Authority of God is displayed in the fact that things which were only possible were not allowed by Him to become actual. In relation to existing things, God is in absolute Authority, which may arise from one or more of certain affiliations. (1) He is Creator and His dominion is perfect and final. He is free to dispose of His creation as He will; but His will, as has been seen, is wholly guided by the true and benevolent features of His Person. All majesty and glory belong to God. All material things are His by the most absolute ownership. Men hold property by rights which are only temporary and permitted by God. “For every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills” (Ps 50:10). (2) The Authority of God is established over the redeemed by the purchase which that redemption has wrought. And (3) He is in authority over those among the redeemed who willingly yield their lives to him. The Scriptures set forth the divine appraisal of God’s sovereignty as no words of man could ever do. “The LORD killeth, and maketh alive: he bringeth down to the grave, and bringeth up. The LORD maketh poor, and maketh rich: he bringeth low, and lifteth up. He raiseth up the poor out of the dust, and lifteth up the beggar from the dunghill, to set them among princes, and to make them inherit the throne of glory: for the pillars of the earth are the LORD’S and he hath set the world upon them” (1 Sam 2:6–8); “Thine, O LORD, is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty: for all that is in the heaven and in the earth is thine; thine is the kingdom, O LORD, and thou art exalted as head above all. Both riches and honour come of thee, and thou reignest over all; and in thine hand is power and might; and in thine hand it is to make great, and to give strength unto all” (1 Chron 29:11, 12); “And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen” (Matt 6:13).
Conclusion
The attributes of God form an interwoven and interdependent communion of facts and forces which harmonize in the Person of God. An omission or slighting of any of these, or any disproportionate emphasis upon any one of them cannot but lead to fundamental error of immeasurable magnitude. A mighty task is committed to the theologue to discover these attributes and exhibit them according to truth. On the communion of the attributes of God, Dr. Morris Roach has written: “The failure which we have just noted in an abnormal emphasis of God’s attributes may be corrected by the communion of attributes. Pantheism, polytheism, deism, materialism, idealism, and evolution reveal abnormalties in the character of God to which they subscribe their belief. The errors of all false conceptions of God could be corrected by an explanation of His true character as it is completely and systematically balanced by the communion of these elements of His nature. Christian theology is the only field which gives proper and proportions thought to the character of God as a product of His attributes. It is not possible to ascribe power to God in the sense of ‘sheer almightiness.’ Character cannot be the product of power. Love alone is not an all-inclusive attribute, and is not, in itself, a sufficient basis for character. Full and complete character cannot be ascribed where only a portion of the attributes of God are considered. Character in God is the product of all His attributes in their objective relationship one with the other.”[11] The vast theme of the conflict which sin occasioned between the holiness and love of God must be considered under Soteriology.
In the foregoing, an effort has been made to present some features of the perfections of God. Comparatively little has been said when the incomprehensible character and Being of God are considered. God alone can declare His glory. He is One of whom man should not think without the deepest reverence flooding his heart. God is a terrible Enemy against those who repudiate Him; but to those—even the most sinful—who believe on His Son, He is their God, and all His limitless perfections are engaged in their behalf, and this guarantees that all shall work together for good.
“Now unto the King Eternal, Immortal, Invisible, the only wise God, be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen.”
Dallas, Texas
Notes
- Testimony of the Rocks, pp. 259,260.
- Metaphysics, pp. 201,202.
- Theological Institutes, Vol. I, pp. 360-363.
- Outlines of Theology, pp. 136,137.
- God the Creator and Lord of All, Vol. I. pp. 123,124.
- Systematic Theology, Vol. I, p. 221.
- A. H. Strong, D.D., LL.D., Systematic Theology, p. 124.
- Dick’s Theology, p. 99.
- Discourse on Being and Attributes, p. 46.
- Dick’s Theology, p. 102.
- The Personality of God, pp. 174,175.
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