Consider This...
Theological Thoughts to Encourage the Heart & Stir the Mind
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Volume I July 2011 Issue 27
This month we will be looking at the nature of God. The question to be considered is: What is God like?
We begin by giving a definition of God, which is not easy. A. H. Strong stated it this way, “God is the infinite and perfect Spirit in Whom all things have their source, support and end.” [1] However, because God is infinite, it is impossible for the finite human mind to formulate a complete and comprehensive definition of His being. All we can know of Him comes to us through His self-revelation. Therefore, we can only give a definition of God which states what we know about Him from His self-revelation.
Secondly, a discussion of God’s nature also includes His essence. Essence refers to the basic aspect of the nature of God which is essential to His being. The essence of God is sometimes referred to as His Divine Nature or Substance. Dr. Floyd Barackman writes, “The possession of the divine nature distinguishes God from other persons, such as angels and humans.”[2]
Thirdly, a discussion of God’s nature involves the attributes of God. This will be our central theme for this month. “God’s attributes are those essential qualifications that belong to His nature and that outwardly reveal this substance.”[3] God’s attributes can be classified into two categories, incommunicable and communicable. The incommunicable attributes are those qualities which belong to God alone. Man does not and cannot share any of them. Communicable attributes are those qualities which belong to God, but which are found also, to a limited degree, in man.
This month, we will be focusing on six of God’s incommunicable attributes including His Self-Existence, Self-Sufficiency, Infinity, Eternality, Immensity, Omnipresence, Immutability, and Unity… So, Consider This.
“Self-existence means that God has no origin[s].”[4] In other words, God is an uncaused being. It is His nature to exist. This is seen in Exodus 3:13-14.
Moses said to God, “If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?” God said to Moses, “I am who I am.”
In reference to this, Warren Wiersbe writes, “God revealed His name, Jehovah—“I AM WHO I AM” or “I was, I am, I always will be!”[5] All of this means that God’s existence is not dependent on anything outside of Himself. “It is precisely this concept of no-origin which distinguishes that which is God from whatever is not God”[6]
God’s Self-Sufficiency
God is not in any way dependent upon anyone or anything outside of Himself. John 5:26, For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself. Therefore, “God’s interest in His creatures arises from His sovereign good pleasure, not from any need those creatures can supply nor from any completeness they can bring to Him who is complete in Himself.”[7] Acts 17:25, Nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.
[1] Strong, A. H. Systematic Theology, p. 52
2-3Barackman, Floyd H. Practical Christian Theology, p. 30
4 Boice, James M. The Sovereign God, p. 126
5 Wiersbe, Warren Expository Outlines on the Old Testament
6-7Tozer, A. W. The Knowledge of the Holy, p. 32-39
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