Attributes of God

This morning Dawn sent me an email reminding me of a particular attribute of God. That got me thinking about A.W. Tozer's book "Knowledge of the Holy." Attributes are the best thing our finite minds have to know the character of the infinite.

God is so powerful and so big that my mind cannot fully comprehend all of how He is. This is one of the many reasons that it is imperative to know what I believe and to make sure that my opinions are shaped and formed by the word of God. I must be willing to set my thoughts and opinions aside to seek God. I need to always trust His word above my thought.

I believe in a God that is truly unimaginable, and when I do try to imagine Him I run the risk of making idols. Thus I am tempted to conclude that God has no characteristics as we know them, only attributes. As a human I will always have questions, luckily God has provided enough answers to fulfill our intellect, but I will never know all the answers. Finding the answers will always lead to more questions and more questions should always lead me further and further into the heart of God. His attributes lined out in scripture should (theoretically) put my questioning mind at ease.

I find it interesting that studying God's attributes, gaining knowledge, helps faith. Every person walks by faith. It makes absolutely no difference who you are, believer or not, everyone walks by faith. You either have faith in God or in something other than Him. Some people believe in science. I find it disheartening to put faith in science. The attributes of science are not personal, while the attributes of God are built out of relational and personal needs. Science has an origin. God is self-existent. This introduces something that I do not understand, yet I accept. How can something be without a beginning? Whatever God is, and all that God is, is Him. Humans have necessities, but God does not and cannot have necessities. He is fully reliant on Himself. This also makes Him immeasurable to us. The boundaries and limits I put upon myself and upon others cannot be put on God. 

The only way I can truly begin to understand God's infinite wisdom is to look at His mighty deeds and love. That in and of itself still does not and cannot do justice to the wisdom and glory of God. He knows everything, has all power and is everywhere.

God is completely faithful to His word; each and every attribute listed there is true to who he is. He cannot and will not go against it. Tozer said that "upon God's faithfulness rests our whole hope" (page 81). There is no better way to put it. In the email I receive the author put it this way: "The Scriptures abound with declarations that God is faithful. Since we live in a world that is constantly changing and face many disappointments along the way, it is reassuring to be reminded of the faithfulness of God. One definition of the word faithful is "worthy of trust," and this is certainly applicable to God because He has repeatedly proven that His word is sure and that He can be trusted." Without God's faithfulness we are hopeless, helpless individuals. In this faithfulness he is all good. God is good, but He is also just. If God were not just He would not necessarily be good.

Other attributes are his never ending mercy and grace. Mercy cannot end because it is not temporary, it last forever. "In God mercy and grace are one; but as the reach us they are seen as two related but not identical" (page 93). It is hard to differentiate or define grace or mercy. I can never understand how much I sin (because of sins of omission); therefore, I can never fully understand the grace God has given to me. Once I see this fully, I understand all the more how grace cannot be understood. The abounding grace of God is an attribute of his never- ending love towards me. God is completely love and love is completely God. Without God's love I cannot learn anything else about him. Without love he would hide himself. His love enables Him to be holy and sovereign as well.

Tozer said to know God is one of the easiest most difficult things to do. You can know about Him for free, but to know Him will cost everything. I can know plenty about Him, including much more about His attributes, but to know Him, I must lay down my life.