Enjoy the Attributes of God – Session 4

God’s Comminicable Attributes, Part 1

Reading: Genesis 1: 26-31

AUDIO

Lecture Handout

Handout – Session 4

Lesson Notes

• Mental Attributes
  • Knowledge – Omniscience
    • Gruden – “God fully knows himself and all things actual and possible in one simple and eternal act.“
    • Another definition – God knows all that is knowable, he knows all things possible and actual, and he knows all things past, present, and future
    • God knows everything (= omniscience) – 1 John 3:20, Job 37: 16
      • God fully knows Himself – since He’s infinite, that’s amazing – 1 Corinthians 2: 10-11
      • He knows everything that exists and that hapepns
        • Hebrews 4: 13
        • Job 28:24
      • He knows the future and is never surprised – Isaiah 46: 9-10
      • Scripture is full of detailed prophecies that came true
      • He knows our actions, thoughts, and futures – Psalm 139: 1-4, 16
      • God knows all possible things (what could be) – Jesus speaks of what would have happened – Matthew 11: 20-24
    • God is always fully aware of everything – He doesn’t have to figure things out, count things, or reason, His knowledge never changes or increases
    • This is a critical truth because it lets us rest confident in His plans and promises, in the assurance that He ultimately works all things for good
    • Ultimately this lets us be confident in our salvation and resurrection
    • We can’t know everything, but God gives us the ability to know many things because we’re made in His image and we should seek to increase in knowledge all of our days
  • Wisdom – Omnisapience
    • Wisdom applies knowledge – it takes knowledge and uses it
    • Wisdom has a moral quality – it serves ends that are good and right
    • Grudem – “God’s wisdom means that God always chooses the best goals and the best means to those goals.“
    • God’s decisions about what He will do are always wise decisions – they will bring about the best results possible by the best means possible – when understood from God’s ultimate and eternal perspective
    • God has created everything in wisdom and power – Psalm 104: 24, Proverbs 3: 19, Jeremiah 10: 12
      • Power without wisdom is dangerous;
      • Wisdom without power is futile;
      • Perfect wisdom and power are the foundation of our existence
    • God created the universe perfectly to give Him glory in every aspect
    • Even in a fallen world, we see so many elements of His creation and the intricacy of life, geology, physics, chemistry, etc. that reveal His wisdom
    • God’s wisdom is revealed and embodied in His plan of salvation – 1 Corinthians 1: 20-31
    • God’s wisdom is worked in our lives to make us like Christ – Romans 8: 28-29
    • God’s wisdom can allow us to be content even amidst suffering, as Paul was in 2 Corinthians 12: 7-10
    • God’s wisdom is communicable, in part – James 1: 5
    • We gain wisdom most particularly through daily engagement with God’s Word – Psalm 19: 7
      • The fear of the Lord is the beginning of all wisdom – Proverbs 9: 10
      • James 3: 13-18 – the treasures and qualities of godly wisdom
    • We’re limited in what we can share of God’s wisdom – Romans 11: 33-34
    • So we must trust His wisdom when ours isn’t sufficient – 1 Peter 4: 19
  • Truthfulness (Faithfulness)
    • Grudem – “God’s truthfulness means that He is the true God, and that all his knowledge and words are both true and the final standard of truth“
    • God is truth and He speaks truth
    • God is the one true God – Jeremiah 10: 10-11, John 17: 3
    • He knows all things as they are (he isn’t deceived or mistaken) and His word and revelation are utterly reliable
      • John 17: 16-19, 1 John 5: 20
      • God never lies – Titus 1: 1-3
      • This is why we can fully trust Scripture, which is breathed out by the God who knows all and cannot lie
    • John 1: 14 – Christ is full of grace and truth
      • We must be like this – gracious in all our interactions, but uncompromising with regard to the truth
      • We can strive to have true knowledge about His creation – this should encourage us to pursue true knowledge in arts and sciences, because all truth is God’s truth
      • We get lost when we’re gracious with truth – Colossians 3: 9-10
      • We’re clanging cymbals doing more harm than good when we defend the truth without grace
      • We have truth because God gives it to us – let us celebrate this precious gift and actively pursue it more and more deeply!
      • Proverbs 12: 22 – God’s appreciation of truth in our lives
• Moral Attributes
  • Goodness – Omnibenevolence
    • Grudem – “The goodness of God means that God is the final standard of good, and that all that God is and does is worthy of approval.“
    • This definition challenges us and perhaps even offends us a bit, but it’s true!
    • Jesus – Luke 18: 19, “No one is good except God alone” – God is the ultimate definition, measure, and arbiter of goodness
      • Which means our understanding of good will always be partial and biased toward the present rather than the ultimate and eternal
      • We must be very careful in how we define and describe good!
    • Good is what God approves and what God approves is good because He approves it! (This is an unusual way for us to think and reason, but underscores the nature of God)
    • All God does is good – see beginnings of Psalms 104, 105, 106, and 107
    • All good things come from God – James 1: 17
    • He does only good things for His people – Romans 8:28, 31-32
    • He disciplines us for our good – Hebrews 12: 10
    • Other attributes of God can be defined in terms of His goodness
      • God’s mercy is His goodness toward those in distress
      • God’s grace is His goodness toward those who deserve only punishment
      • God’s patience is His goodness toward those who continue to sin over a period of time
    • We’re called to share in this attribute of God
      • To be good, do good, and seek the good
      • Galatians 6: 9-10
      • Luke 6: 27-36
  • Love
    • Grudem, “God’s love means that God eternally gives of himself to others.“
    • God’s love is self-giving for the benefit of others
    • God is love – 1 John 4: 8
    • God’s love was eternally active within the Trinity – John 17: 24
    • God’s love for us is best expressed at the cross – Romans 5: 8, 1 John 4: 10, John 3: 16, Galatians 2: 20
      • There is a universal, impartial love for all people
      • But there is also a partial, discriminate love for particular people
      • Most biblical statements about love describe God’s particular love for His own people
      • Again – the cross illustrates this – “for God so loved the world”, but it is only through faith in Christ that we are adopted as His sons and daughters
    • We share in this communicable attribute by
      • Loving God in return
      • By loving others in imitation of His love for them
      • Matthew 22: 37-38 – Great commandment
      • 1 John 5:3 – obeying His commandments

Closing Praise & Prayer

1 John 4: 7-21 – 

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In t his the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, n ot that we have 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. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.

By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.