God’s Redemption and Restoration (Perspectives Series 5 of 6)

The gospel is the good news that God’s kingdom has entered the world through the person and work of Jesus Christ, by his Spirit, to redeem and restore humanity’s broken relationships with God, others, themselves, and all of creation because of sin.

The Son’s Redemption (Redemption Accomplished): The Kingdom has Come

The good news is that through his birth, life, death, resurrection, and ascension, God has given Jesus authority as Lord to give all who believe in him not only a new record before God but also a new heart and a new world when Jesus returns.

This is the good news of not only our forgiveness because Jesus took the curse for all our sins on himself on the cross, but also that God considers Jesus’ perfect record of obedience to be ours. God now accepts and loves all who believe in Christ just as he accepts and loves his one and only Son.

God also promises to deliver all who believe in Christ from sin’s domineering power, by freely giving them a new heart and a new Spirit to empower them to love God and others.

God also promises that one day Jesus will return and bring the fullness of God’s kingdom on earth by restoring all things that were lost because of sin. On that day we will be made new in soul and body and delivered not only from sin’s penalty and power, but also its influence and presence. Then Jesus will bring an end to all suffering and restore all things to God’s original design.

In the gospel we see the nature and work of the Triune God reestablishing his kingdom on the earth after the Fall. Earlier we saw how God inaugurated his original mission for humanity and the world at creation – which is the way God’s kingdom is supposed to be. Then we examined how God’s kingdom was overthrown by Satan and sin at the Fall – which is not the way God’s kingdom is supposed to be.

Now we’ll examine the good news that God’s kingdom entered the world through the person and work of Jesus Christ to inaugurate God’s kingdom on the earth and begin restoring fallen humanity and creation by his Spirit – which is the way God’s kingdom is already on the earth.

Finally, we’ll learn that when Jesus returns, God’s kingdom will come to the earth in all its fullness as his Spirit restores all things lost in humanity and creation to God’s original design – which is the way God’s kingdom is not yet (but will be).

The Way God’s Kingdom is Already

Jesus stands at the center of the biblical story, proclaiming good news that through him God is restoring his rule as King over all of fallen human life and creation. Jesus taught that God’s kingdom is already in our midst (Luke 17:20-21), displayed by his signs and wonders, and that God’s kingdom is also coming, so we should pray for it to come. (Matt 6:9)

This means we’re living in a very unique period of history—between the already of God’s kingdom coming to earth in the first coming of Christ, and the not yet of God’s kingdom coming to earth when Jesus returns to make all things new. The bible refers to this period in history as the last days.

The good news of Jesus’ resurrection is not only about the Father’s affirmation of Jesus’ victory over death for us, but also the inauguration of God’s kingdom coming on earth in a new way.

The outpouring of God’s Spirit is both for our personal salvation and for the empowerment of his Church to fulfill his mission to make his invisible kingdom visible over all things. The good news is that God has given Jesus authority, through his Spirit, to form a new corporate humanity, the Church, to embody and bear witness to God’s kingdom on earth in word and deed.

This new community of God’s people is meant to be marked by deep relationships of unity and love that serve as a foretaste and instrument of the kingdom of God still to come, when Jesus returns to make all things new.

The Spirit’s Restoration (Redemption Applied): The Kingdom is Coming

God’s original mission for humanity and the world, inaugurated by the Father at creation, was temporarily thwarted by Satan and humanity’s sin at the Fall. But God graciously sent his Son to accomplish the redemption of fallen humanity and creation.

God also graciously sent his Spirit to apply the riches of Christ’s redemptive work to all things lost in the Fall in order to restore them to God’s original design. The good news is that the Holy Spirit’s transforming presence will one day fully restore fallen humanity and creation, freeing them from all the affects of sin at the coming of the new heaven and new earth.

The Way God’s Kingdom is Not Yet

When Jesus returns he will make all things new by the power of his Spirit, completely restoring all things that were lost because of sin. Not only will the natural world and the physical and biological world be made new but so will all aspects of God’s creative order that were broken by the Fall.

God’s ultimate purpose for the world is not merely the rebirth of human souls but the rebirth of all fallen creation. As is stated in the hymn Joy to the World, the fullness of God’s redemptive blessings in Christ will flow “as far as the curse is found.” This will include the full restoration of our relationship with God and the restoration of our relationships with ourselves and others as we carry out God’s purposes for the world he re-creates.

The Christian hope is not just that one day, when we die, we will go up to heaven and worship God forever. Our ultimate hope is in another day, when Jesus returns and brings heaven back down to earth.

Our hope is not merely life after death in heaven worshipping God for eternity as a disembodied soul, but life after heaven in a new heavens and a new earth where all our relationships will finally be made whole.

Therefore, our hope is not going back to a garden in Eden or up to heaven where our soul has no body. Instead, it is in going forward to the new earth that God promises will one day come down from heaven to earth as our final home.

God is at work leading his new community and creation to its final destiny of a new heavens and a new earth. Only then will God’s kingdom finally come in all its fullness and glory. Only then will the whole of human life and creation be fully redeemed and restored from sin and all its consequences.

In the meantime, as the new community, the Church, we press on against the powerful forces of evil that oppose God’s cosmic restoration project. And by participating in his redemptive mission we embrace the suffering that Jesus promised would be the experience of all who follow him in advancing God’s kingdom on earth.

God’s Creation and the Fall (Perspectives Series 4 of 6)

Gospel means “good news,” and the Bible reveals to us the good news that the Father’s creation, ruined by the Fall, is being redeemed by Christ and restored by the Holy Spirit into the Kingdom of God. In the gospel we see the nature and work of the Triune God reestablishing his kingdom on the earth after the Fall.

To help us better understand this, let’s look first at how God’s original mission for humanity and the world was inaugurated by him at creation – which is the way God’s kingdom is supposed to be. Then we’ll examine how God’s kingdom was overthrown by Satan and sin at the Fall – which is not the way God’s kingdom is supposed to be.

The Father’s Creation: The Way God’s Kingdom Is Supposed to Be

The Scriptures teach that God created the world out of nothing, and then he rested. But God’s work in creation did not stop at the beginning, like the deists’ imagined clockmaker who creates a clock, winds it up, and then steps back to allow the clock to work completely on its own.

Instead, as soon as God rested from his original work of creation, he immediately continued his creative work by sustaining and ruling over everything he had created. This is called God’s providence (Prov 15:3, Ps 104:24). God sustains and rules over all creation not only directly as Sovereign King, but also indirectly through his image bearers, as they cultivate and develop his creation on the earth.

Creation in its original state was good, but it was far from complete. So God made humans through whom he would continue to develop his creation and establish his kingdom on the earth.

When God created the world, he designed the way it’s supposed to operate. So God’s creation includes not only the laws which govern the physical and biological world but also a creative order of laws and norms for the way things are supposed to be.

For example, this creation order includes things like the sanctity of life, the Sabbath rhythm, the institution of marriage, the sanctity of work, and even political order as examples of his creative order (Rom 13:1, 1 Tim 4:3-4, 1 Pet 2:13) for the ultimate flourishing of humanity on earth. God’s plan was for Adam and Eve to develop his creation by multiplying and subduing it according to this creative order.

As Adam and Eve learned how to apply these laws and norms in all their spheres of life, God’s plan was to establish his kingdom on earth through their application of  them, developing the whole domain of human relationships and societal organizations for his glory. The result of Adam and Eve developing God’s creative order under their influence is called culture.

The Fall of Humanity: The Way God’s Kingdom is Not Supposed to Be

In the beginning, God created a paradise with a creative order for how things are supposed to be. However, this paradise didn’t last. In Genesis 3 we learn that sin entered the world through Satan, who enticed Adam and Eve to sin.

As a result, humanity became alienated from God and under his just curse. This alienation and curse then flowed, like a polluted river, into all human relationships, including our relationships with God, ourselves, others, and creation.

Because of sin, our original righteous standing before God, which allowed us the blessing of access into God’s holy presence to be loved and cherished by him, is now lost. In its place, we stand condemned, guilty, and forsaken by God.

But sin changes more than our status with God. It also changes our heart, our human nature. We’re not only under sin’s condemning penalty, but also under  its domineering power and  the control of Satan. Sin causes our hearts to be captured by idols that steal our affections away from God.

Our affections and desires are still good, but because of sin we now set our God-given desires on idols that cannot fully satisfy us. Heart idolatry is looking for our true source of greatest happiness in something or someone other than God. It’s trying to make good things and people ultimate, when only God is ultimate. For some it is approval, reputation, or success. For others it includes things like comfort, control, pleasure, power, or possessions.

Sin’s corruption also spread both in individual hearts and in systemic ways throughout society, corrupting institutions God’s ordained such as the family, church, government, business, education, recreation, and the arts. The curse of sin even spread to our physical bodies, resulting in disease, sickness, and death. (Gen. 3:16-19) All creation and nature itself is now subject to decay. (Rom. 8:18-25)

This is why there is so much brokenness in the world, not just spiritually, but socially, culturally, economically, and politically. And this is why there is so much suffering, violence, poverty, disease, and injustice.

This is not the way God’s kingdom on earth is supposed to be. As a result of the Fall, Satan is now ruling over the earth. Jesus calls him “the ruler of the world” (John 14:30), and the Apostle John writes that “the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.” (1 John 5:19)

This does not mean that Satan is the supreme ruler over the earth. There’s only one supreme Lord over all things, and that’s God who has given Jesus “all authority in heaven and on earth.” (Matt 28:18b) Through Jesus, God will eventually defeat Satan and remove all the effects of his rule on fallen humanity and the world.

But since the Fall, there has been a struggle in history and within every person between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of Satan. This struggle will continue until Jesus returns as King to bring all things into complete submission to his rule and reign on earth.

The good news of the gospel is that, by his grace, God’s good creation of the world and humanity did not lose its original God-ordained order, structure, and laws. The bad news is that sin has deeply corrupted and distorted all of God’s good creation with evil. Sin and evil have radically twisted every part of our individual and communal lives.

All things God created are still good, but since the Fall they can now be used to serve and honor false gods, instead of the true God. For example, God created sexual union to be good and pleasurable, but only within God’s ordained creation structure of marriage between a man and a woman. But after the Fall, sexual union is often used illegitimately, resulting in fornication and adultery.

Similarly, government, industry, education, recreation, and the arts are all inherently good gifts from God, but after the Fall they’re often used in corrupt and idolatrous ways that God never intended.

Our fallen culture and society is not inherently sinful and evil. It’s the distortion and twisting of our culture away from God’s original design that is wrong. So we’re not to separate ourselves from fallen culture, but instead learn how to engage and redirect it according to God’s original design for ultimate flourishing.

God’s Triune Nature and Work (Perspectives Series 3 of 6)

God’s Triune Nature: Who God Is

The attributes of God’s simplicity and complexity in Scripture reveal his mysterious, triune nature–what is traditionally called the doctrine of the Trinity.

The Bible teaches that God is one God (Deut 6:4, 1 Cor 8:4). But, in many places, the Scriptures also ascribe divine attributes and actions to three divine entities which the church has historically called “persons”, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Christian orthodoxy affirms throughout the ages that each of these three is the one true God.

Although the Scriptures teach that God’s being is one, this does not mean that God is only one person who can be described in three ways or forms. The ancient heresy of Modalism (sometimes called Sabellianism) teaches that God is one person who reveals himself in three ways (modes, forms, or manifestations), e.g. the belief that sometimes God reveals himself as Father, at other times the same person reveals himself as Son, and at other times he reveals himself as Holy Spirit.

In the Bible, the three “persons” are always distinct from one another and not interchangeable. The Father sends the Son (John 3:16); the Son prays to the Father (John 17); the Son obeys the Father (John 5:19); the Father and the Son send the Spirit into the world (John 14:26, 15:26); the Spirit speaks on the authority of the Father and Son, not on his own authority (John 16:13).

God’s Triune Work: What God Does

In Scripture, each member of the Trinity reveals unique aspects of his person and work in the history of God’s unfolding plan for the world. For example, in Ephesians 1, the Apostle Paul refers to the Father’s will before creation (1-5), the Son’s accomplishment of God’s will in redemption (6-10), and the Spirit’s application of God’s will in sealing believers (11-14).

In this series, we’ll explore what the Bible reveals to us about who God is as Triune Lord (his attributes) and what God does as Triune Lord (his work, his plan) in creation, redemption, and the restoration of all things. Here’s a brief survey:

The Father Establishes God’s Plan for Creation

It is the Father, not the Son or Spirit, whose knowledge establishes God’s plan for the world and authorizes the tasks that the Son and the Spirit will carry out in his plan. In creation, God the Father reveals his supreme authority as Lord over all things, by wisely establishing his eternal plan to rule over all humanity and the world he creates for his glory.

Humanity Rejects God’s Plan in the Fall

But humanity rebels against God’s rule, sinning against him. As a result of the Fall, all humanity and creation come under God’s just curse. Although the Fall resulted in humanity’s condemnation and the corruption and distortion of God’s good creation, it did not destroy it. And by his grace, God determined to redeem and restore all things lost in the Fall.

The Son Accomplishes God’s Plan in Redemption

It is the Son, not the Father or Spirit, whose power accomplishes God’s plan for the world by executing it through his life, death, resurrection, ascension, and return. In redemption, God the Son reveals his sovereign control as Lord of all things, by mightily accomplishing God’s eternal plan to redeem all of fallen humanity and creation.

The Spirit Applies God’s Plan in Restoration

It is the Spirit, not the Father or the Son, whose presence fulfills God’s plan for the world by applying Christ’s redemptive work to all things lost in the Fall. In restoration, God the Spirit reveals his transforming presence as Lord in all things, by graciously applying God’s eternal plan to restore all of fallen humanity and creation for his glory.

God’s Triune Gospel: Who God Is and What God Does

The gospel is the revelation of who God is and what God does in creation and redemption. The gospel story begins with the person and work of God the Father in creation. After the fall of humanity into sin, it’s the story of the person and work of God the Son in redemption. And it reaches its climax in the person and work of God the Holy Spirit restoring the fullness of God’s kingdom on earth.

While no single definition of the gospel can do it justice, the gospel can be summed up as the good news that the Father’s creation, ruined by the Fall, is being redeemed by Christ and restored by the Holy Spirit into the Kingdom of God. In the gospel we see the nature and work of the Triune God reestablishing his kingdom on the earth after the Fall.

The Revelation of God (Perspectives Series 1 of 6)

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth (Gen 1:1). Genesis begins with creation as a magnificent act of God that reveals God to us as the creator of everything that exists.

The world God created consists of personal and impersonal beings and things. Humans are personal beings with names. Impersonal things include matter, space, time, motion, energy, the law of gravity, thunderstorms, oranges, and bicycles.

Many believe that humans are ultimately just impersonal matter that has come into being through a mysterious and random convergence of mass and energy over billions of years for no apparent reason and for no purpose.

The Bible teaches that humans are created by God in his image with intrinsic worth and dignity (Gen 1:28). All matter, space, time, motion, and energy are tools created and used by God to organize and rule over his creation and humanity to accomplish his purposes.

But how can we know all this? How can we really know what God is like?

We can’t think or reason our way to God

First, we can’t merely think or reason our way to God. When Moses writes the first verse of the first book of the Bible, he begins with a faith statement: “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth (Gen 1:1).” Moses does not first prove scientifically that God exists.

Instead, he makes a huge theoretical assumption with the full knowledge that everyone who reads this verse may not share this assumption. Saying that our beliefs about God are based on a faith premise, however, does not in any way mean our beliefs are not scientifically and intellectually credible.

But we must be on our guard against anyone who claims to know the answer to how the world and humanity began without having a faith basis. Even the most atheistic scientists have at the core of their strongest beliefs about the origins of the universe—a faith premise. And it’s a very religious faith premise no matter how non-religious they may consider their premises to be.

This is because it takes religious faith to believe that the origins of the universe and humanity somehow mysteriously came into being through a “big bang” followed by even more mysterious processes over billions of years.

It takes as much, or more, religious faith to believe that everything that exists is only material or energy that has existed forever in some form and has been mysteriously shaped into all of its present complex forms, including humanity, only by pure chance—than to believe the historic Judeo-Christian account that it’s all the work of a personal, infinite, creator God.

It is dishonest to present a view of the origins of the universe and humanity and to claim that this view does not have a deeply rooted faith premise at its very core. And it’s even more dishonest to somehow try to position one view of origins as being scientific and not faith-based and others as being faith-based and religious.

So our faith premise is that there is an infinite, eternal, unchangeable God who exists and has created everything that exists. This means that reality is not limited to the physical but expands into the metaphysical, the spiritual. We do not live in a closed system but an open system.

To know God, he must reveal himself to us

This leads us to our second point, that for us to know anything about God he must take the initiative and reveal himself to us. The good news is that God has graciously broken through and revealed himself in several ways, including nature, the Bible, and the human conscience.

For example, we learn in Exodus 3 that when God appeared to Moses he revealed his personal name YHWH (Yahweh) or LORD. By revealing his personal name, God reveals that he is a person and not an impersonal force or higher power.

In Exodus 3:15, the word LORD is often translated with all capital letters to indicate the divine name YHWH (Yahweh). With this personal name, God reveals himself as a personal, faithful, covenant-keeping God of grace who promises to deliver his people by his great power.

In the New Testament, God translates his personal name YHWH as Lord (kurios) and connects it with the Lord Jesus Christ (Phil 2:9-11). And there is a new personal name for God added by Jesus. It’s the name “Father.” Since the Father is made known to us by Jesus through the Holy Spirit (John 16:13), the full, abundant revelation of LORD’s name is now Trinitarian: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (Matt 28:19).

God has revealed his personal qualities

When the historic Westminster Shorter Catechism (1647) answers the ancient question, “What is God?”, the answer contains a list of God’s personal attributes found in the Bible: “God is a Spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable, in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth.”

Theologians often use the word attributes to describe God’s personal qualities. After defining God as “a Spirit,” i.e. not having a physical body like humans, God’s being is described as infinite, eternal, and unchangeable. Theologians sometimes classify these kinds of attributes of God as incommunicable attributes that only God can possess.  

God’s infinity means his being is not confined by any limits. God’s eternality means he has no beginning and no end, no before or after. And God’s immutability means it is not possible for God to change.

However, the attributes of God we share more fully are called God’s communicable attributes, including his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth.

God’s revelation is limited but true

We must be careful in how we describe God’s attributes and how we describe the way in which we share any of God’s attributes. It can be helpful to think of God’s incommunicable attributes in a separate category from God’s communicable attributes. But we must do so with great care and wisdom or we’ll be thinking of God in an unbiblical way.

This is because there is a sense in which we, as limited, created beings, don’t have the capacity to understand or share fully any of the attributes (including the communicable attributes) of an unlimited, uncreated, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable God. In Isaiah 55:8-9 God says:

For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
    neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.

For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
    so are my ways higher than your ways
    and my thoughts than your thoughts

 But not being able to know God as fully as he knows himself does not mean we can’t know him at all, or that all our knowledge of God is false. Instead, we must understand that, although our knowledge of God is limited, it’s still true, trustworthy, adequate, and good knowledge.

Knowing God as LORD in All Areas of Life (Essentials Series 6 of 6)

The desire to do justice to all the attributes of God revealed in Scripture and maintain a biblical view of God’s transcendence and immanence led the Christian church to do more than emphasize that God’s word reveals him in analogies. This desire also led the Christian church to make a distinction between two groups of attributes of God. These groups of attributes have received different names throughout history. We will use the names incommunicable and communicable attributes.

The primary purpose of the two categories has been to distinguish between the bible’s teaching on God’s transcendence, as his distinction from and elevation above the world, and God’s immanence, as his distinction with and presence in the world. Although the bible does not present these two categories of God’s attributes as standing rigidly against each other in total separation, it is important to affirm “that God possesses all of his incommunicable attributes in an absolute way and to an infinite and therefore incommunicable degree.”[1]

God’s Incommunicable Attributes

God’s incommunicable attributes are unique to him and cannot even be found in humans or be shared by humans, though humans, made in his image, reflect them in ways appropriate to their created status. These attributes include:

• God’s absolute independence, he is determined by nothing, and everything else is determined by him (Acts 17:25, Rom 11:36). Humans are relatively independent, in that they can think and act for themselves, but only within the limits of their place in God’s plan.

• God’s immutability, i.e. God cannot change, he remains the same eternally (James 1:17). Human beings also remain themselves after they are created; but they undergo constant change, from forces within them and outside them.

• God’s simplicity, i.e. God’s being is free from composition and parts, he is one whole (Ps 36:9, Jn 5:26, 1 Jn 1:5). Human beings think and act as whole persons but they are dependent on the parts of which they are composed.

• God’s eternality, i.e. God transcends time and yet penetrates every moment of time with his eternity (Ps 90:2). Human beings gain some transcendence over time through their God-given memory, and through their ability to accept God’s revelation of the future. But unlike God they are time-bound.

• God’s omnipresence, i.e. God’s being transcends all space and yet bears up all space by his omnipotence (Ps 139:7, Acts 17:27-28). Humans gain some transcendence over space by moving here and there, inhabiting widely different parts of creation, and learning to communicate over wide distances. But they are always located in one particular place.

When the historic Westminster Shorter Catechism (1647) answers the ancient question, “What is God?,” the answer is: “God is a Spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable, in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth.” After defining God as “a Spirit,” i.e. not having a physical body like humans, God is described as being infinite, eternal, and unchangeable. These are incommunicable attributes of God that we, as humans, do not have the capacity to share with him.

God’s Communicable Attributes

But, as God’s image bearers, we do have the capacity to share, in a limited way, God’s communicable attributes of his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth.

This list of three incommunicable attributes and seven communicable attributes are not meant to be seen as exhaustive but representative. Notice God’s attribute of love is not even listed in this definition, even though we read in Scripture that “…God is love (1 John 4:8b).” This catechism answer reveals how God’s attributes can be seen in relation to each other. God is presented here as a Spirit who is infinite, eternal, and unchangeable (incommunicable attributes), in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth (communicable attributes). Practically speaking this means:


• God is infinite, eternal, and unchangeable in his being, referring to God’s nature as being without limitation, everywhere, in all of time, and always the same.

• God is infinite, eternal, and unchangeable in his wisdom, referring to God’s omniscience in knowing all things.

• God is infinite, eternal, and unchangeable in his power, referring to God’s omnipotence in being all powerful.

• God is infinite, eternal, and unchangeable in his holiness, referring to God’s transcendence from creation, perfect purity and righteousness.

• God is infinite, eternal, and unchangeable in his justice, referring to God’s just nature by which he maintains ethical justice and righteousness over against every violation of it.

• God is infinite, eternal, and unchangeable in his goodness, referring to God’s radical grace, love, and mercy toward fallen humanity in sin.

• God is infinite, eternal, and unchangeable in his truth, referring to God’s perfection that assures us of the ethical reliability of his revelations and promises.

As divine image-bearers, we can reflect these communicable attributes of God. But we must always remember there is a sense in which even these attributes are uniquely peculiar to God in an absolute way that cannot be shared by us. This means there is a divine being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth that is so absolute, independent, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable with God that humans cannot even share it.

As God’s image-bearers, we are not merely a reflection of God’s attributes, but a reflection of God himself, whose being cannot be separated from all of his attributes. As humans, we can make a distinction between having human attributes and being human. We can lose our attributes of wisdom, power, and holiness and still be human. But this is not possible for God because the bible describes every attribute of God as also a description of God’s personal essence and being.

This is why God’s attributes must not be understood as mere characteristics of God or impersonal forces but as reflections of his being and person. God is not only wise, he is wisdom. God’s power is not only a force but the power of a real person exerting his will. God is not only holy, he is holiness. God is not only just, he is justice. God is not only good, he is goodness. And God is not only truthful, he is truth. So, when you obey Jesus’ command to seek first God’s righteousness this means you are to seek first God himself in Christ who is righteousness.

Because God’s attributes of wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth are not composite parts of him that can somehow be separated from the others, this also means that we must not see them as separated from each other. We can summarize this complex integration of God’s attributes by saying that all of God’s divine attributes have divine attributes. Practically speaking this means:

• God’s wisdom is a powerful wisdom, a holy wisdom, a just wisdom, a good wisdom, and a truthful wisdom.

• God’s power is a wise power, a holy power, a just power, a good power, and a truthful power.

• God’s holiness is a wise holiness, a powerful holiness, a just holiness, a good holiness, and truthful holiness.

• God’s justice is a wise justice, a powerful justice, a holy justice, a good justice, and a truthful justice.

• God’s goodness is a wise goodness, a powerful goodness, a holy goodness, a just goodness, and a truthful goodness.

God reveals himself to us in Scripture so we might glorify and enjoy him forever. The word glory, from the Latin Gloria, “fame, renown,” is used to describe the beautiful, radiant display of God’s attributes as the most glorious being in existence. In the Old Testament, the Hebrew word kabod, translated glory, originally means “weight” or “heaviness.” The New Testament word for glory, doxa, continues to express this meaning of importance, honor, and majesty.

God’s attributes reveal to us that he alone is in a category of greatest importance, honor, and majesty. As God’s image-bearers, we are designed by God to bring him glory by reflecting the beauty of who he is and what he does in all his magnificent works of creation and redemption. We are called to magnify the radiance of his perfections that reveal his infinite, eternal, and unchangeable being in the fullness of his wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, truth, etc.

In his treatise, “Concerning the End for which God Created the World,” Jonathan Edwards concludes, “It appears that all that is ever spoken of in the Scripture as an ultimate end of God’s works is included in that one phrase, “the glory of God.” The Apostle Paul confirms Edward’s conclusion when he writes, “For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen (Rom 11:36).”

Knowing God’s Attributes (Essentials Series 5 of 6)

The desire to do justice to all the attributes of God revealed in Scripture and maintain a biblical view of God’s transcendence and immanence led the Christian church to do more than emphasize that God’s word reveals him in analogies. This desire also led the Christian church to make a distinction between two groups of attributes of God. These groups of attributes have received different names throughout history. We will use the names incommunicable and communicable attributes.

The primary purpose of the two categories has been to distinguish between the bible’s teaching on God’s transcendence, as his distinction from and elevation above the world, and God’s immanence, as his distinction with and presence in the world. Although the bible does not present these two categories of God’s attributes as standing rigidly against each other in total separation, it is important to affirm “that God possesses all of his incommunicable attributes in an absolute way and to an infinite and therefore incommunicable degree.”[1]

God’s Incommunicable Attributes

God’s incommunicable attributes are unique to him and cannot even be found in humans or be shared by humans, though humans, made in his image, reflect them in ways appropriate to their created status. These attributes include:

• God’s absolute independence, he is determined by nothing, and everything else is determined by him (Acts 17:25, Rom 11:36). Humans are relatively independent, in that they can think and act for themselves, but only within the limits of their place in God’s plan.

• God’s immutability, i.e. God cannot change, he remains the same eternally (James 1:17). Human beings also remain themselves after they are created; but they undergo constant change, from forces within them and outside them.

• God’s simplicity, i.e. God’s being is free from composition and parts, he is one whole (Ps 36:9, Jn 5:26, 1 Jn 1:5). Human beings think and act as whole persons but they are dependent on the parts of which they are composed.

• God’s eternality, i.e. God transcends time and yet penetrates every moment of time with his eternity (Ps 90:2). Human beings gain some transcendence over time through their God-given memory, and through their ability to accept God’s revelation of the future. But unlike God they are time-bound.

• God’s omnipresence, i.e. God’s being transcends all space and yet bears up all space by his omnipotence (Ps 139:7, Acts 17:27-28). Humans gain some transcendence over space by moving here and there, inhabiting widely different parts of creation, and learning to communicate over wide distances. But they are always located in one particular place.

When the historic Westminster Shorter Catechism (1647) answers the ancient question, “What is God?,” the answer is: “God is a Spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable, in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth.” After defining God as “a Spirit,” i.e. not having a physical body like humans, God is described as being infinite, eternal, and unchangeable. These are incommunicable attributes of God that we, as humans, do not have the capacity to share with him.

God’s Communicable Attributes

But, as God’s image bearers, we do have the capacity to share, in a limited way, God’s communicable attributes of his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth.

This list of three incommunicable attributes and seven communicable attributes are not meant to be seen as exhaustive but representative. Notice God’s attribute of love is not even listed in this definition, even though we read in Scripture that “…God is love (1 John 4:8b).” This catechism answer reveals how God’s attributes can be seen in relation to each other. God is presented here as a Spirit who is infinite, eternal, and unchangeable (incommunicable attributes), in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth (communicable attributes). Practically speaking this means:


• God is infinite, eternal, and unchangeable in his being, referring to God’s nature as being without limitation, everywhere, in all of time, and always the same.

• God is infinite, eternal, and unchangeable in his wisdom, referring to God’s omniscience in knowing all things.

• God is infinite, eternal, and unchangeable in his power, referring to God’s omnipotence in being all powerful.

• God is infinite, eternal, and unchangeable in his holiness, referring to God’s transcendence from creation, perfect purity and righteousness.

• God is infinite, eternal, and unchangeable in his justice, referring to God’s just nature by which he maintains ethical justice and righteousness over against every violation of it.

• God is infinite, eternal, and unchangeable in his goodness, referring to God’s radical grace, love, and mercy toward fallen humanity in sin.

• God is infinite, eternal, and unchangeable in his truth, referring to God’s perfection that assures us of the ethical reliability of his revelations and promises.

As divine image-bearers, we can reflect these communicable attributes of God. But we must always remember there is a sense in which even these attributes are uniquely peculiar to God in an absolute way that cannot be shared by us. This means there is a divine being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth that is so absolute, independent, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable with God that humans cannot even share it.

As God’s image-bearers, we are not merely a reflection of God’s attributes, but a reflection of God himself, whose being cannot be separated from all of his attributes. As humans, we can make a distinction between having human attributes and being human. We can lose our attributes of wisdom, power, and holiness and still be human. But this is not possible for God because the bible describes every attribute of God as also a description of God’s personal essence and being.

This is why God’s attributes must not be understood as mere characteristics of God or impersonal forces but as reflections of his being and person. God is not only wise, he is wisdom. God’s power is not only a force but the power of a real person exerting his will. God is not only holy, he is holiness. God is not only just, he is justice. God is not only good, he is goodness. And God is not only truthful, he is truth. So, when you obey Jesus’ command to seek first God’s righteousness this means you are to seek first God himself in Christ who is righteousness.

Because God’s attributes of wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth are not composite parts of him that can somehow be separated from the others, this also means that we must not see them as separated from each other. We can summarize this complex integration of God’s attributes by saying that all of God’s divine attributes have divine attributes. Practically speaking this means:

• God’s wisdom is a powerful wisdom, a holy wisdom, a just wisdom, a good wisdom, and a truthful wisdom.

• God’s power is a wise power, a holy power, a just power, a good power, and a truthful power.

• God’s holiness is a wise holiness, a powerful holiness, a just holiness, a good holiness, and truthful holiness.

• God’s justice is a wise justice, a powerful justice, a holy justice, a good justice, and a truthful justice.

• God’s goodness is a wise goodness, a powerful goodness, a holy goodness, a just goodness, and a truthful goodness.

God reveals himself to us in Scripture so we might glorify and enjoy him forever. The word glory, from the Latin Gloria, “fame, renown,” is used to describe the beautiful, radiant display of God’s attributes as the most glorious being in existence. In the Old Testament, the Hebrew word kabod, translated glory, originally means “weight” or “heaviness.” The New Testament word for glory, doxa, continues to express this meaning of importance, honor, and majesty.

God’s attributes reveal to us that he alone is in a category of greatest importance, honor, and majesty. As God’s image-bearers, we are designed by God to bring him glory by reflecting the beauty of who he is and what he does in all his magnificent works of creation and redemption. We are called to magnify the radiance of his perfections that reveal his infinite, eternal, and unchangeable being in the fullness of his wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, truth, etc.

In his treatise, “Concerning the End for which God Created the World,” Jonathan Edwards concludes, “It appears that all that is ever spoken of in the Scripture as an ultimate end of God’s works is included in that one phrase, “the glory of God.” The Apostle Paul confirms Edward’s conclusion when he writes, “For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen (Rom 11:36).”