The Attributes of God

1. God is Eternal.

God fills all time and dwells in the realm of eternity (Isa. 57:15). He is the Ancient of Days (Dan. 7:9). He is not only older than the universe, He is eternal. He never had a beginning. He has always been the great “I AM”. He is from everlasting to everlasting (Psa. 90:2). He is, was and always shall be (Rev. 1:8). We cannot fully grasp just what eternity is, though, for we are not eternal. We are limited by time; God is not. God is eternal in His love and other attributes. He gives eternal life, which is not merely endless life but eternal in its quality.


2. God is Infinite.

God is not limited by time; neither is He limited by space. He is infinite. He is omnipresent, or present everywhere at the same time. He is immense. God is not only big; He is sizeless. There is no place where God is not. He is a circle whose center is everywhere and whose circumference is nowhere. The entire universe cannot contain Him (Acts 17:24). The universe, therefore, is not infinite, but God is. He is everywhere, but especially in Heaven. Also, He is imminent, or near all of us. He is also transcendent, or high above us (Isa. 57:15).


3. God is Spirit.

God is spirit, not a spirit (John 4:24). This refers to His being, not the Holy Spirit. God has no material body. His substance is pure and uncreated spirit. He is invisible to us now, but one day we will see Him. Being pure spirit, He is one in being, not having parts. The attributes of God are not parts of God, but qualities of His whole being. The Mormons are wrong to say God has a physical body. No, but God the Son became a man and took on a fleshly body (John 1:14).


4. God is Unchangeable.

God is perfect, and therefore never changes (Mal. 3:6). There is no shadow of change in His being (James 1:17). He is immutable. He cannot change for the better, for He is already perfect. Nor can He change for the worse, for that would mean He is not perfect. He is not growing, either. So-called “Process Theology” says God is changing and growing, but God already knows everything and is everywhere, so He cannot change to a fuller existence. This does not mean He is stagnant, though. He is perfect in life. And God does not change His mind or decrees. He is the same yesterday, today and forever (Heb. 13:8). Everything else changes, but not God (Heb. 1:12).


5. God is Holy.

God is holy. He is absolutely pure. “God is light and in Him is no darkness at all” (I John 1:5). He is absolutely morally pure. It is not that He became pure by purification, but is pure by nature. He is totally just. His will is Law for all His creatures, but there is no higher law to which God is subject. Also, because we are not holy, God is angry. He is filled with wrath and fury, far more than we can imagine. And it is a pure and holy wrath, not like losing one's temper. God is so holy that He cannot break His own Law. It is the height of blasphemy, then, for any mere sinful creature to accuse God of doing anything wrong. Being angry against sin, God will punish all unrepentant sinners in eternal Hell. Lastly, we are to pattern our ideas and lives after God, for He has said, “Be holy as I the Lord am holy” (I Peter 1:16). We can never be as holy as God, but should strive to obey Him in all things without hesitation or question.


God is Sovereign.

God is King of Kings. He is the absolute ruler of the entire universe. He is the just totalitarian potentate of everything, and is subject to nothing and nobody. He is absolutely free and independent. He does whatever He wants to (Psa. 115:3, 135:5-6, Job 23:13, Dan. 4:25). He owns everything and does whatever He wants to with it. He rules as King over all (Psa.93:1). He is the supreme judge, above whom there is no appeal. Therefore, no one can accuse God, for He is the potter and we are the clay (Rom. 9). Is it not His right to do whatever He wants to with His universe? (Matt. 20:15).


7. God is Powerful.

God is omnipotent, or all-powerful. He is God Almighty. He has all power and strength. He has all life and energy within Himself, and supplies life and energy to His universe. Being omnipotent, there is nothing too hard for Him to do. It is blasphemy to even suggest stupid questions like, “Can God make a rock too heavy for Him to lift?” He is pure power. He never grows tired, nor sleeps. Even when He ceased creating all things, He was not resting. Being the highest and perfect God that He is, He has this infinite power from within Himself, not from outside Himself.


8. God is Wise.

God is Omniscient. He knows all things. He knows every detail of everything that is, was, ever shall be. He also knows every possibility of things that could be but never will be. He knows all answers to all questions. He makes no mistakes. He remembers everything. He never learns, for He has always known everything about everything. He knows the future. It is gross heresy to say that God “limits His knowledge”, as if God could choose to not know something He already knows. He says He “forgets” our sins by way of justice, not by way of omniscience. God is also perfectly wise. He knows what is best. He knows all relationships between facts and how they work out together for the planned end. Finally, God has perfect self-knowledge.


9. God is Love.

God is love. First, God loves Himself. The Father, Son and Holy Spirit all love each other perfectly. God is not lonely. But God expresses this internal love externally to His creatures. He has a general love for all things as creatures. But He also has a special love for His people, which is called election. Theologians speak of God's love of benevolence (love for the unlovely) and His love of complacence (love for the lovely). He has grace for the guilty, mercy for the miserable, kindness for the helpless. God is good. He is patient. God is generous. He is compassionate. He is forgiving. These and many other terms are used to say "God is love."


10. God is Glorious.

God is all glorious within. He is the God of glory. Within the Trinity, there has always been an infinite splendor of light and glory that we have never seen or known. It is the glory of God. It is His plan to reveal this internal glory externally to His creation. This glory will one day be revealed and reflected in all things. His love will be displayed in His elect, His wrath in the non-elect. In turn, this revealed glory will be reflected back to God. In that sense, we are said to “give glory to God”. What is the glory of God? It is His splendor, His fame, His beauty. It is the revelation of what He is, all that He is, all His attributes together in perfect harmony. It is often compared to light in all its various refracted colors, like the rainbow. It is living glory. And the focal point of it is the Lord Jesus Christ, through whom God reveals His glory to creation, and through whom He receives it back again.