The Character of God: Incommunicable Attributes

THE CHARACTER OF GOD:
“INCOMMUNICABLE”
ATTRIBUTES

How is God different from us?

EXPLANATION AND SCRIPTURAL BASIS

A. Introduction to the Study of God’s Character

1. Classifying God’s Attributes.

- incommunicable attributes (that is, those attributes that God does not share or “communicate” to others)

ex. God’s eternity, unchangeableness or omnipresence

- communicable attributes (those God shares or “communicates” with us)

ex. Love, knowledge, mercy or justice


2. The Names of God in Scripture.

In a broad sense, God’s “name” is equal to all that the Bible and creation tell us about God.

Matthew 6:9 – we pray that people would speak about God in a way that is honoring to him and that accurately reflects his character

Matthew 5: 16 – our actions reflect the character of the Creator whom we serve

Exodus 20:7 – commands that we not dishonor God’s reputation either by words that speak of him in a foolish or misleading way, or by actions that do not reflect his true character

Individual names attributed to God all reflect some true aspect of his character.



Descriptions of God taken from creation: God is compared to a lion (Isa. 31:4), an eagle (Deut 32:11), a lamb (Isa. 53:7), a hen (Matt. 23:37), the sun (Ps. 84:11), the morning star (Rev. 22:16), a light (Ps. 27:1), a torch (Rev. 21:23), a fire (Heb. 12:29), a fountain (Ps. 36:9) a rock (Deut. 32:4), a hiding place (Ps. 119:114), a tower (Prov. 18:10), a shadow (Ps. 91:1), a shield (Ps. 84:11), a temple (Rev. 21:22) and so forth.

Descriptions of God taken from human experience: God is called bridegroom (Isa. 61:10), husband (Isa. 54:5), father (Deut. 32:6), judge and king (Isa. 33:22), man of war (Ex. 15:3), builder and maker (Heb. 11:10), shepherd (Ps. 23:1), physician (Ex. 15:26), and so forth.

Furthermore, God is spoken of in terms of human actions such as knowing (Gen. 18:21), remembering (Gen. 8:1; Ex. 2:24), seeing (Gen. 1:10), hearing (Ex. 2:24), smelling (Gen. 8:21), tasting (Ps. 11:5), sitting (Ps. 9:7), rising (Ps. 68:1), walking (Lev. 26:12), wiping away tears (Isa. 25:8), and so forth.

All of creation reveals something about God to us…

All that Scripture says about God uses anthropomorphic language…

God made the universe so that it would show forth the excellence of his character…

It muse be remembered that though all that Scripture tells us about God is true, it is not exhaustive. Scripture does not tell us everything about God’s character. Thus, we will never know God’s full or complete “name” in the sense that we will never understand God’s character exhaustively. We will never know all there is to know about God. For this reason theologians have sometimes said, “God has many names, yet God has no name.” God has many names in that we know many true descriptions of his character from Scripture, but God has no name in that we will never be able to describe or understand all of his character.

3. Balanced Definitions of God’s Incommunicable Attributes.

Attributes will be defined with a two-part sentence. The first defines the attribute under discussion, and the second part guards against misunderstanding the attribute by stating a balancing or opposite aspect that relates to that attribute.

B. The Incommunicable Attributes of God

1. Independence.

God does not need us or the rest of creation for anything, yet we and the rest of creation can glorify him and bring him joy.

“The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in shrines made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all men life and breath and everything” (Acts 17:24-25).

“Who has given to me, that I should repay him? Whatever is under the whole heaven is mine “ (Job 41:11).

“Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory which I had with you before the world was made.” John 17:5

God exists by virtue of his very nature, and that he was never created and never came into being. He always was.

“God said to Moses, ‘I AM WHO I AM.’” Exodus 3:14

The balancing consideration with respect to this doctrine is the fact that we and the rest of creation can glorify God and bring him joy.

God speaks of his sons and daughters from the ends of the earth as “every one who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made” (Isa. 43:7).

It is also true that we are able to bring real joy and delight to God.

…as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you. (Isa. 62:3-5)

The LORD “will rejoice over you with gladness, he will renew you in his love; he will exult over you with loud singing as on a day of festival” (Zeph. 3:17-18).

God does not need us for anything, yet it is the amazing fact of our existence that he chooses to delight in us and to allow us to bring joy to his heart. This is the basis for personal significance in the lives of all God’s people: to be significant to God is to be significant in the most ultimate sense. No greater personal significance can be imagined.

2. Unchangeableness.

God is unchanging in his being, perfections, purposes, and promises, yet God does act and feel emotions, and he acts and feels differently in response to different situations.




Evidence in Scripture:

But you are the same, and your years have no end. (Ps. 102:25-27)

For I the LORD do not change; therefore you, O sons of Jacob, are not consumed” (Mal. 3:6).

“with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change” (James 1:17).

The contrast between being and becoming marks the difference between the Creator and the creature. Every creature is continually becoming. It is changeable, constantly striving, seeks rest and satisfaction, and finds this rest in God, in him alone, for only he is pure being and no becoming.

---Herman Bavinck

Does God Sometimes Change His Mind?

Ex. 32:9-14
Isa. 38:1-6
Jonah 3:4, 10

These instances should all be understood as true expressions of God’s present attitudes or intention with respect to the situation as it exists at that moment.

The Question of God’s Impassibility:

God rejoices (Isa. 62:5). He is grieved (Ps. 78:40; Eph.4:30). His wrath burns hot against his enemies (Ex. 32:10). He pities his children (Ps. 103:13). He loves with everlasting love (Isa. 54:8; Ps. 103:17).

The Challenge From Process Theology:

Scripture is clear that our ultimate significance comes not from being able to change
being of God, but from the fact that God has created us for his glory and that he
counts us as significant. God alone gives the ultimate definition of what is significant
and what is not significant in the universe, and if he counts us significant, than we
are!

God Is Both Infinite and Personal:

Apart from the true religion found in the Bible, no system of religion has a God who is both infinite and personal.



The Importance of God’s Unchangeableness:

If God is not unchanging, then the whole basis of our faith begins to fall apart, and our understanding of the universe begins to unravel. This is because our faith and hope and knowledge all ultimately depend on a person who is infinitely worthy of trust – because he is absolutely and eternally unchanging in his being, perfections, purposes, and promises.

Eternity.

God has no beginning, end, or succession of moments in his own being, and he sees all time equally vividly, yet God see events in time and acts in time.

God Is Timeless in His Own Being:

Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God.” Psalm 90:2

“’I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty” (Rev. 1:8; cf. 4:8).

“Before Abraham was, I am” (John 8: 58).

God Sees All Time Equally Vividly:

“For a thousand years in your sight are but as yesterday when it is past, or as a watch in the night.” Psalm 90:4

“with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day” (2 Peter 3:8).

God Sees Events in Time and Acts in Time:

“when the time had fully come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law” (Gal. 4:4-5).

“The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all men everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed…” (Acts 17:30-31).

We Will Always Exist in Time:

There will still be a succession of moments one after another and things happening one after another in heaven. We will experience eternal life not in an exact duplication of God’s attribute of eternity, but rather in a duration of time that will never end.

Omnipresence.

God does not have size or spatial dimensions and is present at every point of space with his whole being, yet God acts differently in different places.

“Behold, to the Lord your God belong heaven and the heaven of heavens, the earth with all that is in it” (Deut. 10:14).

God Is Present Everywhere:

Whither shall I go from your Spirit? Or whither shall I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there! If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right had shall hold me. (Ps. 139:7-10)

God Does Not Have Spatial Dimensions:

God cannot be contained by any space, no matter how large.

“But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you; how much less this house which I have built!” (1 Kings 8:27).

God is a being who exists without size or dimensions in space.

God Can Be Present to Punish, to Sustain, or to Bless:

God is present in different ways in different places.

Not one of them shall flee away, not one of them shall escape. Though they dig into Sheol, from there shall my hand take them; though they climb up to heaven, from there I will bring them down. Though they hide themselves on the top of Carmel, from there I will search out and take them; and though they hide from my sight at the bottom of the sea, there I will command the serpent, and it shall bite them. And though they go into captivity before their enemies, there I will command the sword, and it shall slay them; and I will set my eyes upon them for evil and not for good. (Amos 9:1-4)

“He is before all things, and in him all things hold together” (Col. 1:17).

(continually) “upholding the universe by his word of power” (Heb. 1:3).

“in your presence there is fullness of joy, in your right hand are pleasures for evermore” (Ps. 16:11).


Unity.

God is not divided into parts, yet we see different attributes of God emphasized at different times.

“God is light” (1 John 1:5)
“God is love” (1 John 4:8)

We must remember that God’s whole being includes all of his attributes: he is entirely loving, entirely merciful, entirely just, and so forth. Every attribute of God that we find in Scripture is true of all of God’s being, and we therefore can say that every attribute of God also qualifies every other attribute. It is God himself in his whole being who is supremely important, and it is God himself in his whole being whom we are to seek to know and to love.