Our purpose in examining the Attributes of God is for the convenience in the study of the doctrine of God. The Attributes of God can be put into two categories. The Natural Attributes of God and The Moral Attributes of God.

The Natural Attributes of God are:

1. God is on Omniscient – This means that God has perfect knowledge and knows all things. He knows everything that takes place in nature and knows every thought and deed of man. Psalms 147:5 says “His understanding is infinite.” He has perfect knowledge of all that transpires in the human experience (Proverbs 5:21). God also has perfect knowledge of all that transpires in human history (acts 15:18). God knows all from eternity past, the present and all that will take place in the future eternity (Isaiah 48:5-8).

2. God is Omnipresent – this means that God is present everywhere and in every place at the same time. His presence is a spiritual and not a material presence, yet it is a real presence (Jeremiah 23:23-24). The psalmist expresses this (Psalms 139:7- 12). Just as the soul is present in every part of the body, God is present in every part of the world.

3. God is Omnipotent – this means that God can bring to pass everything which she wills. God’s power has no bounds or limitations. The Lord said to Abraham in regard to Sarah being able to bear a child in her old age, “Is anything too hard for the Lord” (Genesis 18:14)? In the world of nature God is not need even to give his hand to the work. His word is sufficient (Genesis 1:3- 26).

4. God is Eternal – The word ‘eternal’ is used in the Bible in two different ways: figuratively, as showing in existence which may have a beginning, but will have no end, for example the Angels and the human soul. Literally it’s showing an existence which has neither a beginning nor an ending like that of God. Time has a past, present & future; eternity has not. We can conceive of it only as a duration indefinitely extended from the present moment in two directions: as to the past and as to the future. Eternity is an infinite duration without any beginning, end, or limit. It is an ever abiding presence. God never had a beginning and he will never cease to exist (Psalm 90:2).

5. God is Immutable – This means that God’s nature is absolutely unchangeable. It is not possible that he should possess one attribute at one time that he does not possess that in another nor can there be any change in His deity for the better or for worse. God remains for ever the same. He is without beginning and without end. He is self- existing “I am”; he remains for ever the same and unchangeable (Malachi 3:6).

The Moral Attributes of God are:

1. God is Holy – This is the one attribute which God would have his people remember him by more than any other. In the visions of himself which God granted men in the Scriptures the thing that stood out most prominent was his ‘Divine Holiness.’ The holiness of God is the message of the entire Old Testament. To the prophets God was the absolute holy one; the one with eyes too pure to behold evil; the one swift to punish iniquity. In our vision of God; he desires us to see his power and skill or even his throne indicating his Majesty as much as he desires us to behold his holiness to be remembered as the attribute that most glorifies Him. It is just this vision of God that we need today when the tendency to deny the reality or the awfulness of sin is so prevalent. Our view of the necessity of the atonement will depend very largely on our view of the holiness of God. Like views of God in his holiness were produced like views of sin and the atonement. God hates sin, and is its uncompromising foe. Sin is a vile and detestable thing to God (Proverbs 15:9, 26). God must totally separate himself from our sin (Isaiah 59:1-2). First, we should approach God with “reverence and godly fear” (Hebrews 12:28). Second, we shall have the right views of sin when we get the right view of God’s holiness. There is too much hilarity in our approach unto God. Ecclesiastes 5:1-3 indicates great care in our address to God. Third, that approach to a holy God must be through the merits of Christ, and on the ground of a righteousness which is Christ’s and which naturally we do not possess this is why we are desperately in need of atonement.

2. The Righteousness and Justice of God – in a certain sense these attributes are but the process or acts of God’s holiness. It is holiness as easily understood or recognized in dealing with the sons of men. Holiness has to do more particularly with the character of God in itself, while Righteousness and Justice is that character which is expressed in the dealings of God with men. Three things may be said in the consideration of the righteousness and justice of God; first, there is the imposing of righteousness, laws and demands, which may be called legislative holiness, and may be known as the ‘righteousness of God;’ second, there is the executing of the penalties attached to those laws, which may be called ‘judicial holiness;’ third, there is a sense in which the attributes of the Righteousness and Justice of God may be regarded as the actual carrying out of the Holy nature of God in the government of the world. So that in the Righteousness of God we have His love of Holiness, and in the Justice of God, his hatred of sin (Ezra 9:15). It is also evident in the rewards he gives to the upright, in uplifting the lowly, and in abundantly blessing that good, pure, and true (Psalms 145:17). The Scriptures clearly set forth not only the fact that God is righteous and just, but also defines these attributes. Here we are told that God, in his government of the world, does always that which is suitable, straight, and right.

3. The Mercy and Loving-Kindness of God – by these attributes is meant, in general, the kindness, goodness, and compassion of God, the love of God in its relation to both the obedient and the disobedient sons of men. The dewdrops on the person as well as on the roads. More specifically Mercy is usually exercised in connection with guilt; it is that attribute of God which leads him to seek the welfare, both temporal and spiritual, of sinners, even though at the cost of a great cost sacrifice on His part. Ephesians 2:4 says: “But God who is rich in mercy, for his great love with which he loved us.” Romans 5:8 says: “God commended his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” Scriptures reveal that instead of inflicting pain, poverty & death which are the wages of sin; God has spared our lives, given us help, increased our blessings and comforts, and given us life of the ages (Psalms 103:8). Deuteronomy 4:31 says for the roar thy God is a merciful God; he will not forsake me, neither destroy thee, nor forget the covenant of thy father’s.” Psalm 86:15 says: “but thou, O Lord, art a God full of compassion, and gracious, long-suffering (patient), and plenteous in mercy and truth.” It was because God had so declared himself to be of this nature that David felt justified in feeling that God not utterly forsake him in his time of great stress and need.

The most striking illustration of the mercy and lovingkindness of God is set forth in the parable of the prodigal son (Luke 15:11- 32). Here we have not only the welcome awaiting the wanderer, but also the longing for his return on the part of the anxious and loving father. In general: we must not forget that God is absolutely sovereign in the bestowal of his blessings – “…therefore that He will have mercy on whom he will have mercy” (Romans 19:18). We should also remember that God wills to have mercy on all his creatures – “for thou, Lord, our God, and ready to forgive, and plenteous in mercy to all them that call upon thee” (Psalm 86:5). In Luke 6:36, Jesus says: “be ye therefore merciful, as your father also is merciful.” Also in Matthew 5:45, Jesus also says: “…that ye may be the children of your father which is in heaven: for he makes his sun to rise on the evil and the good and sends the rain on the just and the unjust.” 2 Peter 3:9 says: the Lord…….. is long-suffering (patient) to us-ward (toward us) not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.”

God also shows Loving-kindness toward the saints, in particular

Psalms 32:10 says: but he that trusted in the Lord, mercy shall come pass him about (shall surround him).” The very act of trust on the part of the believer moves the heart of God protect him just as in the case of a parent and his child. The moment we throw ourselves on God we are envelope in His mercy. Mercy becomes our environment like a fiery wall that surrounds us without a break the witching evil can create. Resistance surrounds us with “sorrow”; but trust (in Him) surrounds us with”mercy.” In the center of the circle of mercy sits just and rest the trusting soul.

Believers in his Son, Jesus Christ, are special objects of God’s Love

In John 16:27 Jesus says: “…for the father himself loves you, because you have loved me, and have believed that I came out from God.” In John 14:21-23 Jesus says: “he that loveth me shall be loved of my father………. if a man love me……… my Father will love him.” The question to all believers is: do we really believe these words? We are not on the outskirts of God’s love, but in its very midst. There stands Christ right in the very midst of that circle of the father’s love; then he draws us to that very spot, and, as it were, disappears, leaving us standing there bathed in the same loving-kindness of the father in which he himself had been in. Wow !!!

God loves the world of sinners and ungodly men :

Jesus says in John 3:16 says: “…for God so loved the world” this was a startling truth to Nicodemus in his narrow exclusivism. God love not the Jew only, but also the Gentile; not a part of the world of men, but every man in, irrespective of his moral character. Romans 5:8 says: “for God commended his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” This is wonderful when we begin to realize what a world in sin is. The love of God is broader than the measure of man’s mind. God desires the salvation of all men (2 Peter 3:9).

How the love of God reveals itself

In making infinite sacrifice for the salvation of men

1 John 4:9, 10 says: “…and this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only- begotten son into the world, that we might live through him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that God loved us, and sent his son to be the propitiation (appeasement) for our sins.” Love is more than just compassion; it hides not itself as compassion may do, but displays itself actively in behalf of its object. The Cross of Calvary is the highest expression of the love of God for simple man. He gave not only a son, but his only son, His well beloved.

When we accept his son Jesus Christ God forgives us for all our sins

God takes the bitterness out of the sinners life and gives him the gracious forgiveness of his sins by putting them far away from him (Isaiah 38:17). Contaminated by sin, the human race rushes headlong into inevitable ruin. But God reverses the picture; and all help one man fails, then God stepped sin, and by his mercy, which springs from “his great love,” redeems fallen man, and gives him not only a pardon from his sins, but a position in his heavenly kingdom by the side of Jesus Christ all this was “in order to satisfy his great love” (Ephesians 2:1-5). Love led him to do it.

God remember his children and all the varying circumstances of life

Here in the retrospection on the part of the prophet Isaiah; he thinks of all the oppressions of Israel and recall how God’s interest have been bound up with their hearts. He was not there adversaries; he was the sympathetic, loving friend. He suffered with them (Isaiah 63:9). God says; “I will not forget thee. Behold, I have graven (carved) thee on the palms of my hands; the walls are continually before me (Isaiah 49:15- 16).” So God could not act without being reminded of Israel, God is always mindful of his own. Saul of Tarsus learned this truth on the way to Damascus.

by Dr. William Evans, Published by the Mooody Bible Institute of Chicago, IL