The Attributes of God are the character and traits of God as they are revealed to us in the Scriptures. God’s Word, tells us what God is like. Without the authority of the Bible, any attempt to explain God’s attributes would be no better than an opinion, which we dare not form as it is likely to be incorrect, especially in understanding God, and in turn, may make Him angry. Job 42:7 “And it was so, that after the LORD had spoken these words unto Job, the LORD said to Eliphaz the Temanite, my wrath is kindled against thee, and against thy two friends: for ye have not spoken of me the thing that is right, as my servant Job hath.”
God is personal and displays his character in all of his actions. God is described as possessing certain characteristics or attributes based on the actions displayed in the Scriptures. The descriptions are held with a high degree of humility. However, we also have confidence in those descriptions since God has chosen to disclose his identity and purpose to us through the Scriptures in ways that we can understand. Let it also be made clear that only what God has chosen to reveal about Himself, do we know. The most prominent descriptions of God as we understand it are about his glory, holiness, lordship, and love. These descriptors illuminate God's character by being emphasized repeatedly whenever God acts in intense and powerful ways as recorded for us in Scripture.
God’s Glory is a reference to the visible manifestation of God as God. The Glory attribute of God is singularly outstanding. It is the goal towards which all divine actions are oriented. It is a primary experience of all those who come into God’s presence. Glory is experienced by humans as brilliant light, overwhelming greatness, infinite grandeur, and indescribable delight and terror all at the same time. Instances of God’s glory shine throughout the Scripture: in the encounter with Moses at the burning bush, and Ezekiel’s vision of the throne room.
The Holiness of God reflects both God’s moral purity and his absolute moral distance from a fallen world. God is the yardstick of all morality. God is absolutely good and pure and righteous and just in his very nature. God’s holiness is often inscrutable and mysterious. Holiness is the only adjective used of God in the three-fold formula – “Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God Almighty” (Isaiah 6; Rev 4). God’s holiness both separates but also bridges this enormous moral gulf between the Creator and the creature.
The Lordship of God points to the myriad of ways that God exercises his power and authority over His creation. The sovereignty of God carries the connotation not only that God’s power is without limit, but that he has authority to exercise that power as he deems fit and according to His pleasure. It is a reminder to us that God is the Creator who calls everything into being by his Word, and who also calls the dead to life by that same Word. He is the beginning and the end. He is the Lord of Lords and King of Kings (1Timothy 6; Rev 17).
God’s love is not merely an emotion. It is the enduring commitment of God to his unholy people manifested most clearly in the offering of his Son as a sacrificial substitute who died on their behalf so that they might be declared innocent and gain adoption as children of God. Nothing can separate God’s people from God because of the character of his love for them.
Dr Ashwin Drummond
laddertoheaven.co.in