During this blog series we will cover the following attributes: the Trinity, omnipotence, holy, faithful, grace, and God’s goodness. This first post will act more as an introduction to the entire blog series and should set us up well for the rest of the series.
Within culture there is a fight to wrap one’s being around who we really are at our inner cores. This search for happiness and rest arises in all of humanity and is fleeting in nature without the revelation of God. “If there’s anything necessary to your eternal happiness but God, you’re not the kind of Christian that you ought to be. For only God is the true rest.” This expedition is one of confusion and frustration that will never concede to a resolution without knowledge of the one true God. John Calvin states in his work The Institutes of Christian Religion, “It is evident that man never attains to a true self-knowledge until he have previously contemplated the face of God, come down after such contemplation to look into himself.” If a person continues to view his or herself in light of the culture they reside and never chooses to venture to look beyond and upward to God then it will only lead to self-righteousness. Exploring the attributes of God in light of self leads to an accurate understanding of one’s iniquity, impotence, and extreme folly. Drawing this understanding leads one to a place of desperation for God in all of His attributes.
As a result, within humanity there should be nothing more important than seeking the doctrinal truth of who God is and searching for understanding on how that affects one’s journey through life. The Apostle Paul states in Philippians 3:8, “Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake Ihave suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ” The apostle Paul states that everything is rubbish compared to the worth of knowing God. “Skybalon” is the Greek transliteration of the word rubbish, which defines as the excrement of animals. The graphic word picture basically exudes the conclusion that everything carries no merit to the privilege of seeking to distinguish God in all His attributes. Moreover, attribute is defined as a quality, property, or characteristic of somebody or something, therefore to truly know God is to know his attributes. Within the pages of The Knowledge of the Holy A.W. Tozer states, “What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.” Tozer infers that man’s view of God is the fundamental element to grasping an understanding of self. Therefore, if having an accurate conclusion of God’s attributes is significant in knowing one’s self then this verity begs humanity to seek out who God is in all of His worth.
Within the article The Divine Attributes, Nicholas Everitt seeks to communicate the essential attributes of God, and on what level these particular attributes are compatible with one another. Everitt concludes within his work that there are commonly eleven main divine attributes, while Tozer communicates that there are eighteen. Rather than exploring all of the attributes, it is of greater assessment to look at the more expansive attributes of God in order to effectively expound on their effects within humanity and culture. Gaining an appreciation for God’s triune attributes, omnipotence, holiness, grace, and faithfulness are imperative to life change within a mere mortal life. Having an accurate understanding of the attributes of God vitally affects the life of broken, sinful humans.
