When we think of the attributes of God, the analogy that works best is that of a married couple. The most beautiful aspect of marriage is being able to know your partner closely, intimately for the rest of your life. The attributes of God describe the personality of God. the very characteristics that constitute who God is, what He is like and the kind of God he is. Our growing knowledge of Him helps us to serve Him better and love Him more.
We must start with a disclaimer, we can not fully understand and know God. If we can explain Him in our words fully then He ceases to be God. Matt Chandler says, “trying to know God is like trying to catch a fish in the pacific ocean with an inch of dental floss.” It is an impossible task, we will however try to understand nine different characteristics of Jehovah God.
1. God is Omniscient – All-Knowing
A.W Tozer tried to explain the omniscience of God by writing, “Because God knows all things perfectly, He knows no thing better than any other thing, but all things equally well. He never discovers anything, He is never surprised, never amazed. He never wonders about anything nor (except when drawing men out for their own good) does He seek information or ask questions.”
God's omniscience should draw us into prayer as we seek His infinite wisdom on all things. He has the best solution for every challenge (Romans 11:33). We might be able to hide our cheating and lying to those around us but nothing is hidden in the eyes of God. He intimately knows our thoughts, everything is uncovered in his presence.
2. God is Eternal
The eternal nature of God means He is boundless, limitless, immeasurable in size. In other words, He has no beginning and no end. All other things on earth have a start and end, but God does not. In Genesis 1:1 when God created the heavens and the earth, He also made time. Before the creation story, the concept of time was nonexistent. He creates the moon, stars and sun to keep track of time by marking seasons and days.
Before the mountains were born God existed. He was and is forever. When Moses met with the eternal God in mount Sinai, He introduced Himself as I AM THAT IAM. This signified the self-existing and infinite nature of God.
3. God is Sovereign and Just
There is nothing that happens inside the universe without God's influence. His sovereignty means that he is the utmost source of all authority, power and everything that exists. The kingdom of God rules over all, history, nature, angels, demons etc. (Psalms 103:19).
When we say that God is Just, it is more than being a fair judge. It means that everything that God does is right and good. It is for this reason that even the sentencing of the unjust and evil to hell is just according to God.
4. God is Omnibenevolent- Supremely Good
There is no action about God which is not good. He is not sometimes good while other times not good, He is good because He is good.
Let's look at the comments of A.W Tozer on his goodness. The goodness of God “disposes Him to be kind, cordial, benevolent, and full of good will toward men. He is tenderhearted and of quick sympathy, and His unfailing attitude toward all moral beings is open, frank, and friendly. By His nature, He is inclined to bestow blessedness and He takes holy pleasure in the happiness of His people.”
5. God is Loving
Self-sufficient as God is He has found joy to be identified with man. He wants the love of men and He is not satisfied till He gets it. The greatest expression of God's love is seen in John 3:26. Because of His deep love for the world, God sacrifices His son to die for Humanity and so that if anyone believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. God's love is actively pulling us to Himself.
The unconditional nature of the love of God touches everything in our life. No sickness, pain, calling or circumstance, tribulations, peril, famine, nakedness, distress or death by the sword can ever separate us from the love of Christ.
6. God is Omnipresent – He is Everywhere
Saying God is present everywhere at all times seems simple until you try to apply its meaning. David tried to run away from God to no avail. In the heavens, under the oceans, in hell, in the sky there was no place that David could hide from the hand of the almighty God.
God is not just present during a church service, or when we read the bible He is present everywhere at all times in His full being. Jonah tried to run away from God as well but he ended up in the belly of a fish that dropped him where he was running from.
7. God is Holy
This is the most prominent of all the other attributes of God. To be holy is to be distinct, separate and separate in a class of your own. The word “holy” comes from an ancient word meaning ‘to cut off or ‘to separate. This means there can only be one who is holy. This is the way that God is. He doesn't conform to any standard, He is the standard.
8. God is Immutable – Unchanging
Man is fickle, the person he likes today is the same he will hate tomorrow. God is unchanging. God never gets better or worse, His promises, plans and His words do not change.
There are two major reasons why God must remain unchanging. First is, because He exists outside the confines of time, He can not change. Change requires a shift in time, there is a time before the change and a time after the change. Secondly, God is unchanging because God is only perfect as long as He remains unchanged. Change comes with better or worse. For something to change something is removed or added. God is not a man that He should change His Mind (Numbers 23:19).
9. God is Omnipotent – All-powerful
The powerful nature of God means that there is nothing impossible for Him to do. In the Bible, the name Elshaddai is used to evoke the All-mighty characteristic of God. Another word for Elshaddai is the God of the Mountains. He is so powerful that He can do anything He wills with no effort from His part.
His power is seen in the creation of the earth. If we were to build a house we would require bricks, sand among other things. Yet, when God created the word He did so “out of nothing!” The writer of Hebrews sums it up like this, “By faith, we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.”
