The Names, Being, and Attributes of God

Opening Text: Isaiah 45

V. God’s Attributes

A. Exhortations:

1. God is His attributes; He doesn’t merely possess them

2. “The study of the attributes of God, far from being dull and heavy, may for the

enlightened Christian be a sweet and absorbing spiritual exercise. To the soul that is athirst for God, nothing could be more delightful.” -A.W. Tozer

3. “God prepossesses in himself all the perfections of creatures, being himself simply and universally perfect.” -Thomas Aquinas

4. “Let everybody by all means beware of ever searching for God with his own senses and thoughts. Let him rather learn simply to attach himself to the Word, to hold it, and to judge and conclude in accordance with it. Then he cannot go wrong.” -Luther

5. “...God is not only the Creator, the Almighty One, the faithful One, the King and Lord; he is also the Father of his people.” AND “God has revealed himself in the richest manner in the name of ‘Father, Son, and Spirit.’ There is a gradual unfolding of the fulness which from the beginning was Elohim, and this fulness has become most gloriously manifest in God’s trinitarian name.” -Herman Bavinck

6. “How vastly different is the God of Scripture from the ‘god’ of the average pulpit!” -A.W. Pink

B. What we will be studying:

1. Attributes oftentimes called “Incommunicable”: Aseity; Sovereignty;

Simplicity; Infinity; Omnipresence; Immutability; Omnipotence; Omniscience

2. Attributes oftentimes called “Communicable”: Goodness; Holiness; Wisdom;

Love; Grace; Mercy; Patience (Longsuffering/Forbearance); Righteousness

C. CAUTION: It may be better to use the words “perfections” or “virtues” instead of “attributes” as this word can give the impression that something is added to the Divine Being. However, as Louis Berkhof notes, “If we shall continue to use the name ‘attributes,’ is is because it is commonly used and with the distinct understanding that the notion of something being added to the Being of God must be rigidly

excluded.” [see A.1 above] He goes on to give this wise counsel: “The only proper way to obtain perfectly reliable knowledge of the divine attributes is by the study of God’s self-revelation in Scripture.” [Compare Luther’s words above in A.4]

D. REMINDER: As we discuss anything about God, we must do so always keeping in mind that the One True God is Triune: One-in-Three, and Three-in-One. “We speak of God as a person; yet we speak also of three persons in the Godhead. As we say that each of the attributes of God is to be identified with the being of God, while yet we are justified in making a distinction between them, so we say that each of the persons of the Trinity is exhaustive of divinity itself, while there is a genuine distinction between the persons. Unity and plurality are equally ultimate in the Godhead. The persons of the Godhead are mutually exhaustive of one another, and therefore of the essence of the Godhead. God is a one-conscious being, and yet he is also a tri-conscious being.” -Cornelius Van Til [Consider the Chalcedon and Athanasian Creeds]

Aseity

I. Defining our terms

A. Aseitas: aseity, self-existence; a term derived from the language of self-existence

used with reference to God...God is said to exist, a se, from himself, thus a-se-itas. -Dictionary of Latin and Greek Theological Terms by Richard A. Muller

B. “...in its biblical context the aseity of God and the doctrine of creation are inseparable. Certainly creation ex nihilo presupposes God’s self-existence.” -Baker’s Dictionary of Theology

C. “The aseity of God, also called his independence, is that virtue of God according to which he is of and in and through himself, has the eternal ground and fountain of his being within himself, is not caused by or dependent on any being outside of himself, and is therefore the absolute, pure being, who is also perfectly self-sufficient, and who has no need of any being outside of himself.” -Herman Hoeksema (Reformed Dogmatics, page 101)

D. “There is a threefold being.

1. Such as had a beginning; and shall have an end; as all sensitive creatures, the beasts, fowls, fishes, which at death are destroyed and return to dust; their beings end with their life.

2. Such as had a beginning, but shall have no end, as angels and souls of men, which are eternal...; they abide forever.

3. Such as is without beginning, and without ending, and that is proper only to God. He is semper existens, from everlasting to everlasting. This is God’s title, a jewel of his crown.” -Thomas Watson

II. Defending our terms: Some caution is needed when using this word, but “...the term aseity is valid, because it sums up the doctrine of God’s eternity and sovereignty.” -R.J. Rushdoony

A. God is wholly distinct from creation as the self-existent and self-sufficient “I AM” (Gen 1:1a; Ex 3:14; 15:11; Deut 32:39; Ps 90:1-2; Is 44:6-8; 45:5-7, 14, 18, 21; Jn 5:26; 1Cor 8:4-6; Col 1:15-17; Rev 1:4,8,17; 2:8; 21:6; 22:13)

B. He does all things according to His independent and perfect thought, will, and power (Gen 1:1-3aff; Ps 33:6-12; 104:24; 115:1-8; Is 46:8-11; Dan 4:34-35; Acts 2:22-23; Rom 9:14-29; Eph 1:3-14)

C. He is not served by any as He is in need of nothing (Job 22:1-3; 35:1-8; 40:1-9; 41:1-11; Ps 24:1; 50:10-12; 104:24-30; Is 40:12-18; Lk 17:10; Acts 17:22-25;Rom 11:33-36; 1Cor 10:26)

Questions to Consider and Discuss:

1. 1)  Why should we believe any of this?

2. 2)  In believing this, how should we then live?

3. 3)  If we fail to believe this truth or live according to it, how shall we then live?

4. 4)  What do you think about these words? “When man and the universe are in

   business for themselves, then aseity is transferred from the Creator to the creation, to the creature. In politics, religion, education, family life, and in all society, this demand for aseity becomes a governing force. “I want to be me” becomes a battle cry, and it means freedom from responsibility and from all ties, moral and human.” -R.J. Rushdoony