Lesson for August 20, 2023
The Doctrine of Pneumatology
Lesson 1
The doctrine of Pneumatology is the study of the Person and work of God the Holy Spirit. It is imperative that every believer who desires to grow spiritually understands this doctrine. The Holy Spirit has a huge ministry in the life of every believer, but not all believers allow Him to carry out those ministries in their lives. A study of the Person and work of the Holy Spirit, and His role in our lives as advancing believers, is extremely important and necessary.
The Holy Spirit is the third Person of the Godhead (the Trinity). He is coequal and coeternal with God the Father and God the Son. Therefore, all the attributes of deity reside in the Holy Spirit. He is omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent, love, truth, sovereign, righteous, justice, eternal life, and immutable.
The Attributes of God
Sovereignty
God is free to make any decision He pleases. However, God in His sovereignty has limited Himself by divine decrees. For example, God cannot violate a person’s free will, since by divine decree, He gave everyone volition. The sovereignty of God is His eternal, infinite, and perfect divine volition. The sovereignty of God is His eternal and infinite will which is expressed in His divine decrees, manifested in the divine administration of history called dispensations, and His unique plan regarding the Church Age.
Omniscience
God knows perfectly, eternally, and simultaneously all that is knowable, whether it is actual or possible. He knows our thoughts, motives, decisions, and actions. God is eternal and has eternal knowledge. God is absolute truth and His knowledge is totally and perfectly accurate. Since God has always existed, His knowledge has always existed with Him. Therefore, He knows perfectly and simultaneously everything that has occurred or ever will occur. He knows perfectly and eternally all that is knowable, whether actual or possible. There are three factors of divine knowledge: 1) it is eternal – Acts 15:18 2) it is incomprehensible – Romans 11:33 3) it is wise – Ephesians 3:10.
The future is as clear to God as the past. God foreknows the future but does not interfere with a person’s volition. God foreknows what will be the choice of everyone. Likewise, He may attempt to influence their choice by gracious guidance through Bible doctrine, but He doesn’t coerce them into any decision. (Psalm 33:13-15, 139:2, 147:4; Matthew 6:8, 10:29-30; Hebrews 4:3; Acts 15:8; Malachi 3:16; Isaiah 46:9-10, 44:28)
Righteousness
God’s righteousness is perfect. Therefore, He demands perfect righteousness for salvation. His judgments are perfect. Therefore, He demands perfection from imperfect human beings because He is perfect righteousness. God’s nature cannot change, we must change by receiving God’s righteousness at the moment of faith in Christ for salvation. The function of His divine perfect righteousness and justice always precedes His divine love. God loves His own righteousness wherever it is found. Believers in Christ possess God’s righteousness which means He loves us personally.
Omnipresence
God is personally present everywhere. The complete Godhead is in every place. This is not pantheism, since pantheism denies the Person of God saying that God is in the rocks, the grass, etc. God, in the total of His essence, fills the universe. (Psalm 139:7-8; Jeremiah 23:23-24; Acts 17:27) God is also free to be local, as on the mountain with Moses, or in the Holy of Holies above the Mercy Seat. He is free to become flesh and dwell among us as Christ did. (John 1:14)
Love
God is love. God is motivated by His love. Like all of divine attributes, love belongs to God’s being. God is, and always has been, love without having an object to love. God loves the other members of the Trinity: the Father loves the Son and Holy Spirit, the Son loves the Father and the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit loves the Father and the Son. God can love only God or another being with perfect righteousness.
Justice
God is fair; it is impossible for God to be unfair. Justice administers the penalty which perfect righteousness demands. Perfect righteousness and justice always go together. Divine justice is portrayed in salvation. You get divine justice sooner or later. You get it sooner by believing in Christ. You get it later by the Lake of Fire. Sin is not the issue in salvation, justice is. Because of propitiation, God is free to pardon and justify sinful humans who appropriate the saving grace of God by faith in Christ. God is free to save those who believe, because of His justice.
The basis for an unbeliever’s indictment at the White Throne Judgment is not sin, but the fact that human good works fall well short of God’s righteousness, which is necessary to enter Heaven. (Revelation 20:12-15; II Corinthians 5:21) Justice prevailed at the Cross and will again prevail at the White Throne Judgment. (Deuteronomy 32:4; II Chronicles 19:7; Job 37:23; Psalm 19:9, 50:6, 58:11, 89:14; Isaiah 45:21; Romans 3:23-26, 12:3; Hebrews 10:30-31)
Omnipotence
God is all powerful, infinitely able to do all things by His power within His holy character or essence. However, He will not make a wrong right, nor will He make a right wrong. He will not abuse His power or compromise His justice. If God is limited at any time, it is because of self-limitation consistent with His own essence. God can do all He wills to do, but He may not will to do all He can do. (Isaiah 44:24; II Corinthians 4:6; Ephesians 1:19-21, 3:20; Hebrews 1:3)
Immutability
God is unchanging. He cannot change, He cannot be better or worse than He is. The problem is that anthropomorphic representations of God in the Bible are misunderstood. They really represent the perfect attitude of God toward mankind in human language, so that we can understand God’s policies. God doesn’t hate, get angry, change His mind, have hands or eyes. God always remains consistent with His own essence.
Eternal Life
Eternity applied to God means He has always existed and always will exist. Therefore, He is eternal life. He has always existed totally apart from time. God is not subject to time, because He is the cause of time. Both time and space, though without substance, are both objects of His creation. God is not in time, but time is in God; He is the origin of time. God transcends all creation including time, therefore, has always existed. God does not need to be chronological as we do. (Romans 4:17) Time, which is finite, has both a beginning and an end. Eternity, which is infinite, has no end. (Isaiah 44:24; II Corinthians 4:6; Ephesians 1:19-21, 3:20; Hebrews 1:3)
Truth
God cannot lie. God’s truth is absolute truth. God is infinite perfection in truth and faithfulness. God’s truth is expressed to us in Bible doctrine. This is not merely truth toward people, but God is true to Himself, His own essence, His character. God is the truth. (John 14:6) God did not acquire truth, He is truth from eternity past. This attribute guarantees the genuineness of divine revelation in the Bible. Bible doctrine (God’s truth) is the expression of His integrity (holiness). God’s truth is directed toward Himself and revealed to us. God is never unfaithful to Himself. (Deuteronomy 32:4; I John 5:20; John 6:32, 15:1; Hebrews 8:2)