The Essence 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 because 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 the 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 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 it is not predetermination! He doesn’t interfere with your volition.God foreknows what will be the choice of everyone.Likewise, He may influence their choice by gracious guidance through Bible doctrine, but He doesn’t coerce. (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. His judgments are perfect, therefore demanding perfection. Perfect righteousness requires Bible doctrine in the soul to understand His essence.In perfect righteousness divine love for integrity is revealed. In perfect righteousness divine love exists, but in justice divine love is expressed.In the function of the essence of God divine perfect righteousness and justice always precede divine love. God cannot love personally that which is not perfect.God is not arbitrary in any way. Perfect righteousness demands perfect righteousness. God’s nature cannot change, we must change.
OMNIPRESENCE
God is personally present everywhere. The whole of God 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 in 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 was love regardless of having an object to love. This is perfect love whether there is an occasion to bestow it or not. (I John 4:8) Subjectively God loves His own integrity; objectively He loves the other members of the Trinity. God can only love 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. And the issue in salvation is divine justice accepted or rejected.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 now free to pardon and justify sinful humanity who appropriates the saving grace of God by faith in Christ. God is free to save those who believe because of His justice.The basis for the unbeliever’s indictment at the White Throne Judgment is evil and human good, not sin. (Revelation 20:12-15) 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 3:26, 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 right wrong, nor will He act foolishly. He will not abuse His power and compromise His justice.If God is limited at any time it is because of a 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.
(Isaiah 44:24; II Corinthians 4:6; Ephesians 1:19-21, 3:20; Hebrews 1:3)
IMMUTABILITY
God is unchanging. He cannot change, 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 variations in man or history in human language, so that man can understand God’s policy. God doesn’t hate, get angry, change His mind, have hands or eyes. When man changes God seems to change, but in reality, God is remaining 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 is does not need to be chronological as we do. (Romans 4:17)Time, which is finite, has both succession and duration.Eternity, which is infinite, has duration only. (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 veracity toward other persons, 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. Bible doctrine, or truth, is the expression of His integrity. 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)