God's Perfections

A.W. Tozer reminds us of the importance of knowing God. Our perspective of who God is and what he is like affects how we live our lives at a fundamental level. Often, we imagine that God is rather like ourselves. We imagine that the things that we are upset about are the things that upset God.

Left to ourselves we tend immediately to reduce God to manageable terms. -A.W. Tozer

But God is different than us and he is beyond our ability to understand. And that shouldn’t surprise us should it?

Romans 11:33–36 HCSB

Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God! How unsearchable His judgments and untraceable His ways! For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been His counselor? Or who has ever first given to Him, and has to be repaid? For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen.

I want us to see several things from this passage.

The unknowability of God

his judgments are unsearchable.

His ways are untraceable

The questions in verses 34-35 all have the assumed answer of “no one.” So, who has known the mind of the Lord? Who has understood what he has done? Who has ever given him counsel? “No one!”

The value of knowing God

The point of this passage is not the tell us to give up trying to understand God.

It begins: Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! His wisdom and our knowledge of God are inexhaustible gold mines. The point is not that we can’t know anything about God, but that we cannot exhaust the riches of that knowledge. We cannot know God comprehensively.

Romans 11:33-36

The unknowability of God

The value of knowing God

How much can we really know God?

God is infinite and we are finite and limited. Imagine that our entire universe was dark and only had creatures without eyes. How incomprehensible would it be to describe light and sight to a creature that had absolutely no context for such experiences?

1 Peter 2:9 ESV

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

The word “excellencies” is a little unclear. In particular it refers to the excellence of his character. In this verse, Peter connects God’s character to God’s actions towards his people. The emphasis is on proclaiming the virtues of the one who did this for you (calling you out of darkness into his marvelous light).

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

We study God’s attributes because we are called proclaim them to those around us.

We study God’s attributes because we want to worship God in spirit and in truth.

A right conception of God is basic not only to systematic theology but to practical Christian living as well. It is to worship what the foundation is to the temple; where it is inadequate or out of plumb the whole structure must sooner or later collapse.

Tozer, A. W, (2017-01-10). Knowledge of the Holy: The Attributes of God (Kindle Locations 69-70). Faithful Life Publishers. Kindle Edition.

3. We study God’s attributes because it guides our actions.

Romans 8:28–29 ESV

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.

God’s purpose for us to be like him. In order to be like him, we must know what he is like. We also find encouragement in our circumstances when we know who God is and what he is like. His character confronts our behavior. [Story of Alaina and cutting the blinds]

The essence of idolatry is the entertainment of thoughts about God that are unworthy of Him. -A.W. Tozer

The essence of idolatry is the entertainment of thoughts about God that are unworthy of Him.

Tozer, A. W, (2017-01-10). Knowledge of the Holy: The Attributes of God (Kindle Location 93). Faithful Life Publishers. Kindle Edition.

[TRANSITION] There is much more that we could say about why we should study the attributes of God, but I want to leave time to talk a little bit about what we mean by the attributes of God.

Tozer, A. W, (2017-01-10). Knowledge of the Holy: The Attributes of God (Kindle Locations 69-70). Faithful Life Publishers. Kindle Edition.

What are the Attributes of God?

If you were asked to describe God’s character, what characteristics come to mind?

God’s Attributes

Eternal, Faithful, Good, Glorious, Gracious, Holy, Immanent, Immense, Immutable, Independent, Infinite, Invisible, Jealous, Just, Love, Merciful, Peace, Omnipotence, Omnipresence, Omniscience, Patient, Perfect, Righteous, Self-Existent, Self-Sufficient, Sovereign, Spirit, Transcendent, Truthful, Wise, Wrath

God’s perfections are the essential characteristics of his nature. - John MacArthur

John MacArthur and Richard Mayhue, eds., Biblical Doctrine: A Systematic Summary of Bible Truth (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2017), 161.

Theologians divide God’s attributes into two categories: Communicable and Incommunicable Attributes.

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