Attributes of God

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God is an invisible, personal, and living Spirit, distinguished from all other spirits by several kinds of attributes:

Metaphysically God is: Self-existent, eternal, and unchanging

Intellectually God is: Omniscient, faithful, and wise

Ethically God is: Merciful, and loving

Emotionally God: detests evil, is longsuffering, and compassionate

Existentially God is: Free, authentic, and omnipotent

Relationally God is: Transcendent in being, immanent

Spiritually. God is spirit (not a spirit) who does not have corporeity or physical form (John 4:24). A body localizes, but God as spirit is everywhere; He cannot be limited.

Self-existence. God’s self-existence means “He has the ground of His existence in Himself…God is independent in His Being, but also He is independent in everything else; in His virtues, decrees, works, and causes everything to depend on Him

Love. First John 4:8 indicates “God is love,” while verse 10 explains how that love is displayed: “In this love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. God’s love is defined as “that perfection of the divine nature by which God is eternally moved to communicate himself.

Goodness. God is “essentially, absolutely and consummately good” (Matt. 19:17; Mark 10:18; Luke 18:19). The goodness of God is broad with one being benevolence, which describes God’s affection toward people.

Holiness. Which means “set apart” or “separation.” Holiness pervades all other attributes of God and is consistent with all He is and does. In His transcendent emphasis, He is absolutely distinct from all His creatures and is exalted above them in infinite majesty. Because God is morally pure, He cannot condone evil or have any relationship to it (Ps.11:4-6).

Omnipresence. Meaning God is everywhere present. Defined as “God, in the totality of His essence, without diffusion or expansion, multiplication or division, penetrates and fills the universe in all its parts. Psalm 139:7-12 explains the omnipresence of God. From the highest heaven to the depths of the earth and sea-God is everywhere present.

Omniscience. Means that God has all knowledge. God knows all things actual and possible, past, present, and future, in one eternal act.

Omnipotence. God is all powerful. God is all powerful and able to do whatever he wills. Since His will is limited by His nature, God can do everything that is in harmony with His perfections.

Mercy. Goodness or love of God shown to those who are in misery or distress, irrespective of their deserts.

Grace. Is the unmerited or underserving favor of God to those who are under condemnation. Grace is reflected in God providing Salvation. Christ brought grace and truth (John 1:14); the grace of Christ enabled believers to have a positional standing before God (Rom. 5:2); Christ brought life instead of death through grace (Rom. 5:17).

Eternity. God is not limited or bound by time; with God there s no succession of events; He is above all temporal limitations. With Him there is no distinction between the present, past, and future; but all things are equally and always present to Him.

Justice. It means that God is entirely correct and just in all His dealings with humanity. The justice of God relates to man’s sin. Since God’s law reflects God’s standard, then God is righteous and just when He judges man for His violation of God’s revealed law.