2-Minute Theology - TRINITY BIBLE CHURCH

The Attributes of God: Part 16 - Veracity

9/19/2020

TBC Glassboro Sermons and More · The Attributes Of God: Part 16 - Veracity

The fifth of God’s Relative Attributes is veracity. Veracity means that God does not lie.

in the hope of eternal life, which God, who cannot lie, promised long ages ago, - Titus 1:2

If God is a liar, He cannot be God. God’s very nature is holiness. Holiness means that God is the standard of absolute purity. If God were to lie, then He would not be absolute purity. Instead, He would be Satan. However, God is unchanging.

For I, the Lord, do not change; therefore you, O sons of Jacob, are not consumed. - Malachi 3:6

Since He is unchanging, God has not lied nor can He ever lie. It is impossible for God to lie.

it is impossible for God to lie - Hebrews 6:18

As well, not only does veracity mean that God cannot lie, it means that He is Truth.

Jesus said to him, I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me. - John 14:6

Louis Berkhof states that truth is “that perfection of His being by virtue of which He fully answers to the idea of the Godhead, is perfectly reliable in His revelation, and sees things as they really are.”(1) That God is Truth means that He speaks the truth and does what He promises to do.

God is not a man, that He should lie, Nor a son of man, that He should repent; Has He said, and will He not do it? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good? - Numbers 23:19

ENDNOTES:

Louis Berkhof, Systematic Theology (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1941), 69.

The Attributes of God: Part 15 - Righteousness

9/19/2020

TBC Glassboro Sermons and More · The Attributes Of God: Part 15 - Righteousness

The fourth of God’s relational attributes is righteousness. God’s righteousness communicates that He is fair and impartial in all His dealings. God is perfectly righteous in the treatment of His creatures.

Opening his mouth, Peter said: I most certainly understand now that God is not one to show partiality, - Acts 10:34

God communicates His righteousness as justice through His Law. Thus, God’s Law is the standard of what is fair and impartial. As well, God is completely just to judge someone when they violate God’s Law. God’s justice is twofold — rectoral and distributive. Rectoral justice identifies God as the source of morality, who in turn imposes His morality (i.e., Law) on the world.

The strength of the King loves justice; You have established equity; You have executed justice and righteousness in Jacob. - Psalm 99:4

Distributive justice is God’s execution of His Law in terms of rewards and judgment.

Say to the righteous that it will go well with them, For they will eat the fruit of their actions. Woe to the wicked! It will go badly with him, For what he deserves will be done to him. - Isaiah 3:10-11

The reward aspect of distributive justice is known as remunerative justice. It is a reflection of God’s love.

Know therefore that the Lord your God, He is God, the faithful God, who keeps His covenant and His lovingkindness to a thousandth generation with those who love Him and keep His commandments; - Deuteronomy 7:9

The judgment aspect of distributive justice is known as retributive justice. It is a reflection of God’s wrath.

Cursed is he who does not confirm the words of this law by doing them. And all the people shall say, Amen. - Deuteronomy 27:26

The Attributes of God: Part 14 - Mercy

9/16/2020

TBC Glassboro Sermons and More · The Attributes Of God: Part 14 - Mercy

The third of God’s Relative Attributes is mercy. God’s mercy or goodness is the demonstration of His kindness to those in distress irrespective of whether or not they deserve it.

For He says to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion. So then He has mercy on whom He desires, and He hardens whom He desires. - Romans 9:15, 18

It is God’s mercy which cancels the debt of sin through the sacrifice of His Son.

But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, - Ephesians 2:4-6

Grace gives individuals blessing they do not deserve, but mercy withholds the punishment they do deserve. God doles out His mercy according to His sovereign choice. God demonstrates His mercy, as well as grace, by meeting both temporal needs and spiritual needs.

Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. - Hebrews 4:16

Obtaining God’s forgiveness and favor in times of need means that God gives help at the precise moment it is needed. When temptation comes, God provides His mercy and grace to find an escape from the temptation.

No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it. - 1 Corinthians 10:13

The Attributes of God: Part 13 - Love

9/16/2020

TBC Glassboro Sermons and More · The Attributes Of God: Part 13 - Love

The second of God’s relational attributes is love. God is love and demonstrated that love by sending His Son as the atonement for sin.

The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love. […] In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. - 1 John 4:8, 10

His love is not an emotional feeling or response but rather a reasoned-out love. According to Henry Thiessen, God’s love is “that perfection of the divine nature by which God is eternally moved to communicate himself. It is not a mere emotional impulse, but a rational and voluntary affection, having its ground in truth and holiness and its exercise in free choice.” (1)

God’s love is sacrificial, springing from a deliberate choice regardless of what it is given in return. The choice is rational and voluntary. Because God's love is bound by His holiness and perfection it is discriminatory. It is not equally disseminated to all. God loved Jacob and hated Esau. The term hate (miseo), as used in this context, means to love less.

Just as it is written, Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated. - Romans 9:13

As well, in His love, God allows those He loves to suffer pain, tragedy, and loss. Again, because His love is bound by holiness, His holiness demands that God judges sin. That judgment results in pain, tragedy, and loss.

ENDNOTES:

Henry C. Thiessen, Lectures in Systematic Theology. (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1979), 86.

The Attributes of God: Part 12 - Grace

9/12/2020

TBC Glassboro Sermons and More · The Attributes Of God: Part 12 - Grace

The first of God’s Relative Attributes is grace. God’s grace is His unmerited favor to those deserving judgment. Grace is God’s benevolence or lovingkindness to the undeserving. God’s grace delivers one from affliction and adversity.

Return, O Lord, rescue my soul; Save me because of Your lovingkindness (i.e., grace). - Psalm 6:4
I will rejoice and be glad in Your lovingkindness (i.e., grace), Because You have seen my affliction; You have known the troubles of my soul, And You have not given me over into the hand of the enemy; You have set my feet in a large place. - Psalm 31:7-8

His grace provides believers with daily guidance.

Let me hear Your lovingkindness (i.e, grace) in the morning; For I trust in You; Teach me the way in which I should walk; For to You I lift up my soul - Psalm 143:8

By God’s grace, His people are comforted.

O may Your lovingkindness comfort me, According to Your word to Your servant. - Psalm 119:76

God demonstrated grace by choosing to bless humanity with the offer of salvation despite deserving the penalty of death and Hell.

For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; - Ephesians 2:8

God’s grace provides the believer with his or her positional standing before God — justified.

through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God. - Romans 5:2

The Attributes of God: Part 11 - Unity

9/12/2020

TBC Glassboro Sermons and More · The Attributes Of God: Part 11 - Unity

The tenth of God’s Absolute Attributes is unity. Unity underscores the oneness of God — YHWH our God is one YHWH (cf. Deuteronomy 6:4). The unity of God is not numerical, but integral. Though three Persons, God is one and cannot be divided.

Therefore concerning the eating of things sacrificed to idols, we know that there is no such thing as an idol in the world, and that there is no God but one. […] yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom are all things and we exist for Him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we exist through Him. - 1 Corinthians 8:4, 6
For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, - 1 Timothy 2:5

Unity also underscores the uniqueness of God — there is no other being like Him.

Who is like You among the gods, O Lord? Who is like You, majestic in holiness, Awesome in praises, working wonders? - Exodus 15:11
Is there any God besides Me, Or is there any other Rock? I know of none. - Isaiah 44:8
I am the Lord, and there is no other; Besides Me there is no God. I will gird you, though you have not known Me; - Isaiah 45:5
How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and you do not seek the glory that is from the one and only God? - John 5:44

Because there is only one God there is only one Law, one Gospel, one body (i.e., the Church), one Spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, and one baptism.

There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all. - Ephesians 4:4-6

Additionally, the unity of the Godhead — three persons, yet one God — argues against false beliefs such as polytheism, tritheism, or dualism. In fact, the unity of the Godhead guarantees the doctrine of the Trinity. Unity holds the divine nature shared by three persons is numerically and eternally one.

The Attributes of God: Part 10 - Spirit

9/9/2020

TBC Glassboro Sermons and More · The Attributes Of God: Part 10 - Spirit

The ninth of God’s Absolute Attributes is spirit. Spirit means that God does not have a corporeal or physical form.

God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth. - John 4:24

This is to say that God is not dependent upon matter and has no connection to matter.

…a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have. - Luke 24:39

Flesh and bones are matter, which a spirit does not have. Hence, He is not simply a spirit, God is pure spirit. As such, He is invisible to the naked eye.

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. - Colossians 1:15
Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen. - 1 Timothy 1:17

Hence, no one has seen God at any time (John 1:18).

No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him. - John 1:18

As a spirit, God is not localized to one place. He is everywhere (i.e., omnipresent) and unlimited. It is the attribute of God that underscores the prohibition of Exodus 20:4 — You shall not make for yourself an idol. Because God does not have a physical body, it is immoral to make a physical image of Him. God must not be conceived in the form of anything which the human mind can conceive.

The Attributes of God: Part 9 - Self-Existence

9/9/2020

TBC Glassboro Sermons and More · The Attributes Of God: Part 9 - Self-Existence

The eighth of God’s Absolute Attributes is self-existence. Louis Berkhof, in Systematic Theology, states that Gods self-existence means that, “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.”

Self-existence means that God is the source of His existence. God is independent of anything or anyone else; He is the source of His own life.

For just as the Father has life in Himself, even so He gave to the Son also to have life in Himself; - John 5:26

Does the Law of Causation undermine the reality of God’s self-existence? No, it does not. First, causation has limitations. It is limited to those things which have a beginning. Scripture says that God has no beginning.

Before the mountains were born Or You gave birth to the earth and the world, Even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God. - Psalm 90:2

Second, causation is limited to the created realm. Since God is eternal, He exists outside of the created realm and not beholden to the causation. Third, causation requires that something larger than the universe must exist, which in turn created the universe. The Scripture states that God created the universe.

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. - Genesis 1:1

Fourth, that Causation is a law necessitates the need for a lawgiver. The Scripture states that the Law of Causation is a God-ordained law.

For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God. - Hebrews 3:4

The one who builds all things is none other than God. God is the only cause, and there are no others.

I, the Lord, am the first, and with the last. I am He. - Isaiah 41:4
I am the first and I am the last, And there is no God besides Me. - Isaiah 44:6
I am the Lord, and there is no other; Besides Me there is no God. I will gird you, though you have not known Me; - Isaiah 45:5
Remember the former things long past, For I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is no one like Me, - Isaiah 46:9

ENDNOTES:

Louis Berkhof, Systematic Theology (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1941), p. 58.

The Attributes of God: Part 8 - Omnipotence

9/5/2020

TBC Glassboro Sermons and More · The Attributes Of God: Part 8 - Omnipotence

The seventh of God’s Absolute Attributes is omnipotence. God is all-powerful. His power is so extraordinary that He needs no other being or any other thing to help Him create.

By awesome deeds You answer us in righteousness, O God of our salvation, You who are the trust of all the ends of the earth and of the farthest sea; - Psalm 65:5
Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, and the one who formed you from the womb, I, the Lord, am the maker of all things, Stretching out the heavens by Myself And spreading out the earth all alone, - Isaiah 44:24

God’s power not only brought all things into being, but it is also the same power that sustains all thing.

And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power. When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, - Hebrews 1:3

God is all-powerful and can to do whatever He wills so long as it conforms to His perfect nature.

But our God is in the heavens; He does whatever He pleases. - Psalm 115:3
Worthy are You, our Lord and our God, to receive glory and honor and power; for You created all things, and because of Your will they existed, and were created. - Revelation 4:11

As Henry Thiessen states, “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.”(1) To ask questions such as, “Can God create a stone so large that He could not lift it” is not only illegitimate but blasphemous on the part of believers. God is above His creation, not a part of it, and thus He can exercise full power as He chooses.

ENDNOTES:

Henry Clarence Thiessen, Lectures in Systematic Theology (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1979), 82

The Attributes of God: Part 7 - Omniscience

9/5/2020

TBC Glassboro Sermons and More · The Attributes Of God: Part 7 - Omniscience

The sixth of God’s Absolute Attributes is omniscience. God’s omniscience refers to His ability to know all things actual, possible, past, present, and future in one moment. God knows all things including one’s thoughts, actions, and words before they occur.

O Lord, You have searched me and known me. You know when I sit down and when I rise up; You understand my thought from afar. You scrutinize my path and my lying down, And are intimately acquainted with all my ways. Even before there is a word on my tongue, Behold, O Lord, You know it all. You have enclosed me behind and before, And laid Your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; It is too high, I cannot attain to it. - Psalm 139:1-6
So do not be like them; for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him. - Matthew 6:8

God knows all things possible, including every variable.

Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the miracles had occurred in Tyre and Sidon which occurred in you, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. - Matthew 11:21

Thus, His knowledge is perfect. As well, God’s knowledge is neither learned nor acquired. It is immediate and was complete in eternity past. Hence, God knows all future events.

Declaring the end from the beginning, And from ancient times things which have not been done, Saying, My purpose will be established, And I will accomplish all My good pleasure; - Isaiah 46:10
From now on I am telling you before it comes to pass, so that when it does occur, you may believe that I am He. - John 13:19
But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come - John 16:13