Introduction and explanation of God’s character:
Classifying God’s attributes. When we come to the talk about the character of God, we realized that we cannot say everything the Bible teaches us about God’s character at once. We need some way to categorize the attributes of God.
I will use the most commonly used classification: the incommunicable attributes of God (those attributes that God does not “communicate” to others) and the communicable attributes of God (those God “communicates” with us).
Examples of the incommunicable attributes would be God’s eternity (God has existed for all eternity, but we have not), unchangeableness (God does not change, but we do), or omnipresence (God is everywhere present, but we are present only in one place at one time). Examples of communicable attributes would be love (God is love, and we are able to love as well), knowledge (God has knowledge, and we are able to have knowledge as well), mercy (God is merciful, and we are able to be merciful too), or justice (God is just and we are able to be just too).
This distinction, although helpful, is not perfect. That is because there is no attribute of God that is completely communicable, and there is no attribute the is completely incommunicable! For example, God’s wisdom would usually be called a communicable attribute, because we can be wise too. But we will never be infinitely wise as God is. His wisdom is to some extent shared with us, but never fully shared with us. We can also share God’s knowledge, yet we will never share it fully, for God’s thoughts are higher than ours “as the heavens are higher than the earth” (Isaiah 55:9).
Not one of the incommunicable attributes of God is completely without some likeness in the character of human beings. For example, God is unchangeable, while we change. But we do not change completely, for there are some aspects of our character that remain largely unchanged: our individual identities, many of our personality traits, and some of our long-term purposes remain unchanged over many years.
Through these next few weeks blog posts I will use the two categories of “incommunicable” and “communicable” attributes, while realizing that they are not entirely precise classifications, and that there is in reality much overlap between the categories.
Over the next few weeks I will discuss five different incommunicable attributes of God. Each of the incommunicable attributes of God will be defined with a two-part sentence. The first part defines the attribute under discussion, and the second part guards against misunderstanding the attribute by stating an opposite aspect that relates to that attribute.
Independence. God’s independence is defined as follows: God does not need us or the rest of creation for anything, yet we and the rest of creation can glorify him and bring him joy. This attribute of God is sometimes called his self-existence.
Scripture in several places teaches that God does not need any part of creation in order to exist or for any other reason. God is absolutely independent and self-sufficient. Paul proclaims to the men of Athens, “The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in shrines made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all men life and breath and everything” (Acts 17:24-25). This implication is that God does not need anything from mankind.
People sometimes thought that God created human beings because he was lonely and needed fellowship with other persons. If this were true, it would certainly mean that God is not completely independent of creation. It would mean that God would need to create persons in order to be completely happy or completely fulfilled in his personal existence.
In John 17:5, Jesus prays, “Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory which I had with you before the world was made.” Also in John 17:24, Jesus speaks to the Father of my glory which you have given me in your love for me before the foundation of the world.” There was love and communication between the Father and the Son before creation.
These passages indicate what we can learn elsewhere from the doctrine of the Trinity that among the persons of the Trinity there has been perfect love and fellowship and communication for all eternity. The fact that God is three persons yet one God means that there was no loneliness or lack of personal fellowship of God’s part before creation.
God’s being is also unique. It is not just that God does not need creation for anything; God could not need the creation for anything. The difference between the creator and the created is an immensely vast difference, for God exists in a fundamentally different order of being. It is not just that we exist and God has always existed; it is also that God necessarily exists in an infinitely better, stronger, more excellent way. The difference between God’s being and ours is more difference between the sun and a candle, between the ocean and a raindrop, more than the difference between the universe and the room you are in.
Someone might wonder, if God does not need us for anything, then why are we important at all? Is there any significance to our existence or to the existence of the rest of creation? In response to this it must be said that we are in fact very meaningful because God created us in His image and he has determined that we would be meaningful to him.
God speaks of his sons and daughter from the ends of the earth as “everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made” (Isaiah 43:7). Although God did not have to create us, he chose to do so in a totally free choice. He decided that he would create us to clarify him (Ephesians 1:11-12 and Revelation 4:11).
It is also true that we are able to bring real joy and delight to God. It is one of the most amazing facts in Scripture that God actually delights in his people and rejoices over them.
God does not need us for anything, yet it is the amazing fact of our existence that he chooses to delight in us and to allow us to bring joy to his heart. This is the basis for a personal relationship with God the creator.