During these next few weeks we will discuss the attributes of God that are “communicable,” or more shared with us than those attributes mentioned in the last five messages. We must remember that this division into “incommunicable” (belong to God alone), and “communicable” (can be shared by humans) is not an absolute division and there is some room for difference of opinion concerning which attributes should fit into which categories. This list of attributes that will be put into the category “communicable” is a common one, but understanding the definition of each attribute is more important than being able to categorize them.
Any list of God’s attributes must be based on some understanding of how finely one wishes to make distinctions between various aspects of God’s character. Is God’s goodness and love two attributes or one? What about knowledge and wisdom, or spirituality and invisibility? For these writings, each of these attributes will be treated separately. In several cases it would not make much of a difference if someone were to treat these pairs as the same attribute. We need to remember that it is the entire and wholly integrated person of God about whom we are talking. It will be apparent that the division into various attributes is not a matter of great doctrinal significance but is something that must be based on one’s judgement concerning the most effective way to present the biblical material.
We will divide God’s “communicable” attributes into five major categories:
- Attributes describing God’s being
- Mental attributes
- Moral attributes
- Attributes of Purpose
- “Summary” attributes
This week we will begin with the attributes describing God’s being. There are two attributes that is in this category; spirituality and invisibility.
Spirituality. People have often wondered what God is made of? Is he made of flesh and blood like us? Certainly not. What then is the material that forms his being? Is God made of matter at all, or is God pure energy, or is he in some sense pure thought?
The answer of Scripture is that God is none of these. Rather, we read that “God is spirit” (John 4:24). This statement is spoken by Jesus in the context of a discussion with the women at the well in Samaria. The discussion is about the location where people should worship God, and Jesus is telling her that true worship of God does not require that one be present either in Jerusalem or in Samaria (John 4:21), for true worship has to do not with physical location but with one’s inner spiritual condition. This is because “God is spirit” and this signifies that God is in no way limited to an actual location.
We should not think of God as having size or dimensions, even infinite one. We should not think of God’s existence as spirit as meaning that God is infinitely large, for example, for it is not part of God but all of God that is in every point of space (Psalms 139:7-10). Nor should we think that God’s existence as spirit means that God is infinitely small, for no place in the universe can surround him or contain him (1 Kings 8:27). God’s being cannot be rightly thought of in terms of space; however we may understand his existence as “spirit”.
We also find that God forbids his people to think of his very being as similar to anything else in the physical creation. We read in the Ten Commandments:
“You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing lovingkindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments. (Exodus 20:4-6)
This is why God’s jealousy is given as the reason for the prohibition against making images of Him: for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God… (Exodus 20:5).
God is jealous to protect his own honor. He eagerly seeks for people to think of him as he is and to worship him for all his excellence, and is angered when his glory is diminished or his character is falsely represented (Deuteronomy 4:23-24).
God does not have a physical body, nor is he made of any kind of matter like the rest of creation. God is not merely energy or thought or some other element of creation. He is also not like vapor or steam or air or space, all of which are created things: God’s being is not like any of these. God being is not even exactly like our own spirits, for these are created things that are able to exist only in one place in one time.
Instead of all these ideas of God, we must say that God is spirit. Whatever this means, it is a kind of existence that is unlike anything else in creation. It is a kind of existence that is far superior to all our material existence. We might say that God is “pure being” or “the fullness or essence of being.” This kind of existence is not less real or less desirable than our own existence. It is more real and desirable than the material and immaterial existence of all creation. Before there was any creation, God existed as spirit. His own being is so very real that it was able to cause everything else to come into existence!
At this point we can define God’s spirituality: God’s spirituality means that God exists as a being that is not made of any matter, has no parts or dimensions, is unable to be perceived by our bodily senses, and is more excellent than any other kind of existence.
These considerations may make you wonder if God’s spirituality should be called an “incommunicable” attribute. To do so would be appropriate in some ways, since God’s being is so different from ours. The fact remains that God has given us spirits in which we worship him, with which the Holy Spirit joins to bear witness to our adoption in God’s family, and in which we pass into the Lord’s presence when we die. Therefore there is clearly some communication from God to us of a spiritual nature that is something like our own nature, though certainly not in all respects. For this reason it seems appropriate to think of God’s spirituality as a communicable attribute.
Invisibility. Related to God’s spirituality is the fact that God is invisible. Yet we also must speak of the visible ways in which God manifests himself. God’s invisibility can be defined as Follows: God’s invisibility means that God’s total essence, all of his spiritual being, will never be able to be seen by us, yet God still shows himself to us through visible, created things.
Many passages speak of the fact that God is not able to be seen. “No one has ever seen God” (John 1:18). Jesus says, “Not that anyone has seen the Father except him who is from God: he has seen the Father” (John 6:46). Paul gives the following words of praise: “To the King of ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory for ever and ever, Amen” (! Timothy 1:17). He speaks of God as one “who alone has immortality and dwells in unapproachable light, whom no man has ever seen or can see” (1 Timothy 6:16).
We must remember that these passages were all written after events in Scripture where people saw some outward manifestation of God. For example, very early in Scripture we read, “Thus the LORD used to speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend (Exodus 33:11). Yet God told Moses, “You cannot see my face; for man shall not see me and live” (Exodus 33:20). Nevertheless, God caused his glory to pass by Moses while he hid Moses in a cleft of the rock, and then God let Moses see his back after he had passed by, but said, “my face shall not be seen” (Exodus 33:21-23).
It is right to say that although God’s total essence will never be able to be seen by us, God still shows something of himself to us through visible created things. This happens in a variety of ways.
The Old Testament records a number of appearances of God. God took on various visible forms to show himself to people. God appeared to Abraham, the people of Israel as a pillar of cloud by day and fire by night, the elders of Israel (Exodus 24:9-11), Manoah and his wife (Judges 13:21-22), and others.
A much greater visible manifestation of God than these in the Old Testament is found in the person of Jesus Christ himself. He could say, “He who has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14:9). John also contrasts the fact that no one has ever seen God with the fact that God’s only Son has made him known to us: “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). Jesus is “the image of the invisible God” (Colossians 1:15). In the person of Jesus we have a unique visible manifestation of God in the New Testament than those who saw appearances of God in the Old Testament.
How will we see God in heaven? We will never be able to see or know all of God, for “his greatness is unsearchable”. And we will not be able to see (at least with physical eyes) the spiritual being of God. Nevertheless, Scripture says that we will see God himself. Jesus says, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God” (Matthew 5:8). We will be able to see the human nature of Jesus (Revelations 1:7). But it is not clear in exactly what sense we will be able to “see” the Father and the Holy Spirit, or the divine nature of God the Son. Perhaps the nature of this “seeing” will not be known to us until we reach heaven.
Although what we see will not be an exhaustive vision of God, it will be completely true and clear and real vision of God. We shall see “face to face” (1 Corinthians 13:12) and “we shall see him as he is” (1 John 3:2). The most remarkable description of the open, close fellowship with God that we shall experience is seen in the fact that in the heavenly city “the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and his servants shall worship him; they shall see his face, and his name shall be on their foreheads” (Revelations 22:3-4).
When we realize that God is the perfection of all that we long for or desire, that he is the summation of everything beautiful or desirable, then we realize that the greatest joy of the life to come will be that we “shall see his face.” This seeing of God “face to face” has been called the beatific vision, meaning “the vision that makes us blessed or happy”. To look at God changes us and makes us like him: “We shall be like him, for we shall see him as his is.” This vision of God will be the consummation of our knowing God and will give us full delight and joy for all eternity; in your presence there is fullness of joy, in your right hand are pleasures for evermore” (Psalms 16:11).