Last week we began this series of attributes of God that are “communicable”. We have divided God’s “communicable” attributes into five major categories:
- God’s being attributes (Part 1)
- Spirituality definition: 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.
- Invisibility definition: 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.
- Mental attributes (This week, Part 2)
- Moral attributes
- Attributes of Purpose
- “Summary” attributes
This week we will discuss God’s mental attributes. There are three attributes in this category, knowledge, wisdom and truthfulness. Let’s begin with knowledge.
Knowledge (omniscience). God’s knowledge may be defined as follows: God fully knows himself and all things actual and possible in one simple and eternal act.
Elihu says that God is the one “who is perfect in knowledge” (Job 37:16), and John says that God “knows everything” (1 John 3:20). The quality of knowing everything is called omniscience, and because God knows everything, he is said to be omniscient (all-knowing).
Our definition explains omniscience in more detail. It says first that God fully knows himself. This is an amazing fact since God’s own being is infinite or unlimited. Of course, only he who is infinite can fully know himself in every detail.
The statement by John that “God is light and in him is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:5), is that “light” is both moral purity and full knowledge. If there is “no darkness at all” in God, but he is entirely “light,” then God is himself both entirely holy and also entirely filled with self-knowledge.
The definition also says that God knows “all things actual.” This means all things that exist and all things that happen. This applies to creation, for God is the one before whom “no creature is hidden, but all are open and laid bare to the eyes of him with whom we have to do” (Hebrews 4:13). God also knows the future, for he is the one who can say, I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done” (Isaiah 46:9-10).
The definition of God’s knowledge given also specifies that God knows “all things possible.” This is because there are some instances in Scripture where God gives information about events that might happen but that do not actually come to pass. For example, when David was fleeing from Saul he rescued the city of Keilah from the Philistines and then stayed for a time at Keilah. He decided to ask God whether Saul would come to Keilah to attack him and, if Saul came, whether the men of Keilah would surrender him into Saul’s hand. David said:
Will the men of Keilah surrender me into his hand? Will Saul come down just as Your servant has heard? O Lord God of Israel, I pray, tell Your servant.” And the Lord said, “He will come down.” Then David said, “Will the men of Keilah surrender me and my men into the hand of Saul?” And the Lord said, “They will surrender you.” Then David and his men, about six hundred, arose and departed from Keilah, and they went wherever they could go. When it was told Saul that David had escaped from Keilah, he gave up the pursuit. (1 Samuel 23:11-13)
Similarly, Jesus could state that Tyre and Sidon would have repented if Jesus’ own miracles had been done there in former days: “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have long repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes” (Matthew 11:21).
The fact that God knows all things possible can also be deducted from God’s full knowledge of himself. If God fully knows himself, he knows everything he is able to do, which includes all things that are possible. This fact is indeed amazing. God has made an incredibly complex and varied universe, but there are thousands upon thousands of other variations or kinds of things that God could have created but did not. God’s infinite knowledge includes detailed knowledge of what each of those other possible creations would have been like and what would have happened in each of them!
Our definition of God’s knowledge speaks of God knowing everything in one “simple act.” The word simple is used in the sense “not divided into parts.” This means that God is always fully aware of everything. If he should wish to tell us the number of grains of sand on the seashore or the number of stars in the sky, he would not have to count them all quickly like some kind of super computer, nor would he have to call the number to mind because it was something he had not thought about for some time. He always knows all things at once. All of these facts and all other things that he knows are always fully present in his consciousness. He does not have to reason to conclusions or ponder carefully before he answers, for he knows the end from the beginning, and he never learns and never forgets anything. Every bit of God’s knowledge is always fully present in his consciousness; it never grows dim or fades into his non-conscious memory. Finally, the definition tells us God’s knowledge never grows or changes. If he were ever to learn something new, he would not have been omniscient beforehand. Thus, from all eternity God has known all things that would happen and all things that he would do.
Difficulty in this connection is the question of the relationship between God’s knowledge of everything that will happen in the future and the reality and degree of freedom we have in our actions. If God knows everything that will happen, how can our choices be at all “free”? How do we resolve this?
This is a topic that should be discussed in further detail later, but it might be helpful to note the suggestion of Augustine, who said that God has given us “reasonable self-determination.” His statement does not involve the terms free or freedom, for these terms are exceptionally difficult to define in any way that satisfactorily accounts for God’s complete knowledge of future events. But this statement does affirm what is important to us and what we sense to be true in our own experience, that our choices and decisions are “reasonable.” That is, we think about what to do, consciously decide what we will do, and then we follow the course of actions that we have chosen.
Wisdom. God’s wisdom means that God always chooses the best goals and the best means to those goals. This definition goes beyond the idea of God knowing all things and specifies that God’s decisions about what he will do are always wise decisions: this is, they always will bring about the best results (from God’s ultimate perspective), and they will bring about those results through the best possible means.
God’s wisdom is seen specifically in creation. As God created the universe, it was perfectly suited to bring him glory, both in its day-to-day processes and in the goals for which he created it. Even now, while we still see the effects of sin and the curse on the natural world, we should be amazed at how harmonious and intricate God’s creation is.
God’s wisdom is also seen in his great plan for redemption. Christ is “the wisdom of God” to those who are called (1 Corinthians 1:24 and 30), even though the word of the cross is “foolishness” to those who reject it and think themselves to be wise in this world (1 Corinthians 1:18-20).
When Paul preaches the gospel both to Jews and to Gentiles, and they become unified in the one body of Christ (Ephesians 3:6), the incredible “mystery” that was “hidden for ages in God who created all things” (Ephesians 3:9) is plain for all to see, namely, that in Christ such totally diverse people become united. When groups so different racially and culturally becomes members of the one body of Christ, then God’s purpose is fulfilled, “that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 3:10).
Today this means that God’s wisdom is shown even to angels and demons when people from different racial and cultural backgrounds are united in Christ in the church. If the Christian church is faithful to God’s wise plan, it will be always in the forefront in breaking down racial and social barriers in societies around the world, and will be a visible manifestation of God’s amazingly wise plan to bring great unity out of great diversity and thereby to cause all creation to honor him.
God’s wisdom is in part communicable to us. We can ask God confidently for wisdom when we need it, for he promises in his Word, “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives to all men generously and without reproaching, and it will be given him” (James 1:5). This wisdom in living a life pleasing to God, comes primarily from reading and obeying his Word: “The testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple” (Psalms 19:7).
We must also remember that God’s wisdom is not entirely communicable: we can never fully share God’s wisdom (Romans 11:33). In practical terms, this means that there will frequently be times in this life when we will not be able to understand why God allowed something to happen. Then we have simply to trust him and go on obeying his wise commands for our lives: “Therefore let those who suffer according to God’s will do right and entrust their souls to a faithful Creator” (1 Peter 4:19). God is infinitely wise and we are not, and it pleases him when we have faith to trust his wisdom even when we do not understand what he is doing.
Truthfulness (and Faithfulness). God’s truthfulness means that he is the true God, and that all his knowledge and words are both true and the final standard of truth.
The first part of this definition indicates that the God revealed in Scripture is the true or real God and that all other so-called god are idols. “The LORD is the true God; he is the living God and the everlasting King…The gods who did not make the heavens and the earth shall perish from the earth and from under the heavens” (Jeremiah 10:10-11). Jesus says to his Father, “And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent” (John 17:3)
We might ask what it means that God in his own being or character is the one who fully conforms to the idea of what God should be: namely, a being who is infinitely perfect in power, in wisdom, in goodness, in lordship over time and space, and so forth. We may forth ask, whose idea of God is this? What idea of God must one conform to in order to be the true God?
Our definition affirms that God’s knowledge is true and is the standard of truth. Job tells us that God is “perfect in knowledge” (Job 37:16). To say that God knows all things and that his knowledge is perfect is to say that he is never mistaken in his perception or understanding of the world: all that he knows and thinks is true and is a correct understanding of the nature of reality. In fact, since God knows all things infinitely well, we can say that the standard of knowledge is conformity to God’s knowledge. If we think the same thing God thinks about the universe, we are thinking truthfully about it.
Our definition also affirms that God’s words are both true and the final standard of truth. This means that God is reliable and faithful in his words. With respect to his promises, God always does what he promises to do, and we can depend on him never to be unfaithful to his promises. In fact, this specific aspect of God’s truthfulness is something viewed as a distinct attribute: God’s faithfulness means that God will always do what he said and fulfill what he has promised (Numbers 23:19). He can be relied upon, and he will never prove unfaithful to those who trust what he has said. The essence of true faith is taking God at his word and relying on him to do as he has promised.
The truthfulness of God is also communicable in that we can in part imitate it by striving to have true knowledge about God and about his world. In fact, as we begin to think true thoughts about God and creation, the thoughts that we learn from Scripture and from allowing Scripture to guide us in our observation and interpretation of the natural world, we begin to think God’s own thoughts after him!
This realization should encourage us in the pursuit of knowledge in all areas of the natural and social sciences and the humanities. Whatever the area of our investigation, when we discover more truth about the nature of reality, we discover more of the truth that God already knows. In this sense we can affirm that “all truth is God’s truth” and rejoice whenever the learning or discovery of this truth is used in ways pleasing to God. Growth in knowledge is part of the process of becoming more like God or becoming creatures who are more fully in God’s image.
In a society that is exceedingly careless with the truthfulness of spoken words, we as God’s children are to imitate our Creator and take great care to be sure that our words are always truthful. “Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old nature with its practices and have put on the new nature” (Colossians 3:9-10). God is please when his people put “devious talk” far from them (Proverbs 4:24) and speak with words that are acceptable not only in the sight of people but also in the sight of the Lord himself (Psalms 19:14).
Furthermore, we should imitate God’s truthfulness in our own reaction to truth and falsehood. Like God, we should love truth and hate falsehood. One who is pleasing to God “Speaks truth from his heart” (Psalms 15:2), and strives to be like the righteous man who “hates falsehood” (Proverb 13:5).
Falsehood and lying do not come from God but from Satan, who delights in falsehood: “When he lies, he speaks according to his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies” (John 8:44). It is appropriate then that with “the cowardly, the faithless, the polluted” and the “murderers, fornicators, sorcerers, and idolaters” who are found in “the lake that burns with fire and Sulphur” far from the heavenly city, and found also “all liars” (Revelations 21:8).
Scripture teaches us that lying is wrong not only because of the great harm that comes from it (and much more harm comes from lying than we often realize), but also for an even deeper and more profound reason: when we lie we dishonor God and diminish his glory, for we, as those created in God’s image and created for the purpose of reflecting God’s glory in our lives, are acting in a way that is contrary to God’s own character.