We are currently in a series discussing the 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 (Part 2)
- Knowledge (omniscience) definition: God fully knows himself and all things actual and possible in one simple and eternal act.
- Wisdom definition: God’s wisdom means that God always chooses the best goals and the best means to those goals.
- Truthfulness (and Faithfulness) definition: 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.
- Moral attributes (Last week, Part 3a)
- Goodness: The goodness of God means that God is the final standard of good, and that all that God is and does is worthy of approval.
- Love: God’s love means that God eternally gives of himself to others.
- Mercy, Grace, Patience:
- God’s mercy means God’s goodness toward those in misery and distress.
- God’s grace means God’s goodness toward those who deserve only punishment.
- God’s patience means God’s goodness in withholding of punishment toward those who sin over a period of time.
- Holiness: God’s holiness means that he is separated from sin and devoted to seeking his own honor.
- Attributes of Purpose
- “Summary” attributes
Last week we started to discuss God’s moral attributes. There are eight total attributes in this category, so we broke this discussion into two discussions, last week was part 3a and this week is part 3b. This week we will discuss God’s moral attributes of peace, righteousness, jealousy and wrath.
Peace (or order). In 1 Corinthians 14:33 Paul says, “God is not a God of confusion but of peace.” Although peace and order have not traditionally been classified as attributes of God, Paul here indicates another quality that we could think of as a distinct attribute of God. Paul tells us that God’s actions are characterized by peace and not by confusion or disorder. God himself is “the God of peace” (Romans 15:33). Those who walk in wickedness do not have peace: “There is no peace, says the LORD, for the wicked” (Isaiah 48:22).
Peace does not imply inactivity; for it was a time of intense growth and activity that Luke could say that “the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace and was built up” (Acts 9:31). Also, although God is a God of peace, he is also the one who “will neither slumber nor sleep” (Psalms 121:4). He is the God who is continually working (John 5:17). Even though heaven is a place of peace, it is a place of continual praise to God and service to him.
God’s peace can be defined as follows: God’s peace means that in God’s being and in his actions he is separate from all confusion and disorder, yet he is continually active in innumerable well-ordered, fully controlled, simultaneous actions.
This definition of God’s peace does not have to do with inactivity, but with ordered and controlled activity. To engage in infinite activity of this sort required God’s infinite wisdom, knowledge and power.
When we understand God’s peace in this way we can see an imitation of this attribute of God not only in peace as part of the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5:22 – 23, but also in the last-mentioned element in the fruit of the Spirit, namely, “self-control”. When we a God’s people walk in his ways, we come to know more and more fully by experience that the kingdom of God is “righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit” (Romans 14:17).
Righteousness, Justice. In English the terms righteousness and justice are different words, but in both the Hebrew Old Testament and the Greek New Testament there is only one word group behind these two English terms. In the Old Testament these words primarily translate from the word tsedek, and the New Testament translate from the word dikaios. Therefore, these two words will be considered together.
God’s righteousness means that God always acts in accordance with what is right and is himself the final standard of what is right.
Speaking of God, Moses says, “All his ways are justice. A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and right is he” (Deuteronomy 32:4). Abraham successfully appeals to God’s own character of righteousness when he says, “Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?” (Genesis 18:25). As a result of God’s righteousness, it is necessary that he treat people according to what they deserve. It is necessary that God punish sin, for it does not reward; it is wrong and deserves punishment.
When God does not punish sin, it seems to indicate that he is unrighteous, unless some other means of punishing sin can be seen. This is why Paul says that when God sent Jesus Christ as a sacrifice to bear the punishment for sin, it “was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins; it was to prove at the present time that he himself is righteous and that he justifies him who has faith in Jesus’ (Romans 3:25-26). When Jesus died to pay the penalty for our sins it showed that God was truly righteous, because he did give appropriate punishment to sin, even though he did forgive his people their sins.
With respect to the definition of righteousness give, we may ask, what is “right”? In other words, what ought to happen and what ought to be? Here we must respond that whatever conforms to God’s moral character is right. God is the final standard of righteousness, so there can be no standard outside of God by which we measure righteousness or justice. God is the final standard.
Whenever Scripture confronts the question whether God himself is righteous or not, the ultimate answer is always that we as God’s creation have no right to say that God is unrighteous or unjust. The creature cannot say that of the Creator. Paul responds to this difficult question about God’s righteousness by saying, “But who are you, a man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, “Why have you made me thus?’ Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for beauty and another for menial use?” (Romans 9:20-21).
It should be cause for thanksgiving and gratitude when we realize that righteousness and omnipotence are both possessed by God. If he were a God of perfect righteousness without power to carry out that righteousness, he would not be worthy of worship and we would have no guarantee that justice will ultimately prevail in the universe. Also if he were a God of unlimited power, yet without righteousness in his character, how unthinkably horrible the universe would be! There would be unrighteousness at the center of all existence and there would be nothing anyone could do to change it. We ought to continually thank and praise God for who he is, “for all his ways are justice. A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and right is he” (Deuteronomy 32:4).
Jealousy. Although the word jealous is frequently used in a negative sense in English, it also takes a positive sense at time. For example, Paul says to the Corinthians, “I feel a divine jealousy for you” (2 Corinthians 11:2). Here the sense is “earnestly protective.” It has the meaning of being deeply committed to seeking honor or welfare of someone, whether oneself or someone else.
Scripture represents God as being jealous in this way. He continually and earnestly seeks to protect his own honor. He commands his people not to bow down to idols or serve them, saying, “for I the LORD you God am a jealous God” (Exodos 20:5). He desires that worship be given to himself and not to false gods.
God’s jealousy can be defined as follows: God’s jealousy means that God continually seeks to protect his own honor.
People sometimes have trouble thinking that jealousy is a desirable attribute in God. This is because jealousy for our own honor as human beings is almost always wrong. We are not to be proud, but humble. Yet we must realize that the reason pride is wrong is a theological reason: it is that we do not deserve the honor that belongs to God alone.
It is not wrong for God to seek his own honor, however, for he deserves it fully. God freely admits that his actions in creation and redemption are done for his own honor. Speaking of his decision to withhold judgement from his people, God says, “For my own sake, for my own sake, I do it… My glory I will not give to another” (Isaiah 48:11). It is health for us spiritually when we settle in our hearts the fact that God deserves all honor and glory from his creation, and that it is right for him to seek this honor. He alone is infinitely worthy of being praised. To realize this fact and to delight in it is to find the secret of true worship.
Wrath. It may surprise you to find how frequently the Bible talks about the wrath of God. Yet if God loves all that is right and good, and all that conforms to his moral character, then it should not be surprising that he would hate everything that is opposed to his moral character. God’s wrath directed against sin is therefore closely related to God’s holiness and justice. God’s wrath can be defines as follows: God’s wrath means that he intensely hates all sin.
Descriptions of God’s wrath are found frequently in the passages of Scripture, especially when God’s people sin greatly against him. God sees the idolatry of the people of Israel and says to Moses, “I have seen this people…; now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may burn hot against them and I consume them” (Exodus 32:9 – 10). Later Moses tells the people, “Remember and do not forget how you provoked the LORD you God to wrath in the wilderness…Even at Horeb you provoked the LORD to wrath, and the LORD was so angry with you that he was ready to destroy you” (Deuteronomy 9:7 – 8).
The doctrine of the wrath of God in Scripture is not limited to the Old Testament, however, as some have falsely imagined. We read in John 3:36, “He who believes in the son has eternal life; he who does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God rests upon him.” Paul also tells us, “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and wickedness of men” (Romans 1:18).
As with the other attributes of God, this is an attribute for which we should thank and praise God. It may not immediately appear to us how this can be done, since wrath seems to be such a negative concept. Viewed alone, it would arouse only fear and dread. Yet it is helpful for us to ask what God would be like if he were a God that did not hate sin. He would then be a God who either delighted in sin or at least not troubled by it. Such a God would not be worthy of our worship, for sin is hateful and it is worthy of being hated. Sin ought not to be. It is in fact a virtue to hate evil and sin, and we rightly imitate this attribute of God when we feel hatred against great evil, injustice, and sin.
Also, we should not fear God’s wrath as Christians, for although “we were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind” (Ephesians 2:3), we now have trusted in Jesus, “who delivers us from the wrath to come” (1 Thessalonians 1:10). When we meditate on the wrath of God, we will be amazed to think that our Lord Jesus Christ bore the wrath of God that was due to our sin, in order that we might be saved (Romans 3:25 – 26).
When we think of God’s wrath to come, we should be simultaneously be thankful for his patience in waiting to execute that wrath in order that yet more people may be saved: “The LORD is not slow about his promise as some count slowness, but is forbearing toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a loud noise…” (2 Peter 3:9 – 10). God’s wrath should motivate us to evangelism and should also cause us to be thankful that God finally will punish all wrongdoing and will reign over the new heavens and a new earth in which there will be no unrighteousness.