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 (Part 3a (1 – 4) and last week Part 3b (5 – 8) )
- 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.
- Peace: 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.
- Righteousness, Justice: God’s righteousness means that God always acts in accordance with what is right and is himself the final standard of what is right.
- Jealousy: God’s jealousy can be defined as follows: God’s jealousy means that God continually seeks to protect his own honor.
- Wrath: God’s wrath can be defines as follows: God’s wrath means that he intensely hates all sin.
- Attributes of Purpose (This week)
- “Summary” attributes
This week we will examine God’s attributes of purpose, attribute that have to do with making and carrying out decisions (will, freedom, and omnipotence). This category of attributes we will discuss first God’s will in general, then the freedom of God’s will, and finally the omnipotence (or infinite power) of God’s will.
Will. God’s will is that attribute of God whereby he approves and determines to bring about every action necessary for the existence and activity of himself and all creation. This definition indicates that God’s will has to do with deciding and approving the things that God is and does. It concerns God’s choices of what to do and what not to do.
God’s Will in General. Scripture frequently indicates God’s will as the final or most ultimate reason for everything that happens. Paul refers to God as the one “who accomplishes all things according to the counsel of his will” (Ephesians 1:11). The word translated is “purpose” and suggests continual activity.
All things were created by God’s will: “For you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created” (Revelation 4:11). Both Old and New Testaments speak of human government as coming about according to God’s will: the voice from heaven tells Nebuchadnezzar that he is to learn “that the Most High rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom he will” (Daniel 4:32), and Paul says that “there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God” (Romans 13:1).
Sometimes it is God’s will that Christians suffer, as is seen in 1 Peter 3:17, for example: “For it is better to suffer for doing right, if that should be God’s will, than for doing wrong.” Then in the next chapter Peter says, “Therefore let those who suffer according to God’s will do right and entrust their souls to a faithful Creator” (1 Peter 4:19). In this verse, the phrase “according to God’s will” cannot refer to the manner in which Christians endure suffering, for then it would make the verse say essentially, “Let those who suffer while doing right, do right and entrust their souls…” This would make the phrase “according to God’s will” redundant. Rather, the phrase “according to God’s will” must refer to the fact that these Christians are suffering, just as “God’s will” referred to suffering in the previous chapter (1 Peter 3:17).
James encourages us to see all the events of our lives as subject to God’s will. To those who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade to get gain,” James says, “You do not know about tomorrow… Instead you ought to say, ‘if the Lord wills, we shall live and we shall do this or that’” (James 4:13 – 15). To attribute so many events, even evil events, to the will of God often causes misunderstanding and difficulty for Christians. Some of these difficulties will be discusses later.
Distinctions in Aspects of God’s will:
First (1) necessary will and free will: Just as we can will or choose eagerly or reluctantly, happily or with regret, secretly or publicly, so also God in the infinite greatness of his personality is also able to will different things in different ways.
One helpful distinction applied to aspects of God’s will is the distinction between God’s necessary will and God’s free will. God’s necessary will includes everything that he must will according to his own nature. What does God will necessary? He wills himself. God eternally wills to be, or wants to be, who he is and what he is. He says, “I AM WHO I AM” (Exodus 3:14). God cannot choose to be different than he is or cease to exist.
God’s free will includes all things that God decides to will but had no necessity to will according to his nature. Here we must put God’s decision to create the universe, and all the decisions relating to the details of that creation. Here we must also place all God’s acts of redemption. There was nothing in God’s own nature that required him to decide to create the universe or to redeem out of sinful mankind a people for himself. However, God did decide to create and to redeem, and these were totally free choices on his part. Though within the members of the Trinity love and fellowship and glory exist in infinite measure for all eternity, nonetheless God decided to create the universe and to redeem us for his own glory. It would be wrong for us to ever to try to find a necessary cause for creation or redemption in the being of God himself, for that would rob God of his total independence. It would be to say that without us God could not truly be God. God’s decisions to create and to redeem were totally free decisions.
Next (2) is secret will and revealed will: Another helpful distinction applied to different aspects of God’s will is the distinction between God’s secret will and his revealed will. Even in our own experience we know that we are able to will some things secretly and then only later make this will known to others. Sometimes we tell others before the things that we have willed comes about, and at other times we do not reveal our secret will until the event we willed has happened.
Surely a distinction between aspects of God’s will is evident in many passages of Scripture. According to Moses, “The secret things belong to the LORD our God; but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of the law” (Deuteronomy 29:29). Those things that God has revealed are given for the purpose of obeying God’s will: “that we may do all the words of his law.” There were many other aspects of his plan, however, that he had not revealed to them: many details about future events, specific details of hardship or of blessing in their lives, and so forth. With regard to these matters, they were to simply trust him.
God’s secret will usually include his hidden decrees by which he governs the universe and determines everything that will happen. He does not ordinarily reveal these decrees to us (except in prophecies for the future), so these decrees really are God’s “secret” will. We find out what God has decreed when events actually happen. Because this secret will of God has to do with his decreeing of events in the world, this aspect of God’s will is sometimes called God’s will of decree.
Jesus says, “Not every one who says to me “Lord, Lord.’ Shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 7:21). This reference cannot be to God’s secret will or will of decree (For all mankind follows this, even if unknowingly), but to God’s revealed will, the moral law of God that Jesus Christ’s followers are to obey. When Paul commands the Ephesians to “understand what the will of the Lord is” (Ephesians 5:17), he is speaking of God’s revealed will. So is also John when he says, “If we ask anything according to his will he hears us” (1 John 5:14).
It is probably best to put 1 Timothy 2:4 and 2 Peter 3:9 in this category as well. Paul says that God “desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Timothy 2:4). Peter says 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” (2 Peter 3:9). In neither of these verses can God’s will be understood to be his secret will, his decree concerning what will certainly occur. This is because the New Testament is clear that there will be a final judgement and not all will be saved. It is best therefore to understand these references as speaking of God’s revealed will, his commands for mankind to obey and his declaration to us of what is pleasing in his sight.
Many passages speak of God’s secret will. When James tells us to say, “If the Lord wills, we shall live and we shall do this or that (James 4:15), he cannot be talking about God’s revealed will or will of precept, for with regard to many of our actions we know that it is according to God’s command that we do one or another activity that we have planned. Rather, to trust in the sovereign control over the events of our lives.
Another instance is found in Genesis 50:20. Joseph says to his brothers, “As for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.” Here God revealed will to Joseph’s brothers was that they should love him and not steal from him or sell into slavery or make plans to murder him. But God’s secret will was that in the disobedience of Joseph’s brothers a greater good would be done when Joseph, having been sold into slavery into Egypt, gained authority over the land and was able to save his family.
There is a danger in speaking about evil events as happening according to the will of God, even though we see Scripture speaking of them in this way. One danger is that we might begin to think God takes pleasure in evil, which he does not do (read Ezekiel 33:11), though he can use it for his good purposes.
Another danger is that we might begin to blame God for sin, rather than ourselves, or to think that we are not responsible for our evil actions. Scripture, however, does not hesitate to couple statements of God’s sovereign will with statements of man’s responsibility for evil. Peter could say in the same sentence that Jesus was “delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God,” and also that “this Jesus… you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men” (Acts 2:23). Both God’s hidden will of decree and the culpable wickedness of “lawless men” in carrying it out are affirmed in the same statement. However we may understand the secret workings of God’s hidden will, we must never understand it to imply that we are freed from responsibility for evil, or that God is ever to blame for sin. Scripture never speaks that way, and we may not either, even though how this can be so may remain a mystery for us in this age.
Freedom. God’s freedom is that attribute of God whereby he does whatever he pleases. This definition implies that nothing in all creation can hinder God from doing his will. This attribute of God is therefore closely related to his will and his power. Yet this aspect of freedom focuses on the fact that God is not constrained by anything external to himself and that he is free to do whatever he wishes to do. There is no person or force that can ever dictate to God what he should do. He is under no authority or external restraint.
God’s freedom is mentioned in Psalms 115, where his great power is contrasted with the weakness of idols: “Our God is in the heavens; he does whatever he pleases” (Psalms 115:3). Human rules are not able to stand against God and effectively oppose his will, for “the king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the LORD; he turns it wherever he will” (Proverbs 21:1). Similarly, Nebuchadnezzar learns in his repentance that it is true to say of God, “he does according to his will in the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand or say to him, ‘What are you doing?’” (Daniel 4:35).
Because God is free we should not try to seek any more ultimate answer for God’s actions in creation that the fact that he willed to do something and tht his will has perfect freedom (so long as the actions he takes are consistent with his own moral character). Sometimes people try to discover the reason why God has to do one or another action (such as create the world or save us). It is better to say that it was God’s totally free will (working in a way consistent with his character) that was the final reason why he chose to create the world and to save sinners.
Omnipotence (Power, Sovereignty). God’s omnipotence means that God is able to do all his holy will. The word omnipotence us derived from two Latin words, omni, “all,” and potens, “powerful,” and means “all-powerful.” Whereas God’s freedom referred to the fact that there are no external constraints of God’s decisions, God’s omnipotence has reference to his own power to do what he decided to do.
This power is frequently mentioned in Scripture. God is “The LORD, strong and mighty, the LORD, mighty in battle!” (Psalms 24:8). The rhetorical question, “Is anything too hard for the LORD? (Genesis 18:14 and Jeremiah 32:27) certainly implies that nothing is too hard for the LORD. In fact, Jeremiah says to God, “nothing is too hard for you” (Jeremiah 32:17).
These passages indicate that God’s power is infinite, and that he is therefore not limited to doing only what he actually has done. In fact, God is able to do more than he actually does. For example, John the Baptist says in Matthew 3:9, “God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham.” God is one who “does whatever he pleases” (Psalms 115:3); he could have destroyed Israel and raised a great nation from Moses, but he did not do so.
However, there are some things that God cannot do. God cannot will nor do anything that would deny his own character. This is why the definition of omnipotence is stated in terms of God’s ability to do “all his holy will.” It is not absolutely everything that God is able to do, but everything that is consistent with his character. For example, God cannot lie. In Titus 1:2 he is called “the unlying God” or the “God who never lies.” The author of Hebrews says that in God’s oath and promise “it is impossible for God to lie” (Hebrews 6:18). 2 Timothy 2:13 says of Jesus Christ, “He cannot deny himself.” Furthermore, James says, “God cannot be tempted with evil and he himself tempts no one” (James 1:13). Thus, God cannot lie, sin, deny himself, or be tempted with evil. He cannot cease to exist, or cease to be God, or act in a way inconsistent with any of his attributes.
This means that it is not entirely accurate to say that God can do anything. Even the Scriptures passages quoted above that use phrases similar to this must be understood in their contexts to mean that God can do anything he wills to do or anything that is qualified by his other attributes (just as all God’s attributes qualify all his actions). This is therefore another instance where misunderstanding would result if one attribute were isolated from the rest of God’s character and emphasized in a disproportionate way. God’s exercise of power over his creation is also called God’s sovereignty. God’s sovereignty is his exercise of rule over his creation.
As we conclude God’s attribute of purpose, it is appropriate to realize that he has made us in such a way that we show in our lives some faint reflection of each of these attributes. God has made us as creatures with a will. We exercise choice and make real decisions regarding events in our lives. Although our will is not absolutely free in the way God’s is, God has nonetheless given us relative freedom within our spheres of activity in the universe he has created.
In fact, we have an intuitive sense that it is our ability to exercise our wills and make choices, and to do so in a relatively free way, that is one of the most significant marks of God-likeness in our existence. Of course our desire to exercise our wills and our desire to be free from restraint can show themselves in sinful ways. People can become proud and can desire a kind of freedom that involves rebellion against God’s authority and a refusal to obey his will. Nonetheless, when we use our will and our freedom to make choices pleasing to God, we reflect his character and bring glory to him. When human beings are deprived of their ability to make free choices by evil governments or by other circumstances, a significant part of their God-likeness is suppressed. It is not surprising that they will pay almost any price to regain their freedom. American revolutionary Patrick Henry’s cry “Give me liberty or give me death!” finds an echo deep within every soul in the image of God.
We do not of course have infinite power or omnipotence any more than we have infinite freedom or any of God’s other attributes to an infinite degree. But even though we do not have omnipotence, God has given us power to bring about results, both physical power and other kinds of power: mental power, spiritual power, persuasive power, and power in various kinds of authority structures (family, church, government, and so forth). In all of these areas, the use of power in ways pleasing to God and consistent with his will is again something that brings him glory as it reflects his own character.