What are God’s qualities – His perfections?
What are God’s perfections and what are the characteristics of God?
This may seem difficult to pinpoint because God is invisible, dwells in unapproachable light and no one can look at Him and live.
That explains why we can’t see God, so we then have to rely on Him revealing what He is like through the pages of Scripture – the Bible.
So by reading the Bible, we can come to some sort of an answer on what the characteristics of God are.
Part of that answer is that there are four main characteristics of God in the Bible which are known as His attributes or His perfections, and they are:
- The Glory of God
- The Lordship of God
- The Holiness of God
- The love of God
God is made up of three persons; God the Father, God the Son (Jesus Christ) and God the Holy Spirit.
Table of Contents menu
Table of Contents:
1. The attributes, perfections and the characteristics of God.
J.I. Packer wrote as a preface to Arthur Pink’s book ‘The Attributes of God’ [available from Eden1 ]
Our aim in studying the Godhead must be to know God Himself better.
J.I. Packer in the preface to Arthur Pink’s book ‘The Attributes of God’.
Our concern must be to enlarge our acquaintance, not simply with the doctrine of God’s attributes, but with the living God whose attributes they are.”
In that book, Packer has divided God’s attributes into these chapters:
- The Solitariness of God. During a past eternity, God was alone, self-contained, self-sufficient, self-satisfied and in need of nothing.
- The Decree of God is His purpose or determination concerning future things. It is not His purposes, but His purpose – singular, as Scripture puts it.
- The Knowledge of God. He knows everything, everything possible, everything actual, all events and all creatures of the past, the present and the future. He is acquainted with every detail in the life of every being in heaven, on earth and in hell.
- The Foreknowledge of God in Scripture [There are three different views of God’s foreknowledge:]
1) [This first view was held by A. W. Pink which follows the Calvinist view where everything is determined by God:] He chooses certain people for salvation, whilst those who are not ‘elected’ freely choose to continue in their sin and rebellion. God’s foreknowledge is not about foreseeing events or a person’s actions. God purposed in Himself to elect certain people, not because He saw any good in them, but solely out of His own pleasure to save them. We do not know why He chose the ones He did.
2) [This is the second view:] Arminianism describes the Foreknowledge of God in Scripture as events or actions which are known or perceived by God before they happen. Therefore, as God is outside of time, He knows from all eternity who will turn to Him and they are the ‘elected’ ones. The gospel is proclaimed to everyone and therefore everyone can either accept Jesus as their Saviour or reject Him.
3) [For the third view see below ##.] - The Supremacy of God. No purpose of His can be thwarted. ‘Our God is in heaven; he does whatever pleases him.’ (Psalm 115:3 NIV)
- The Sovereignty of God. He is elevated above everything and all created beings. He is the Most High, Lord of heaven, earth and hell. He is subject to no one, influenced by none, God does as He pleases and is absolutely independent.
- The Immutability of God. He is perpetually the same, subject to no change in His being, attributes or determinations, therefore He is known as ‘a rock’. Some verses seem to indicate that God changed His mind (Genesis 6:6), but to help us understand Him He describes Himself in human ways, like having arms, eyes, etc. So, no, God does not change His mind as many verses tell us (Numbers 23:19, etc.).
- The Holiness of God. He is absolute purity, He is light in whom is no darkness. Nothing but that which is excellent can proceed from Him. God demonstrated His hatred of sin when He let loose His wrath upon His Son on the cross.
- The Power of God. His power is exercised as He wills, when He wills, where He wills – He does as He pleases. The power of God is that ability and strength whereby He can bring to pass whatsoever He pleases.
- The Faithfulness of God. Every new year shows God’s faithfulness, day and night do not stop, there may be crop failures but throughout the world, harvests get gathered in. God is true to His Word, His promises are sure and He is faithful to His people – He can be relied upon and will not forget.
- The Goodness of God. ‘Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own? Is thine eye evil, because I am good?’ (Matthew 20:15 KJV) ‘Oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men! For he satisfieth the longing soul and filleth the hungry soul with goodness.’ (Psalm 107:8-9 KJV)
- The Patience of God is that excellency which causes Him to sustain great insults without immediately avenging Himself – He is slow to anger. In the time of Noah, God delayed the flood for 120 years. With the rebellious Israelites ‘for about forty years he put up with them in the wilderness.’ (Acts 13:18 ESV)
- The Grace of God is favour shown to the undeserving, the ones destined for hell. The Mercy of God is ‘over all His works’, but Grace is only mentioned in connection with His chosen (elected) people. ‘I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy.’ (Exodus 33:19 ESV)
- The Mercy of God is shown to all of His creatures giving them ‘life and breath and everything else’. (Acts 17:25 NIV). This is called general mercy. There is a special mercy shown towards humanity: ‘For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.’ (Matthew 5:45 ESV). Then there is a sovereign mercy which is reserved for the heirs of salvation. For reasons only known to God, He can relieve one wretched sufferer, but refrain from relieving another.
- The Love of God. He loved us when we were loveless, rebellious and had nothing to attract Him and yet He loved us with an eternal, everlasting love.
- The Wrath of God is not a blotch on God’s character – some Christians are embarrassed with this subject. But God makes no attempt to conceal the facts concerning His wrath. God is holy and so He hates sin and His anger burns against the sinner. ‘God is a righteous judge, a God who displays his wrath every day.’ (Psalm 7:11 NIV) God’s anger is not a malignant and malicious retaliation, inflicting injury for the sake of it, or in return for injury received. ‘…let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear: For our God is a consuming fire.’ (Hebrews 12:28-29 KJV) 2
## My own personal belief is that both Calvinism and Arminianism are in the Bible – both are true. Gerry Breshears calls this ‘Calminianism’ 3
God does choose certain people against their will, as in the case of Saul on the road to Damascus. (Acts 9:3-16)
Whereas to others God our Saviour ‘wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.’ (1 Timothy 2:4 NIV) and His message to them is: ‘For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.’ (John 3:16 NIV)
There is evidence in the Bible for both of those beliefs.
Now we look at just the four foundational characteristics of God:
1) God’s glory is one of the characteristics of God.
God is omnipresent which means that He is everywhere, all of the time. He is also from everlasting to everlasting.
God’s glory is the visible manifestation of God’s invisible being which was demonstrated when the Lord came down upon Mount Sinai to give the Ten Commandments:
On the morning of the third day, there was thunder and lightning, with a thick cloud over the mountain, and a very loud trumpet blast.
Exodus 19:16-20 NIV
Everyone in the camp trembled.
Then Moses led the people out of the camp to meet with God, and they stood at the foot of the mountain.
Mount Sinai was covered with smoke because the Lord descended on it in fire. The smoke billowed up from it like smoke from a furnace, and the whole mountain trembled violently.
As the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke and the voice of God answered him.
The Lord descended to the top of Mount Sinai and called Moses to the top of the mountain.”
God’s glory is that He is without limits – He fills the whole universe and beyond.
He never has to rely on anyone and does not need anything because He is self-existent and always consistent.
2) God’s Lordship is a characteristic of Him.
The Lord God is the creator God who designed this whole universe and spoke it into existence.
He is Sovereign over all things and has the ultimate authority. But it is not as straightforward as that as God allows free thinking.
We are not robots; we have all a choice to do what is right, but He will hold everyone accountable.
God is all-powerful and this is known as the omnipotence of God. He is the only non-created being and no one is stronger or more intelligent than the Lord.
3) A characteristic of God is His holiness.
The word ‘holiness’ means to be ‘separate’ and the meaning for individuals is for that person to be set aside for special things – like, for example, a favourite saw or drill in a toolbox.
It also means to be separate and set aside from a corrupt society.
God is holy, perfect, good and pure, so He has no sin, darkness, guile, or anything bad.
God is all-knowing, He is full of all possible wisdom and knowledge.
He can never learn anything new because He knows everything even before it has been invented.
He sees when we were conceived when the sperm and egg fused together, He hears our every word and knows all our thoughts.
This is called the omniscience of God.
He alone is God and His outworking of justice as the Judge of all the world comes from His holiness.
The wrath of God is a holy revulsion upon everything that offends His holiness.
4) The love of God is His fourth characteristic.
The Bible tells us that God is love and then the verses go straight on to immediately explain what God’s love is:
This is how God showed his love among us: he sent his one and only Son into the world so that we might live through him.
1 John 4:9-10 NIV
This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.”
God’s love is part of God’s characteristic of being perfect with unlimited goodness and this is known as God’s omnibenevolence.
The love of God is always bound up with grace in that God stoops down to embrace rebellious mankind.
Grace is the ever-flowing love to those who do not deserve any love.
Is God like a king – what is God actually like?
How approachable is God if he is the King?
2. A modern parable showing a characteristic of God.
This modern parable called: ‘Son of a King – A Father’s Son’ is written by Jon Howe and shows one of God’s greatest characteristics:
A long time ago, in a land not unlike our own, lived a noble and honest King.
The King ruled his kingdom with wisdom and honour and expected the same from all the people who lived in his land.
At the end of every month, he would invite those who held power and responsibility to come and give an account of themselves, whether they were worthy of praise and merit for their good deeds or reprimand for their misgivings.
Amongst those that came and stood before his throne each month, was the King’s own son who shared the task of running the kingdom with Dukes and Earls, Knights and Noblemen.
One month, before the throne of the great king, when everyone else had spoken, the son fell to his knees in shame and embarrassment. He had, in his own eyes, let his father down greatly and repented openly before the hushed crowd around him.
Fearing great punishment, he stood to his feet and awaited his father’s sentence.
As was the custom at this ceremony, whoever spoke before the King should give an account of the lessons learnt through the experiences of his or her past month and with a trembling voice the son admitted to learning many things about his own sinful nature.
“You are forgiven, my Son!” The King decreed finally.
“Why?” He asked with tears in his eyes. “I don’t deserve your compassion!”
The King looked down at his son lovingly and smiled. “When you know the answer to that question, you will be my son indeed!” and with that, brought the ceremony to an end.
Silently the son left his father’s court feeling somewhat confused.
Why had he shown such compassion to him when he knew he deserved to be punished, he wondered?
A month passed quickly and soon the son found himself back in the presence of his father and once again, felt the shame of having to admit to his weaknesses.
When his turn came to speak, he fell to his knees and repented for much wickedness.
Once again, he confessed to having learnt much about his wayward nature.
After a moment’s silence, the King passed his sentence. “My son, you are forgiven.”
As much as he tried, the son couldn’t understand the reasoning behind his father’s forgiveness.
While others around him were confessing to much lesser crimes and getting severe punishments, he was walking free every time.
As the months passed by, the son’s crimes and misadventures grew worse and worse, each month he confessed to his father and his father always forgave him.
Through time, his heart became hardened and even the thought of standing before his father troubled him little.
In the end, the son confessed to learning nothing.
Until one day, when the son felt as far away from his father as he ever had, a spark of realisation crept into his heart and with it the answer to his father’s lack of punishment for his crimes.
On a galloping horse, he rode to his father’s castle and when there, ran to find him in his throne room.
“Father!” He cried, “I need to speak with you.”
With tears streaming down his face, he fell before his father and wept bitterly.
When he was finally able to speak, he stood and faced him.
“Father.” He began. “I have been an unfaithful steward with all that you have given me, and you have given me much.
But I have learned that to serve without love is meaningless.
I have learned that to be your son I must honour you because I love you, not because I fear your punishment.
I can now truly repent before you because now I truly want your forgiveness.”
“Ah, my son.” The King replied. “You have learnt well, for now, you know what it truly means for me to be your father and for you to be my son.”
This is one of God’s great characteristics, He is a wonderful loving, forgiving Father to all who turn to Him.
3. Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
What are the four main characteristics of God?
1) There is nothing in the universe that is stronger than God – this is known as the omnipotence of God.
2) God is everywhere, all of the time and is outside of time – this is known as the omnipresence of God.
3) God knows everything that could be known, there is nothing new to Him. He is full of wisdom and knowledge – this is called the omniscience of God.
4) God is perfect and has unlimited goodness – this is called God’s omnibenevolence.
Does God have a face?
The subject of seeing God and His face is an interesting one:
1) God told Moses: “You cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live.” (Exodus 33:20 NIV)
2) At the end of time all the unbelievers that have ever lived will stand before God, and the question is, will they look into His face and hear their sentence from the Judge of the world? It would appear so: “Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. The earth and the heavens fled from his presence, and there was no place for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne.” (Rev. 20:11-12)
3) Also at the end of time, every believer will see His loving face: “The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads.” (Rev. 22:3-5)
Jonah the prophet is told to go to Nineveh and and tell them to turn from their evil ways.
Adolf Hitler was on the path to war, so God confronted him – it’s true!
A religious leader, Nicodemus, speaks to Jesus, but Jesus says that he knows nothing – he needs to be born again!
The word ‘Christian’ was just a nickname but the name stuck – what is a Christian?
References and credits – open in new tabs:
Cartoon image: thanks to GSP 100,000 Clipart CD
Arthur Pink’s book ‘The Attributes of God’ sold at Eden.co.uk ↩
‘The Attributes of God’ by Arthur Pink. Grace Gems. ↩
‘A Guide to Christian Theology Lesson 13 – Sovereignty, Election and Free Will’ By Gerry Breshears Biblical Training. ↩