Therefore in Christ God does have hands, feet, arms, etc. and sees, feels, walks, etc. However, this is only true of God in Christ Jesus, God manifested in the flesh.
E. SUMMARY OF THIS TRUTH: Apart from the person of the Lord Jesus, God, the Eternal Spirit, is:
1. Spirit;
2. Invisible;
3. Incorporeal;
4. Without parts;
5. Without body;
6. Free from all limitations;
7. Apprehended not by the senses but by the soul;
8. Above sensuous perceptions; and
9. Not a material Being.
THE ATTRIBUTES OF GOD
A. DEFINITION OF ATTRIBUTES: By attributes we mean the characteristics and qualities of God. As water is wet and fire is hot, so God is eternal, immutable, holy, etc. These attributes are classified into two classes: the Natural and the Moral. As it is not our intention to go into a comprehensive study of the divine attributes we shall simply name a few of the most familiar ones and not classify them.
B. THE OMNISCIENCE OF GOD: This means that God is perfect in knowledge; He knows everything. He has perfect knowledge of all that will transpire among the human family and nations. Daniel chapters 2, 8 and 12.
“Known unto God are all His ways from the beginning of the world.” (Acts 15:18). Read Isaiah 46:9-10.
References: Job 11:7-8; Job 37:16; Psalm 139:2-3; Proverbs 15:3; Isaiah 40:26-27; Matthew 10:29-30; I John 3:20; and Proverbs 5:21.
Note: We must not confound the foreknowledge of God with His fore-ordination. The fact that God knows a thing makes that thing certain but not necessary. Man still has the responsibility for his own acts. Also note that there is one thing that God does not know and that is another God beside Himself.
C. THE OMNIPOTENCE OF GOD: This means that God is perfect in power. God’s power admits no bound or limitations.
“I know that thou canst do anything.” (Job 42:2).
“Is anything too hard for the Lord?” (Genesis 18:14).
Satan has no power over any of God’s children only as God permits. God raises up a standard against Satan just as He sets a bar to the waves of the sea (Job 1:12; Job 2:6; Luke 22:31-32).
D. THE OMNIPRESENCE OF GOD: This means that God is everywhere at all times. His center is everywhere; His circumference is nowhere.
“Do not I fill heaven and earth? saith the Lord.” (Jeremiah 23:23-24).
Speak to Him then for He listens: and nearer than hands and feet. God is never so far off as even to be near; He is within. Our spirit is the home He holds most dear. The omnipresence of God is not only a detective truth; it is also protective (detective to the sinner, but protective to the saint.)
References: Psalm 139: 17-18; Genesis 16:13; II Chronicles 2:6; Matthew 28:20; Acts 7: 48; and Acts 17:24-28.
Grouping the above three attributes:
Psalm 139:1-6 - The omniscience of God.
Psalm 139:7-12 - The omnipresence of God.
Psalm 139:13-19 - The omnipotence of God.
Christ has these attributes proving His Deity:
John 3:13 - On earth and in heaven - Omnipresence of Christ.
Matthew 28:18 - There is no other power - Omnipotence of Christ.
John 16:30 and also John 21:17 - Omniscience of Christ.
E. THE HOLINESS OF GOD: This is the attribute with which God would have us remember Him more than any other. The visions which God gave to Job, Moses and Isaiah show this very definitely. Some thirty times does the prophet Isaiah speak of God as “The Holy One.”
It is because of this attribute more than others that God cannot fellowship with sinful man. It is not God’s omnipotence and man’s weakness, which hinders fellowship nor yet the fact that God is perfect in knowledge and man is limited in knowledge. It is rather because of God’s holiness and man’s sinfulness. It is because of this God desires us to remember Him by His attribute of holiness.
The holiness of God demanded that the blood of millions of lambs, goats, bullocks, turtle doves, etc. be shed whereby man might approach unto God. In the New Testament we can only approach God through the blood of the man Christ Jesus.
The construction of the Tabernacle with its holy and most holy place, into which the High Priest entered once every year with blood; the ten commandments with all their moral commands; the laws of clean and unclean animals—absolutely nothing unholy in Him.
“God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.” (I John 1:5).
God hates sin and to Him it is vile and detestable. The infinite distance between the sinner and God is because of sin. The sinner and God are at opposite poles of the moral universe. Herein lies the need of atonement whereby this awful distance is bridged.
We shall have right views of sin when we get right views of God’s holiness. The approach to a holy God must be through the merits of Jesus Christ and on the ground of righteousness, which is Christ’s and which in the natural we do not possess (Philippians 3:9).
References: Isaiah 59:2; Isaiah 41:14; Isaiah 6:3-5; Acts 3:14; I Peter 1:15: and Revelation 4:8.
F. THE IMMUTABILITY OF GOD: This means that God does not change. Time and change are together denied of God. There is no past, present or future with God. Everything is one great living present. It is not possible that God should possess an attribute at one time that He does not possess at another.
“The Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.” (James 1:17).
“I am the Lord, I change not…” (Malachi 3:6).
G. THE ETERNITY OF GOD: This attribute is closely connected to that of immutability. It simply means that God dwells in eternity and time has no effect upon Him. With Him there is no past or future but one eternal present.
“From everlasting to everlasting, thou are God.” (Psalm 90:2).
“Art thou not from everlasting, O Lord my God?” (Habakkuk 1:12).
“I am that I am…“ (Exodus 3:14).
The past, present and future lie in these words for the title of Jehovah. I AM the eternally present One; the self-existent One.
H. RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE OMNIPRESENCE OF GOD AND THE ETERNITY OF GOD: There is a direct relation between space and time. This may be worked out scientifically. Actually God could not be omnipresent if he were not the “I AM”. Filling the universe with His presence He sees the past as now. How we should rejoice that our past is blotted out under the blood of Jesus. Otherwise our sins would continuously appear as happening now in the eyes of our God.
I. DOES GOD REPENT? If God is immutable how can God repent?
“And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.” (Genesis 6:6).
Actually God never changes His mind. There is no necessity for this for His foreknowledge tells Him before hand of every act upon the part of man. God’s character never changes but His dealings with men change as they change from ungodliness to godliness and from disobedience to obedience. When a man bicycling against the wind turns about and goes with the wind, the wind seems to have changed although it is blowing just the same as it was before. It was the man who changed; not the wind.
J. GOD IS LOVE:
“God