“How someone thinks about God the Father, determines how they think about every other aspect of life.” – Dr. Jeffrey Bingham

The Doctrine of God [1] 

If the quotation above is true, then an artists conception of God is anything but concealed in their work.  How someone portrays nature, the miracle of birth, or even the sorrow of death all have a direct relationship to how this person thinks about God.  Christians believe that the God whom they have placed their trust in is the only true and living God.  This being the case, for a Christian to even begin evaluating art, pleasure, daily experience, or even sermons heard each Sunday, the person must know who God is and how He is to be thought about and portrayed.

When someone becomes a Christian, they grow to Love God without seeing Him, and they begin to know Him more distinctly over time (Eph. 3:13-21, Col. 1:25-28, and Rom 8:15).  They may not understand the Trinity, but they will not deny God’s triune nature at first or over the course of time.  The reason that humanity can know God rests upon the fact that He has revealed Himself to us.  We cannot fully comprehend Him (Ps. 145:3), but we can gain knowledge of Him as we become more obedient to His calling (Col. 1:9-10).  With this in mind, let us look first at several general observations about God, and then more specifically at His essence and attributes.

For starters, God does not need any of us - or the rest of creation - but He does delight in us (Acts 17:24-ff.).  Secondly, God would still be fully God in all of His glory even if we were never created.  No single person or groups of people have ever contributed anything to God (Job 41:11).  His value does not lie in us, but our value is certainly found in Him.  Thirdly, God sees all things of all time equally vivid because He is outside of time, and in fact created time (Ps. 90:2).  Furthermore, God being eternal is outside of time, yet we still observe Him acting in time.  He does this because He cares about and is interested in all of His creation.  God is both infinite and personal.

Now that these statements have been made, we may begin looking more closely at who God is by discerning what has been revealed in Scripture.  The following list is not exhaustive, but will serve as a sturdy foundation upon which to build in the future.

The Attributes of God

1. God is Spirit (John 4:24), and as such is invisible (John 6:46, 1 Tim. 1:17).
2. God is immutable - He does not change - meaning His perfections, His purposes, His being, and His promises do not shift about (James 1:17, and Mal. 3:6).
3. God is One (John 17:3, and Deut. 6:4). There is not more than one God, and the Trinity is not made up of plural deities.
4. God is omniscient – He knows all things, actual and possible, past, present, or future, hidden or revealed, perfectly, from all eternity, immediately, simultaneously, and exactly; God has perfect wisdom (Job 37:16, Prov. 15:11, Heb. 4:13).  In addition to this, we may say that God’s knowledge never changes.  When we see that God says He will remember our sins no more if we repent and believe in Him, it means that our sins will not play a part in the relationship God has with us.  He sees through the lens of the blood of His Son all who believe as innocent, not as acquitted or as ex-cons, but simply as innocent.
5. God is omnipotent–He can do anything and everything He wills to do; this is always in harmony with His perfection (Heb. 6:18, James 1:13, 2 Tim. 2:13, Job 42:2, and Hab. 1:12-13).
6. God is omnipresent – He does not have spatial dimensions and is present everywhere with His whole being.  God has the ability to act where He wills at any point at any time (Prov. 15:29, Jer. 23:24-ff.).
7. God is Holy – He is absolute perfection in all His attributes, and He is separated from moral evil and sin (Is. 57:15).
8. God is righteous and just – these two attributes deal with how God treats His creatures (Ezra 9:15, Ps. 145:7, Eph. 4:7).
9. God possesses the attribute of goodness.  This means that God is the final standard of good; all that He does is worthy of approval (Ps.100:5, Luke 18:19).  Our knowledge of His goodness encourages us to give thanks to Him in all circumstances (1 Thess. 5:18).  We are also to be good as God is good (Gal. 6:10, Luke 6:27-35, 2 Tim. 3:17).  Furthermore: God’s mercy is His goodness toward those in distress, His grace is His goodness toward those who deserve only punishment, and His patience is His goodness toward those who continue in sin over a period of time (2 Sam. 24:14, Rom. 3:23-24, Ex. 34:6-7, Rom. 2:4, 1 Tim. 1:16, and 1 Peter 3:20).
10. God possesses the attribute of truth. He is true God and His words are the true and final standard of truth (1 John 5:20, Job 37:16, John 17:3, Is. 45:8-ff., John 10:35, and John 17:17).  He will always do what He says He will do, and He will always fulfill what He promises (Num. 23:19, 2 Sam. 7:28).  Like God, we should love truth, and in order for us to know how to love truth and to even know what truth is, we must set our gaze upon Yahweh. Finally, He does not conform to the image we have made of Him, but our image of Him conforms to who He is.
11. God is wise – His wisdom means that He always chooses the best goals and the best means to those goals (Rom. 16:27, Job 9:4, and 12:13).  God is also the one who bestows wisdom upon us (Ps. 19:7, and James 1:5).
12. God is a God of jealousy, wrath, and peace (1 Cor. 14:33, 2 Cor. 11:2, 2 Peter 3:9-10, and Deut. 9:7-8).  God protects His honor, He hates sin, and He loves righteousness.
13. God possesses the attribute of love–this is defined as God’s eternal giving of Himself for others.  Love is self-giving for the benefit of others and again, by looking at God, we may see how we are to live in this regard (1 John 4:8, John 17:24, 3:5, 19:30, and Rom. 5:8).

To conclude this list, let us note that God gives two kinds of grace.  He gives common grace to all men; this is seen in His longsuffering to punish sin ( Rom. 2:4, 2 Peter 3:9, John 3:16, and Rom. 5:8).  In addition to this He also gives efficacious grace; this is given to those who receive salvation.  This grace always and every time brings the person to whom it is given into a relationship with Christ.  This grace is irresistible and special toward the elect (Eph. 1:11, and Rom. 3:10, and 8:29-30).

Now that God’s nature has been essence and attributes have been discussed introductorily, several observations may be made about how God is to be thought about by His people and portrayed in their art.  First of all, we should not think of God as being on our level.  He is not our equal but our Almighty Creator.  This also means that we should think of Him reverently.  Secondly, we should not ever think of Him as inadequate.  If a work of art portrays God as weak or uninterested in His creation, this portrayal must not be condoned.  He is powerful enough to bring to an end any evil and suffering in this world, and he is most definitely an active part in the order and peace that is still found here.  The world may be fallen, but God is long suffering in bringing about its destruction.  For this we are to be grateful, because it allows the time for more people to come into fellowship with Him before it is too late.  Thirdly, we must not think of Him as malevolent.  To do so would be to blame God for the evil in this world.  We sinned and brought upon the destruction and separation from God that we are all born into.  As was seen above, God has no part in sin.  But just because one should not portray God as malevolent, it does not mean that one should not portray Him as wrathful.  God is a God of wrath and His must be satisfied.  While God may have no part in sin, His righteous and Holy Character demands that sin must be paid for.

This is where I will draw this discussion to a close.  Much more could be said here, but I believe there is enough in the list above for you to mull over, ponder, and make applications of your own to keep you busy for the next month.  I hope that as you read through this again or think about these things in the coming days that you will ask the Holy Spirit to convict you of ways you can be more aware of God’s activity and presence in the world around you.  I also hope that as you gain a better understanding of His character that you will allow Him to convict of how you need to change your own views about who God is and how you are to serve Him in the way you live.

Before this section is brought to a close, we will look at one more thing–the concept of the Trinity.

The Doctrine of the Trinity

The God of Christianity eternally exists as three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Each person is fully God and there is only one God (1 Cor. 2:10-11, 12:4-6, 2 Cor. 13:14, Eph. 4:4-6, 1 Peter 1:2, Jude 20-21, Ps. 139:7-8, John 1:1-4, and Acts 5:27-32). If you deny the Trinity, you deny the God of Christianity and have no place in salvation. God is three persons, each person is fully God, and there is one God.

Old Testament allusions to the Trinity: Gen 1:1, 1:2, 1:26, Zech. 3:2, and Gen. 6:3.

New Testament allusions to the Trinity: Matt. 3:16-17, 28:18, John 1:1.

The three beings are referred to as Deity and as one God; therefore, we must believe the Doctrine of the Trinity.  This doctrine is the harmonization between one God and three distinctions in the Godhead.  The Father is the origin and the end of all things.  All things are delivered to the Father (1 Cor. 15).  The Father sends the Son, but the Father is sent-less.  Jesus Christ is not self-governing, He submits to the Father.  The Son is the agent of all things.  God the Father does all things through the Son and by the Holy Spirit.  The Son is not created but eternal with the Father.  The Spirit is also uncreated, but proceeds from the Father and is also eternal with the Father.  Salvation is given to us from the Father, through the Son, and by the Holy Spirit.