Biblical Concept: God, Essence of
Prologue: (Majestic, glorious, holy God.)
• Holy God
above all qualities. Example: righteousness demonstrates God’s holiness - Isaiah 5:16. Holy
Spirit is the chosen name and reality.
•
Glorious God summarizes all of God’s
qualities - John 17:1-5, Revelation 21:23, 2 Peter 1:3.
•
Majestic describes the sum of God’s
being - 2 Peter 1:17, Exodus 15:11.
•
Divine soul. God is a soulish
Being. A volitional, emotional, feeling,
Being. See Leviticus 26:11 and Psalm 11:5.
_______
1.
Sovereign (self-sufficient) - Daniel 4:35.
2. Righteous (good) - Psalm 145:17.
3. Just (fair) - Deuteronomy 32:4.
4. Love (seeks best) - 1 John 4:8-10.
5. Eternal Life - 1 Timothy 6:16.
6. Omniscient (knows all) - 1 John
3:20 and Psalm 147:4-5.[1]
7. Omnipotent (all powerful) - Psalm
135:6 and Isaiah 43:13.
8. Omnipresent (everywhere) - Psalm
139:7-12.
9. Immutable (no change) - James 1:17.
10. Veracity (truth) - Psalm 33:4 and
117:2.
11. Emotions and attitudes:
a.
Humor - Psalm 2:4.
b.
Anger - Psalm 2:5.
c.
Compassion – Exodus 34:6, Jonah 4:11, 2 Chronicles. 36:15-16, Ezekiel 18:21-23,
and 32.
d. Grace and mercy are part of God’s general
attitudes - 2
John 1:3 Grace, mercy and peace will
be with us, from God the Father and from Jesus Christ, the Son
of the Father, in truth and love.
(Note the omission of the Holy Spirit.)
e. Excellence - 2 Peter
1:3.
f. Jealous - Exodus 34:14.
g. Worship desire - John 4:23.
h. Desire to be feared - Revelation 14:7.
i. Wrath - John 3:36.
j.
Care - 1 Peter 5:7.
k. Kind - Psalm
145:17.
12. Personality: When the three
members of the Biblical God chose to act toward humanity as Father, Son, and
Spirit; perhaps they acted according to their individual
personalities? The Father took the role of planner because that is what
He is like personally. The Son took the
role of becoming manifest to humanity because
that is what He is like personally.
The Spirit empowers/sanctifies because that best fits His personal
desire. (See: NAS 1 Peter 1:2 according to the foreknowledge
of God the Father, by the sanctifying work of the Spirit, that you
may obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with His blood: May grace and
peace be yours in fullest
measure.)
13. Imagination: Exhibited by the
unlimited diversity of the four dimensional universe and the spiritual
universe. (Part of omniscience? Sure,
but imagination as a
working part of omniscience more than
deserves special attention. How about
this: Imagination is more than just omniscience.)
14. Conclusions: The God of the
Bible has perfect Personal balance. We
must also think of Him with balance. God
is "love" and "just" at the same time. We humans
cannot trick, manipulate, or rationalize the God of the Bible--though we
try. The essence characteristics of God
can be summarized with the words: God’s
majestic
holy glory.
NAS Isaiah 5:16 But the LORD of hosts will be exalted in judgment, And
the holy God will show Himself holy in righteousness.
NAS John 17:1 These things Jesus spoke; and lifting up His eyes to heaven,
He said, "Father, the hour has come; glorify Thy Son, that the Son may
glorify Thee, 2 even as Thou gavest Him authority
over all mankind, that to all whom Thou hast given Him, He may give eternal
life. 3 "And this is eternal life, that they may know Thee, the only true
God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent. 4 "I glorified Thee on the
earth, having accomplished the work which Thou hast given Me to do. 5 "And
now, glorify Thou Me together with Thyself, Father, with the glory which I had
with Thee before the world was.
NAS Revelation 21:23 And the city has no need of the sun
or of the moon to shine upon it, for the glory of God has illumined it, and its
lamp is the Lamb.
NAS 2 Peter 1:3 seeing that His
divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through
the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence.
NAS
2 Peter 1:17 For when He received honor and glory
from God the Father, such an utterance as this was made to Him by the Majestic
Glory, "This is My beloved Son with whom I am well-pleased "—
NAS Exodus
15:11 "Who is like Thee among the
gods, O LORD? Who is like Thee, majestic in holiness, Awesome in praises,
working wonders?
NAS Psalm 11:5 The LORD tests the righteous and the wicked, And the one who loves
violence His soul hates.
NAS Leviticus 26:11 'Moreover, I will make My dwelling among you, and My soul will not reject
you.
[1] Speculations: How does an Omniscient God enjoy
interacting with volitional creatures, knowing their every future action? Solution: In eternity future, with only
objective faithful sinless volitions, perhaps God veils His deity and enjoys
the spontaneous imaginative freewill interaction with multitudes of volitions?
Perhaps this will be one of the future functions of the God-man Jesus Christ,
to facilitate enjoyment in God’s moment by moment interaction? Perhaps God’s omniscience does not preclude
His ability to enjoy the moment?
Example: Proverbs 5:21 21 For the ways of a man are before
the eyes of the LORD, And He watches all his paths. Also, Proverbs 15:3 3 The eyes of the LORD are in
every place, Watching the evil and the good.
Note
Psalm 37:23b. If “He” is God, then: “He
delights in his way.” Also: Genesis 2:15, Then the LORD God took
the man and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it. Genesis
2:19, And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of
the field and every bird of the sky, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever
the man called a living creature, that was its name. See God saw in
Genesis 1:4,10,12,18,21 and 25. In Genesis 5:22-24 22 Then
Enoch walked with God three hundred years after he became the father of Methuselah,
and he had other sons and
daughters. 23 So all the days
of Enoch were three hundred and sixty-five years. 24 And Enoch walked with God;
and he was not, for God took him. Another example: God’s
Counsel
in eternity past suggests a linear
aspect to God. As with any
volitional being, the process of thinking is linear—humans live in an approximate
three second window of thought, for example.
Omniscient but linear might be an important way to understand God’s
Omniscience? Another way to say it is:
The God of the Bible exists in at least 14
different dimensions and one of the dimensions includes four dimensional
linear reality.