The Bible tells us that there is only one God who, in terms of essence, is spirit. In terms of ability, God is omnipotent (all-powerful), omniscient (all-knowing) and omnipresent (present everywhere). Most importantly of all, the Bible tells us that God is Love. Following is a list of some of the main attributes of God:
God is ONE …
- Deuteronomy 6:4 Moses: “The Lord, our God … is One.“
- 1 Corinthians 8:6 Paul “yet for us there is one God…”
- To say that “God is One” is, effectively, the same as saying “There is One God.”
God is SPIRIT …
- John 4:24; God is spirit
- 1 Timothy 1:17 God is invisible
- 1 Timothy 6:15-16 No man has seen, or can see, God
- God is invisible (and cannot be seen by man) because God is spirit.
God is INFINITE …
- 1 Kings 8:27 The heavens cannot contain God
- Psalm 145:3 God’s greatness is unsearchable
- Acts 17:24 God does not dwell in temples made with hands
- When we say God is infinite, we meanGod cannot be contained in space. God is infinite because He dwells outside of space.
God is ETERNAL …
- Genesis 21:33 God is everlasting
- Psalm 90:2 God is from everlasting to everlasting
- When we say God is eternal, we meanGod is not limited by time. God is eternal because He exists outside of time. There has never been a time when God did not exist … Nor will there ever be a time when God will not exist.
God is IMMUTABLE …
- Psalm 102:27 God is the same
- Malachi 3:6 The LORD (God) does not change
- James 1:17 With God, there is not variation (change) or shadow of turning
- To say that God is immutable is to say that God is unchangeable and unchanging in His character. In practical terms, God cannot lie or sin in any way and He cannot be unfaithful. Similarly, God will always love because He cannot stop loving.
- Matthew 5:48 “… as your Father in Heaven is perfect.”
- If God is perfect, as Matthew’s account says, then God cannot become any better … because one cannot improve on perfection. If something could be made “more perfect”, then it was not perfect before.
God is HOLY …
- Psalm 99:9 The LORD, our God, is holy
- Isaiah 43:3,15 The LORD, our God, is the Holy One of Israel
- 1 Peter 1:16 God is holy
- Revelation 4:8 God Almighty is holy, holy, holy
- Revelation 15:4 Our Lord (God) alone is holy
- The word “holy” has two (2) main meanings: 1)set apart; in a class alone and 2)morally pure
- When we say that God is holy, we mean that God isin a class alone and there is no other being like God (inside or outside the universe). We also mean that He is morally pure and perfect in righteousness.
God is SOVEREIGN …
- Ephesians 1:21 God is far above all ….
- Ephesians 1:15-21,22-23 All things are under God’s feet
- God is sovereign because God is far above all. To say that all things are under God’s feet is another way of saying God is above all things (living and non-living).
- God is sovereign because God is the Supreme Being in the universe.
God is GOOD …
- Exodus 33:19 Goodness is one attribute of God’s character
- Psalm 145:9 The LORD (God) is good to all.
- God is good (and good to all) because goodness is one attribute of God’s character. As so many others have said, “God is good … and all the time … God is good.”
God is OMNIPOTENT …
- Matthew 19:26 All things are possible with God
- Revelation 19:6 “… the Lord God Omnipotent reigns!”
- To say that “all things are possible with God” is another way of saying thatnothing is impossible with God (or for God). God is omnipotent because God is all-powerful (Almighty) and able to do anything He wants/desires to do (or decides to do).
God is OMNISCIENT …
- Psalm 139:1-4 God knows when we sit and when we rise … what we are thinking … when we travel and when we rest … all our ways. He even knows what we are going to say before we say it.
- Psalm 147:4-5 God is not only able to count the stars … He is able to give each of them a different name. His understanding is infinite.
- When we say that God is omniscient, we mean God knows everything. Put another way, there is nothing that God does not know.
- As Psalm 139 points out, God knows everything about us, including what we are going to say before we say it (or even think it).
- As Psalm 147 points out, God knows everything about the universe.
God is OMNIPRESENT …
- Psalm 139:7-12 There is nowhere we can go to hide from God’s presence
- Jeremiah 23:23-24 The LORD (God) fills the heavens and Earth.
- To say that there is nowhere we can go to hide from God’s presence is another way of saying that God is everywhere.
- We cannot hide anywhere from God’s presence because God fills the heavens and Earth (as the Spirit of God).
God is LOVE …
- Psalm 103:17 God’s mercy is from everlasting to everlasting. See Psalm 103:17 (NIV).
- Ephesians 2:4-5 God’s abundant mercy is because of His great love.
- 1 John 4:8,16 “… God is love … God is love.”
- NOTE: The passage in 1st John does not say that love is something that God has or does, but that love is what God is. In other words, IF God could be made up of anything (which He can’t because He is spirit), THEN He would be made up of pure love.
Although LOVE is the attribute mentioned last, it is definitely not least. As we can see from Ephesians 2:4, God’s abundant mercy is because of His great love. Similarly, it is because of God’s great love that He is so good, so faithful, so kind and so gracious in so many areas.