Biblical Descriptions of God

N a m e s , I m a g e s & A t t r i b u t e s

God’s NamesGod communicates what He is like through His name and names.

God’s proper name is “Lord”.

It is the translation of the Hebrew words “Yahweh” & “Adonai” & the NT word “Kyrios”.

Ex. 3:1-15

He is a person.

He is a holy person.

He is the head of the covenant relationship with His people.

His control, authority, and presence.

God—ELOHIM/THEOS: A general name that can refer to a false god as well as the true God of the Bible.

God Almighty—El SHADDAY: The name that God gives to Himself in the covenant with Abraham. By His might He will make Abraham a great nation through which all the people of the world will be blessed....

The Lord who provides—JEHOVAH

The Lord of host— God is the commander of the angelic hosts—Dt. 20.

Jesus —“He will save His people from their sins”—Matt 1:21.

Other Names of God

Images of GodImages are “pictures of God in words, comparing him to people and things in our experience”. (Frame)

Images:

King—Psalm 95:4 (Sovereign)

Shepherd—Psalm 23 (Caring, protector, provider)

Rock—Psalm 18:2 (Stability, trustworthy)

Refuge—Psalm 46 (Safety, protection)

Father - Matthew 6:9 (Love, Care, Awareness)

The Attributes of GodAn attribute is an adjective or noun that describes what God is like. (Ie. Unchanging)

Kinds of attributes:

Communicable— those attributes of God that are more shared with us but never completely.

Incommunicable— those attributes of God that are less shared with us or not at all.

Books: The Attributes of God by A.W. Pink, Knowing God by J.I. Packer

A list of attributesIncommunicable—

Independence

Unchangeableness

Eternity

Omnipresence

Unity

Communicable—

Spirituality

Omniscience

Wisdom

Truthfulness

Goodness

Love, grace, mercy

Holiness

Communicable attributes continued...

Peace

Righteousness (Justice)

Wrath

Will

Omnipotence

The unity of god

Don’t think of God as a collection of numerous attributes or that He is some how divided into parts.

These attributes are perspectives or windows into what God is like as a whole.

“God’s whole being includes all of his attributes: He is entirely loving, merciful.... Every attribute of God that we find in Scripture is true of all of God’s being, and we therefore can say that every attributes of God also qualifies every other attribute.” (Grudem)

God’s Inner-Trinitarian Nature

G o d i n T h r e e p e r s o n s

preliminary Remarks

The Bible doesn’t give us an in depth at look the Trinity. “It gives us a glimpse not a treatise”. (Jn. Frame)

The Trinity is progressively revealed in Scripture, partially in the OT and more fully in the NT.

The Trinity is mysterious.

All the attributes of God are true of each member of the Trinity.

Three Summary Statements

God is one.

Moses states to the people of God in the OT, “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.” (Dt. 6:4)

The original readers of the book of James believed that God is one and are commended for it.

James says to them, “You believe that God is one; you do well.” Then he goes on to say that the demons believe the same truth. “Even the demons believe—and shudder.”

So we are monotheists not polytheists. We worship one God every Sunday morning.

The one God has always existed as three distinct persons—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

As W. Grudem puts it, “God’s being is so much greater than ours that within His one undivided being there can be an unfolding into interpersonal relationships, so there can be three distinct persons”.

Three Summary Statements

What this means is that—

The Father is not the Son,

the Son is not the Father,

and the Holy Spirit is not the Father or the Son.

They are distinct persons.

As distinct persons, they have distinct roles in their relation to the world.

In creation

The Father spoke the creative words to bring the universe into existence,“Let their be light....” (Gen. 1:3)

What the Father spoke the Son carried out. “All things were made through him, and with him was not anything made that was made.” (Jn. 1:3)

The Holy Spirit was present as well, “hovering over the face of the waters” to bring order to God’s universe. (Gen. 1:2)

In the work of redemption

The Father planned redemption.

The Son executed the plan by dying on the cross to pay for our sins.

The Holy Spirit completes the plan of redemption by applying the work of Christ to our hearts to save us.

In carrying out creation and redemption as three distinct persons,

There was a voluntary subordination or submission of the Son to His Father.

Jesus says in John 5:19 that “the Son can do nothing of His own accord, but only what He sees the Father doing.”

And there was also the subordination of the Holy Spirit in relation to the Father and the Son. (Jn. 16:13)

Each of the three persons is fully God.

Each member of the Trinity possesses the whole being of God in Himself.

It is not that the Father is a 1/3 God, and the Son is 1/3 God, and the HS is 1/3 God.

Each person is divine, fully and equally God in substance or in God-ness.

The Father is truly God, the Son is truly God, and the Holy Spirit is truly God, yet one God.

Three Summary Statements

“There is only one God and each of the three persons is that one God.” (Jn. Frame)

Scriptural support:

“Grace to you and peace from God our Father.” (Col. 1)

Col. 2:9 says that in Christ, “the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily.”

In Acts 5, Peter asks Ananias, “Why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit...? You have lied not to men but to God.”

God is one; God eternally exists as three persons; and each person is fully God.

Summary

Some errors

Why?

Bad Bible interpretation

Pushing the truth given too far in an effort to make human sense.

Here are a couple of examples of errors.

Modalism

God is not three distinct persons, but only one person who appears in three different modes.

Sometimes God appears as Father (OT), sometimes as the Son (Gospels), and at other times as the Holy Spirit (Pentecost). The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are not real persons.

The United Pentecostal Church is modalistic.

“Jesus only”

Only to be baptized in the name of Jesus

AG in 1916 insisted on a Trinitarian doctrinal position. Some pulled out to form UPC. Not Christian!

God is seen in the Bible as three different persons interacting with one another in personal relationships.

This exist in eternity in which the three members of the Trinity gave honor and love to one another (Jn. 17)

Jesus prays to the Father.

The Father speaks from heaven at His Son’s baptism, “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.” (Matt. 3:17)

Then the Holy Spirit descends on Jesus in the form of a dove.

The Father and the Son together send the Holy Spirit into the world. (Jn. 14:16)

Named after the Bishop of Alexandria, Arius, who lived in the early 300’s.

He wrongly taught that—

Only God the Father is God.

Jesus and Holy Spirit were not, but were created.

Jesus is far greater than all the rest of God’s creation and is similar to God, but is not of the same nature as God the Father.

This is the doctrinal position of the Jehovah Witness.

We’ve already seen that the Bible teaches that all three persons are fully God.

Arianism