Who is God? Part 3B: Communicable Attributes


Communicable / Shared Attributes

Communicable: 
Those attributes which we share with God as those made in His image, that we can grow in.

(The following is adapted from Reid Monaghan, founding pastor of Jacob’s Well (North Brunswick, NJ), from the Gospel Class curriculum.)

·      Love – God is love and his sacrificial action in Jesus Christ gives us a true picture of love.  We receive our definition of love from God, not use our own definitions for love and map them upon God. (1 John 4:7-21)
·      Kindness – God is kind and gracious to all that he has made. (Romans 2:4, 11:22; Ephesians 2:7; Titus 3:4)
·      Goodness – God is the source of goodness and all that is good is derivative from his nature and creation. (Psalm 34:8, 100:5; Luke 18:19; Titus 3:4)
·      Truthful – The God of the Bible is the one true God and is truthful in all his dealings.  He speaks and acts truthfully in all circumstances and is utterly trustworthy in his nature. (Numbers 23:19;1 Samuel 15:29; John 14:6, 17:3; 1 John 5:20)
·      Righteousness and Justice – God is the righteous judge of his creatures and will always do what is right.  His justice is ultimate and pure and he acts without partiality or favoritism. (Genesis 18:5; Deuteronomy 32:4; Psalm 19:8; Romans 2:11; Galatians 2:6; Ephesians 6:9)
·      Knowledge – God knows all things exhaustively and presently.  His knowledge has no limit as sees all and understands completely anything that can be known. (Job 37:16; Psalm 139; Isaiah 55:9, 1 John 3:19, 20)
·      Joy/Delight/Blessedness – God has full delight in himself and rejoices eternally.   (Psalms 16:11; Nehemiah 8:10; Zephaniah 3:17; 1 Timothy 1:11)
·      Sovereign Power – God is all powerful and can do anything that can logically be done.  His rule over history is final and he accomplishes all his purposes for creation. (Genesis 17:1; Psalm 24:8; Jeremiah 32:27; Daniel 4:32; Ephesians 3:20-21)
·      Freedom – God acts according to his own good pleasure and is not compelled in any way by anything outside of himself. (Psalm 115:3, 135:6; Daniel 4:35)
·      Faithfulness – God is utterly faithful to all his promises and will keep his word fully.  He does not abandon his people even when we wander from him. (Numbers 23:19;1 Thessalonians 5:24; 2 Timothy 2:13; 1 Peter 4:19)
·      Beauty or Desirability - God is the most beautiful and desirable being there is – all that is beautiful in the world derives its beauty from the great artist who designed and made all things. (Psalm 27:4, 42:1, 73:25) –
·      Holiness - Holiness refers to God being completely unique and separate all together from anything else so it is rightly said of God alone.  Yet it also refers to God’s complete separation from sin and anything evil, so it is a quality we share as well.  As such, it forms a nice bridge between God’s shared and unshared attributes. (1 Samuel 2:2; Psalm 99:3,9; Isaiah 6:1-4, 57:15; Habakkuk 1:13; Revelation 4:8, 15:4)
 In the words of God through the Apostle Peter:
"Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord; 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. For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust. Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge, and in your knowledge, self-control, and in your self-control, perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness, and in your godliness, brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ."  (2 Peter 1:2-8, NASB)

In His Grip,
Mark


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