The Divine Attributes Are Not Separate From God

 But the LORD

is the true God;

  everlasting King.

At His wrath

the earth will tremble,

and then nations 

will not be able

to endure His indignation.

Jeremiah 10:10

     As this discussion pertains to the Sovereignty of God and those attributes which are ascribed to Him it must be made clear that those attributes are not separate entities realized due to necessity; rather God is, and all that is is God. It is exactly as God spoke to Moses when He said: "And God said to Moses, 'I AM WHO I AM.' and He said, 'Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, 'I AM has sent me to you" (Exodus 3:14). It is not that God has an attribute of something separate from Himself such as we say, that God is good, therefore we expect God to do good. God is not applying that which He has determined bad and in need of good, furthermore, to apply good to bad in order to make that something good; rather, God is Himself Good and cannot do anything that is bad. All that the Sovereign God does is Good because He is good. Even Satan realized that he could do nothing outside of God's permission as when he approached God and pointed out Job to Him and doing what is good only because God was protecting Job is some special way so Job was faithful. This story is so misrepresented because we cannot reason, or in some way find rationality when all that Job had was taken away and even became diseased. God allowed this to happen. God decreed that this was to happen therefore it happened. All  that God decrees happens, all that God wills happens, all that God does not will does not happen. Many then because of this narrative of Job have a difficult time reconciling God's goodness with His Sovereignty. It must be remembered that the very nature of God is Good, and that He does not need to give us reasons for what He does outside of what is revealed to us in His Word. God's purposes will stand and be accomplished in His order and time. But, we are so like Job and have a difficult time understanding God and we question Him, i.e.,"Why did you allow or do this or that?" But let us admit as did Job: "You asked, 'Who is this who hides counsel without knowledge?' Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know?(Job 42:3). "Many, O LORD my God, are Your wonderful works which You have done; and Your thoughts toward us cannot be recounted to You in order, if I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered" (Psalm 40:5). So it must be admitted, we do not have all there is to know of God within us; all we have is that which is revealed to us by God (Deuteronomy 29:29:). 

     God being Sovereign has all the right anyone could have to do as He pleases and being Good all that He pleases or decrees is Good. We may not fully understand but what we as children of God do understand is that God Good in all that He does. We are not left destitute to rely solely on our rational or in our ignorance as to what God requires from us and how He has decided to accomplish His purpose. That purpose is in this respect; to have His creation, man, to be His special creatures and to live with Him forever. To do this His justice must be satisfied, i.e., the sin of man, an injustice that man himself cannot atone for must be paid if God is to have a people for Himself. As a just God, all that can be done in justice is to destroy sinful man. Yet, God, a merciful God, His nature and being is merciful, provided just for that accomplishment, His purpose, and so two things were done before all creation: He, Himself, provided the necessary means to atone for His justice. That atonement was in His Only Begotten Son, His Wisdom, His very essence, who came to earth, put on human flesh, the incarnation, just to bring the truth to this world, to answer and be the promised "seed" that was promised to Adam and Eve. It was by the death of Jesus, His resurrection, and His ascension into heaven to be the propiation for our sins and that fulfillment is eternal. Second, He chose and decided who would be His elect to be the "Bride" of Christ and to be with Him for eternity. It was to them that Jesus came and died and provided salvation. The apostle John so writes: "Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore theworld does not know us, because it did not know Him" (1 John 3:1). Paul writes to the Roman Church and counsels that God had predestined and elected some but not all; (Romans8:28-29).  This we know as being true, for does not the Scripture indicate that there are some who will be thrown into the Lake of Fire? (Revelation 20:15). We may not fully understand this doctrine at first but I will continue in the next blog more on the subject of the Sovereignty of God.

Then He said to Me,
     'Thise words are faithful
and true.' And the Lord God
      of the holy prophets
sent His angel to show His servants
      the things which must
shortly take place.
                         Revelation 22:6

He Comes Quickly

Richard L. Crumb