01.09. The Being of God.

9. The Being of God.

Hitherto we have discussed the character of the revelation which God has given us in His grace, and described the manner in which that revelation came about and was brought to our knowledge in Holy Scripture, under the instructive guidance of the Confession. Now we have to explain the contents of that revelation and to indicate in a regular order what we owe to that revelation for our mind and heart, for our consciousness and life. Whereas we first viewed the building of revelation from the outside and received an impression of the style in which it had been erected, we are now entering the sanctuary itself and contemplating the treasures of wisdom and knowledge that are displayed there before our eyes.

It goes without saying, however, that we can develop the rich content of this revelation in various ways and let its parts pass before our eyes in a different order. We do not need to discuss all of them, but we would like to draw attention to two methods or ways in which the subject matter of Christian doctrine can be treated and has been treated many times. In the first place, we can turn to the Christian who has absorbed the contents of the revelation with true faith in his heart and ask him by what means he has come to the knowledge of the truth, in what elements this knowledge consists, and what fruit this knowledge has produced for his consciousness and life. This is the standpoint on which our Heidelberg Catechism places itself. In it, the Christian has his say and he gives a broad and clear account of the only comfort that is his share in living and dying, and of the different elements that are necessary to know in order to live and die in this comfort in a blissful way. This is a beautiful method of treatment, which deserves warm recommendation for a practical textbook. It has several advantages; it relates the truth directly to the whole Christian life, it saves us from scholarly reasoning and vain reflections, and it shows with each doctrine what it can do for the head and the heart of a human being. What use and what comfort do you derive from believing all this? That in Christ I am righteous before God and an heir of eternal life. But there is another order in which the truths of faith can be treated. We cannot only turn to the Christian to have him answer our questions about what he believes. But we can also put ourselves in the position of the Christian, and then try to give an account of the contents of our faith to ourselves and others from Scripture. Then we will not let the development of our confession be determined by the questions that are put to us and to which we will answer according to the questions. But we ourselves will then clearly explain what the content of our faith is. We do not pay much attention to the order in which we have progressively come to know the truth; rather, we try to discover the order which is actually present in the truths of faith themselves, how they are related to one another, and what constitutes their overriding principle. It is this order which is followed in our Dutch Confession of Faith; here too the Christian speaks, but he does not wait for the questions which are put to him, but explains the contents of his faith himself; he believes with his heart and confesses with his mouth what God says to the congregation in His Word and by His Spirit.

These two methods of treatment are, of course, not hostile to each other and do not exclude each other, but they complement each other and are both of great value. For the Reformed churches and no less so for the Reformed schools, it is an invaluable privilege that we have the Catechism next to the Creed and the Confession next to the Catechism. The subject matter and the subject matter, the theological and anthropological standpoints are united by it; head and heart are reconciled by it; the truth of God is a blessing for our consciousness and for our lives. That these two ways of developing the content of Revelation are not opposed to one another, but complement and balance each other, is amply demonstrated by the fact that not only in the Catechism, but also in the Creed, the Christian is speaking, and not the Christian in isolation and separated from others, but the Christian in communion with all his brothers and sisters. It is the congregation that expresses itself. We all believe with our hearts and confess with our mouths - this is how the Dutch Confession of Faith begins, this is how it continues and this is how it ends. And then, above it all, there is this significant inscription: Ware Christelijke Belijdenis, inhoudende de hoofdom der doctrine van God en van de eeuwige zaligheid van zielen.

These two, the doctrine of God and the doctrine of the eternal salvation of souls, do not constitute two independent entities that have nothing to do with each other, but they are inseparably connected; the doctrine of God is also a doctrine of the eternal salvation of souls, and the latter in turn encompasses the former. The knowledge of God in the face of Jesus Christ, His Son, is eternal life, John 17:3. This knowledge of God is different from the knowledge we acquire in daily life or in the schools of education and science, not in degree but in essence. It is a knowledge of its own, differing in principle, object and fruit from all other knowledge, as we explained more fully in the second paragraph. It is a matter of the head and of the heart both. It does not make us "wiser", at least not in the first place, but it makes us wiser, better and happier. It makes us happy and gives us eternal life, not only hereafter, but also here on earth. The three things we need to know are not only so that we can die in happiness one day, but also so that we can live in happiness here on earth from then on.

Blessed are the pure in heart; they are already here on earth, even if it is through the promise that hereafter they will see God, Matthew 5:7; they were saved by hope, Romans 8:24. But if we have received the principle of eternal life in our hearts in this way, we cannot help longing to know more of Him who gave us that life. From ourselves we then look more and more to Him, who is the fountain of our salvation. From the comfort we enjoy in our hearts, from the usefulness and fruit which the knowledge of God bears for our own person and for our lives, we go back ever further to the worship of the Eternal Being. We then come more and more to the realization that God does not exist for our sake, but that we exist for His. Our salvation does not become indifferent to us, but it becomes a means for His glory. The knowledge of God gives us life, but life leads us back to His knowledge. In God we find all our salvation and all our honor. He becomes the object of our worship, the content of our song, the strength of our life. From God, through God and to God all things - that becomes the choice of our heart and the motto of our actions. We ourselves and all the creatures around us become vehicles for His glory. The truth, which at first we loved above all because it gave us life, then becomes dearer and dearer to us for its own sake, for what it reveals and makes known to us about the Eternal Being. The whole doctrine of faith, in its entirety and in all its parts, becomes a proclamation of God’s praise, a display of His virtues, a glorification of His Name. The Catechism leads us to the Creed.

If, however, we try to imagine what it means that we, poor, weak, sinful creatures, know God, who is the infinite, eternal Being, then a deep respect and a holy timidity take hold of our minds. Is it really possible, then, that in the darkened consciousness of the guilty child of man a ray of light falls from Him whom no man has seen nor can see, who dwells in an inaccessible light, 1 Timothy 6:16, who is pure light without darkness? 1 John 3:5.

There have been many, and they are still, who have given a negative answer to this question. But this denial of the knowability of God can arise from two very different moods in man. Today, for many it is the conclusion of a purely rational, deductive scientific reasoning.

They say that the knowledge of man’s mind is limited to observable phenomena, and that it is a contradiction to attribute personality, consciousness and will to God, and yet to say that He is infinite, eternal and totally independent. To this we may readily remark that indeed there can be no knowledge of God with man, unless God has revealed Himself to us in a general way, in nature and history, or also in a special way, through the Son. If, however, God has revealed Himself, it goes without saying that He can also be known to the same degree as He has revealed Himself. But to claim that he has not revealed himself in any way or by any means would be tantamount to saying that the world has existed apart from and independent of God for all eternity, and that he could not reveal himself in it or through it. And -then it would follow that we should never speak of God again, because this word is nothing but a sound, without any foundation in reality. So-called agnosticism (the doctrine of the unknowability of God) is practically identical to atheism (the denial of the existence of God). But the denial of the knowability of God can also arise from a deep awareness of one’s own smallness and insignificance and from a concomitant deep sense of God’s infinite greatness and all-conquering majesty. In this sense, the acknowledgement: we know nothing, knowledge is too wonderful for us, has been the confession of all pious people. The fathers and teachers of the Church often use the expression that when they think about God, they can ultimately say much better what He is not than what He is. Calvin somewhere admonishes his readers not to want to rob God of the mysteries by their own efforts, which are far beyond the understanding of our weak mind. And poets, such as Vondel and Bilderdijk, have often sung about this all-transcending greatness of God in the most sublime way in their songs.

Although this humble confession of God’s exalted majesty and man’s insignificance can in a certain sense also be called a denial of God’s knowability, it is preferable, in order to avoid misunderstandings, to distinguish between God’s intelligibility and knowability in accordance with the Holy Scriptures. There is no book in the world which, to the same degree and in the same manner as the Holy Scriptures, maintains, on the one hand, the absolute elevation of God above all creatures and, on the other, the intimate connection and close relationship between the creature and its Creator.

Already on the first page of the Bible we are confronted with the absolute exaltation of God above all His creatures. Without becoming tired or dull, He brings the whole world into being through His Word alone. Through the Word of the Lord the heavens were made, and by the Spirit of His mouth all their host, Psalms 33:6. He speaks and it is there; He commands and it is there, Psalms 33:9. He does according to His will with the host of heaven and the inhabitants of the earth, and there is none who can turn His hand away, or say to Him: what art Thou doing? Daniel 4:35. The nations are regarded as a drop in a bucket and as a speck of dust in a balance. Behold, He casts the islands as thin dust. The Lebanon is not sufficient to burn, and its beasts are not sufficient for a burnt offering. All peoples are as nothing to Him, and they are regarded with Him as less than nothing and vanity. He is to be compared with no one, and no likeness is to be applied to Him, Isaiah 40:15-18. Who in heaven can be compared to the Lord? Who is equal to the Lord among the children of the strong? Psalms 89:7. There is no name by which He can truthfully be called; His name is wondrous, Genesis 32:29, Richt. 13:18, Proverbs 30:4. When the Lord addressed Job out of a storm and spread before Him the greatness of His works, the latter humbly bowed his head and said: See, I am too small, what should I answer You; I put my hand on my mouth, Job 39:37. God is great and we do not understand, Job 36:26. The knowledge is too wonderful for us, it is high, we cannot reach it, Psalms 139:6. And yet, that same high and exalted God has a very close relationship with all His creatures, even the smallest and smallest. Scripture does not give a deductive conception of God, as philosophy does, but it presents the true, living God before our eyes and makes Him visible to us in all the works of His hands. Lift up your eyes and see who created all these things. Everything was created by His hand; everything was brought forth according to His will and counsel; everything is maintained by His power. Therefore everything bears the stamp of His virtue, the mark of His goodness, wisdom and power. And of all creatures man is created in His image and likeness; he alone is called God’s family, Acts 17:28.

Because of this close relationship, He can also be called after His creatures and He can be spoken of in a human way. The same Scriptures which most sublimely portray God’s incomparable greatness and majesty, also speak of Him in parables and images which tingle with life. It speaks of His eyes and ears, hands and feet, mouth and lips, heart and bowels. She attributes to Him all kinds of virtues, wisdom and knowledge, will and power, justice and mercy, and also attributes to Him emotions of joy and sorrow, fear and grief, zeal and jealousy, repentance and wrath, hatred and revenge. She mentions his examining and thinking, hearing and seeing, smelling and tasting, sitting and standing up, visiting and leaving, remembering and forgetting, blessing and chastising, etc. And she compares him to a sun and a moon. And she compares Him to a sun and a light, a fountain and a watering hole, a rock and a shelter, a round-axe and a buckler, a lion and an eagle, a hero and a warrior, an artist and a builder, a king and a judge, a farmer and a shepherd, a husband and a father. Everything in the entire world that can be found for mankind in the way of support and protection and help, can be found in God originally and perfectly, and in abundance. All the members of the family in heaven and earth are named after Him, Ephesians 3:15. He is the "Son of His", and all creatures are "His thankful rays".

Now, in the knowledge of God, it is always a matter of holding these two groups of statements concerning the Divine being equally and doing them justice. If we relinquish the absolute exaltation of God above all His creatures, we lapse into polytheism (Pagan polytheism), or pantheism (Algodism), which are closely related to each other, also according to history, and merge easily with each other. And if we abandon the relationship of God to His creatures, we come up against the cliff of deism (belief in one God, without revelation) or atheism (denial of the existence of God), which also correspond to each other in various ways. Scripture holds both, and Christian theology followed in its footsteps. God actually has no single name by which we can truthfully call Him, and He calls Himself and allows Him to be called by us with many, many names. He is the infinitely exalted and at the same time the living God, the one who sympathizes with all his creatures. His virtues are in some respects all incommunicable, and in another respect all communicable. This is incomprehensible to our intellect. There is no adaequate (equivalent) concept of God. A definition, a determination, which corresponds to His essence, cannot be given of God. A name, which fully expresses what He is, cannot be found. But the one does not contradict the other. Precisely because God is the High and Exalted One and dwells in eternity, He also dwells with the one who is of a crushed and lowly spirit, Isaiah 57:15. God did not reveal Himself in order that we might form a philosophical concept of God from His revelation, but that we might accept, acknowledge and confess Him, the true and living God, as our God. These things are hidden from the wise and prudent, but they are revealed to babes, Matthew 11:25. The knowledge we acquire of God in this way is therefore knowledge of faith; it is not adaequate, not equivalent to God’s essence, for God is infinitely superior to all His creatures; Nor is it purely symbolic, that is, clothed in expressions which we have formed arbitrarily and which do not correspond at all to the real thing; but it is ectypical ) or analogical ), because it rests on the resemblance and relationship which, in spite of God’s absolute exaltation, exist between Him and all the works of His hands. The knowledge which God gives us of Himself in nature and Scripture is limited, finite, piecework, but it is nevertheless pure and true. Such is God, as He has revealed Himself in His Word, specifically in and through Christ; and such is He, the God whom our hearts need. The attempt to take into account, in the doctrine of God, all the data of Scripture and thus to maintain both His elevation above and His affinity with the creature, led early on in the Christian Church to the distinction of two groups of characteristics in the Divine Being. These two groups were traditionally referred to by different names, and even today Roman theology prefers to speak of negative and positive (denying and definite), Lutheran theology of quiescent and operative, and the Reformed of incommensurable and communicable properties. But in the essence of the matter the classification amounts to the same for all of them. It always aims to maintain both the transcendence (God’s distinction from and elevation above the world) and the immanence of God (His communion with and indwelling in the world). The Reformed names of indivisible and communicable attributes make this sense even more clearly than those used by the Roman Catholics and Lutherans. The preservation of the former properties saves us from polytheism (Pagan polytheism) and pantheism (Algodism); and the preservation of the latter group saves us from deism (belief in one God, without revelation) and atheism (denial of the existence of God).

There is no overriding objection to continuing to use the Reformed classification, even though all our denominations are faulty. Only, we have to remember that the two groups of incommunicable and communicable properties are not separate and apart from each other. Of course we cannot treat them both at the same time and we must discuss one before the other. But the point of the classification is that we should always remember that God possesses all his communicable qualities in an absolute manner, in an infinite and therefore indivisible degree. God’s knowledge, wisdom, goodness, righteousness, etc., do have some resemblance to those same virtues in creatures, but they are God’s in an independent, unchanging, eternal, omnipresent, simple, in a word, absolutely Divine way. That is why we can distinguish between the being and the characteristics of creatures; a human being can lose his arm and his leg, can even be in sleep or in a daze without ceasing to be a human being. But this is not possible with God. His attributes coincide with His being. Every quality is His essence. He is not only wise and true, good and holy, just and merciful. But He is wisdom, truth, goodness, holiness, justice and mercy themselves, and therefore also the origin and fountainhead of all those virtues which are present in creatures. He is all that He has, and the source of all that creatures have; the abundant fountain of all good. The indefectible attributes are therefore those virtues or perfections of God which indicate that everything in God exists with Him in an absolutely divine way, i.e. to an extent which cannot be communicated to creatures. This group of characteristics maintains the absolute elevation and incomparability of God and finds in the name Elohim, God, its clearest interpretation. It is true that the name of God is also applied to creations; not only does the Holy Scriptures sometimes speak of the idols of the Gentiles as gods, e.g. when they forbid us to have other gods before us, Exodus 20:3; it also calls Moses a God before Aaron, Exodus 4:16, and before Pharaoh, Exodus 7:2; it designates the judges as Gods, Psalms 82:1, Psalms 82:6, and Christ invokes them in his self-defence, John 10:33-35. But this speech is transitive and derivative. The name of God belongs originally and essentially only to God. With this name we always associate the idea of an infinite power, personal but still elevated above all creatures. God alone is God. As such, the indivisible qualities belong to Him. They are His alone, occur in no creature, and cannot even be communicated to any creature. For all creatures are dependent, changeable, compound, subject to time and space. But God is independent, so that He is not determined by anything, everything is determined by Him in a perfect sense, Acts 17:25, Romans 11:36; unchangeable, so that He remains the same forever and all change falls on the side of the creature and in the relation in which this creature positions itself towards Him, James 1:17; simple, so that He is completely free of all compositions of spirit and matter, thought and extension, essence and properties, mind and will, etc., and is everything He is. He is completely free and everything He has is pure truth, life and light, Psalms 36:10, John 5:26, 1 John 1:5; eternal, so that He is above all time and yet His eternity permeates every moment of time, Psalms 90:2; omnipresent, so that He is above all space and yet carries every point of space with His omnipotent and omnipresent power, Psalms 139:7, Acts 17:27-28. In modern times there are not a few who deny all value to these incomparable qualities for religious life and see nothing but metaphysical (supernatural) subtleties in them. But the opposite is proved by the fact that the giving away of these properties immediately opens the door to pantheism (all-goddessing), and to polytheism (pagan polytheism).

If God is not independent and unchangeable, eternal and omnipresent, simple and free from all composition, He is drawn down to the creature and identified with the world as a whole or with one of its forces. The number of those who exchange the God of revelation for the immanent world force or who prefer polytheism (the pagan polygoddoms) to the confession of the one, true God, increases day by day. The unity and oneness of God are inextricably linked to the indivisible qualities, Deuteronomy 6:4, Mark 12:29, John 17:3. Only then is God the one and only God, when nobody or nothing can be above, beside or below Him, what He is. And then also only, when He is independent and unchangeable, eternal and omnipresent, can He be the God of our unconditional faith, of our absolute trust, of our complete salvation. But this is true, these incomparable qualities are not enough for us. What would it profit us to know that God is independent and unchangeable, eternal and omnipresent, if we had to lack the knowledge that He is merciful and gracious and great in mercy? The incommunicable qualities do inform us about the way in which everything in God exists in Him; but they leave us in the dark as to the content of the Divine Being. But now the communicable qualities are added; and they tell us that this God, who is so infinitely high and exalted, yet also dwells in all His creatures, is related to all His creatures and possesses all those virtues which, in a derived and limited way, are also peculiar to creatures. He is not only a God from afar, but also close by. He is not only independent and inviolable, eternal and omnipresent, but also wise and powerful, just and holy, merciful and gracious. He is not only Elohim, He is also Jehovah. As the indivisible qualities find their expression in the name Elohim, God, so the communicable qualities are more prominent in the name Jehovah. The derivation and original meaning of this name is unknown to us. It probably existed long before the time of Moses, as appears for example from the name Jochebed, but God did not yet make Himself known to His people by this name. To Abraham He revealed Himself as El-Schaddai, God the Almighty, Genesis 17:1, Exodus 6:2, who subdues all the forces of nature and makes them subservient to the Godhead. But when hundreds of years have gone by, and God seems to have forgotten his covenant and promise to the fathers, then he makes himself known to Moses as Jehovah, that is, as that God who is the same as who appeared to the fathers, who keeps his covenant, fulfils his promise, and remains completely the same to his people throughout the ages. Jehovah now gets the meaning of: I am who I am (I will be who I will be), ’and indicates God’s unchanging faithfulness in his relationship to Israel. Jehovah is the God of the covenant, who according to his free love has chosen his people and made them his property. While the name Elohim, God, indicates the Eternal Being in His sovereign highness above the world, in the name Jehovah, LORD, it is revealed that this same high and exalted God has voluntarily revealed Himself to His people as a God of holiness, grace and faithfulness.

All the spirit wrestling in Israel and up to our days has been about this question of principle, whether Jehovah is Elohim or the LORD God. The pagans and many wise men of old and new times say that Jehovah is only the God of Israel, a national, limited, lower God. But Moses and Elijah and all the prophets, Christ and all his apostles maintain against it, that the LORD alone, who entered into a covenant with the fathers and the people of Israel, is the one, eternal and true God, and that there is no God but Him, Isaiah 43:10-15, Isaiah 44:66. Therefore Jehovah is God’s proper, distinctive name,Isaiah 42:88,Isaiah 48:111. The God of the covenant, who descends so lowly to his people and dwells with those who have a crushed and lowly spirit, is at the same time the High and Exalted One, who dwells in eternity and whose name is holy,Isaiah 57:155. The indivisible and the communicable qualities do not conflict in this respect, but the former serve, so to speak, to explain and strengthen the latter. Take, for example, the love of God. We would not and could not speak of it if what is truthfully called love among people were not in some respect an imprint (ectype), image and likeness of the love that is present in God. There must be some resemblance between divine and human love, for otherwise all our thinking and speaking of God’s love would be untrue and nothing but a vain sound. But that similarity is by no means equality. The purest and strongest love among men is only a very weak reflection of the love that is in God. And that is what makes us understand the indivisible qualities. Through it we learn that the love in God infinitely exceeds that of all creatures. For the love in God is independent, unchanging, simple, eternal and omnipresent. It does not depend on us and is not generated by us, but springs free and pure from the depths of the divine being. It knows n change, does not descend or ascend, does not appear or disappear, but lacks all shadow even of reversal. It is not an attribute in the Divine being next to other attributes and never conflicts with them, but it coincides with the Divine Being itself: God is love, Himself, whole, perfect, with His whole being. It is not subject to time and space, but it stands above them and descends from eternity into the hearts of all God’s children. Such a love is completely reliable; our soul can rest in it in all distress and death; if such a God of love is for us, who will be against us? The same can now be said of all communicable qualities. Of knowledge and wisdom, goodness and mercy, righteousness and holiness, will and power, which are God’s own, there is a faint resemblance in creatures. Everything perishable is an image. The visible things are made of things that do not appear to the eyes, Hebrews 11:3. But all these attributes are present in God in an original, independent, invariable, simple, infinite manner. The LORD alone is God, and He has made us His people, the sheep of His pasture, Psalms 100:3. The communicable qualities are so numerous, that it is not possible to enumerate and describe them all. If we wished to deal with them fully, we should describe all those names, images and likenesses which Scripture uses to give us some idea of who and what God is to His creatures, and especially to His people. If, as indicated above, Scripture ascribes to God all the members of the body, such as eyes and ears, hands and feet, etc., and if it ascribes to God all human sensations, such as the sense of smell, the sense of smell, the sense of smell, etc., then it is not true that God is God. When Scripture attributes to God all the members of the body, such as eyes and ears, hands and feet, etc.; when it attributes to God all human sensations, disorders, passions, decisions, actions; when it designates Him with the names of offices and professions, which exist among men, and calls Him a king and a legislator and a judge, a warrior and a hero, a countryman and a shepherd, a husband and a father; When she calls on the entire organic and inorganic world to bring God near, and compares him to a lion, an eagle, a sun, a fire, a skydiver, a rock, a shield, etc., then all of this is a mirage. Then all this is a means to make us know God and to give us a deep impression of the sufficiency of his being. We need the whole world outside us for our spiritual and physical existence, for we are poor and weak in ourselves and have nothing. But all that we need, in soul and body, for time and eternity, is present for us without exception, original, perfect, in infinite abundance, in God. He is the highest good and abundant fountain of all good. The first thing which the Scriptures aim to do with all these names and descriptions of the Divine Being is to give us an unshakeable impression that Jehovah, the God who was manifested to Israel and in Chris, is the true, the essential, the living God. The idols of the heathen and the idols of the (pantheistic and polytheistic, deistic and atheistic) philosophers are the work of man’s hands; they do not speak, they do not see, they do not hear, they do not feel, they do not walk. But Israel’s God is in heaven and does everything that pleases Him. He is the only one, Deuteronomy 6:4, the true one, John 17:3, the eternally living God, Deuteronomy 5:26, Joshua 3:10, Daniel 6:27, Acts 14:15, 2 Corinthians 6:16, 1 Timothy 3:15, 1 Timothy 6:17. People want to make God a dead God, in order to be able to do with Him as they please. But the Holy Scriptures cry out to man: you are mistaken, God exists.

He is the true God, He lives now and forever. And dreadful is it to fall into the hands of the living God, Hebrews 10:31. As such a living God, who is only life and the fountain of all life, Psalms 36:10, Jeremiah 2:13. He is further Spirit, John 4:24, without body, although all kinds of bodily limbs and actions are attributed to Him, Deuteronomy 4:12, Deuteronomy 4:16 and therefore invisible, Deuteronomy 4:15-19 and invisible, Exodus 33:20, John 1:18, John 6:46, 1 Timothy 6:16. As a Spirit He then further has consciousness, perfect knowledge of Himself, Matthew 11:27, 1 Corinthians 2:10, and from and through Himself also perfect knowledge of everything that is or will be in time, however hidden or void it may be, Isaiah 46:10, Jeremiah 11:20, Matthew 10:30, Hebrews 4:13; will, by which He Himself does everything that pleases Him (hidden will or will of decision), Psalms 115:3, Proverbs 21:1, Daniel 4:35, and also determines what is to be the rule for our conduct (revealed will or will of command), Deuteronomy 29:29, Matthew 7:21, Matthew 12:50; and power, by which He can perform, in spite of all opposition, what He has resolved to do and no thing is impossible for Him, Genesis 18:14, Jeremiah 32:27, Zechariah 8:6, Matthew 19:26, 1 Timothy 6:15. But this knowledge, will and power are not arbitrary, but are in all parts morally determined. This is already evident in the wisdom which is attributed to God in Scripture, Proverbs 8:22-31, Job 28:20-28, Romans 16:27, 1 Timothy 1:17, and by which He arranges and governs everything in accordance with the purpose which He intended at creation and re-creation, Psalms 104:24, Ephesians 3:10, Romans 11:33. But furthermore this is clearly expressed in the goodness and mercy, which on the one hand, and in the holiness and righteousness, which on the other hand, are attributed to God. God is not only the All-Mighty and the Almighty, but He is also the All-Good, only good, Matthew 10:18, perfect, Matthew 5:48, and the source of all that is good in creatures, Psalms 145:9. This goodness of God extends over the whole world, Psalms 145:9, Matthew 5:45, but changes according to the objects at which it is directed, and then takes different forms, as it were. It is called meekness, when it is shown to the punishable, Romans 3:25; mercy, when it is shown to the guilty, who receive forgiveness of sins, Ephesians 2:8; love, when God out of mercy communicates and gives Himself to the creatures, John 3:16, 1 John 4:8; kindness, when it is shown to the poor, who receive forgiveness of sins, and to the poor, who receive forgiveness of sins, and to the poor, who receive forgiveness of sins. 1 John 4:8; benevolence, when the goodness of God shows itself to his favored ones, Genesis 39:21, Numbers 14:19, Isaiah 54:10, Ephesians 2:7; pleasure, when it is emphasized that this goodness with all its benefits is a free gift, Matthew 11:26, Luke 2:14, Luke 12:32, 2 Thessalonians 1:11. His holiness and justice go hand in hand with this goodness and grace of God. God is called the Holy One, not only because He is exalted above all creatures as a creature, but above all because He is separated from all that is sinful and impure in the world; and therefore He demands that His people, whom He elected as His property by free grace, should be holy, Exodus 19:5-6, Leviticus 11:44-45, 1 Peter 2:9, and He sanctifies Himself in her through Christ, Ephesians 5:26-27, who sanctified Himself for her, that she too might be sanctified in truth, John 17:19. Because as the Holy One He cannot have any fellowship with sin; He hates it, Psalms 45:8, Job. His holy nature demands that He maintains justice also outside Himself in the world of creatures, and without respect rewards everyone according to their works, Romans 2:2-11, 2 Corinthians 5:10. Nowadays people make it clear to themselves and to others that God is not concerned about such trifles as the sinful thoughts and deeds of man. But the true, living God, whom the Scriptures make known to us, thinks quite differently about it. He is horribly wroth at both congenital and actual sins, and wants to punish them temporarily and eternally by means of a righteous judgement, Deuteronomy 27:26, Galatians 3:10.

According to that righteousness, however, He not only punishes the wicked, but according to the remarkable teaching of Scripture, it is according to that same righteousness that He grants salvation to the pious. It is true that the pious, considered in themselves, are sinners and no better than the others. While the wicked hide or disguise their sins, they are the ones who acknowledge and confess their guilt. But this is what makes the difference. Although personally guilty and impure, they are nevertheless, as far as the matter is concerned, on the side of God and against the world. So they may plead on the promise of His covenant of grace, on the truth of His word, on the righteousness which God Himself has wrought in Christ.

According to that righteousness, we may respectfully say, God Himself is obliged to forgive the sins of His people and to grant them eternal life, Psalms 4:2, Psalms 7:10, Psalms 31:2, Psalms 34:2-3, Psalms 35:23, Psalms 51:16, Psalms 103:17, 1 John 1:9. And if God often waits and the pious are tested in their faith for a long time, then after that the truthfulness and faithfulness of God comes to light more and more in their complete salvation, Genesis 24:27, Genesis 32:10, Joshua 21:45, 2 Samuel 7:28, Psalms 57:4, Psalms 105:8. The Lord will complete for his people, his mercy is forever, Psalms 138:8. He is merciful and gracious, longsuffering and great in mercy and truth, Exodus 34:6, Psalms 86:15, Psalms 103:8, Psalms 145:8.

These speak of chariots and those of horses, but we shall speak of the name of the Lord our God, Psalms 20:8, Jeremiah 9:23-24, 1 Corinthians 1:31, 2 Corinthians 10:17. For such is the God of ours forever and ever: he will lead us to death, Psalms 48:1-5. He is a blessed and a glorious God, 1 Timothy 6:15, Ephesians 1:17. And blessed is the people whose God is the Lord, Psalms 33:12