03.3. Attributes of God with respect to created man
The Attributes of God with respect to man as a created being
Yours, O LORD, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty, for all that is in the heavens and in the earth is yours. Yours is the kingdom, O LORD, and you are exalted as head above all. Both riches and honor come from you, and you rule over all. In your hand are power and might, and in your hand it is to make great and to give strength to all. And now we thank you, our God, and praise your glorious name. 1 Chronicles 29:11-30. The ex-nihilo Creativity of God The most basic attribute of God with respect to his creation is simply his creativity. The very existence of man and the universe in which he dwells, as well as angels and the spirit-world they inhabit, is due solely to the creativity of God. When we speak of a creature as creative, we mean that he is knowledgeable in taking unrefined substances and shaping them into something beautiful. But with God, we must add that his creativity is ex-nihilo: all of the beautifully formed works of his hands came from nothing at all. By his very word, God both created the substance of the universe and shaped it into the manifold and glorious creation we see in and around us.
Genesis 1:1; Genesis 1:31 a; Nehemiah 9:6; Acts 17:24-25; John 1:1-3; Colossians 1:15-16; Job 33:4 2. The Sustaining/Preservation of God
God’s relationship to his creation did not stop when he had finished making it. God did not just create the world and then step back to let it run its course according to natural laws. Instead, he continually and actively sustains and preserves it. The worlds are in his hand; and apart from his sustaining all of his creation would fall apart and come to naught.
Hebrews 1:3; Colossians 1:17; Nehemiah 9:6; Acts 17:28 3. The Transcendence/Omnipresence of God
God in his being is infinite and unbounded; in relation to his creation, that means that he is omnipresent - that is, he is everywhere at all times. This does not mean that he is extended throughout the universe, as though he had a giant body, so that part of him is here and part of him is there. Rather, all of him is here and all of him is there. In every part of creation, God is there in all of his being. He is everywhere and at all times seeing, governing, and guiding. Although God is present everywhere in creation, this does not mean that he is identical with creation (pantheism).
He is still separate and exalted, or transcendent.
Jeremiah 23:23-24; Psalms 139:7-10; Ephesians 1:21-23. The Ownership of God
Because God created all things, he owns all things. We really are not our own. How many wicked and presumptuous thoughts we could avoid if we would truly meditate on this reality! We have no more right to question what God does to us, in us, with us, for us, against us, than a clay jar has to question why its potter made it the way he did.
Psalms 100:3; Psalms 50:9-12; Isaiah 45:9-12; Romans 9:20-21; Ephesians 2:10 5. The Law-giving of God
God, as our Creator, Sustainer, Owner, and Lord, has every right to tell us how we must live. We have no right other than to obey every word that he commands us. God our Creator is God our Law-giver; and we must obey him. The bible uses a variety of terms to indicate the moral obligations that God lays upon us: laws, commandments, statutes, etc. One term that is sometimes used in this way is “the will of God.” Something that God commands us to do may be called his “will”; and in our rebellion, we may disobey his will. However, “will” in this sense has a different meaning from the will of God by which he plans all things according to his own counsel, and omnipotently accomplishes them. We can disobey the moral will of God, but we can never frustrate his sovereign plans. Failing to distinguish these two different senses with which the term “God’s will” is used in the bible has been the cause of much unnecessary confusion.
Genesis 2:16-17; Psalms 19:7-11; Deuteronomy 30:15-18 a; James 2:10 ØThe bible sometimes refers to God’s commandments as his “will”
1 Thessalonians 4:2-3; Psalms 40:8. The Sovereignty of God
There are few truths more clearly revealed in the scriptures and yet more ardently opposed by men everywhere than that of the absolute sovereignty of God. Any view of God that limits his sovereignty in any way is a distorted and insufficient view of God. The God that the Bible reveals to us is a God who not only has the right to rule over all of his creation and to direct it however he chooses; but more than that, he is a God who actually does reign over his world. God governs the natural world, and directs it to his ends; he governs holy angels, and those angels that are fallen; he governs men, raising some up, putting some down, giving some mercy and showing some justice, granting to some repentance and hardening others. This is the sovereign God we worship. God grant that we may never reject this glorious doctrine because our view of ourselves is too high!
Psalms 115:3; 1 Samuel 2:6-8; Isaiah 45:7; Proverbs 16:4 A)God is sovereign over the natural world Psalms 135:6; Genesis 8:22; Mark 4:39 B)God is sovereign over angels and demons Psalms 103:20; 1 Kings 22:19-23; 1 Samuel 16:14 C)God is sovereign over men Proverbs 21:1; Daniel 4:17; Acts 4:27-28; Acts 13:48; 2 Timothy 2:25; Romans 9:14-18
There is no attribute more comforting to His children than that of God’s Sovereignty. Under the most adverse circumstances, in the most severe trials, they believe that Sovereignty has ordained their afflictions, that Sovereignty overrules them, and that Sovereignty will sanctify them all. There is nothing for which the children ought more earnestly to contend than the doctrine of their Master over all creation - the Kingship of God over all the works of His own hands - the Throne of God and His right to sit upon that Throne. On the other hand, there is no doctrine more hated by worldings, no truth of which they have made such a football, as the great, stupendous, but yet most certain doctrine of the Sovereignty of the infinite Jehovah. Men will allow God to be everywhere except on His throne. They will allow Him to be in His workshop to fashion worlds and make stars. They will allow Him to be in his almonry to dispense His alms and bestow His bounties. They will allow Him to sustain the earth and bear up the pillars thereof, or light the lamps of heaven, or rule the waves of the ever-moving ocean; but when God ascends His throne, His creatures then gnash their teeth. And we proclaim an enthroned God, and His right to do as He wills with His own, to dispose of His creatures as He thinks well, without consulting them in the matter; then it is that men turn a deaf ear to us, for God on His throne is not the God they love. But it is God upon the throne that we love to preach. It is God upon His throne whom we trust. Charles H. Spurgeon 7.The Goodness of God The goodness of God is the reason that his sovereignty is so comforting to his children. By goodness we mean God’s kindness and benevolence to all of his creation. God is just and righteous in his dealings with creation; but more than that, there is also a positive, undeserved goodness that he displays in all the world, even to the unredeemed.
Psalms 104:10-21; Psalms 100:4-5; Matthew 5:44-48. The Glorification of God When we speak of the glory of God, we are referring to every attribute he has, everything that he is. God is infinitely glorious in his essential nature. But we mean something a little different by the glorification of God. When we say this, we are simply referring to the truth that the ultimate purpose of creation is to glorify God, or to display his glory. In glorifying God, we are not adding glory to him; he is already infinitely glorious. Rather, we are acknowledging his glory, ascribing glory to him, displaying his glory. This is the ultimate reason for the creation of the world: to display the glory that God eternally possesses within himself.
Isaiah 43:7; Psalms 19:1; Ephesians 3:20-21; Ephesians 1:11-12; 1 Corinthians 10:31