Lesson 18
The Godhead
Part 3
by Ruth Mahoney Swaim
Lesson 3 of this teaching will begin with listing the attributes of God. They all apply to the Trinity, to all three personalities.
You will also find that I will repeat some details. Speaking as a teacher, a method of getting people to remember a salient point is repetition. We make some important emphasis by approaching a truth from different angles. This way it goes from your mind into your heart and spirit.
Attributes of God
Attributes are those characteristics or qualities that belong to a person. These are the peculiar and particular anomalies that belong to someone. They are the characteristics which make that person who and what they are.
When we speak of the Attributes of God we mean those qualities that belong to God as God. The Attributes of God.
The ten Attributes of God fall into two categories or groupings:
Essential (6)
Moral (4)
Essential Attributes are those qualities which belong to God, apart from any relationship to His creatures. They are characteristics of God which make God who He is. These essential attributes cannot become attributes of man. They belong to God alone.
There are ten attributes of God. Six of them are called Essential Attributes. These belong to God alone. They are as follows:
1. Eternal
2. Self Existent
3. Immutable
4. Omnipotent
5. Omniscient
6. Omnipresent
Moral Attributes are those which He shares with us. That is, these four moral attributes are characteristics He wants to work into our lives. They are as follows:
1. Perfect Holiness
2. Perfect Righteousness
3. Perfect Love
4. Perfect Faithfulness
In this lesson, Part 3, we will be studying the first three Essential Attributes.
Essential Attributes
Essential attributes are those qualities which belong to God apart from any relationship to His creatures. They are characteristics of God which make God who He is. These essential attributes can never become attributes of man because man would then become God. These attributes are also spoken of as being the non-moral or incommunicable attributes of God.
1. God is Eternal
In Exodus 3:14 God is talking with Moses and telling him to go back to the children of Israel after his long sojourn on the backside of the desert. Moses asked Him who he should say sent him. God Said "I AM THAT I AM." And he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.
Charles Spurgeon: "Yesterday, today, and tomorrow belong to dying mortal. God, the Immortal King lives in an eternal today. He is the I AM; I AM in the present; I AM in the past; and I AM in the future."
God is everywhere in time. God is today in the past; He is today already in the future; He is today in the present in which we are.
God is ETERNAL. He has no beginning or end. He has always been and always will be.
With God there is neither past, present nor future. He does not call Himself the 'I was," because then our conception would be that He used to be something that He is not now, that some part of His character had changed, or some attribute ceased from existence. Nor does He speak of Himself as the "I shall be," for that might lead us to imagine that He is not now something which He is to be in the ages to come.
He is all today that He will be in the future. He is the I AM; I AM in the present; I AM in the past; and I AM in the future. So we may say of Him that He is always. He is everywhere in time.
Example: Even though we cannot fully understand this perhaps an example or metaphor would illustrate, even though sadly lacking in expression of His eternal being.
Charles Spurgeon: "Picture a river flowing down from a very tall mountain, eventually reaching the sea.
A man in a boat is on this river. His vessel is at a certain place of progress on the river soon to be at the river's mouth. Only that part of the river upon which He is sailing is present to him.
But up higher on the mountain peak stands another man. As he looks from the summit he marks the source of the river and gazes upon its stream, following it with his eye until it swells into a rolling flood and finally is absorbed into the ocean.
As the mountain climber stands upon that high peak that whole stream of water is equally present to him from its source to its fall; there is no one part of the stream which is nearer to him than another. He sees the whole of it and it is all present before his view. Such is the stream of time to God."
That is why He can say that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. II Peter 3:8.
He tells us that Jesus was slain before the foundations of the earth. He sees everything as present and accomplished. Time is no barrier to Him.
Now, in light of His eternal attribute, can you believe in your own life and reach for those promises He has given or those requests you have presented to Him as already accomplished? He sees it as done. He sees it as finished. Your part is to believe and reach the point of completion to that request, to reach out and receive what He has for you.
Psalm 90:3 From everlasting to everlasting thou art God. God exists from eternity to eternity.
Genesis 21:33 The Everlasting God
Isaiah 44:6 The First and Last
Romans 1:20 God's eternal power and Godhead
Revelation 1:8 Alpha and Omega; Beginning and the End
2. God is Self Existent
He exists in and from Himself. He is the reason for His own existence. He is the source of ALL life and His life is inexhaustible. He is absolutely independent of all outside of Himself. Since man is dependent upon God for his very existence, even breath, this is totally beyond our understanding. This means that as far as existence goes, God does not need us. He is total and complete in Himself. He has, however, created man for His glory and communion and we have the privilege of being able to talk with Him and call on His mercy.
We are not self existent. We need Him every day, every hour, every minute.
Genesis 2:7 tells us that God formed man and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life.
We cannot even breathe without His life in us. A totally independent God deigned to create us to enjoy life and breathed into us life and the ability to commune with Him, to request whatever we need or want from Him. He hears us and considers our every request.
Keep in mind He doesn't need us but He loves us and sent his ONLY son to die for us in order to reconcile us to Him for communion and fellowship. Plus if we accept His son as our savior, we are assured of eternal life. That means, even though we have not always existed, if we are born again we will live forever, from this time forward. When we die here on this earth, we will enter into an eternal existence. And He opens all His creation, all His grace and all His wonder to us to explore forever.
Exodus 3:14; Isaiah 41:4: I AM that I AM
Exodus 3:14, 15; 6:3: Jehovah
Psalm 36:9: Fountain of Life
I Timothy 1:17: King Eternal, immortal, invisible
3. God is Immutable
That is, God is unchanged and unchangeable as to His character and being. In His essential and moral attributes God is unchangeable. In the perfections of His character, God can never change.
Malachi 3:6: I am the Lord, I change not.
He will always be exactly what He has always been. Because of His unchanging nature He is not capricious and moody. He doesn't do anything on a 'whim.' You can depend on Him always being exactly as He is. And, as Bill Johnson says, "God is not in a bad mood."
James 1:17; Psalm 33:11: God is the Father of lights and there is no variableness nor shadow of turning with Him.
If He healed in the Old Testament, He will heal today.
If He healed in the time of Christ and Paul, He will heal today.
If He says I will never leave you nor forsake you that means He will never leave you nor forsake you. He doesn't go back on His declarations simply because you are disobedient. He doesn't change.
You might change your mind. You might forsake Him. You might be willful and rebellious. But He still stands as the same today as He was yesterday and will be tomorrow.
His word says He forgives sin and stands ready to forgive you. He doesn't change or react to you. If you turn back to Him, acknowledge your sin, confess your sin, His promises will stand. He doesn't change.
I say again, He is still the same today as He was yesterday and still the same as He will be tomorrow.
Hebrews 13:8; 1:12; Psalm 102:27: Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today and forever.
Malachi 2:6: I am the Lord, I change not.
Hebrews 6:18; Two immutable things are God and His Word
Note: As you pray and seek the Lord, contemplate these characteristics of God. I guarantee He will begin to fill your very existence and thought processes and you will grow in faith and grace in your spiritual life.
Prayer: Heavenly Father, I thank you that you are mindful of me. Your mind is always ever toward me and you have promised to never leave me. I trust in your word and your faithfulness. Thank you that I can call on you any time, anywhere and you will hear me and act on my behalf. I pray that your purposes will be accomplished in my life and that I will learn more of you and draw closer to you.
For a deeper study on the attributes of God the following references may be helpful:
Systematic Theology by Dr. A. H. Strong
Spurgeon on the Attributes of God by C. H.Spurgeon
The Foundations of Christian Doctrine by Kevin U. Conner
This teaching by Ruth Mahoney Swaim is distributed free of charge and may be reproduced, expanded upon and reprinted.
Copyrighted by Ruth Mahoney Swaim for protection against unauthorized commercial use.
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