Our theology about God is rooted and grounded solely in Scripture. All we can ever know about God is what He has chosen to disclose to us. What, then, does God reveal to us about Himself? Here are 10 things God tells us in Scripture.
1. He is the only true God. The Scripture is clear, there is only one true and living God: “I am the Lord, there is no other; there is no God but Me” (Isa. 45:5). As Christians, we are monotheistic, that is, we believe there is only one God. Polytheism believes in many gods. Pantheism believes god is in everything and everything is god. Atheism says there is no God, but biblical theism says there is only one God and there is no other god beside Him. Our God is unique. The Bible tells us He is a person. He is intelligent, knowable, and has a personal will.
2. God is Sovereign. He is omnipotent (all powerful) and able to do all His holy will. He tells us in Jeremiah 32:27 that there is nothing too hard for Him. God’s sovereignty speaks to His rule or reign over all things. It would not be fair to say God can do anything because His sovereignty is consistent with His holiness and all His other attributes: therefore, God cannot lie, He cannot sin, He cannot deny Himself, He cannot be tempted with evil, and He cannot cease to exist. Simply put, God’s sovereignty means He is able to bring His will to pass however He wills. While God’s freedom speaks to the fact that there are no external constraints on His decisions, His sovereignty speaks to the fact that by His own power He can do whatever He pleases: “Our God is in heaven; He does whatever pleases Him” (Ps. 115:3).
3. God is Holy. The word holy is often used in Scripture to speak about the Christian being separated from sin and separated to God. But when Scripture uses the word holy to describe God, it is speaking not only of His righteousness and perfection, but of the reality that He is separate and different from us. This word speaks to His transcendence or the fact that He is infinitely exalted above all of creation. Isaiah 6:3 tells us of the angels around the throne, “They were calling to one another: ‘holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of His glory.”
4. God is Infinite.He is eternal. He has neither beginning nor end; He has always been and will always be. Time and space do not limit God as they limit us. God is not subject to the special laws of time and space, which confine us. He is timeless: “With the Lord one day is like a thousand years and a thousand years like one day” (2 Pet. 3:8). He can act within time or outside of its limitations. Truly, this is incomprehensible to us. As limited, finite beings, who ourselves are confined by time and space, it is difficult for us to even conceive of this aspect of God, but Scripture tells us He is eternal.
5. God is Omnipresent.There is no place He is not. He is everywhere at all times. There is no place where we can escape the presence of God (Ps. 139:7-10). Furthermore, He is in no way diminished by His being in all places at all times. He is present everywhere in all His fullness. This too is difficult for us to understand, so we must say with the Psalmist, “This extraordinary knowledge is beyond me. It is lofty; I am unable to reach it.” Suffice it to say that God is all places at all times and there is never a place where He is not.
6. God is Omniscient. He knows all things, past, present and future, the possible as well as the actual. There is nothing which escapes His knowledge or understanding: “Before a word is on my tongue, You know all about it, Lord” (Ps. 139:4). Even the thoughts of our hearts are known to Him. From the beginning, He knows the end and from the end, He knows the beginning. His knowledge is simultaneous as opposed to successive. That is, He knows all things at all times. He is never learning or in the process of learning, as Open Theists would have us think. God has always known all things and always will.
7. God is Unchanging. The technical term is “Immutable.” When we speak of the Immutability of God, we are talking about the fact that He is not capable or susceptible of change, either by increase or by decrease, by development or by self-evolution. He is unchangeable, invariable, and permanent. God does not change: “I the Lord do not change (Mal. 3:6). Not only does God not change, but His moral principles do not change. He is who He has always been and will always be who He is. “You remain the same and Your years will never end” (Heb. 1:12).
8. God is Righteous. He is the standard by which fairness and justice are measured. God’s righteousness means He always acts in accordance with what is right and is Himself the final standard of what is right: “His works are perfect and all His ways are just. A faithful God who does no wrong, upright and just is He” (Deut. 32:4). What a wonderful thing to know that God is righteous and just! We know that someday, every wrong will be made right and everyone of us will stand before Him and give account. Although we may be surrounded by injustice on this earth, in the end, justice will prevail because our God is the personification of what is right and just.
9. God is Merciful. While God is just, He is also gracious and merciful. This speaks to God’s patience and His longsuffering with His fallen creations: “The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love” (Ps. 103:8). Mercy speaks to God withholding punishment that we do deserve, while grace speaks to His giving us good things we do not deserve. God is indeed merciful.
10. God is Love. This means God is about the business of giving Himself to others: “Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love” (1 Jn. 4:8). Jesus tells us in Matthew 5:45 that God’s love is for all of His creation, as He causes the sun to shine and rain to fall on the just and the unjust. God loves all of His creation, and does so with a selfless and sacrificial kind of love. Volumes have been written on the love of God. While many try to explain it, God is always about the business of inviting us to experience it. Throughout Scripture, we see the evidence of God’s love, ultimately fulfilled in the giving of His Son Jesus to pay the penalty of our sins.
Perhaps as you’ve been reading this article, you’ve thought about other things you would like to learn about God. Things like His wisdom, His goodness, His self-sufficiency, or His glory. Maybe you’ve thought about His beauty, His peace, or His faithfulness. All of these things are topics about which books have been written. We’ve only scratched the surface.
In my next article, we will consider what impact these truths have on our lives.
Joe Quatrone, Jr. 
But do we really need god? Is he an excuse we use to overcome our inabilities? read on!! http://kaboomed.wordpress.com/2014/07/01/god-an-excuse/
Good question. I can understand why some people would think that.
I read your article. Where are you getting your information from?
These are my own views on god. Been thinking this way from my childhood.
I read your post.
The immediate answer to your question is yes and truthfully, your own post answered it. The question of the need for deity is internal and subjective. If we don’t acknowledge the one true God, we are almost forced to create our own God (inclusively ourselves) to serve. We are creatures of service. Whom we serve is the question and the conclusion you’ve come up with is… self… Others usually decide in one or another God.
My question is… Why ‘self’? Did you truly investigate the reason for your decision not to believe or are you simply repeating someone else’s ideas because they sound good and it fits with what ‘you’ like? As advice, attempt to analyze yourself and all of the facts from both sides of the fence (or multiple fences as you imply) and, after spending a few years actually studying this, then make a decision.
The debate on whether god exists or not will continue to the end of life but what we as human beings being the most intelligent species on this planet should make use of our time wisely, spending it in the development of our and other life on this planet not waste it on praying and offering goods to gods. Yes god helps us have hope but do we need god for hope? If we start believing in ourselves we can achieve miracles rather than blaming god for everything.
A Christian does not state that they need God for ‘hope’. Hope is a moot point with regard to the need for God. A Christian needs God because a Christian (and all humans) are evil and need salvation from that power. An Atheist, on the other hand, usually would reject such a need because an atheist is usually an amoralist. We’re simply animals working on instinct without any final judgment.
This is one of the reasons why a believer and an atheist will never be able to agree. It is usually not because of a scientific or historical or even logical reason, it is a moral reason The disagreement is not that he exists or does not exist which is a moot point because neither side can scientifically prove their point but, the disagreement comes in the ‘point of need’.
The disagreement is found in who we are in reference to creation itself. Are we simply the byproduct of evolution or simply another ‘animal’ or do we have a reason to be here and, if so, what reason?
As a matter of fact, you’ve supposed a few things that point to this matter. Why should we, as simple animals and a byproduct of nature, believe in ourselves? We’re simply animals and a natural occurrence without the need for any moral or intellectual mission. We should simply live our lives and do nothing other than please our own selves, regardless of anyone else’s needs or desires (unless, of course, the other person has something we want and, if there is no God, there really is no morality just instinct so… I’ll just take what I want from whoever has it.)
First of all what is god? Is he jesus? Allah? Shiva? And why do those names exist? They are for the whole reason of inculcating fear in people of their sins. So the concept of god exists for a good reason, so people won’t commit sins. But i disagree with the fact that there is a god who will punish us for our actions in this or later life. People believe in god out of fear. May it be fear of punishment or fear of losing hope or whatever the reason. God is a mere myth which is so deep rooted in our society that we believe in god more than ourselves.
We humans are not ordinary animals, we can achieve extra ordinary things unlike other simple animals. We go to other planets, we send our robots out of our solar system. We are in no way ordinary byproducts of nature, we are one extraordinary by-products of nature. We can achieve things no other animal can even imagine. I believe in myself, i don’t seek god for hope i seek the people around me. It is my sole opinion, its as holy as Christianity or islamic or Hinduism.
What would interest me Sri Harsha is the proof you have that there is no God , have you died and come back and so can confirm there is nothing there? Evolution Scientists have not established that there is no God, even after trying for many years, they are still working on theories without facts, they have never been able to create viable life from nothing or even from simple substances like jelly larva which they said we evolved from and the Big Bang has proven to be a fallacy the only things they have found agree with Creation too and even their dating of the earth has proven to be in error but we knew that was impossible by the Scriptures and even by Secular History and fossils.
I can prove Sri Harsha there is a God, for one thing you have a belly button that no other animal has or has ever had, so we couldn’t have evolved from one also when Mankind had no way of knowing, God had man record in the Scriptures that the earth was round, man believed it was flat for many years after this was recorded and God tells us about D.N.A and even Aids and there was no Pathology in those days. He told us many others things too that have come True and others that will come true, we can already see the beginnings of them.
When I and other Christians share about Jesus we offer Hope for a wonderful Eternity but what do you offer Sri Harsha, except a hopeless end.
Christian Love from us both – Anne
For all the reasons you give me into believing good has given us logic and facts i wrote another article.. http://kaboomed.wordpress.com/2014/07/29/god-and-aliens-godicize/ . And we don’t need god for hope, we only need trust in ourselves.
These attributes of God bring a lot of impact in our lives
Yoshiko
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Absolutely Yoshiko! God bless!
God bless to you too
A great message Pastor Joe and it’s very True, when we are sharing about our Awesome God I agree, how can we find enough adjectives to describe His greatness but we do find some in Scripture that are very much the reality of His Love and His Nature, He is Love and Jesus is the image of Him.
1 Corinthians 13:4 -8a Love is Patient, Love is Kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always Protects, always Trusts, always Hopes, always Perseveres, Love never fails.
Galatians 5:20-23 But the fruit of the Spirit is Love, Joy, Peace, Forbearance, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness and Self-Control. Against such things there is no law.
1 Corinthians 13:4 -8a Love is Patient, Love is Kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always Protects, always Trusts, always Hopes, always Perseveres, Love never fails.
Colossians 1:15 -17 Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature: For by Him were all things created, that are in Heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by Him, and for Him: And He is before all things, and by Him all things consist.
Christian Love in our Unity with Jesus Christ – Anne.
Well said, Anne. Thanks for commenting. God bless!
🙂
Reblogged this on Freedomborn … Aussie Christian Focus and commented:
A great message Pastor Joe and it’s very True, when we are sharing about our Awesome God I agree, how can we find enough adjectives to describe His greatness …..
Christian Love in our Unity with Jesus Christ
🙂
I especially like this one phrase: It would not be fair to say God can do anything because His sovereignty is consistent with His holiness and all His other attributes.
So many people want to play the ‘chicken and the egg’ game with God’s attributes. It simply doesn’t work that way… and His own will governs that too.
Thanks Raul. God bless!
Pastor Joe, thank you for this study! And for making it plain in your intro that all we know about the Lord, He revealed to us.
1 Cor. 1:21 “For since in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom did not know God, God was pleased through the foolishness of preaching to save the ones believing.”
Clear, edifying teaching!
Maria
Thanks Maria! God bless!
Reblogged this on The Journey.
The 10 attributes Pastor Joe really nailed it, a perfect summation of our wonderful God . Perhaps you could apply to God what Isaiah attributed to His Son Jesus – Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father , Prince of Peace. Thanks Pastor Joe enjoyed it , glad Anne reblogged it.
Blessings
Ron
Thanks Ron! God bless!
Good morning Pastor Joe:
I have nominated you for a Very Inspiring Blogger Award, participation in strictly voluntary. Your gift really inspires others. Thank you for lifting us up continuously. http://denisethorntonxo.wordpress.com/2014/07/15/nominated-very-inspiring-blogger-award-thank-you/
Thank you, Denise! God bless!
You’re welcome. Keep up God’s Work.
I enjoyed the write up on the 10 attributes of God.
Calvary greeting to u IjN.By his grace,I’m a pastor,called out 4 a deliverance ministry (called THE ARK AND THE BLOOD OF JESUS MINISTRY).We have been trying to start up d ministry,due to the financial challenges.We need ur financial support.Thanks for your concern.