The Essence of God

Let’s look at who and what God is.

◊ God is sovereign. That is, He has supreme volition. He has always existed. He is the supreme being of the universe (Deuteronomy 4:39; 1 Samuel 2:6-8; 1 Chronicles 29:11; 2 Chronicles 20:6; Psalm 47:2; 83:18; 93:1; Isaiah 45:5-6; Matthew 6:13; Acts 17:24; Hebrews 8:10; Revelation 4:2-3). God is eternal, having no beginning and no end, the first and the last (Psalm 93:2; Revelation 22:3). He is infinite (Psalm 8:1; Acts 53:9; Hebrews 6:13). God is self-determining (Job 9:12; Psalm 115:3; 135:6; Proverbs 21:1; Daniel 4:35). God’s volition expressed in Scripture is found in Isaiah 46:10, “My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure” (reference also Ephesians 1:5).

◊ God is absolute righteousness or holiness (Leviticus 19:26; 1 Samuel 2:2; Psalm 22:23; 47:8; 111:9; John 17:11; Revelation 3:7; 6:10). God is not simply righteous by comparison with someone else, His righteousness is independent and incomparable. God is good (Psalm 25:8; 34:8; 119:68; Luke 18:19). His character, His person, and His absolute existence is absolutely perfect (Deuteronomy 32:46; Psalm 11:7; 97:6; 111:3; 119:137a; Jeremiah 23:6: Romans 1:17; 10:3; 1 John 2:29).

God’s perfect righteousness cannot be compared to our human righteousness. It is folly to even think so. God’s righteousness is best expressed perhaps as +R, while man’s lack of righteousness as -R. God’s +R and man’s -R are totally incompatible, total opposites, totally and mutually exclusive. God’s perfect righteousness rejects man’s self righteousness.

Now, immediately you should recognize that this poses a big problem: God cannot have fellowship with man because He is a perfect God and man is sinful. Thus, there is a barrier between God and man. In order to have relationship with God we would need His +R , and that is impossible for man. Therefore, we are totally helpless in our sinful state. Only God can help us. But God knew before He created man that man would choose to eat the forbidden fruit — this was negative volition. The result was the sin nature, the total separation from God’s +R. So, God made provision for man: the cross. “For he (the Father, through His plan) hath made Him (Christ) to be sin for us, who knew no sin (had no sin nature and never committed sin) that we might (maybe we will, maybe we won’t — our choice/volition), be made the righteousness of God (+R) in Him (2 Corinthians 5:21). “… even the righteousness of God (+R) which is by faith (a positive decision) of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all of them that believe” (Romans 3:22).

God’s will is that all would be saved (2 Peter 3:9; Revelation 22:17).

We receive God’s +R Because of Jesus Christ. There is no other way. Only God could save man and He has provided salvation through the death, burial, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ. Those who accept by faith “Christ died for us” receive Christ’s life, eternal life, and eternal life cannot die. We are forever saved. Eternal life cannot die. Therefore, we cannot ever lose our great salvation. When we believe, we receive Christ’s +R. Now we can have a relationship (fellowship) with God. People who say, “If we sin we will lose our salvation” simply do not understand grace or what you have just learned. We are -R. We cannot be good enough or sinless enough to save ourselves. Only God could save us, and He did.

When Adam sinned, sin passed upon all men. Adam died spiritually. At the same time Adam’s spirit was replaced by the human nature — the sin nature, and he died spiritually. This same sin nature is genetically inherited through the father, from Adam onward down to us. This is the reason for the virgin birth. Christ had no human father, therefore no human nature. You see, mankind is guilty (sinful) by his very nature (human nature). “We are all human,” “we make mistakes,” “no one is perfect”… no one, that is, except Jesus Christ, the last Adam. Under the first Adam, all die. Under the Second (last) Adam (Christ), all can live (1 Corinthians 15:2) — literally be “made alive” spiritually. This is the spiritual “rebirth” or being “born again.”

But this is potential — only faith makes it a reality. By faith we are made spiritually alive, born again, just as we were originally created. Okay, this should be sufficient to truly understand God’s +R and man’s -R and exactly how God solved our problem.

◊ God is justice. God is fair; it is impossible for God to be unfair. “For there is no iniquity with the Lord our God, nor respect of persons, nor taking of gifts” (2 Chronicles 19:7). “… nor respect of persons” means God has no favorites — we are all the same to God, even though He knows us personally and loves us individually and personally. Remember, He knows us and loves us because of His Son Jesus Christ, not because of who or what we are. Also, it says in 2 Chronicles 19:7 that he doesn’t take gift. In other words, you can’t bribe God or impress God by gifts or brownie points. God is only impressed by His Son and His Word — Bible doctrine resident in our souls. Remember and understand that God is not a patsy for anyone or anything (Deuteronomy 32:4; Job 37:23; Psalm 19:9; 50:6; 58:11; 89:14; Isaiah 45:21; Jeremiah 50:7; Romans 3:26; Hebrews 10:30-31; 12:23).

God expresses His love to believers in eternal life, and to unbelievers in damnation. The unbeliever would do well to consider the warning of Hebrews 10:31, “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” Jesus Christ satisfied the justice of God on the cross, because the guilt, penalty, and sins of all human beings were transferred to Christ as He hung on the cross (Romans 3:21-28; 4:5; 5:12; 6:23; 1 Peter 2:24).

The justice of God administers the penalty (i.e. the cost, which is death, both spiritual and physical), which His righteousness demands; His character is never compromised. And the only way out is to “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved…” (Acts 16:31). God, because of Christ on the cross, can now love us (believers). So, let’s look at His love.

◊ God is love.“He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love” (1 John 4:8). “God’s love” and “God is love” have been misunderstood. You cannot understand God’s love unless you understand who and what God is and is not. Bible doctrine is therefore essential. Love is just one of the attributes/characteristics of God.

God’s love is eternal and immutable (unchanging) always in the same quantity and quality (Jeremiah 31:3). Those who appropriate by faith the grace of God and salvation cannot ever be separated from the love of God (John 3:16; Romans 8:38-39; Ephesians 2:8-9). God is free to express His love to believers on the basis of the cross. Remember, Christ satisfied God’s righteousness and justice on the cross. This is the doctrine of propitiation.

God’s love is not in any way related to emotion. We, as humans, are inclined to confuse emotion and mentality, especially when it comes to love. Emotion is different and does not exist where God is concerned. Christ in His humanity expresses emotion, but not as God. Emotion is strictly an activity of the human soul.

The word “anthropopathism” means ascribing to God a human characteristic to express a divine attitude, so that we may understand better (i.e. jealousy, wrath, hatred, anger, etc., seen in the Bible and ascribed to God).

Our capacity for loving God is directly related to Bible doctrine. You can’t love someone you don’t know, not with personal love. There is a difference between personal love and impersonal love. People who get sentimental over God don’t even know Him. God expressed and proved His perfect love when “He spared not his own Son but delivered him up on the cross for us all” (Romans 8:32).

Let me state some things very emphatically: Knowledge demands responsibility. Character demands responsibility. Responsibility demands integrity. Responsibility demands liability. What’s my point? A perfect God, all-knowing (omniscient), is responsible (absolutely reliable), because of His absolute integrity. He has never compromised His character in any way. It is a total impossibility for Him to do so. We on the other hand are not only responsible and liable, but condemned for our sin nature and personal sins. God’s +R and His justice were not only satisfied, but not compromised by the vicarious, efficacious death of Christ on the cross. Now, God is free to love us in spite of ourselves. He proved the uniqueness of His absolute love when while we were yet in sin (sin nature), Christ died for us, being made sin for us (punished in our place) (Romans 5:8; 8:32). God’s love must be met at the cross (Philippians 3:10). God holds back judgment to give unbelievers a chance to be saved, to believe in His Son (2 Peter 3:9).

◊ God is eternal life. God is absolute existence (Exodus 3:14). He has always existed. There never will be a time when He does not exist. He is from everlasting to everlasting (Genesis 1:1a; Deuteronomy 32:40; Job 36:26; Psalm 9:7; 90:2; 102:27; 135:13; Isaiah 43:13a; Lamentations 5:19; Habakkuk 3:6).

God has, and is, eternal life. Eternal life has no beginning, no ending. Everlasting life has a beginning, but no ending. When we receive Christ as Savior (John 1:12), we receive Christ’s life — eternal life. But it is really everlasting life because it begins the moment we believe. Eternal life cannot die, therefore we cannot lose our salvation, which is in Christ Jesus. We literally possess His life eternal and we can never lose it nor can anyone or anything (including sin) take it from us (Romans 8:38-39).

Galatians 4:71 All sins, past, present, and future, were poured out on Him on the cross (2 Corinthians 5:21; 1 Peter 2:4). Jesus Christ paid for sin nearly 2000 years ago. If we (believers) sin, and we will, we are disciplined, not damned, not lost. We have eternal life. We become children of God, sons of God, just like Christ, because of Christ (Job 1:6; 38:7; John 1:12; Romans 8:14; 2 Corinthians 6:18; Hebrews 2:10; 12:5; James 1:18; 1 John 3:1). 1 John 5:12 says, “he that has the son has life” (eternal life). Our life is in Christ, and we cannot lose it. We are saved by grace through faith. It is God’s gift to us (Ephesians 2:8-9). The unbeliever who fails to make his decision to receive Christ (John 1:12) during his lifetime will suffer everlasting punishment and regret (Matthew 24:51; 25:46a). The believer has the absolute guarantee of God Himself that he shall never see spiritual death (not physical) again (John 8:51; 10:28-29; 11:25-26).

◊ God is omniscient. “Omni,” from Latin meaning “all.” And “sciens” from Latin meaning “knowledge.” He is all knowledge and all-knowing (1 Samuel 2:3; Job 26:6; 31:4; 34:2; 37:16; 42:26; Psalm 139:1-6,12; 147:4; Jeremiah 16:7; Matthew 10:29-30; Hebrews 4:13).

God’s knowledge is not related to or limited by time. He has always known everything. There never was a time when He did not know everything. There is nothing for God to learn. He knew our thoughts, motives, actions, everything, billions of years ago in eternity past, long before we ever existed (Isaiah 46:10; 42:9; Acts 15:18). He knows what is best for those of us who trust in Him. We may not understand, agree, or even like the adversities and sufferings which we will sometimes experience, but in retrospect it becomes apparent that God had a plan, a purpose, and knew exactly what He was doing (John 13:7).

God is infinite wisdom. His wisdom is unsearchable (1 Samuel 16:7; Psalm 44:21; 147:56; Proverbs 3:19; 5:21; 17:3; Jeremiah 17:10; 51:15; Matthew 6:8; Romans 11:33; Romans 8:27; 1 John 3:20).

We can know and understand God from His Word, the Bible. Over time with daily study, we learn more and more about the knowledge of God. Think about this: every book in the Bible has a human author who understood what he was recording as it was dictated by God the Holy Spirit. Therefore, every believer can assimilate every doctrine if he/she will study daily under his/her pastor-teacher. God’s mind is wonderful, eternal knowledge, and we have the mind of Christ (1 Corinthians 2:16). Who could ever conceive that believers could open God’s literal mind and know His thoughts, what He actually thinks? What God knows and thinks is His written Word. Furthermore, He speaks to us silently in our own souls. He knows our minds and our thinking — human viewpoint. And we can know His mind — divine viewpoint. God’s plan through His infinite wisdom (omniscience) is that we learn of Him. And when we do, He will change our human point of view to His divine point of view. This is absolutely fantastic. Teach me, Lord. I want to learn all about You — “the truth of knowledge” and “the knowledge of truth” (1 Timothy 2:4; 2 Timothy 3:7).

◊ God is omnipotence. This means He is all powerful, limitless in ability and strength (Genesis 17:1; 18:14; Psalm 24:8; 93:1; 147:5; Isaiah 40:26; 50:2; Jeremiah 27:5; 32:19; Matthew 19:26). God’s power, like His love, is totally devoid of human props. In other words, we usually associate power with human prowess or some powerful engine, or steam powered or electrically powered device, but God has no muscles (except Christ in His humanity), and no mechanisms. God doesn’t have a body, but Christ in His humanity does. This, of course, makes Jesus Christ the Unique Person of the Universe —truly God and truly man in one person forever. This is called the Hypostatic Union.

God is limitless in authority. By His power He rules and upholds all things (1 Chronicles 29:11-12; 33:9; 66:7a; Romans 13:1; Hebrews 1:3). The only limit to God’s power is negative volition on the part of angels and humanity. He does not coerce us. We have free will. We can choose for or against God.

God’s power and authority are manifested in many ways. The creation of the universe is one of the greatest displays of His awesome power (Genesis Chapter One; Jeremiah 32:7), as are His works regarding Israel when He parted the Red Sea (Psalm 74:13), and raised Christ from the dead (Matthew 22:31), plus the working of His love and power in providing our great salvation through Jesus Christ our Lord (Ephesians 1:19). He keeps the believer (1 Peter 1:5). Nothing, not even Satan himself, can remove us from this earth until the Lord says it is our time to go.

The Lord God omnipotent says to all believers, “Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh: is there anything too hard for me?” (Jeremiah 32:27). When we learn to apply this, we will respond with Job, “I know that thou canst do everything…” (Job 42:2), then we can relax in the knowledge that “… with God nothing shall be impossible” (Luke 1:37). He is our strength and our redeemer forever and ever.

◊ God is immutable. God is perfect and absolute stability: “… the Everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, nor is weary…” (Isaiah 40:28). He cannot change (Psalm 102:26-27; Malachi 3:6; Hebrews 1:12). Since God’s righteousness cannot have anything to do with sin — all mankind, believers and unbelievers alike — and God’s justice can only condemn, God could not love us without compromising His righteousness and His justice apart from grace. Understand that eternal life cannot die and immutable God cannot change; but grace found a way — the cross. As true humanity, God the Son would employ “kenosis” (which means a voluntary restriction of divine attributes or knowledge, which is why only the Father knows when the Rapture will occur) to His deity, and could therefore pay the penalty of sin by being judged for sin, for us all, in His true humanity. God the Father was completely satisfied with the work of his Son, Jesus Christ, on the cross, on our behalf.

God cannot change or He would not be God. God is perfect in every way; there is no need for Him to change at all. Because God is immutable, His love is unchangeable; because of His eternal life, His love is undying and enduring. He is absolute and complete in Himself.

God gives us two immutable things — the person of Jesus Christ (the Living Word), and the Bible (His written Word), Bible doctrine (1 Corinthians 2:16; Hebrews 13:8). He literally gives us something of Himself, Bible doctrine, and His Son, Jesus Christ. When we have Bible doctrine, when we have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, we have the only real stabilizers in life. God’s Word is our stability. God’s Son is our security. God is faithful, which is a result of his immutability (Lamentations 3:22-23).

The Bible states many ways in which God is faithful to us. The following are just a few:

First: God is faithful to keep His promises (Numbers 23:19; 1 Kings 8:56; 2 Corinthians 1:20; Titus 1:2; Hebrews 10:23; 11:11).

Second: God is faithful to forgive (1 John 1:9). He does not forgive because we feel sorry for our sins or promise never to do them again. He forgives because Christ has already paid the penalty for our sins — past present and future — on the cross.

Third: God is faithful to keep us saved (Romans 8:38-39; 2 Timothy 2:12-13). Even if we might say after we are saved, “I no longer believe in Christ,” God is still faithful and unchanging to us. There is nothing we can say or do to lose our salvation once we have believed in Jesus Christ (please reference the in-depth study of You Cannot Lose Your Salvation). God never takes back salvation. He cannot. He is immutable. God provided salvation through His Son — this is grace (Ephesians 2:8-9). Had we helped God in any way, we would be subject to losing our salvation. But God doesn’t and didn’t need sinful man’s help. God is perfectly capable. Jesus Christ did all the work on the cross, we simply receive what He has done. Nothing can change our destiny, our eternal life, not even God, because He is immutable.

◊ God is omnipresent. God is not limited by time or space. He is both imminent (John 14:23) and transcendent (Acts 17:24). This explains such phrases as, “the heavens cannot contain him” (1 Kings 8:27), and “heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool” (Isaiah 66:1). He is everywhere simultaneously (Deuteronomy 4:39).

Now for a very important principle of doctrine: Being everywhere simultaneously was one of the factors that made it impossible for Jesus Christ to go to the cross as God only. Deity cannot reduce itself to one place. Therefore, Christ, as God, had to become true humanity. When Jesus Christ went to the cross, He did not bear our sins in His divine essence, but in His own body (1 Peter 2:24).

It should be a sobering thought to the unbeliever to realize that he cannot escape the presence of God (Psalm 139:7; Proverbs 15:3) but comforting for the believer to know that God will never leave them nor forsake them (Psalm 23:6; 139:8-10; Hebrews 13:5).

◊ God is veracity. Veracity means that God is absolute truth, which is an expression of His righteousness: “… a God of truth without iniquity, just and right is He” (Deuteronomy 32:4). If God is to be faithful to us, He must be completely truthful to us. We must have all the necessary facts concerning Him as well as ourselves. Therefore, His veracity is manifested in His ways (Psalm 25:10; 86:15; Revelation 15:3), in His works (Psalm 33:4; 111:7-8; Daniel 4:37), and in His Word (2 Samuel 7:28; 1 Kings 17:24; Psalm 19:9; 119:142,151; 138:2; John 17:17; 2 Corinthians 6:17; Ephesians 1:13).

The sum total of divine veracity to the human race is bound up in the Bible — the Word of Truth. Before the Bible was completed, God’s veracity was manifested in various ways: He spoke verbally (Genesis 17:1-2; Hebrews 6:7-18), He sent angels to teach, He used profits, priests, and other communicators. Since the Canon of Scripture was completed, God speaks only through His Word — Bible doctrine.

God has many other attributes for He is All in All; Alpha and Omega (Revelation 22:13). God is so much more than we can comprehend that He exclaimed, “I am that I am” (Exodus 3:14).

Having examined the essence of God, we can and do now have a better understanding of who and what He is, which is far more than man realizes. Whenever believers study God’s Word, the Holy Spirit breathes the information to our souls (2 Timothy 3:16).

God can do no more than to give both Himself and His very mind to us, His Word — the Bible. The importance of Bible doctrine cannot be overemphasized, cannot be stressed enough. We must, as believers, nourish our souls and grow in the knowledge of Jesus Christ, daily feeding on the Word of God. God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are co-equal and co-eternal, sharing all the same characteristics (or essence), and attributes. Three in personality, One in essence forever and ever.

These characteristics and essences of God help us understand who and what God is. God’s very being is His essence. Think on these things as you walk your pathway through fields of grace.

Happy Studying.

Related Studies:

The Doctrine of the Trinity (An In-Depth Study)