Scripturally speaking God has been referred to as the most high, theAlmighty, the Ruler, Eternal Father among others. Yet God is not an object, however he is seen as an object of theology. He can not be subjected to science, for he is not finite. He can not be contained in “laboratory tubs” for he his not an object. Who than is God? In trying to understand who God is (not an object), “God as known by faith as accurately as possible without objectivity distortions projections, God as viewed by Christian teaching and worship, can and has become the central interest and concern”[1] of every age. Therefore, in Christian theology, God is believed to have essential attributes, which is the only way God can be know and understood. This is to say the only way God can be understood is to distinguish him from others. For example how is green different from blue? It is clear that green is not blue nor is blue green. The fact that green is not blue, and that the attributes that makes green to be green, is the difference of the two. In the same way God has attributes and or qualities that make him God without which he can not be distinguished as such. These attributes can not be applied to any other being. For example, “while the love of God is an essential attribute that makes God GOD the act of sending his son to the world was not “essential” for the existence or nature of God”[2]
God as Love
The love of God is uninfluenced. The love which one creature has for another is because of something in them. But the love of God is free, spontaneous, uncaused. God has loved his people from everlasting, and therefore nothing of the creature can be the cause of what is found in God from eternity. He loves from himself. “God is love” points to the very heart of the message of the New Testament, of the Christian Gospel.[3] As the apostolic writer indicated, the essence of God is love. The doctrine of the Trinity indicates how this is the case. Throughout all eternity the divine life, the Father, Son and the Spirit, is the best characterized by “love”. Love, therefore, that is, the reciprocal self-dedication of the Trinitarian members builds the unity of the one God.[4] Love is the relational term to describe who God is to his creation. God is a loving Holy Father. One of the attributes for God is father. If we begin to look in the scripture of the things a loving father does for his children, we would find God as a good Father as we read through out the bible both the NT and the OT. There are three things told in the scripture concerning the nature of God. First, God is Spirit[5] thus this does not place God in class with others. God is Spirit in the highest sense. Second God is Light as seen in 1John 1:5 which is the antithesis of Darkness? And finally God is Love. It is not simply saying that God Loves, but that he is love itself. The love of God is an influenced. By this it means there is nothing in the objects of His love to call into existence, nothing in the creature to attract or prompt it The love which one creature has for an other is because of something in them but the love of God is free, spontantneous, uncaused.
In trying to understand the Love of God, Theologians must recognize that Holiness is the presupposition of Love that give itself freely. So only the Love of the “Holy God is truly free and generous love”[6]. In the scripture and mostly in the OT, God is frequently referred to as the holy one. Isaiah 6:3 His holiness is celebrated before the throne of Heaven, my creatures saying “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of host”. God is absolutely purity, without sin. Holiness is the very excellency of the Divine nature: the great God is glorious in holiness as seen in Exodus 15:11. When the concept of holiness is applied to God, it refers to God as one “Wholly Other” As God’s power is the opposite of the native weakness of the creature, as his wisdom is in complete contrast from the least of understanding of folly, so is His holiness is very antithesis of all the moral holiness. “Power is God’s hand or arm omniscience His eye, mercy His bowels, eternity His duration, but holiness is His beauty”[7] The only reason why God loves is found in his own sovereign will. For example the Lord did not set his love upon the Israelites and choose them because they were more in number, or powerful- they were the fewest and the weakest of all people: The Lord loved them. Duet 7:7-8[8]. God has love loved his people from everlasting to everlasting, and therefore nothing of the creature can be the cause of what is found in God from eternity. He loves from himself according to his own purpose. While human race was loveless, it is clear that His love is uninfluenced. It is highly important if God is to be honored in the heart. And that human being should be clear upon His precious truth. God’s love for his own is entirely unmoved by anything in them.
“The concept of the love of God, which focuses on his steadfast love also includes elements of faithfulness, mercy and grace best understood as major expression of the holiness of God”[9] as seen in page 3 of this paper. Faithfulness is essential to God’s being, without it He could not be God. Faithfulness is one of the glorious perfection of His being. Isaiah 11:5. So when God became incarnate it was said “Righteousness shall be the girdle of His Loins, and Faithfulness the girdle of his reins”[10]. The mercy of God is in the heavens Psalms 36:6. His compassion fails not. He never forgets, never fails, never falters never forfeits His world. The Mercy of God has its spring in the Divine goodness. This denotes God’s inclination to relieve the misery of fallen creatures. On the other hand grace is the alone source from which flows the goodwill, love, and salvation of God into His chosen people.
God’s love is eternal.
God himself is eternal, and He is love: therefore, as God of human’s feeble minds, as in Jeremiah 31:3 “I have loved thee with an everlasting love, therefore the loving kindness have I drawn thee.”[11] How blessed to know that the great and holy god loved is people before heaven and earth were called into existence, that He had set His heart upon them from all eternity. Clear prove is that is love is spontaneous, for He has love them before that had any being.[12] Therefore God’s love towards human being and creation in general has no beginning, it can have no ending. He is God and since God is Love, then it is equally true that from everlasting to everlasting he loves his people. The same truth is set forth in Ephesians 1:4- 5 “According as He hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy without blame me before Him. In love having predestined us” Here God’s love has date at which it was founded. It was before the foundation of the world; not only God’s people had a being, but before the world had a beginning, for they were chosen in the counsel of God
from eternity.[13]
The love of God is sovereign.
This is also seen in the way God act. God himself is sovereign, under obligation to none, has no law to follow, acting always according to His own imperial will and pleasure. Since God is sovereign, and since He be love, it necessarily follows that His love is sovereign. Since God is God, He does as He pleases; because God is love. He loves who He pleases. His love is not regulated but anything else, thus He is not ruled by a law or rule. Through out the Bible there are several own affirmation[14]
The love of God is infinite.
Everything about God is infinite. His essence fills Heaven and earth. His wisdom is illimitable, for He knows everything of the past, present and the future. His power is unbounded, for there is nothing too hard for Him. So his love is without limit. There is a depth to it which none can fathom; there is a height to it which none can scale; there is a length and breadth to which defies measurement, by any creature standard. Gods love is so transcendent it cannot be estimated. God who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loves us, John 3:16 [15] This brings us to the mystery of the Doctrine of the trinity. This doctrine tells us that the God who reveals his nature to human kind is the same as the Son.[16]
God’s love is unchangeable.
As seen earlier, God is the same he does not turn back. So his love does not know charge. God is GOD, he never ceases to love. Since the foundation of Christianity, God is viewed as changeless, consistent, faithful, dependable, the same yesterday, today, and forever the same. The God who created the world is the same God who later spoke to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who give his law to Moses, sent his Son to be the Savior inspires Paul and in whom we believe today. He is the same exact God and not something different.[17] God Loved is own to the end. His divine Love is subject to no vicissitudes, which were in the world. If God should withdraw His love from the world, there would simply be no being there. For no creature can sustain itself in being without his divine love. Love is the free act of God. As God was free to create, so is God free to love
unconditionally and without change.[18] Even when the world entered into sin God never change to love. He continues with His loving Kindness for that is who God is.
God’s Love is Holy.
His Love is not regulated by caprice of passion, or sentiment, but by principle. His love never conflict with His Holiness, for he is Love and Holy. This means that He will not wink at sin, even to His beloved people. His love is not compromised by sin. His love is pure.[19] God is not part of the natural world but He is the supernatural world. He is in fact the Supernatural ONE. As Thomas puts it, God is necessarily a doer of good. His will is thus dependably set in the direction of the morally excellent. Whatever God does is always good. So His love is positively motivated by which he is. We should notice therefore that His divine goodness has the high status of necessity.God’s love is gracious. Grace is the alone source from which flows the goodness, love, and salvation of God unto his chosen people. Divine grace is the sovereign favor of God exercised in the bestowment of blessings upon those who have no merit in them and for which no compensation is demanded. The love and the favor of God are inseparable. This is seen in the scripture. What that love is from which there can be no separation. It is that goodwill and grace of God which determined Him to give his Son for the sinful world. That love was the impulsive power Christ’s incarnation. John 3:16 “God so love the world that he gave His only begotten Son” Christ himself died not in order to make God love us, but because He did Loved us, Calvary is the supreme demonstration of this Divine love. Christ was beloved of the father, yet he was not exempted from poverty, disgrace, and persecution. He Hungered and thirsted. Thus, it was not incompatible with God’s love. Whenever one is tempted to doubt the love of God, Calvary is a good reminder of God’s goodness and his love. Because of Love, grace was planed it was exercised, purposed before it was imparted.[20] Love is free for none ever purchased it . Being love freely by His grace. As seen earlier in this paper love is sovereign because God exercised it toward and bestows it upon whom he pleases with love.
Therefore, the love of God can only be understood in the light of what happens in revelation. The Story of the New testament of love is Jesus Christ, the crucified which defines the LOVE Himself which is “Agape”[21] Love is the self giving of God, it is the free and generous grace of the one who is Holy love. God’s love does not seek value, but it creates value or gives value; it does not desire to get but to give; it is not attracted by some lovable quality, but it is poured out on those who are worthless and degraded; in the strict sense of the word , this love is unfathomable.
The goodness of God is expressed in relationship to several of other attributes as already seen in this paper. Therefore, as the creator, it is God who makes all things good according to the nature and for the plan of the world ( Gen 1: 4, 10, 12 , 18, 21, and 25). His goodness is particularly revealed in making humankind in his image and likeness, and then he has finished, his conclusion about them as well as the rest of the creation it is very good in his goodness.[22] We see God’s goodness as benevolence and generosity that is expressed towards his people. His goodness is often overlapped with his love. God’s love is the movement which goes out of oneself, which stoops down to that which is below: it is self-giving, the self-communication of God – and it is this which His revelation to man. Thus because God is Love, He wills to impart Himself, his nature, His innermost secret is self communication.[23]
Conclusion
Finally, it is always good to conclude with these words that distinguish God from man or and other created beings. Because of His love God is faithful. He is God the faithful God. In many ways humans have been unfaithful to God, and to the light and privileges with which God has entrusted to them. But God has remained faithful to His promises. Duet 7:9. More than four thousand years ago God’s fulfillment of his promise in Gen 8:22 still stand. Thus God is true. His promise is sure. In all His relation with people, God is faithful. He may be relied upon[24]. This is because of His Love towards human beings. God is faithful in glorifying His people. God is constant to Himself and to His own purpose of grace, whom He called. He demonstrates this through His everlasting goodness towards His own creation by loving them to the end. Even then creation does not deserve to be loved, He did so. Therefore, as seen earlier in this paper, many attributes of God are related to each other: His attribute of love seems to be related with God’s Figure as a Father, and also His kindness. On the other hand the attribute love has been tried together by the holiness of God that Stands behind each other and support each other in describing who God is, what God as done and what God is like. Therefore, the attribute of God OT to the NT must be understood as being built on the picture of God’s holiness. The holiness which the bible teaches is the holiness of the God who is love, therefore the truth of the holiness of God is completed in the knowledge of his love. The concept of the “love”[25] of God is not absent in the early part of scripture, but the primary picture of God from Mt. Sinai on is built on His holiness. Love does not only refer to Love as in Human beings for each other but also, His grace, mercy, faithfulness and goodness, and therefore has various translations such as steadfast love, faithful love, loving kindness, mercy and so forth. This is evident in the calling of the Israelites as a people chosen by God.[26] Therefore, Love become a manifestations of God’s holiness particularly to the point of His chose.
Throughout this paper, it is evident that the dominant attribute related to God is that of love. As described earlier, the OT word of love “hes'ed” has made God’s character known and this tell what God is to His people. It is in this supernatural love that God has desired to impart into all his children, so that they might reflect His image and character to the world. It is the grace of God that is the vehicle for implanting His love in the hearts of His people. This kind of supernatural love is not natural to mankind, but it is available by the renewing of the sinful nature through transforming grace. When this happens, the experience of God’s love begins to grown in people hearts. Thus the maturity of His Love grows throughout people’s lives and arrives at a greater point of maturity when they chose to love God with all their hearts and they are empowered to love others from a pure and with a total will whose origin is God. As Brunner puts it “God is love” points to the very heart of the message of the NT, of the Christian gospel. As in the OT, everything turns on the Holiness of God, so in the New everything turns in the love of God.[27] From this therefore, it is clear why this love is not a quality of God, but is nature, like holiness, for this love is nothing rather than the desire to impart Himself, the will of God to reveal Himself, just as it is His nature to will to be Lord to assert and maintain His claim. How
else can He do this but in loving? “How shall I give thee up, Ephraim? Within me my compassions are kindled together…”[28]
God’s love is eternal.
God himself is eternal, and He is love: therefore, as God of human’s feeble minds, as in Jeremiah 31:3 “I have loved thee with an everlasting love, therefore the loving kindness have I drawn thee.”[11] How blessed to know that the great and holy god loved is people before heaven and earth were called into existence, that He had set His heart upon them from all eternity. Clear prove is that is love is spontaneous, for He has love them before that had any being.[12] Therefore God’s love towards human being and creation in general has no beginning, it can have no ending. He is God and since God is Love, then it is equally true that from everlasting to everlasting he loves his people. The same truth is set forth in Ephesians 1:4- 5 “According as He hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy without blame me before Him. In love having predestined us” Here God’s love has date at which it was founded. It was before the foundation of the world; not only God’s people had a being, but before the world had a beginning, for they were chosen in the counsel of God
from eternity.[13]
The love of God is sovereign.
This is also seen in the way God act. God himself is sovereign, under obligation to none, has no law to follow, acting always according to His own imperial will and pleasure. Since God is sovereign, and since He be love, it necessarily follows that His love is sovereign. Since God is God, He does as He pleases; because God is love. He loves who He pleases. His love is not regulated but anything else, thus He is not ruled by a law or rule. Through out the Bible there are several own affirmation[14]
The love of God is infinite.
Everything about God is infinite. His essence fills Heaven and earth. His wisdom is illimitable, for He knows everything of the past, present and the future. His power is unbounded, for there is nothing too hard for Him. So his love is without limit. There is a depth to it which none can fathom; there is a height to it which none can scale; there is a length and breadth to which defies measurement, by any creature standard. Gods love is so transcendent it cannot be estimated. God who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loves us, John 3:16 [15] This brings us to the mystery of the Doctrine of the trinity. This doctrine tells us that the God who reveals his nature to human kind is the same as the Son.[16]
God’s love is unchangeable.
As seen earlier, God is the same he does not turn back. So his love does not know charge. God is GOD, he never ceases to love. Since the foundation of Christianity, God is viewed as changeless, consistent, faithful, dependable, the same yesterday, today, and forever the same. The God who created the world is the same God who later spoke to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who give his law to Moses, sent his Son to be the Savior inspires Paul and in whom we believe today. He is the same exact God and not something different.[17] God Loved is own to the end. His divine Love is subject to no vicissitudes, which were in the world. If God should withdraw His love from the world, there would simply be no being there. For no creature can sustain itself in being without his divine love. Love is the free act of God. As God was free to create, so is God free to love
unconditionally and without change.[18] Even when the world entered into sin God never change to love. He continues with His loving Kindness for that is who God is.
God’s Love is Holy.
His Love is not regulated by caprice of passion, or sentiment, but by principle. His love never conflict with His Holiness, for he is Love and Holy. This means that He will not wink at sin, even to His beloved people. His love is not compromised by sin. His love is pure.[19] God is not part of the natural world but He is the supernatural world. He is in fact the Supernatural ONE. As Thomas puts it, God is necessarily a doer of good. His will is thus dependably set in the direction of the morally excellent. Whatever God does is always good. So His love is positively motivated by which he is. We should notice therefore that His divine goodness has the high status of necessity.God’s love is gracious. Grace is the alone source from which flows the goodness, love, and salvation of God unto his chosen people. Divine grace is the sovereign favor of God exercised in the bestowment of blessings upon those who have no merit in them and for which no compensation is demanded. The love and the favor of God are inseparable. This is seen in the scripture. What that love is from which there can be no separation. It is that goodwill and grace of God which determined Him to give his Son for the sinful world. That love was the impulsive power Christ’s incarnation. John 3:16 “God so love the world that he gave His only begotten Son” Christ himself died not in order to make God love us, but because He did Loved us, Calvary is the supreme demonstration of this Divine love. Christ was beloved of the father, yet he was not exempted from poverty, disgrace, and persecution. He Hungered and thirsted. Thus, it was not incompatible with God’s love. Whenever one is tempted to doubt the love of God, Calvary is a good reminder of God’s goodness and his love. Because of Love, grace was planed it was exercised, purposed before it was imparted.[20] Love is free for none ever purchased it . Being love freely by His grace. As seen earlier in this paper love is sovereign because God exercised it toward and bestows it upon whom he pleases with love.
Therefore, the love of God can only be understood in the light of what happens in revelation. The Story of the New testament of love is Jesus Christ, the crucified which defines the LOVE Himself which is “Agape”[21] Love is the self giving of God, it is the free and generous grace of the one who is Holy love. God’s love does not seek value, but it creates value or gives value; it does not desire to get but to give; it is not attracted by some lovable quality, but it is poured out on those who are worthless and degraded; in the strict sense of the word , this love is unfathomable.
The goodness of God is expressed in relationship to several of other attributes as already seen in this paper. Therefore, as the creator, it is God who makes all things good according to the nature and for the plan of the world ( Gen 1: 4, 10, 12 , 18, 21, and 25). His goodness is particularly revealed in making humankind in his image and likeness, and then he has finished, his conclusion about them as well as the rest of the creation it is very good in his goodness.[22] We see God’s goodness as benevolence and generosity that is expressed towards his people. His goodness is often overlapped with his love. God’s love is the movement which goes out of oneself, which stoops down to that which is below: it is self-giving, the self-communication of God – and it is this which His revelation to man. Thus because God is Love, He wills to impart Himself, his nature, His innermost secret is self communication.[23]
Conclusion
Finally, it is always good to conclude with these words that distinguish God from man or and other created beings. Because of His love God is faithful. He is God the faithful God. In many ways humans have been unfaithful to God, and to the light and privileges with which God has entrusted to them. But God has remained faithful to His promises. Duet 7:9. More than four thousand years ago God’s fulfillment of his promise in Gen 8:22 still stand. Thus God is true. His promise is sure. In all His relation with people, God is faithful. He may be relied upon[24]. This is because of His Love towards human beings. God is faithful in glorifying His people. God is constant to Himself and to His own purpose of grace, whom He called. He demonstrates this through His everlasting goodness towards His own creation by loving them to the end. Even then creation does not deserve to be loved, He did so. Therefore, as seen earlier in this paper, many attributes of God are related to each other: His attribute of love seems to be related with God’s Figure as a Father, and also His kindness. On the other hand the attribute love has been tried together by the holiness of God that Stands behind each other and support each other in describing who God is, what God as done and what God is like. Therefore, the attribute of God OT to the NT must be understood as being built on the picture of God’s holiness. The holiness which the bible teaches is the holiness of the God who is love, therefore the truth of the holiness of God is completed in the knowledge of his love. The concept of the “love”[25] of God is not absent in the early part of scripture, but the primary picture of God from Mt. Sinai on is built on His holiness. Love does not only refer to Love as in Human beings for each other but also, His grace, mercy, faithfulness and goodness, and therefore has various translations such as steadfast love, faithful love, loving kindness, mercy and so forth. This is evident in the calling of the Israelites as a people chosen by God.[26] Therefore, Love become a manifestations of God’s holiness particularly to the point of His chose.
Throughout this paper, it is evident that the dominant attribute related to God is that of love. As described earlier, the OT word of love “hes'ed” has made God’s character known and this tell what God is to His people. It is in this supernatural love that God has desired to impart into all his children, so that they might reflect His image and character to the world. It is the grace of God that is the vehicle for implanting His love in the hearts of His people. This kind of supernatural love is not natural to mankind, but it is available by the renewing of the sinful nature through transforming grace. When this happens, the experience of God’s love begins to grown in people hearts. Thus the maturity of His Love grows throughout people’s lives and arrives at a greater point of maturity when they chose to love God with all their hearts and they are empowered to love others from a pure and with a total will whose origin is God. As Brunner puts it “God is love” points to the very heart of the message of the NT, of the Christian gospel. As in the OT, everything turns on the Holiness of God, so in the New everything turns in the love of God.[27] From this therefore, it is clear why this love is not a quality of God, but is nature, like holiness, for this love is nothing rather than the desire to impart Himself, the will of God to reveal Himself, just as it is His nature to will to be Lord to assert and maintain His claim. How
else can He do this but in loving? “How shall I give thee up, Ephraim? Within me my compassions are kindled together…”[28]
[1] Oden C. Thomas. The living God: Systematic Theology volume one. ( Harper San Francisco Publishers, 1992) p 3
[2] Robert A. Morey. Here is your God: A study in the attributes of God , Excerpts taken from the Battle of the Gods( Crowne publishers, Southbright, Massachusetts, 1989) 33-34
[3] Emil Brunner. The Christian Doctrine of God: Dogma tics volume one, Translated by Oliver Wyon. (Philadelphia, the Westminster press, 1949) 183
[4] Stanly J. Grenz. Theology for the community of God: A fresh reappropriation of the evangelical and catholic heritage
[5] Spirit is some times put in for the new nature in opposition to the flesh. God require not only the inward in our worship. Note, that God is Spirit for he has an infinite and eternal mind, an intelligent being, incorporeal, immaterial, invisible and incorruptible. If God were not spirit he could not be perfect, or infinite, or eternal, or independent or the father of spirits.
[6] Emil Brunner. The Christian Doctrine of God: Dogma tics vol 1 Translated by Oliver Wyon,(Philadelphia, the west Minster press, 1949) p 189
[7] From the Attributes of God, the holiness of God. Internet notes
[8] You were humble in spirit, and meek above all people. Although they were stiff necked and ill- matures above all people, God fetched the reason of all it purely from them, He loved them because he would love you. Even so Father because it seems good in thy eyes. All that God love he loves freely
[9] Allan Coppedge. Portraits of God: A biblical Theological of Holiness.( downers Grove, Illinois Intervarsity press, 2001) 247-248
[10] He shall be righteous in administration of His government; His righteousness shall be His girdle. In principle He will plead for the people that are poor and oppressed. He will be their protector. He shall judge in favour and defense of those that have right on their side, though they are poor in the world, because they are poor in spirit
[11] Note, It is hard to take comfort from former smiles under present frowns. To this he answers with an assurance of the constancy of his love, yea I have heard thee, not only with an ancient love, but with an everlasting love, a love that will never fail, therefore I have I extended or drawn out lovingkindness unto thee also as well as to the ancestors drawn to thee to myself as thy God.
[12] God’s existence is described as eternal because it is self existent and independent. As such, it is perfect and does not increase or decrease. He always was, is and shall be the same eternal I AM. He alone is eternal because God a lone is God.
[13] Predestination has respect to the blessings they designed for; particularly the adoption of children, it being the purpose of God that in due time we should become his adopted children, and so have a right to all the privileges and to the in heritance of children.
[14] Exd 3: 10, Lev 27: 1-33, Eph 1:4-5, Rom 9: 19.
[15] The love of God the father is the original of our regeneration by the Spirit and our reconciliation by the lifting up of the Son. NB: Jesus Christ is the only begotten Son of God. The love of God the Father is the original of our regeneration by the Spirit. This magnifies his love in giving himself up for us. Now we know that He loves us.
[16] The doctrine of the Triune God Contains the truth- which we already perceived to be the decisive element in the biblical doctrine of God.
[17] Robert Morey. Here is your God: A study in the Attributes of God. Excerpts taken from the Battle of the Gods. ( Massachusetts, Crowne Publications. 1989) p 93
[18] NB the love of God has not changed and will never change: James 1:17, John 13: 1, Songs of Sol 8: 6-7
[19] When holiness has to do with God, it refers mainly to “ separation from the impurity of the divine nature. The fact that holiness as a brilliance is related to the concept of God’s immanence and also to the concept of purity which means that there will be a number of very close ties between the discussion of Holiness as part of who God is.
[20] 2 Tim 1:9, Rom 3:2; 5: 21, Heb 4:16
[21] Emil Brunner. The Christian Doctrine of God. Dogma tics vol 1. Translated by, Oliver Wyon (Philadelphia, the Westminster press, 1949) p185
[22] Genesis 1:31 ( emphasis mine)
[23] This brings us to the doctrine of the trinity. This Doctrine tells us that the God who reveals the divine nature to us is the same as Son who reveals the divine nature, and that they are both the same God and yet distinct.
[24] The sort of God we have been portraying is obviously very different from anything we come across in our normal, physical environment. And He is clearly very different from any of us
[25] Hesed; This is a covenant word whose meaning is one of the richest in the scriptures.
[26] Ex 19:6: 20:1-17; Ps 33:21-22, Isaiah 54:5; 2sam 7: 14-15; Jer 31:9
[27] Emil Brunner. The Christian Doctrine of God. Dogma tics vol. 1 Translated by Oliver Wyon. (Philadelphia, Westminster press 1949) p 183
[28] Hosea 11:8 -9. RSV
[2] Robert A. Morey. Here is your God: A study in the attributes of God , Excerpts taken from the Battle of the Gods( Crowne publishers, Southbright, Massachusetts, 1989) 33-34
[3] Emil Brunner. The Christian Doctrine of God: Dogma tics volume one, Translated by Oliver Wyon. (Philadelphia, the Westminster press, 1949) 183
[4] Stanly J. Grenz. Theology for the community of God: A fresh reappropriation of the evangelical and catholic heritage
[5] Spirit is some times put in for the new nature in opposition to the flesh. God require not only the inward in our worship. Note, that God is Spirit for he has an infinite and eternal mind, an intelligent being, incorporeal, immaterial, invisible and incorruptible. If God were not spirit he could not be perfect, or infinite, or eternal, or independent or the father of spirits.
[6] Emil Brunner. The Christian Doctrine of God: Dogma tics vol 1 Translated by Oliver Wyon,(Philadelphia, the west Minster press, 1949) p 189
[7] From the Attributes of God, the holiness of God. Internet notes
[8] You were humble in spirit, and meek above all people. Although they were stiff necked and ill- matures above all people, God fetched the reason of all it purely from them, He loved them because he would love you. Even so Father because it seems good in thy eyes. All that God love he loves freely
[9] Allan Coppedge. Portraits of God: A biblical Theological of Holiness.( downers Grove, Illinois Intervarsity press, 2001) 247-248
[10] He shall be righteous in administration of His government; His righteousness shall be His girdle. In principle He will plead for the people that are poor and oppressed. He will be their protector. He shall judge in favour and defense of those that have right on their side, though they are poor in the world, because they are poor in spirit
[11] Note, It is hard to take comfort from former smiles under present frowns. To this he answers with an assurance of the constancy of his love, yea I have heard thee, not only with an ancient love, but with an everlasting love, a love that will never fail, therefore I have I extended or drawn out lovingkindness unto thee also as well as to the ancestors drawn to thee to myself as thy God.
[12] God’s existence is described as eternal because it is self existent and independent. As such, it is perfect and does not increase or decrease. He always was, is and shall be the same eternal I AM. He alone is eternal because God a lone is God.
[13] Predestination has respect to the blessings they designed for; particularly the adoption of children, it being the purpose of God that in due time we should become his adopted children, and so have a right to all the privileges and to the in heritance of children.
[14] Exd 3: 10, Lev 27: 1-33, Eph 1:4-5, Rom 9: 19.
[15] The love of God the father is the original of our regeneration by the Spirit and our reconciliation by the lifting up of the Son. NB: Jesus Christ is the only begotten Son of God. The love of God the Father is the original of our regeneration by the Spirit. This magnifies his love in giving himself up for us. Now we know that He loves us.
[16] The doctrine of the Triune God Contains the truth- which we already perceived to be the decisive element in the biblical doctrine of God.
[17] Robert Morey. Here is your God: A study in the Attributes of God. Excerpts taken from the Battle of the Gods. ( Massachusetts, Crowne Publications. 1989) p 93
[18] NB the love of God has not changed and will never change: James 1:17, John 13: 1, Songs of Sol 8: 6-7
[19] When holiness has to do with God, it refers mainly to “ separation from the impurity of the divine nature. The fact that holiness as a brilliance is related to the concept of God’s immanence and also to the concept of purity which means that there will be a number of very close ties between the discussion of Holiness as part of who God is.
[20] 2 Tim 1:9, Rom 3:2; 5: 21, Heb 4:16
[21] Emil Brunner. The Christian Doctrine of God. Dogma tics vol 1. Translated by, Oliver Wyon (Philadelphia, the Westminster press, 1949) p185
[22] Genesis 1:31 ( emphasis mine)
[23] This brings us to the doctrine of the trinity. This Doctrine tells us that the God who reveals the divine nature to us is the same as Son who reveals the divine nature, and that they are both the same God and yet distinct.
[24] The sort of God we have been portraying is obviously very different from anything we come across in our normal, physical environment. And He is clearly very different from any of us
[25] Hesed; This is a covenant word whose meaning is one of the richest in the scriptures.
[26] Ex 19:6: 20:1-17; Ps 33:21-22, Isaiah 54:5; 2sam 7: 14-15; Jer 31:9
[27] Emil Brunner. The Christian Doctrine of God. Dogma tics vol. 1 Translated by Oliver Wyon. (Philadelphia, Westminster press 1949) p 183
[28] Hosea 11:8 -9. RSV