LISTEN
WATCH
READ
Nate Roten / Attributes of God
Main Idea
God’s magnificence and splendor should cause us to fall to our knees in worship.
Isaiah 6:1–7 ESV
In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!” And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!” Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. And he touched my mouth and said: “Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.”
Holy
Revelation 4:1–11 ESV
After this I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven! And the first voice, which I had heard speaking to me like a trumpet, said, “Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this.” At once I was in the Spirit, and behold, a throne stood in heaven, with one seated on the throne. And he who sat there had the appearance of jasper and carnelian, and around the throne was a rainbow that had the appearance of an emerald. Around the throne were twenty-four thrones, and seated on the thrones were twenty-four elders, clothed in white garments, with golden crowns on their heads. From the throne came flashes of lightning, and rumblings and peals of thunder, and before the throne were burning seven torches of fire, which are the seven spirits of God, and before the throne there was as it were a sea of glass, like crystal. And around the throne, on each side of the throne, are four living creatures, full of eyes in front and behind: the first living creature like a lion, the second living creature like an ox, the third living creature with the face of a man, and the fourth living creature like an eagle in flight. And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all around and within, and day and night they never cease to say, “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!” And whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to him who is seated on the throne, who lives forever and ever, the twenty-four elders fall down before him who is seated on the throne and worship him who lives forever and ever. They cast their crowns before the throne, saying, “Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created.”
• unapproachable and set apart – God is exponentially more magnificent and grand than anything Isaiah has ever seen. There is nothing and no one like Him. He is separate from His creation by way of His other incommunicable attributes. He is also separate in terms of His moral perfection (or righteousness) and absolute purity (separation from sin and anything unclean)
• sacred – God is set apart as worthy of awe or reverence. Consider how Jewish scribes would interact with God’s name as they wrote scripture. When they came across the Ha Shem (or The Name), they would use a new quill. If they made an error writing the Ha Shem, they would either scrap the whole thing or cut out that piece of parchment and write the name correctly. Many would even wash themselves in a Mikvah (like a baptismal used to immerse in water for ceremonial purification) before writing the name of God. He is that worthy of reverence and respect.
• dangerous – God’s holiness is dangerous. We can see this in the setup of the Tabernacle and Temples. In their construction, God’s holiness was factored in. There was an outer court, an inner court, and the inner-inner court called the holy of holies. In that far-inner court is where God’s presence dwelt, and no one could enter that room except for the High Priest, and then he could only enter once a year. If he came into God’s presence in an unworthy manner or a sinful state, he would be struck dead. Think of how bacteria is killed in the presence of a disinfectant. God’s holy presence, which is morally perfect, complete, and pure, will naturally eradicate any present sin not atoned for.
• consuming and purifying fire – but the destruction of uncleanliness and sin is not all God’s holiness does. Yes, it destroys sin, but in the process of destroying sin, it also purifies the believer. The God who is a consuming fire also uses that fire like a jeweler’s crucible. Look at Isaiah’s story. The fire from God’s altar didn’t consume him. It purified his unclean lips. In this light, God’s holiness destroys uncleanliness so that His people can be made pure. It is a dangerous yet restorative attribute because He is also a God of righteousness and mercy.
• Man’s reaction—We shouldn’t breeze past this attribute without looking at the only appropriate reaction to God’s holiness. In His presence, the seraphim covered their faces and feet, the elders fell flat on their faces in righteous terror and worship, and Isaiah was overwhelmed by his sinful state.
• definition – in summary, then, God’s holiness is the attribute that displays how utterly set apart and distinct He is from His creation in terms of His greatness, righteousness, and purity that demands reverence and awe from angels and humans alike. No uncleanliness can survive in His presence, and while His holiness eradicates sin, it also purifies His people, demonstrating other attributes like love, grace, and mercy.
• God in us. Doesn’t this make God’s presence in us that much more amazing? Everything I just said is still valid because God is unchanging… and yet, when Jesus died, the veil in the Temple that separates the inner room from the Holy of Holies was torn in half from top to bottom, signifying that all can now come into God’s presence! His Spirit lives inside you – a sinful human being – yet you are not destroyed. You are being sanctified… conforming to the image of Christ!
Oneness
And, as we see in both texts, there is only one of Him. He alone is the eternal, unchanging God.
We are monotheists, not polytheists. We don’t believe in a pantheon of gods like the Greeks, the thousands of gods in Hinduism, or that we can become gods one day like the Mormons. We believe in the one, eternal God who created all things, and we believe this because this is what God has said of Himself:
Deuteronomy 6:4 ESV
“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.
Isaiah 45:5–6 ESV
I am the Lord, and there is no other, besides me there is no God; I equip you, though you do not know me, that people may know, from the rising of the sun and from the west, that there is none besides me; I am the Lord, and there is no other.
While scripture speaks about other ‘gods,’ it doesn’t mean they are actual gods like Yahweh. Only Yahweh existed in the beginning. All other beings called ‘gods’ are either manmade idols that people worship as gods or demonic powers who demand worship and lead people away from the God of the Bible.
In fact, Isaiah 40-48 lays out God’s inditement and trial of false gods. Can they know the future like Him? Can they give reasons for why things happened the way they did? No, of course not, because they aren’t really gods. They are false gods.
When Elijah challenged the priests of Baal, he was exposing their so-called ‘god.’ Would Baal show up and consume their offering with fire? Where was he? Is he in the bathroom and unable to hear your pleas? To prove the point, Elijah drenched his offering with water, and God’s fiery power fell on it, consumed it, and even dried up the overflow of water. It was a demonstration that Elijah’s God is real, and Baal isn’t, or if he is a pagan god that is demonically inspired, then he holds no power compared to Yahweh.
There is one eternal Yahweh. Then, there are created heavenly beings like the angels (both good and fallen) who live in the spiritual world that we cannot see and yet have an effect on the natural world. They are still created beings under the sovereign authority of the one true God.
The God of the Bible is entirely holy—set apart and different from His creation and created beings, whether human or angelic. This might seem a bit too simplistic to feature in a sermon, but we need to hammer this attribute home because we are also going to talk about how God is Trinity, and it can get a little confusing if we aren’t careful.
Trinity
No singular verse says God is trinity, nor is the word ‘trinity’ in the Bible, so why do we promote this idea as a core doctrine and attribute, especially in light that there is only ONE God? Isn’t it illogical to say that God is one and yet three?
I would actually be inclined to agree that human intellect doesn’t make much sense, but we also serve a God who is infinitely more than we could possibly imagine in terms of His greatness and holiness. There are supposed to be aspects of Him we cannot grasp, or He would be a very small God.
Secondly, we must submit ourselves to the truth of His word, as we see in the scriptures. God’s word is infallible and true, and a fully righteous God (righteous in the sense that He is always right) has communicated this attribute to us.
From the outset, no example we can draw from creation is sufficient to explain this. The egg (1 egg with a shell, white, and yoke), An ice cube in a hot pan (water in its three states: water, ice, vapor), a three-leafed clover, or a man who is also a husband and a father… none of these can accurately represent the trinity, because they all come with their limitations (at best) or heretical view (at worst). Take the egg example. An egg comprises the outer shell, the white goop, and the yellow yoke. But those three are distinct sections of an egg. They are all distinct, which is good, but none are also the egg’s fullness. That is a heretical view called modalism, where God can only appear in one form at a time. He can be the Father and then the Son separately. That’s a false view.
The best visual example I can think of is the Trinity Shield. Here, the outer rim says that each person of the Trinity is not the other: The Son is not the Spirit, The Father is not the Son, etc. And yet, all three are Yahweh. Over time, the church has developed the terms ‘essence’ and ‘persons’ to help describe the difference between 3 and 1. There is only 1 divine essence that is God, but there are 3 persons within the Holy Trinity. And what’s really interesting about Deut. 6:4 is that the word ONE can literally mean the number one in its singular form, or it can mean unified, as in multiple people raising up one voice, or how many sheep are in one flock. So, even in the Old Testament, the Spirit worked through Moses to write a word that gives an indication of His triune nature!
I hope that helps with context. Now, let’s see where we find this in scripture, and then we will conclude by explaining why it matters to us.
Trinity in Scripture
Called God
The Father
John 6:46 ESV
not that anyone has seen the Father except he who is from God; he has seen the Father.
The Son
Titus 2:13 ESV
waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ,
*He also said that He and the Father are one in His high priestly prayer.
The Spirit
Acts 5:3–4 ESV
But Peter said, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back for yourself part of the proceeds of the land? While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not at your disposal? Why is it that you have contrived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to man but to God.”
Creation
The Father
Genesis 1:1 ESV
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
The Son
John 1:1–3 ESV
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.
The Spirit
Genesis 1:2 ESV
The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.
Salvation
The Father
Ephesians 1:4–5 ESV
even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will,
The Son
1 Peter 2:24 ESV
He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.
The Spirit
Titus 3:5 ESV
he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit,
Jesus’ baptism
All three persons of the Trinity are present simultaneously. As a side note and something to chew on this week… Our two passages announce God’s holiness three times to signify its importance and perfection. But what if, in God’s sovereign foreshadowing, He was also announcing the holiness of the Trinity? Holy, holy, holy… Holy is the Father, holy is the Son, holy is the Spirit?
Why does this matter?
God wants us to know Him as He is. As in any meaningful relationship, you reveal more of yourself to your spouse so you can continue to be known on a deeper level as time goes on.
God must be triune to save a person. The Father sits upon His throne and lives in unapproachable light. Jesus (the Son) took on flesh as the ultimate sacrifice for our sins, and the Spirit indwells and walks daily with the believer.
So many heresies stem from an incorrect view of who Jesus is and His role in the Trinity. Either they mispresent one of the persons of the Trinity, or they try to separate them in one fashion or another. That is why the church has developed creeds and confessions: to ensure we maintain a right view of God in this manner.
As an example, here are the opening lines to the Athanasian Creed, just to give you a glimpse of what they wrestled through in the fifth and sixth centuries:
(1) Whosoever will be saved, before all things
it is necessary that he hold the catholic faith;
(2) Which faith except every one do keep whole and undefiled,
without doubt he shall perish everlastingly.
(3) And the catholic faith is this:
That we worship one God in Trinity,
and Trinity in Unity;
(4) Neither confounding the Persons
nor dividing the substance.
(5) For there is one Person of the Father, another of the Son,
and another of the Holy Spirit.
(6) But the Godhead of the Father, of the Son,
and of the Holy Spirit is all one,
the glory equal, the majesty coeternal.
Takeaways
- God’s holiness gives him an air of majesty and splendor that is beyond our ability to comprehend. Just reflect on the imagery of His presence in those two passages. Sin cannot stand before Him, and we are purified by Him. The culmination of His holiness for humans is humble, awe-filled worship.
- God exists as three persons in one essence. There are not three separate Gods. There is one God, but three distinct persons are within the Godhead. And, as confusing as that is for our humble, finite human minds to comprehend, it is worthy of investigation because most heresies come from a misunderstanding of God’s triune nature. It is vital for our understanding, and God wants to share who He is with you. That is how relationships grow.
Questions to Consider
- How does God’s holiness both destroy sin and purify His people?
- How did the tearing of the veil in the Temple signify a monumental shift in how people could approach God’s presence, as mentioned in the sermon?
- What are some potential heretical views of the Trinity, and why are they problematic?
- What role does the Trinity play in the salvation of believers, and why is it necessary for God to exist as three persons?