Some Thoughts

We started our class today by reading/praying Exodus 33:12-23 [show] [12]Moses said to the LORD, "See, you say to me, 'Bring up this people,' but you have not let me know whom you will send with me. Yet you have said, 'I know you by name, and you have also found favor in my sight.' [13]Now therefore, if I have found favor in your sight, please show me now your ways, that I may know you in order to find favor in your sight. Consider too that this nation is your people." [14]And he said, "My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest." [15]And he said to him, "If your presence will not go with me, do not bring us up from here. [16]For how shall it be known that I have found favor in your sight, I and your people? Is it not in your going with us, so that we are distinct, I and your people, from every other people on the face of the earth?" [17]And the LORD said to Moses, "This very thing that you have spoken I will do, for you have found favor in my sight, and I know you by name." [18]Moses said, "Please show me your glory." [19]And he said, "I will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you my name 'The LORD.' And I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. [20]But," he said, "you cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live." [21]And the LORD said, "Behold, there is a place by me where you shall stand on the rock, [22]and while my glory passes by I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and I will cover you with my hand until I have passed by. [23]Then I will take away my hand, and you shall see my back, but my face shall not be seen." (ESV)
together, praying that God would show us his glory and all his goodness as we ascend his holy hill to fix our eyes upon his beauty.

The specific subjects today, conitinuing in The Doctrine of God (The Being of God), were his unshared (“incommunicable”) and shared (“communicable”) attributes. (Primary sources for the organization of this outline were Louis Berkhof’s Systematic Theology, and Wayne Grudem’s Systematic Theology [which follows Berkhof's pretty closely]). The divisions and “categories” here are really not necessary, they’re merely a tool used for the purpose of teaching in an orderly way. There are other, and equally valid, ways to present these.

The purpose of exploring the unshared attributes is twofold: adoration and humility. We are, by the study of how God is so different and high and above us, to provoke awe and wonderment at the person of God. From there, we recognize how high he is, and how utterly unlike him we are–which leads to a kind of creature-consciousness (humility). Some of these attributes are:

1. The Self-existence (Independence) of God.
2. The Immutability (Unchangeableness) of God
3. The Infinity of God (unbound by, but equally ‘filling,’ time and space)
4. The Unity of God
• The unity of singularity (“God is numerically one and…as such…is [utterly] unique”)
• The unity of simplicity (“God is not divisible into parts” – he is not “composite”)

The purpose of exploring the shared attributes is imitation. Ephesians 5:1 [show] Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. (ESV)
reads “Be imitators of God, as beloved children.” The shared attributes (or “perfections”) of God are generally presented this way:

1. The Spirituality of God – (John 4 [show] Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John [2](although Jesus himself did not baptize, but only his disciples), [3]he left Judea and departed again for Galilee. [4]And he had to pass through Samaria. [5]So he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. [6]Jacob's well was there; so Jesus, wearied as he was from his journey, was sitting beside the well. It was about the sixth hour. [7]A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, "Give me a drink." [8](For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.) [9]The Samaritan woman said to him, "How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?" (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) [10]Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, 'Give me a drink,' you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water." [11]The woman said to him, "Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? [12]Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock." [13]Jesus said to her, "Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, [14]but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life." [15]The woman said to him, "Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water." [16]Jesus said to her, "Go, call your husband, and come here." [17]The woman answered him, "I have no husband." Jesus said to her, "You are right in saying, 'I have no husband'; [18]for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true." [19]The woman said to him, "Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. [20]Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship." [21]Jesus said to her, "Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. [22]You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. [23]But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. [24]God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth." [25]The woman said to him, "I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, he will tell us all things." [26]Jesus said to her, "I who speak to you am he." [27]Just then his disciples came back. They marveled that he was talking with a woman, but no one said, "What do you seek?" or, "Why are you talking with her?" [28]So the woman left her water jar and went away into town and said to the people, [29]"Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?" [30]They went out of the town and were coming to him. [31]Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, saying, "Rabbi, eat." [32]But he said to them, "I have food to eat that you do not know about." [33]So the disciples said to one another, "Has anyone brought him something to eat?" [34]Jesus said to them, "My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work. [35]Do you not say, 'There are yet four months, then comes the harvest'? Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that the fields are white for harvest. [36]Already the one who reaps is receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. [37]For here the saying holds true, 'One sows and another reaps.' [38]I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor." [39]Many Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman's testimony, "He told me all that I ever did." [40]So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days. [41]And many more believed because of his word. [42]They said to the woman, "It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is indeed the Savior of the world." [43]After the two days he departed for Galilee. [44](For Jesus himself had testified that a prophet has no honor in his own hometown.) [45]So when he came to Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him, having seen all that he had done in Jerusalem at the feast. For they too had gone to the feast. [46]So he came again to Cana in Galilee, where he had made the water wine. And at Capernaum there was an official whose son was ill. [47]When this man heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee, he went to him and asked him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death. [48]So Jesus said to him, "Unless you see signs and wonders you will not believe." [49]The official said to him, "Sir, come down before my child dies." [50]Jesus said to him, "Go; your son will live." The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and went on his way. [51]As he was going down, his servants met him and told him that his son was recovering. [52]So he asked them the hour when he began to get better, and they said to him, "Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him." [53]The father knew that was the hour when Jesus had said to him, "Your son will live." And he himself believed, and all his household. [54]This was now the second sign that Jesus did when he had come from Judea to Galilee. (ESV)
   ), we are partakers of his Spirit.
2. The Intellectual Attributes:
• The Knowledge of God – he knows all things actual and possible. We are to seek to know things correctly and truly – i.e., as God knows them (or, at least as far as Scripture allows). Significant impact in our professional lives, etc.
• The Wisdom of God – he uses all things in the best way possible to accomplish his ultimate goal: the glory of his name. We are to do the same: seek out the best way to think and live and work to bring about his glory in the earth.
• The Truthfulness/Faithfulness of God – he knows the truth perfectly, and perfectly communicates it…and he always does what he says he will do. He is faithful!
3. The Moral Attributes:
• The Goodness of God
• The Love of God
• The Mercy, Grace, and Patience of God
• The Holiness of God
• The Peace of God (all toughts and actions orderly, and without confusion)
• The Righteousness/Justice of God
• The Jealousy of God
• The Wrath of God (toward sin) – in our “mortifying the sin in our bodies.”
4. The Attributes of Purpose:
• The Will of God
• The Freedom of God
• The Omnipotence of God
5. The “Summary” Attributes of God:
• The Perfection of God
• The Blessedness (Happiness) of God
• The Beauty of God
• The Glory of God

As predicted, we didn’t get to the Holy Trinity today – and we barely got through the unshared attributes. There’s just so much to cover it’s insane. By the way, any students dropping by (or anyone else, for that matter), feel free to email me (at the group email address, preferably) or leave a comment if you have any questions about this stuff. I’ll help out if I can.

I hope some of the wonder, joy, humility, and conviction I’ve experienced in preparing these classes is spreading to those in attendence. So far, it’s been very enjoyable.

…and we haven’t even gotten to “Redemption Accomplished and Applied” yet! Can’t wait to talk about the high priesthood of Christ – probably my favorite aspect of our Lord’s work of redemption.