|
|
|
ESSENCE literally means as BEING, which referring to inner intrinsic nature, the true substance, and the invisible qualities but manifested by a person’s thoughts and actions.ESSENCE is the basic constituent of being a thing, the intrinsic nature of something, that which underlies all outward manifestations and is both permanent and unchangeable. Essence implies being or existence [Romans 1:20 John 1:1]. GOD’S ESSENTIAL BEING can never be completely defined or grasped by human corrupt and finite humanity. Only as HE reveals Himself to us in the Bible can we, in a limited way, comprehend His Person and nature. God in grace has revealed Himself, and what is revealed of God’s essence is reveal to be understood through the ministry of the Holy Spirit. The believer is dependent upon the infallibility of the Word of God and the filling of the Holy Spirit to fully understand the invisible, immaterial, infinite, unlimited and perfect essence of God. GOD IS SELF-REVEALED for no man can find anything about God without HIS self -revelation. Man has no capacity, ability, resources and power to understand anything about God without God providing us the ability, the capacity, the power and resources to know HIM. We do not have the frame of reference in our humanity or even the entire human race combined that can help us understand or illustrate the perfect character of God. There is no parallel between divine essence and the so-called human essence. THE PERSONALITY OF GOD: GOD is a REAL PERSON with personal attributes and perfect personality without limitations. The personality of man is variable, undependable, and corrupted by the old sinful nature. The essence of man is not real but REEL and the attributes of man imperfect as his soul. THE Bible uses ANTHROPOMORPHISM which ascribes to God human physical characteristics, that which HE does not possess but explain HIS essence, acts and decisions, policy and decisions in terms of human anatomy. God used the language of men in revealing Himself. The Bible uses ANTHROPOPATHISM, which ascribes to God some human passions, emotions, characteristic and attributes, which HE does not possess but reveal and explain HIMSELF, HIS divine policy, acts and decisions for man. God alone has the perfect and infinite personality. The infinite and perfect personality of God is the pattern HE used for creating or constructing man. God created a physical body with immaterial soul –which is the real person [Genesis 1:27]. The phrase GOD CREATED MAN IN HIS IMAGE connotes that man possesses all the attributes of personality not the attributes of deity. Man does not possess the nature or attributes of God- there are nothing good in man. Adam was originally without the old sinful nature; he possessed soul and human spirit. When Adam fell, the image of God was marred but not destroyed. From that moment, sinful man has become totally incompatible with the integrity and incapable of having a relationship with HIM. The old sin nature is inherently hostile to the integrity of God. The old sinful nature operates in opposition and rebellion against the will and plan of God. The personality of man is in no way similar or parallel with the personality of God. J. R. Cherreguine Bible Doctrine Ministries
SELF-EXISTENCEGOD exists eternally, without being sustained by Him or by any other source. God has no beginning. Yahweh means the SELF-EXISTENT ONE. God is the SOURCE of all sustaining but does not need it Himself. God exists as an infinite Person who does not need help from anyone. He is the infinite Source with infinite capacity who provides for our needs. God’s existence is unalterable. He is the Cause of all existence outside Himself, but He has no cause for Himself. That is why we adjust to Him and He does not adjust to us. If God caused us to receive His life, He can also afford to give us some of His energy. God is infinitely capable of supplying His energy to His children. This is an indirect, impersonal supply line available for the entire human but the only beneficiaries are the Church Age believers. The direct for the Church Age believers is called grace. There is nothing beyond God. When we made our first adjustment to His justice by believing in Christ-we are related to the One who has no origin, the Cause but has no cause. So, then, if there is nothing beyond God our relationship with Him is the ultimate. There are points of similarity between the essence of God and the soul of man-since the soul was patterned after the essence of God. God’s being (essence) is unseen or invisible, real with ten basic attributes (such as sovereignty, righteousness, justice, eternal life, love, omnipotence, omniscience, omnipresence, veracity and immutability). The human soul is unseen or invisible, real and has some attributes (self-consciousness, volition, mentality, emotion and conscience). Beyond that there is no parallel between divine essence and the human soul.
God has no origin, He is the Cause but He has no cause. God is perfectly familiar with every secondary cause outside of Himself. He has every attribute necessary to make Him the perfect Judge of all human beings.
God created time but He is not in time. Time is for man not for God. God created space but God is not in space. Time is finite while God is infinite. God transcends time.
Time is a line of procedure as far man’s perspective is concerned. God always accomplishes in time what has to be done in time as part of His divine plan of grace. God is not the subject of time but He uses time for the advantage of the believers in the world [Psalm 90:2, 102:27, 1 Cor. 2:7].
God invented time for the following reasons: 1. For our orderly and systematic existence in the world. 2. For our convenience and comfortable existence. 3. For God to manifest His eternal life to us. 4. For believers to exercise their royal priesthood and royal ambassador for Christ. 5. For believers to reach spiritual maturity and therefore receive blessing in time and eternity.
God exists outside time. No one brought God to existence. There was never a time when God does not exist. We are related to the One who has no origin, and the Cause and the Source of all things.
The attributes of God are perfect and eternal. Attributes are those qualities and perfections, which belongs to God alone never applicable to any created beings.
“For since the creation of the world His INVISIBLE ATTRIBUTES, His eternal power and divine nature have been CLEARLY SEEN, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse” [Romans 1:20]. The personality of God comes from the attributes of His essence. J. R. Cherreguine Bible Doctrine Ministries
THE DIVINE ATTRIBUTES
DIVINE ATTRIBUTES or essence is the characteristics of His essential Being, which are eternally and inherently in Him. Divine attributes are HIS ESSENTIAL BEING, which are eternally and inherently in Him.
AFTER salvation we belong to God and we are designed to understand the thought and the functions of God. The difficulty of the believers in studying the divine essence is that it brings the finite mind to constant and difficult contemplation of the perfect and infinite matters unknown to us.
The grace of God and the work of God are the manifestations of His essential qualities (His attributes), it is important to know and understand WHO AND WHAT GOD IS, (that is to understand His attributes). To understand His attributes is to understand WHO AND WHAT GOD IS. To understand the manifest Person (Jesus Christ) of the Godhead is to understand His divine essence or characteristics.
God in grace has revealed Himself. And everything that are revealed are revealed to be understood with the help of the Holy Spirit. The believer can and must master the information God has provided. After salvation, the believer is designed to understand the thoughts and function of God. There is no excuse not to study the Word of God. The attributes of God are categorized into absolute and relative attributes.
Absolute Attributes are:
1. SPIRITUALITY – God is spiritual, real yet invisible. God is life and the source of all life.
2. INFINITY – God is without boundaries or limitations. He is infinitely perfect.
A. SELF-EXISTENCE – God exists eternally, without being sustained by Him or by anything else. His existence is unalterable. B. IMMUTABILITY – God is unchangeable and always at His best. He cannot be better or worse. C. UNITY – God is perfectly consistent and there is one perfect, absolute, infinite Spirit [Isaiah 44:6], which the Three Persons possesses it [John 5:44, 17:3].
3. PERFECTION – God is perfect in intellect, affection and character. A. TRUTH OR VERACITY God is true to Himself [Psalm 25:5, John 17:17]. B. LOVE-God is love. C. RIGHTEOUSNESS – God is perfectly righteous or holy in everything [Deut. 32:4].
Relative Attributes are:
1. ETERNITY – God is eternal. There was never a time when God did not exist. 2. IMMENSITY – Divine attributes related to space and to His creation: A. OMNIPRESENCE B. OMNIPOTENCE C. OMNISCIENCE
3. ATTRIBUTES related to moral beings: A. FAITHFULNESS B. VERACITY C. MERCY D. GOODNESS E. RIGHTEOUNESS F. JUSTICE
4. PERFECT AUTHORITY God renders account to no one, He consults no one. He is the final and absolute [Psalm 145:14, Matthew 20:15, 1 Timothy 6:15]. J. R. Cherreguine Bible Doctrine Ministries
SOVEREIGNTY THE sovereignty of God is His eternal, infinite, unchangeable will expressed in the divine decrees in eternity past. God is the Supreme Being of the universe [Deut. 4:39], the King of heaven and earth [Psalm 47:2, 93:1-2], Who has absolute prerogative and perfect volition.
God’s sovereignty is eternal [Psalm 93:2], infinite [Psalm 8:1, Acts 5:39, Hebrews 6:13], and Self-determining [Job 9:12, Psalm 115:3, 135:6, Daniel 4:35]. By divine decree, the sovereignty of God and the free will of man co-exist in human history. Both are invisible, though we can see their results [John 7:17, Phil. 2:13, 2 Peter 3:9].
The sovereignty of God is the final cause of all things; He created and maintains the universe. God’s sovereignty always operates for His own glory. It is always totally compatible with all of His other divine attributes.
It was the sovereign will of God to reveal Himself to us through Bible doctrine, and to deal with us through a policy of grace and to give us them most fantastic and unique plan of God.
It was the sovereignty of God that sent Jesus Christ to the Cross-to provide our eternal salvation and to reveal to us the unique factors of the Church Age and made a decision to indwell us as the confidence of glory [Colossians 1:27].
God has never made a bad or wrong decision. All divine decisions are from the sovereignty of God, made from a position of eternal and perfect infinite strength –based on eternal wisdom and omniscience; therefore, it is impossible for God to make a wrong decision. God in His perfect sovereignty expresses supreme wisdom and grace in His decisions that relate to us.
God has never made a mistake or bad decision with regard to our living or with regard to the time, manner and place of our departure from this world. God has the power to execute His will under all conditions. God’s sovereign will and power are never arbitrary.
The sovereign God decreed the function of the free will of man, this is designed to resolve the angelic conflict by exhibiting to Satan and demons that God’s judgment on them in eternity past was just and fair.
It is the sovereign wills of God that all men come to a saving knowledge of the Lord [2 Peter 3:9], although the free will of many refuses God’s saving Work resulting in eternal condemnation [John 3:18, 36].
No one can exist independently of the sovereignty of God, Who imputed soul life to biological life creating human life at birth. God keeps you alive to reject or accept His will. Every attempt to live independent from God is the showroom of arrogance.
Under the sovereignty of God, the person who dies without reaching the point of accountability at the God –consciousness is automatically saved, since his free will has not yet had the opportunity to accept or reject the Work of Jesus Christ on the cross.
THE AUTHORITY OF GOD is derived from all His attributes. God has absolute authority over possible things and actual things. Over possible things: God is sovereign in that He leaves them as merely possible or destines them to become reality at a specific point in the future.
Over the actual things: God is final and the only Authority [Psalm 145:14, Mt. 20:15]. God delegates and establishes systems of authority in the human race. God renders account to no one. He acts in conformity with His own perfect character. His perfection cannot be less than perfection any decision He makes. J. R. Cherreguine Bible Doctrine Ministries
THE AUTHORITY OF GOD
The authority of God rests in 3 things:
GOD IS CREATOR. God gave existence to every creature and to all things. He has the right to save or judge, reward or discipline. He is compelled to discipline the carnal and backslider under the influence of evil. God is compelled to bless and reward the mature believer under the influence of Bible doctrine.
This exercise of authority is always consistent with His very own essence and plan- this is contrasted with the secondary rights which men recognize in the ownership of private property [Psalm 50:10].
GOD IS THE REDEEMER. He freed us at the Cross-, giving us the right to choose for or against His plan of salvation and Bible doctrine. For anyone to qualify, as God basically requires three qualifications: First He must be the Creator of all things and not a creature Himself. Secondly, He must be self-existence –not totally dependent on anything and eternal in nature. Thirdly, He must be the provider of Redemption or salvation. All the so-called gods in this world failed in these triple tests.
GOD PROVIDED BIBLE DOCTRINE. The authority of God is expressed in Bible doctrine and obedience to His authority. Since God is self-revealed, He disclosed everything we need to know about His plan, purpose, will and His personality in the Word of God. Our questions about God and His plan, purpose and will are all answered in the Bible. No question about God is left without an answer in the Scripture.
The purpose of the Bible doctrine is for us to know God. There is no other place in the world where we can find truth about God other than the Bible. Any information about God and His plan, purpose and will from other source are absolutely incorrect.
THE FREEDOM OF GOD: God is free to bless man only when man is adjusted to His justice. The incarnation and spiritual death of Christ was the free of God [Divine sovereignty] provision for salvation for man.
After salvation, God is free to bless man only under the state of spirituality once restored to fellowship with God through rebound. God is all the more free to bless the believer when adjusted through spiritual maturity.
The authority of God is perfect and absolute in every way. He never interferes with human volition or decision. Although God has absolute authority over mankind yet He is not a dictator.
The freedom of God is not truly an attribute; God’s sovereignty is. The freedom of God cannot contradict the righteousness and the justice of God. He must be consistent with Himself- because He cannot compromise His essence.
The Divine omniscience saw the decisions of men in the eternity past and put them in the divine decree. The sovereignty of God works only according to decisions made by human freewill. The freedom of God is based on human volition.
GOD IS NO RESPECTER OF PERSON [Acts 10:34] refers to Divine sovereignty, which is perfect from human imperfect influence, work, intervention or petition. If man can influence God in any aspect, then, He is no longer perfect and righteous.
Divine decisions come from divine essence not from who and what man is, but from WHO AND WHAT GOD IS. God is not double minded or fickle minded depending on human suggestions. The freedom of God toward men is based on His righteousness and justice, which guarantee that all His actions and decisions are perfect. J. R. Cherreguine Bible Doctrine Ministries
RIGHTEOUSNESS
GOD is perfect, both in His Person and in His character –all His attributes are perfect [Deut. 32:4, Psalm 7:9, 113:3, Jeremiah 23:6, John 17:25, Romans 1:17, 10:3, 1 John 2:29].
God possesses eternal, unchangeable, absolute righteousness. Divine righteousness combined with His perfect justice is described as holiness [Exodus 15:11, 19:10-16, Isaiah 6:3].
All justice is administered from the perfect righteousness of God [Lev. 19:2, I Samuel 2:2, Psalm 22:3, 47:8, 119:9, John 17:11, Rev. 3:7].
God is absolute good. This good is of intrinsic value which is perfect righteousness that refers only to God [Psalm 25:8, 34:8, 86:5, 119:68, Luke 18:19]. God is infinitely perfect, He cannot be tempted, nor can He sin. Sin ha boundaries, measures, standards and limitation. God is beyond standards, measures, boundaries and all kinds of limitation. Therefore, God cannot sin and He cannot tempt anyone to sin, but He recognizes sin in us.
God cannot be complicated with ignorance, absurdities, temptation, or approval of sin. He cannot accept human weaknesses as logical and legitimate reason for violating the divine protocol.
Righteousness is the principle or standards of divine integrity. All that God does adheres to this measure of perfection. God’s righteousness is perfect demanding perfect justice. What the righteousness of God demands the justice of God executes.
Divine righteousness is the standard of all human righteousness. Human righteousness is relative and imperfect. Divine and human righteousness is in total disagreement and in different dimension. Righteousness is intrinsic with God being part of His essence or nature. Genuine righteousness is unknown to fallen man. At the point of salvation, God imputed His righteousness on man, making him qualified to stand before God any time with out reference to his present life. The imputed righteousness and the permanent indwelling Holy Spirit guarantee our eternal salvation.
The righteousness of God as revealed in the Scripture is not the righteousness that the world religions are talking about. The perfect righteousness of God stands on three solid realities: a. The perfection of God b. The truthfulness of God c. His perfect works
FOR ANYONE TO BE TRULY RIGHTEOUS he must possess the three solid realities in his life.
The word for righteousness in the New Testament is dikaiosune (dikaiosune) that also means “justice”. It comes from Attic Greek noun dike (dike) and Greek adjective dikaios (dikaiosThe suffix .) sune changed the meaning of a noun or adjective from the simple to the complex, from the concrete to the abstract.
THE DIKAIOSUNE OF GOD means one of the two things: a. His righteousness as the principle or standard of Divine integrity b. His justice as the function or action of His integrity.
The genitive case of theos (theos )makes the difference between these definitions: it is both a subjective and possessive genitive. Theos in the possessive genitive indicates something that God possesses as a principle: God possesses perfect righteousness. On the other hand in the subjective genitive the noun is the subject of the action, that is, it produces the action: The function of God’s integrity always includes justice directed toward mankind. J. R. Cherreguine Bible Doctrine Ministries
DIKAIOSUNE
Dikaiosune is always an abstract term that connotes two parts of God’s integrity set against the background of all His attributes. Divine integrity is infinite, perfect, eternal, unchangeable and truly unfathomable apart from its revelation in Bible doctrine.
Dikaiosune as a divine policy or principle involves God alone apart from man. But as a divine action it includes man. In this sense, DIKAIOSUNE is sometimes used as synonym for human term mistranslated by English as “godliness” and becomes a ,righteousness technical term for spiritual maturity. Spiritual maturity is the believer’s maximum adjustment to the justice of God.
DIKAIOSUNE THEOU usage encompasses not just the spiritual mature but ALL believers are included in its legal sense. The term means justification: God is the expert and perfect Judge who has all the evidence and can pronounce only a fair and objective verdict.
When a person believes in Christ, God is free because of the cross to credit to that person His own righteousness the very principle of divine integrity. Immediately from the bench of the supreme court of heaven: God recognizes this new piece of evidence in the case. Because the believer now possesses God’s perfect righteousness, God pronounces him perfectly righteous.
This is the essence of salvation- the reality of our justification before God. This is the story of grace. Grace means that God does all the work and receives all the glory:
A. At salvation we are justified as possessing His righteousness B. At spiritual growth we are justified by acknowledging the effects of possessing that righteousness by rebound believing that we are completely justified. C. At spiritual maturity we are vindicated as having in our souls Bible doctrine, the thinking and verbalization of His integrity.
Now we see, our human righteousness and personal achievements (of all kinds) have nothing whatever to do with our justification before God. We are justified by His grace not by our effort or merits but by the merits of the Lord Jesus Christ.
God can bless the spiritually dead, totally depraved citizens of the kingdom of Satan without destroying His own perfection since salvation is the 100% work of divine justice and righteousness. Man has nothing to add and there is nothing to subtract to God’s perfect work of redemption.
Salvation means that God treats us in justice. God did not lower His integrity or perfect standard of righteousness to save us. Divine perfection and holiness is intact. When God sent His Son, as a Man He did not lower His perfect standard, He was simply expressing His perfection.
The unbending strength of every facet of His absolute essence is fully behind everything He thinks or does toward us. God never makes exceptions. He does not act on emotion. He never feels sorry for the poor-lost sheep, or overcome by sentimentality. He never accomplishes or does anything on impulses. God works are never tentative or shortsighted, and His plan never needs revision or editing or correction.
DIKAIOSUNE THEOU guarantees that not even God himself can undo the things He did or change His work. There is no loophole that needs to be closed because loopholes exist. His work is complete perfect and free from any error. This is our security, our comfort, and blessing. Perfect plan and work of salvation can come only from the ONLY PERFECT GOD of the Bible. Any imperfection is denial of deity. J. R. Cherreguine Bible Doctrine Ministries
JUSTICE
GOD is perfectly good and just. Man is nothing but moralistic, legalistic or just some kind of distorted human good from old sinful nature by which he tries to impress God and people around him.
God is righteously perfect, demanding perfect justice. What the righteousness of God demands, the justice of God executes. JUSTICE IS THE FUNCTION OF THE INTEGRITY OF GOD.
God is fair and it is impossible for God to be unfair in the function of divine justice. Divine justice administers the system of divine laws, which is compatible with divine righteousness and sovereignty.
GOD IS THE JUDGE OF ALL MANKIND, whether man recognizes it or not. God renders daily decisions in heaven with regard to all members of the human race. He is an incorruptible and fair Judge of the all men. It is impossible for perfect God to make a bad decision as a Judge.
The justice of God administers the blessings and penalties that are demanded by His perfect righteousness [Deut. 32:4, Job 37:23, Psalms 19:9, 50:6, 58:11, 89:14, Isaiah 45:21, Jeremiah 50:7, Romans 3:26, Heb. 10:30-31, 12:23].
The divine penalties are not form of angry revenge designed to hurt but a form of correction for a good purpose. With growing and unchangeable sin and evil there is corresponding unchangeable judgment and condemnation; thus, God is proven to be consistent. Condemnation is caused by human free will volition that went against the will, plan and purpose of God.
The justice of God was displayed vividly at the cross, where Christ was judged as a Substitute for us. The Lord did not say any thing about being judged unfairly for us.
Jesus Christ as the Lamb of God was qualified to go to the cross because He remained perfect in His humanity all throughout His life on earth. He did not loss His impeccability for a single minute [John 1:29]. Because God’s perfect righteousness demands the judgment of sin, all human sins had to be judged on the cross.
The justice and righteousness of God were the points of contact with Jesus Christ in hypostatic union on the cross. His humanity had to be judged for our sins to propitiate divine righteousness [Luke 22:19].
From the moment we were born spiritually dead, the justice of God is our point of contact, and continues to be our point of contact after salvation. The righteousness of God is the principle divine integrity, while the justice of God is the function of divine integrity. What the righteousness of God demands the justice of God executes.
God evaluates all mankind from the His justice now and forever, cover all believers and unbelievers. The judgment of all sins of the unbeliever on the cross comes from the divine justice, as does the believer’s discipline. The unbeliever’s eternal agony in the Lake of Fire, and the believer’s ultimate sanctification and blessing in eternity comes from the same Source which is the justice of God.
Everything God does toward us from any of His attributes goes through His justice. Justice is the safeguard of all divine action related to mankind.
“May HE judge Thy people with righteousness, and THINE afflicted with justice – He is the Lord: His judgment s are in all the earth” [Psalms 72:2, 105:7 and 1 Chronicles 1:14].
Man has immeasurable opportunity for compromise violating God’s character at almost at every turn. That’s why God must guard His first and foremost by making His justice our point of contact.
GOD never has the slightest trouble keeping His attributes uncompromising one never compromises another. God never at any point compromises when He deals with fallen, sinful, and imperfect man. Whenever God blesses man –He is not lowering His perfect standards. He cannot lower Himself to our imperfect level without destroying His perfection. J. R. Cherreguine Bible Doctrine Ministries
THE JUSTICE OF GOD GUARDS THE DIVINE ESSENCE:
The reason God can bless us is that His justice stands guards over all the rest of His attributes. The justice of God, the function of His integrity, is the guardian of God’s essence in all that He does toward imperfect creatures.
Within the Members of the Godhead, there is no need for a guardian since there is no possibility of compromise. All the three Members of the Trinity are perfect, coeternal and co-infinite all Three possess the same integrity. Thus, in Himself, God is free to regard His personality. The fact that God is a perfect Person there is nothing to worry about compromise of His character.
Everything God does toward us from any of His attributes goes through His justice. Divine justice is the ultimate safeguard of all divine action related to mankind.
If God’s point of contact with us were His sovereignty, then man will have no free will volition God would program us to move mechanically. God would choose who would go to heaven and the angelic conflict could not be won.
If God’s point of contact with us were His omnipotence He would be a tyrant, God will do everything Himself by His own power. He would force people to believe in Christ. There would be no free will volition and believers cannot glorify God.
If love were His point of contact with us, there is no need for Christ to die on the cross and there is no need for His justice and righteousness to be propitiated because God would save every human being there is no need for the Lake of Fire.
THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD GUARDS DIVINE JUSTICE:
God executes His justice apart from bias, prejudice, never arbitrary or capricious. His righteousness guards His justice. His justice is free from corruption and impossible to be corrupted by anything. It always functions according to the standard of fairness found in God’s perfect righteousness [Psalm 9:8].
Divine justice is the guard over God’s entire essence while the righteousness is the watchdog over His justice. Whereas justice is the function of divine integrity, righteousness is the principle of divine integrity. What the righteousness of God demands, the justices of God perform. What righteousness condemns, the justice judges? What righteousness approves, the justice blesses.
Absolute righteousness is the key to the character of God. If He did not have absolute righteousness, God would not be God. Righteousness protects His impeccable justice when dealing with sinful man.
Righteousness rejects sin therefore divine justice judge’s sin and executes salvation. Righteousness rejects human good- being relative it fall short of divine perfect standard. Justice Judges all forms of legalism, religiosity, human good works, and self-righteousness. It rejects evil; justice totally judges it [Isaiah 64:6].
God graciously imputes His righteousness to believer at the point of salvation- now; God approves His own righteousness imputed in the believer. J. R. Cherreguine Bible Doctrine Ministries
LOVE
LOVE belongs to the Being of God and cannot be disassociated from His eternal being [1 John 4:7-8, 16]. His love never diminishes or improves. God is love whether or not He has a creature to love.
His nature is to bestow Himself, to give Him self; thus love is the motivation of divine integrity [John 3:16, Ephesians 2:4-5].
Through eternity God has had a perfect object of His love in Himself, there was never a time when each Member of the Godhead did not love His own righteousness and the righteousness of the other Members of the Trinity.
The only object ever worthy of God’s love is God’s own eternal, unchangeable, perfect and absolute righteousness. God’s love was not less because there was no angelic or human object it did not increase once there were creatures to love.
God’s attribute of love is different from human love, which God does not possess. Even if we understand human love, which is not guarantee that we understand God’s love. Divine love in its totality is beyond our comprehension since it contains no emotion or passionate desire.
God does not love us because of what we are or what we are not. He loves us because of WHO AND WHAT HE IS. He loves His own righteousness with an infinite love and since we possess His righteousness at the moment we believed in Christ, He loves us with infinite love [Gen. 15:6, Romans 5:3].
God’s love is always related to His integrity thus He is very particular about whom He loves and admits into heaven. Jesus Christ is the only One worthy, and the only through His merits are we acceptable before God. There is absolutely nothing we can do to earn the love of God or the right to live with Him in eternity.
Only God is said to be love [1 John 4:8]. Our love is always related to an object. GOD IS LOVE does not only refer to His attributes of His essence, which is an integral part of WHO AND WHAT HE IS, but also that His love is the perfect example of genuine love.
God’s love for God is subjectively internal within the essence of each members of the Godhead. God’s love for God is objectively external between the Members of the Trinity merit. God’s love remains eternal and changeless because He is eternal and unchangeable. Changes in man do not create changes in God’s love. His love does not depend on us or any other created object.
God’s justice and righteousness support and guarantee His love. His love also is directed toward His own character. He loves WHO AND WHAT HE IS [Psalm 11:7, 33:5, 37:28].
DIVINE IMPERSONAL LOVE for man is directed toward all members of the human race. I t is unconditional and without any reference to the object. It emphasizes the Subject and the integrity of God.
DIVINE PERSONAL LOVE is directed only to the redeemed members of the human race and therefore, exclusive for believers only. It is conditional, putting emphasizes to the object –the recipient of His righteousness. It emphasizes the positive volition of the saints toward God and His Bible doctrine.
Divine impersonal love toward mankind is manifested in divine action of delaying mankind’s final judgment [Romans 2:4].
Divine personal love for believers is manifested in divine provision of salvation [1 John 2:2], logistical grace provision for believers in time [Romans 5:10, 17], and the super grace blessings of the spiritually mature [James 4:6]. Divine personal love for believers will continue to manifest in distribution of blessings in eternity. J. R. Cherreguine Bible Doctrine Ministries
ETERNAL LIFE
GOD is life [Jeremiah 10:10, John 1:4, 14:6, 1 Thessalonians 1:19]. There never was a time when God did not live. He has always existed and His life is called eternal life.
Eternal life has no beginning and has no end. The life of the believer is technically called EVERLASTING LIFE, which has no end but begins at the moment of salvation.
Eternal life applies to the Being of God- the essence of God. God’s eternal life means that He has always existed and will always exist, there was never a time when God did not exist. He never had a beginning, no one preceded Him, and nothing caused God to come to existence.
Our difficulty in understanding the absolute infinity of God is because we are in time. Time is the invention of God for the convenience of His creatures. God is the cause and origin of time. God is not subject to time [Psalm 90:2, 102:27, 1 Cor. 2:7, Ephesians 1:4, 1 Timothy 1:17] God invented time so that He could manifest His eternal life to mankind.
We adjust to God by possessing His eternal life through faith in Christ. Man cannot live without time. Time is without substance yet is an object of God’s creation. God is not in time but time is in God. God transcends all creation including time. To Him one day is a thousand years and a thousand years as one day [2 Peter 3:8b].
God is logical and therefore does not need to be chronological [Romans 12:2], but He can be chronological if He chooses. God always accomplishes in time what has to be done in time as part of His eternal plan.
Time is finite it has succession and duration. Eternity is infinite it has duration only. The infinite God has duration only. He is not in time but time is in God.
Time is a line of procedure as far man’s perspective is concerned but eternity is beyond man’s perception, reaching into infinity.
The eternal life of God is imparted to all who believe in Christ as [John 3:16,18, 10:10, 14:6, 1 John 5:11-12]. Christ as the Creator is the source of all life [Hebrews 1:2]. God the Father is the Source of life from the standpoint that He breathes the life; The Holy Spirit is the Source of life as the agent of regeneration [Titus 3:5].
The Godhead are elated to life in specific, different ways that never contradict each other and are totally compatible with the operation of the Godhead:
o Jesus Christ is the Source of all Life from the standpoint of creation.
o The Father is the Source of all Life from the standpoint of imputation of human life.
o The Holy Spirit is the Source of life from the standpoint of regeneration.
o Eternal life as an attribute of God describes His absolute existence outside the limits and boundaries of time.
Eternal life in relationship to man, is the everlasting relationship with God reserved in heaven for every person the moment they express faith in Christ. Eternal life is the life God when imputed to believers (everlasting life) is life designed for heaven for the world. It is life designed to continue living in the presence of God (in heaven) not in the world.
The eternal life of God has no beginning and has no end –it is infinitely and absolutely perfect when imputed to man remains perfect and infinite. Nothing can change, alter, revise or undone what God has created for the believer. To claim that our eternal life is not permanent is to say that God has cheated us with fake eternal life. J. R. Cherreguine Bible Doctrine Ministries
THE LIFE AND LOVE OF GOD
SINCE God is eternal therefore His life and love is also eternal, unchangeable, totally infinite and perfect.
The Divine self-love-directed toward the perfect righteousness among the members of the Trinity, is totally justified because of the perfect character of God. The self-love of God is infinitely perfect nothing can alter or change it.
The Divine personal love directed toward all believers because they possess the perfect righteousness of God is infinitely perfect nothing can change or alter it.
The Divine impersonal love of God toward all mankind as sinners [unbelievers and believers alike] based on the perfect divine integrity rather than on the merits of men is infinitely perfect nothing can change or alter it.
It is impossible for man to love another person forever because his emotion is not forever. Imperfect man does not possess the kind of love that God possesses.
The eternal life of God also refers to His absolute existence: GOD IS. He is the self-existing one. YAHWEH – the Great I Am [Exodus 3:14], who has neither beginning nor end [Psalm 90:2, 102:27].
The self-existing life of God means His existence is entirely self-contained and does not depend on anything external to Himself. The Hebrew word RESIT, translated to English as “beginning’ [Genesis 1:1] refers to the beginning of the work of creation and not to the beginning of God.
The Members of the Godhead existed eternally prior to creation since They had no beginning [John 1:1]. The Lord Jesus Christ was with the Father even before the creation of time and the entire creation.
Jesus Christ is the Alpha and Omega [Rev. 1:8]. Alpha refers to the eternal preexistence of Christ while Omega refers to Jesus Christ in hypostatic union during His First Advent. He is the eternal Son of God and as humanity, the Son of David, who will return as the King of Kings and Lord of Lords at His Second Advent and reign forever.
God is timeless. He does not thinks in terms of past, present, future, short or long periods of second, minutes, hours, days, months, and years as we do. Yet as loving and eternal God He cares enough to extend His gracious offer for us to share His eternal life [Psalm 8:4, John 3:16,36].
Time, which is finite, has both succession and duration. Its duration is measured by its succession in contrast to eternity, which has duration only. Therefore, eternity is beyond man’s perception, reaching into infinity.
Human love is finite- it has duration and succession. It is not permanent and will not last forever (infinity). Man is but temporal and finite.
By the grace of God, every believer is a recipient of eternal life of God –where the finite has become infinite, the temporal has become permanent, the mortal has become immortal –man has transcend beyond time.
We cannot learn or understand the love and infinity of God by mastering human love and life, because we have nothing in this world that could make us understand the Person and works of God. The finite has no capacity to understand the infinite.
The eternal life of God in us (Church Age believers) is something we cannot fully understand until we reach heaven where finite and temporal things have no place.
The issue is not the life or the love of God that we have received but the resulting effects and application of possessing such love and life. J. R. Cherreguine Bible Doctrine Ministries
OMNISCIENCE
GOD is all knowing or omniscience (which comes from the Latin OMNI, which means all, and SCIENTIA meaning knowledge. God is perfectly wise His wisdom is perfect. He knows perfectly and eternally all that is knowable, whether actual or merely possible.
God knows everything that has been known or ever will be known. Never was there a time when God did not know everything that is knowable He never learns anything because He has always known everything [Proverbs 15:3, Isaiah 36:9-10, 1 John 3:20].
The omniscience of God is both eternal and infinite He has always known everything and there is nothing that He does not knows (Acts 15:18).
The omniscience of God has complete and absolute knowledge of everything that is knowable and unknown to us. Everything is totally comprehensible to the infinite God. The Bible reveals only a small fraction of God’s perfect knowledge for us to known and understands Romans 11:33].
The omniscience of God is perfectly wise and has absolute knowledge of everything since maximum knowledge belongs to Omniscience of God (Ephesians 3:10).
Every detail of all creation and history is in God’s mind at all times and always has been from the eternity past. This is God’s mentality connected with His infinity. The future is as clear as the past.
God foreknows the future since all events take place according to His counsel (or what we called divine decree). God foreknows, but His foreknowledge is not predetermined.
God knows every step you will take, but He never interferes with human volition. He foreknows the function of every free will. He knows what every being will choose and He knows which way each person will decide in the function of his free will in every situation of life.
Although God never interferes with free will, God is gracious and all wise, so, He may determine which choice is made through His gracious influence through:
A. Bible doctrine resident in the soul of the believer. B. God’s control of the variable of life that are beyond human control. C. God’s direct control of human history.
God’s perfect knowledge (omniscience) is not subject to development, reasoning, regretting, foreboding and revising, because His omniscience is always total and perfect, therefore it cannot develop beyond what is already is.
God knows all the conclusions as well as the premises; hence, even though He is totally reasonable and rational in all things, He never needs to reason out.
We can never second-guess God. There is no way we can improve on His system. We can simply go along with His perfectly wise policy (which He designed for our best interest) or reject it, in such case; His perfect plan goes right along without us.
Although His omniscience transcends time and eternity, His perfect knowledge of all events before they occur does not violate or interfere with human volition. By divine design human beings are free agents who can choose to partake of God’s grace or reject Him. The God’s given human volition makes every person personally accountable to God for every decision and action that he made.
Under the omniscience of God, there is no such thing as FATE OR BAD LUCK because all events take place according to His counsel (the divine decree) and our present is the result of our previous decisions that we have made. Nothing is accidental. Every event happened as the result of the divine will, human will or satanic will. J. R. Cherreguine Bible Doctrine Ministries
OMNIPRESENCE
GOD is eternally, wholly; personally and simultaneously present everywhere [Psalm 139:8, Proverbs 15:3, Deut. 4:39, Acts 17:27]. God is the totality of His presence- without diffusion, expansion, multiplication, or division. He penetrates and fills the entire universe and everything beyond the universe to infinity [Psalm 139:7, Jeremiah 23:23-24, Acts 17:27].
God is free to be local while at the same time existing throughout all space and beyond space [Exodus 19:18-20, Lev. 16:2]. Omnipresence describes space in relation to God. Immensity describes God in relation to space.
God is not subject to the laws of space. As He did with time, God invented and created space. Space is large, but not as large as God. God cannot be more or less than He is. We cannot measure God.
God is the Cause of space He put order into space. Space is one of the boundaries God has given to us, the other being time. We cannot escape time or space, it would be disaster to do so- our entire orientation in life is tied up to time and space.
In relation to space, God is immanent in space and transcendent outside space. Since God is the Creator, the Cause of space God would exceed those boundaries to infinity.
God has the ability to construct time and space and is inside them as well outside them. Knowing this, we have no cause for worry on our personal or national problems.
God may be Self-limited as in the case of the kenosis (Incarnate Person of Jesus Christ in hypostatic union (Philippians 2:7).
God’s infinity is intensive rather than extensive that is, God is not to be thought of merely as extending infinity beyond time and space but as possessing within Him infinite resources. God is the perfect Person who passes beyond all phenomena and constitutes the basis for them, as possessing within Himself a boundless supply of the infinite energy of His spiritual life and personality.
Omnipresence means that God is personally present, knowing firsthand our sins, problems, circumstances, because He is available to help, able to protect or provide our needs.
God exists beyond spatial limitations. He is immanent and transcendent. Immanence means His entire essence is always present everywhere in nature, in history, in all the affairs of mankind [Jeremiah 23:23-24, Acts 17:27-28]. Transcendence means He is totally independent of the created universe so that no particular place exclusively contains Him [Psalm 113:5-6, Isaiah 55:8-9, John 8:23].
Immanence and transcendence exist in balance, so that the whole earth is full of His glory [Isaiah 6:3]. His whole being is present in every point in the universe, while at the same time He is HOLY and EXALTED infinitely beyond the universe [Isaiah 6:1,3]. He pervades the universe while at the same time He is free to be in specific location.
Omnipresence assures no believer will ever be alone in any given time anywhere in the world or beyond. The Father fills heaven and earth [Jeremiah. 23:23-24]. Jesus Christ promises not to leave the believers without the Comforter while in the world [Matthew 28:20]. The Holy Spirit permanently resides and indwells the believer [1 Corinthians 6:19].
God is not in time or space but time and space is in God. In relation to doing the will of God He has to provide us with the means of complying with His order. He gives us time and space so that we could be at the right place at the right time doing the right thing. J. R. Cherreguine Bible Doctrine Ministries
OMNIPOTENCE
GOD is all-powerful. His power is infinite. He is able to do all things within the range of His character, that is, He can do all things, which are not Self-contradictory or contradictory to His divine nature or attributes. For God to do contradictory things would not imply power but imperfection and impotence.
God will never make right wrong nor act foolishly. He never abuses His power. His power is perfect and beyond comprehension of the finite mind [Isaiah 44:24, 2 Corinthians 4:6, Ephesians 1:19-20, 3:20, Hebrews 1:3].
He can do all He wills to do, but He may not will to do all He can do. God will not do all things especially those dictated by men.
If God is limited at any time, it is because of a Self-imposed limitation consistent with His plan and essence.
God has infinite power and energy [Psalm 8:3]. He does not sleep and never gets tired. He was never worn out and never will be. God is compassionate but never ridiculous or illogical and He will never sympathize with the lame excuses of men –human alibi that are basically rooted in laziness.
When you need to do His will-He will provides the energy even before you come into realization of your inadequacy. By applying what we know of the infinite power of God we can see that God will always provide and thus we must therefore carry on no matter how we feel.
God never condones giving up when it comes to our spiritual life and divine will. When you start making excuses, you begin to develop maladjustments to the grace of God. We are insulting the power of God that He made available to us. In times of crisis, suffering, adversary or various trials, ignorant believers are still asking God for power or strength, which He has already provided at the moment of salvation. Some thought of God’s power as something mystical in nature for making miracles, healing or sensational ministry.
God will not ask or command us to do something in which He has not provided the capacity to fulfill. God did not impute His power to believers but allows them to use His power to do His will. His omnipotent power is not for doing miracles but for doing His plan of grace.
Miracles are the very least God will do and He does need human assistance for doing miracles. Miracles are for the unbelieving not for the believers.
The omnipotence of God is manifest in the lives of believers adjusted to the justice of God through their tactical victory in the angelic conflict, not in the exercise of the signs gifts or like healing or tongues that has come to cessation.
God is unlimited in His ability and authority, which guarantees order and systematic operation of His creation. Omnipotence is the superior divine power of the Trinity and the Holy Spirit supplies the power to the believers to do the will of the Father [Acts 1:8, Romans 15:19].
During the humanity of Christ, He limited the independent use of His deity to strictly conform to the plan of the Father and to utilize the power of the Holy Spirit. His purpose was to demonstrate to Church Age believer’s dependence on the Father’s plan and the Holy Spirit’s power in the Christian life [John 3:34, 5:17, 6:65, 8:28, Isaiah 42:1, Philippians 2:6-8].
The perfect and infinite power of God is not capricious but totally in harmony to His perfect essence, therefore, we can be sure that everything He does is perfectly good for He cannot violate His own essence. J. R. Cherreguine Bible Doctrine Ministries
IMMUTABILITY
God is unchangeable. He cannot change and will never change. Human being change but the perfect God is not subject to change. [Psalm 33:11, Malachi 3:6, Hebrews 13:8, James 1:17]
God cannot be better or worse than His essence. He never had a day when He was better or worse, in contrast to human being. The Creator is not like the creature. You cannot give God a good day or a bad day; He certainly will not give you either.
The language of the anthropopathy or symbolic human representations used by the Lord Jesus Christ merely represent His perfect attitude toward variations in man, in history, in time. God may appear to change but He does not. He is merely expressing His character differently as called for differences and changes in man or history.
God merely brings into view a different aspect of His unchanging Person and plan when we change. He treats each person as an individual and every historical event according to the facts of the case [Psalm 33:13-15, 139:1-18, 23-24, 147:4-5].
God deals with everything according to complete and perfect information He possesses. He does not deal with everything or with everyone the same way otherwise that would be stupidity not immutability. He is wise and just, and that He knows when to do what to do.
God, as the Chief Justice is perfect without any contradictions. He is immutable yet able to evaluate different situations in different ways. Since He is unchangeably perfect, His pronouncements are always perfect.
Immutability is consistent with God’s freedom and ceaseless activity. God simultaneously deals with millions and millions of people who come under His especial attention.
God is free to act according to His essence. The fact that He is immutable means that He cannot change His own nature, not that He cannot act as divine nature dictates but with respect to human free will. Thus God is always at His best –the changes in His creation do not affect him.
The pseudo Christians invented the doctrine of God’s second best. They claimed that God always has the second best for erring believers. Such teaching is purely demonic.
God is always at His best. He cannot make any mistake or error. No characteristic or attribute of God can change. He cannot compromise His perfect immutability. He merely brings into view a different aspect of His unchanging Person and plan when we change.
Prayer cannot change the plan and will of God –no matter how sincere and prevent. God answers our prayer not because of what we are or not but because of His essence or WHO AND WHAT HE IS.
God cannot reject prayer that are adjusted to divine justice and which is according to divine plan and purpose [John 15:7]. We receive positive answers to our prayer because we prayed according to His will.
Since each divine attribute is consistent with His integrity no attribute can supersede or operate independently of God’s other attributes. This means God will never act arbitrarily, capriciously or in violation of what He has already decreed. Divine omnipotence cannot dominate or overrule His immutability.
From God’s perfect immutability comes His faithfulness He is always reliable and He will never let anyone down. He is faithful to keep Word [Lamentations 3:22-23, Hebrews 6:17-19]. God remains faithful although we may be faithless [2 Timothy 2:13]. J. R. Cherreguine Bible Doctrine Ministries
VERACITY
GOD is not only true to other beings but God is true to Himself [Psalm 25:5, John 17:17, 1 John 5:6]. Each Members of the Trinity was true to each other and each true to Himself, possessing perfect integrity. They always possess perfect integrity based on truth of divine essence.
|
