The next thing to be noted about the Christian conception of God is,
that _God is perfect and infinite in all His intellectual and moral
attributes and in power_.
1. First of all, fix your attention upon our first text: +"God
is Light"+ (1 John 1:5). These three words form a marvellously
beautiful and overwhelmingly impressive statement of the truth. They
set forth the Absolute Holiness and Perfect Wisdom of God. The words
need rather to be meditated upon than to be expounded. +"In Him is
no darkness at all."+ That is to say, in Him is no darkness of
error, no darkness of ignorance, no darkness of sin, no darkness of
moral imperfection or intellectual imperfection of any kind. The three
words, "God is Light," form one of the most beautiful, one of the most
striking and one of the most stupendous statements of truth that was
ever penned.
2. To come to things more specific, _the God of the Bible is
omnipotent_. This great truth comes out again and again in the Word
of God. One direct statement of this great truth especially striking
because of the connection in which it is found, occurs in Jer. 32:17,
27: +"Ah Lord Jehovah! Behold, thou hast made the heavens and the
earth by thy great power and by thine outstretched arm: there is
nothing too hard for thee."+ Here it is Jeremiah who makes the
statement, but in the 27th verse it is Jehovah Himself who says:
+"Behold, I am Jehovah, the God of all flesh: is there anything too
hard for me?"+
In Job 42:2 we read these words of Job, when at last he has been
brought to see and to recognise the true nature of Jehovah: +"I
know that thou canst do all things and that no purpose of thine can
be restrained."+ In Matt. 19:26 our Lord Jesus says: +"With God
all things are possible."+ Taking these passages together, we are
plainly taught by our Lord Himself and by others that _God can do all
things, that nothing is too hard for Him, that all things are possible
with Him. In a word, that God is omnipotent._ A very impressive passage
in the book of Psalms setting forth this same great truth is Ps.
33:6-9: +"By the word of Jehovah were the heavens made, and all the
host of them by the breath of his mouth. (7) He gathereth the waters of
the sea together as a heap: he layeth up the deeps in storehouses. (8)
Let all the earth fear Jehovah: let all the inhabitants of the world
stand in awe of him. (9) For he spake, and it was done; he commanded,
and it stood fast."+ Here we see God by the mere utterance of His
voice bringing to pass anything that He desires to be brought to pass.
We find this same lofty conception of God in the very first chapter
of the Bible, that chapter that so many people who imagine themselves
scholarly are telling us is outgrown and not up to date, and yet which
contains some of the sublimest utterances that were ever written,
unmatched by anything that any philosopher or scientist or platform
orator is saying to-day. The very first words of that chapter read:
+"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth"+ (Gen.
1:1), a description of the origin of things that has never been matched
for simplicity, sublimity and profundity; and two verses further down,
in the third verse, we read: +"And God said, Let there be light: and
light was."+ These words need no comment. There is here a sublimity
of thought in the setting forth of the omnipotence of God's mere word
before which any truly intelligent and alert soul will stand in wonder
and awe. There is nothing in poetry or in philosophical dissertation,
ancient or modern, that can for one moment be put in comparison with
these sublime words. Over and over again the thought is brought out
in the Word of God that all nature is absolutely subject to God's
will and word. We see this, for example, in Ps. 107:25-29: +"For he
commandeth, and raiseth the stormy wind, which lifteth up the waves
thereof. (26) They mount up to the heavens, they go down again to the
depths: their soul melteth away because of trouble. (27) They reel to
and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, and are at their wits' end.
(28) Then they cry unto Jehovah in their trouble, and he bringeth them
out of their distresses. (29) He maketh the storm a calm, so that
the waves thereof are still."+ Another description of a similar
character is found in Nahum 1:3-6: +"Jehovah is slow to anger, and
great in power, and will by no means clear the guilty: Jehovah hath his
way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of
his feet. (4) He rebuketh the sea, and maketh it dry, and drieth up all
the rivers: Bashan languisheth, and Carmel and the flower of Lebanon
languisheth. (5) The mountains quake at him, and the hills melt; and
the earth is upheaved at his presence, yea, the world, and all that
dwell therein. (6) Who can stand before his indignation? and who can
abide in the fierceness of his anger? His wrath is poured out like
fire, and the rocks are broken asunder by him."+ What a picture we
have here of the omnipotence and awful majesty of God!
Not only is nature represented as being absolutely subject to God's
will and word, but men also are represented as being absolutely subject
to His will and word. For example, we read in Jas. 4:12-15: +"One
only is the lawgiver and judge, even he who is able to save and to
destroy: But who art thou that judgest thy neighbour? (13) Come now,
ye that say, to-day or to-morrow we will go into this city, and spend
a year there, and trade, and get gain: (14) Whereas ye know not what
shall be on the morrow. What is your life? For ye are a vapour that
appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away. (15) For that
ye ought to say, if the Lord will, we shall both live, and do this or
that."+
Happy is the man who voluntarily subjects himself to God's will and
word, but whether we voluntarily subject ourselves to God's will and
word or not, we are subject to His will and word whether or no. The
angels also are subject to His will and word (Heb. 1:13, 14) and even
Satan himself is, although entirely against his own will, absolutely
subject to the will and word of God, as is evident from Job 1:12 and
Job 2:6.
_The exercise of God's omnipotence is limited by His own wise and holy
and loving will._ God _can do_ anything, but _will do_ only that which
infinite wisdom and holiness and love dictate. This comes out, for
example, in Isa. 59:1, 2: +"Behold, Jehovah's hand is not shortened,
that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear: (2)
But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your
sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear."+
3. _The God of the Bible is also omniscient._ In 1 John 3:20 we read:
+"God knoweth all things."+ Turning to the Old Testament, in
Ps. 147:5, we read: +"Great is our Lord, and mighty in power; his
understanding is infinite."+ The literal translation of the last
clause of this passage is "Of his understanding there is no number." In
these passages it is plainly declared that "God knoweth all things" and
that "His understanding is infinite." In Job 37:16 Elihu the messenger
of God is represented as saying that Jehovah is "perfect in knowledge."
Along the same line, in Acts 15:18 we read: +"Known unto God are all
his works from the beginning of the world."+ The Revised Version
makes a change in the translation of this verse but this change does
not alter the sense of the truth here set forth that God knows all His
works and all things from the beginning of the world. _Known to Him is
everything from the most vast to the most minute detail._ In Ps. 147:4
we are told that, +"He telleth the number of the stars; he knoweth
them all by name."+ While in Matt. 10:29 we are told that _not a
sparrow_ falleth to the ground without Him. The stars in all their
stupendous magnitude and the sparrows in all their insignificance are
all equally in His mind.
We are further told that everything has a part in His purpose and
plan. In Acts 3:17, 18, the Apostle Peter says of the crucifixion
of our Lord, the wickedest act in all the history of the human
race: +"And now, brethren, I wot that in ignorance ye did it, as
did also your rulers. But the things which God foreshowed by the
mouth of all the prophets, that his Christ should suffer, he thus
fulfilled."+ In Acts 2:23 Peter declared on the day of Pentecost
(although the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus was the wickedest act in
all history) that nevertheless the Lord Jesus was +"Delivered up by
the determinate council and foreknowledge of God."+ According to
the Psalmist (Ps. 76:10) God takes the acts of the wickedest men into
His plans and makes the wrath of men to praise Him, and the remainder
of wrath doth He restrain. Even the present war with all its horrors,
with all its atrocities, with all its abominations and all its nameless
wickednesses, was foreknown of God and taken into His own gracious plan
of the ages; and He will make every event in this present war, even the
most shocking things, designed by the vilest conspiracy of unprincipled
men, utterly unhuman and beastly men and Devil inspired men, work
together for good to those who love God, for those who are the called
according to His purpose (Rom. 8:28).
_The whole plan of the ages, not merely of the centuries, but of
the immeasurable ages of God, and every man's part in it, has been
known to God from all eternity._ This is made very clear in Eph.
1:9-12, where we read: +"Having made known unto us the mystery
of his will, according to his good pleasure which he purposed in
him unto a dispensation of the fullness of the times, to sum up all
things in Christ, the things in the heavens, and the things upon the
earth; in him, I say, in whom also we were made a heritage, having
been foreordained according to the purpose of him who worketh all
things after the counsel of his will; to the end that we should be to
the praise of his glory, we who before hoped in Christ."+ And in
Eph. 3:4-9, we read: +"Wherefore when ye read, ye can perceive my
understanding in the mystery of Christ; which in other generations was
not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his
holy prophets and apostles in the Spirit; to wit, that the Gentiles are
fellow-heirs, and fellow-members of the body, and fellow-partakers of
the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel, whereof I was made a
minister, according to the gift of that grace of God which was given me
according to the working of his power. Unto me, who am less than the
least of all saints, was this grace given, to preach unto the Gentiles
the unsearchable riches of Christ; and to make all men see what is the
dispensation of the mystery which from all ages has been hid in God
who created all things."+ There are no after-thoughts with God.
Everything is seen, known, purposed and planned for from the outset.
Well may we exclaim: +"Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom
and knowledge of God: how unsearchable are his judgments and his ways
past finding out."+ (Rom. 11:33.) God knows from all eternity what
He will do to all eternity.
4. _God is also absolutely and infinitely holy._ This is a point of
central and fundamental importance in the Bible conception of God.
It comes out in our first text: +"God is light, and in him is no
darkness at all."+ John when he wrote these words gave them as the
summary of +"The message which we have heard from God."+ (1 John
1:5.) In Isa. 6:3 in the vision of Jehovah which was given to Isaiah
in the year that King Uzziah died, the "seraphim," or "burning ones,"
burning in their own intense holiness, are represented as standing
before Jehovah with covered faces and covered feet and constantly
crying, "_Holy, holy, holy_, is Jehovah of Hosts." And in 1 Pet. 1:16
God cries to us, +"Be ye holy, for I am holy."+
This thought of the infinite and awe-inspiring holiness of God pervades
the entire Bible. It underlies everything in it. The entire Mosaic
system is built upon and about this fundamental and central truth. Its
system of washings; the divisions of the tabernacle; the divisions
of the people into ordinary Israelites, Levites, Priests and High
Priests, who were permitted different degrees of approach to God under
strictly defined conditions, insistence upon sacrifices of blood as
the necessary medium of approach to God; God's directions to Moses in
Ex. 3:5, to Joshua in Josh. 5:15, the punishment of Uzziah in 2 Chron.
26:16-26, the strict orders to Israel in regard to approaching Sinai
when Jehovah came down upon it; the doom of Korah, Dathan and Abiram in
Num. 16:1-33; and the destruction of Nadab and Abihu in Lev. 10:1-3:
all these were intended to teach, emphasise and burn into the minds
and hearts of the Israelites the fundamental truth that God is holy,
unapproachably holy. _The truth that God is holy is the fundamental
truth of the Bible_, of the Old Testament and the New Testament, of the
Jewish religion and the Christian religion. It is the preëminent factor
in the Christian conception of God. There is no fact in the Christian
Conception of God that needs more to be emphasised in our day than the
fact of the absolute, unqualified and uncompromising holiness of God.
That is the chief note that is lacking in Christian Science, Theosophy,
Occultism, Buddhism, New Thought, the New Theology and all the base but
boasted cults of the day. That great truth underlies those fundamental
doctrines of the Bible,—the Atonement by Shed Blood and Justification
by Faith. _The doctrine of the holiness of God is the keystone in the
arch of Christian truth._
5. _God is also love._ This truth is declared in one of our texts.
The words +"God is love"+ are found twice in the same chapter (1
John 4:8, 16). This truth is essentially the same truth as that +"God
is light"+ and +"God is holy,"+ for the very essence of true
holiness is love, and "light" is "love" and "love" is "light."
6. Furthermore, God is not only perfect in His intellectual and moral
attributes and in power, _He is also omnipresent_. This thought of God
comes out in both the Old Testament and the New. In Ps. 139:7-10 we
read: +"Whither shall I go from thy Spirit? Or whither shall I flee
from thy presence? (8) If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: If
I make my bed in Sheol, behold thou art there. (9) If I take the wings
of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost part of the sea; (10) Even
there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me."+
There is no place where one can flee from God's presence, for God is
everywhere. This great truth is set forth in a remarkable way in Jer.
23:23, 24: +"Am I a God at hand, saith Jehovah, and not a God afar
off? (24) Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see
him? saith Jehovah. Do not I fill heaven and earth? saith Jehovah."+
Last week we saw that God has a local habitation, that there is a place
where He exists and manifests Himself in a way in which He does not
manifest Himself everywhere; but while we insist upon that clearly
revealed truth, we must also never lose sight of the fact that _God is
everywhere_. We find this same truth set forth by Paul in his sermon
to the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers on Mars Hill, Acts 17:24-28:
+"The God that made the world, and all things therein, he, being
Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands:
(25) Neither is served by men's hands as though he needed anything,
seeing he himself giveth to all life and breath and all things. (26)
And he made of one every nation of men who dwell on all the face of
the earth, having determined their appointed seasons, and the bounds
of their habitations. (27) For in him we live, and move, and have our
being; as certain even of your own poets have said, for we are also his
offspring."+
From these passages we see that God is everywhere. He is in all parts
of the universe and near each individual. In Him each individual lives
and moves and has his being. He is in every rose and lily and blade of
grass.
7. There is one other thought in the Christian conception of God that
needs to be placed alongside of His omnipresence and that is His
eternity. _God is eternal. His existence had no beginning and will have
no ending, He always was, always is and always shall be._ God is not
only everywhere present in space, He is everywhere present in time.
This conception of God appears constantly in the Bible. We are told
way back in Gen. 21:33 that Abraham called +"On the name of Jehovah,
the everlasting God."+ In Isa. 40:28 we read this description of
Jehovah: +"Hast thou not known? Hast thou not heard? The everlasting
God, Jehovah, the creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not,
neither is weary; there is no searching of his understanding."+
Here again He is called "The Everlasting God." Habakkuk in Hab. 1:12
sets forth the same conception of God. He says, +"Art not thou from
everlasting, O Jehovah my God, mine holy one?"+ The Psalmist gives
us the same representation of God in Ps. 90:2, 4: +"Before the
mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hast formed the earth and
the world, even from everlasting to everlasting thou art God. (4) For a
thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is passed, and
as a watch in the night."+ We have the same representation of God in
the 102nd Ps., verses 24-27: +"I said, O my God, take me not away in
the midst of my days: Thy years are throughout all generations. (25)
Of old didst thou lay the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are
the work of thy hands. (26) They shall perish, but thou shalt endure;
yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment; as a vesture shalt thou
change them, and they shall be changed; (27) But thou art the same, and
thy years shall have no end."+
The very name of God, His covenant name, Jehovah, sets forth His
eternity. He is the eternal "I am," the One who is, was and ever shall
be. (Cf. Ex. 3:14, 15.)