The OMNISCIENCE of God.

THE OMNISCIENCE OF GOD. 

Geoffrey R. Kirkland

Pastor, Christ Fellowship Bible Church 

 

 

The OMNISCIENCE of God means that God has all knowledge and that nothing is hidden from Him. Even the Apostle Peter said to Jesus: “You know all things” (John 21:17). The omniscience of God brings us to the wonderful truth of God’s being that He has perfect knowledge of everything in every place. Nothing is hidden from God in the past, in the present, or in the future. 

Most marvelously and uniquely, God’s omniscience means that He is never surprised by anything that happens. He knows everything in the future and in the past perfectly, infinitely, and intricately. Hannah prayed: “The Lord is a God of knowledge” (1 Samuel 2.3). 

The omniscience of God also refers to God as being the perfect standard and criterion of what is true. God’s wisdom and knowledge is the perfect understanding of what is, and what shall be, and what has happened. God never forgets anything and He never is frustrated over events that transpire. 

Every detail of everything in the universe is in plain sight and known perfectly to God. This baffles our minds when we ponder that God perfectly and exhaustively knows every object, creature, event, action, thought and motivation in all of existence. That’s why the Psalmist exclaimed: “such knowledge is too wonderful for me” (Psalm 139.6). 

The perfect knowledge of God does not mean He just knows mere facts but that He has complete and thorough understanding of everything without error or limitation or hindrance. There are no falsehoods to God. Nothing is unknown to God. To be God is to be omniscient. This isn't merely what God does but it reveals who God is.

This unique and blessed mark of God’s being should instill great terror into the unbelieving heart. For will bring every act into judgment, everything which is hidden, whether good or evil (Ecclesiastes 12.14). Furthermore, God says that “His eyes are on all their ways; they are not hidden from His face; nor is their iniquity concealed from His eyes” (Jeremiah 16.17). Because there is no creature hidden from God’s sight but all things are open and laid bare before the eyes of God with whom we have to give an account (Hebrews 4.13), sinners have endless reasons to trust Christ immediately, urgently, humbly, and confidently! 

But for the forgiven child of God, the omniscience of God brings such comfort, relief, and security. God promises that our sins are hidden from His eyes as He chooses to not hold them against His people anymore (Hebrews 8.12). God knows what’s going on in your life. Christ lived your life and can relate to you (Hebrews 4:15). He knows what it is to live a real human life and bear with temptation (Mark 1.13). He knows you, loves you, and presents you as holy and blameless before the Father because of His sin-atoning, and substitutionary work in your place (Colossians 1.22). 

 

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The SIMPLICITY of God.

THE SIMPLICITY OF GOD. 

Geoffrey R. Kirkland

Pastor, Christ Fellowship Bible Church 

The SIMPLICITY OF GOD means that God’s being is not made up of many parts that ‘work together’ to make Him God. What makes God to be God is not a collection of wonderful attributes and qualities. Rather, God’s attributes and qualities and aspects are not part of Him but they are who He truly is. There is no distinction and no separation and no collection of qualities that are collected together to make God God. 

Fundamentally, God is one Being. He is perfect, glorious, unified, exalted, transcendent and different than us. He is unique, unrivaled, unparalleled, unfathomable and unmatched in His beauty and excellence. 

We can better understand the simplicity of God when he contrast it with human beings. We are very different from God in this regard. Human beings are made up of many parts that contribute to who we are as people, as individuals, as persons, all made in the image of God. For example, we may be wise but our wisdom does not make up who we are as infinitely wise beings. We may be powerful and able to lift much weight in the gym but that power does not make up who we are as infinitely omnipotent beings. These qualities are part of who we are but they do not comprise the fullness of our beings and personhood.  But with God, His attributes are simply who He is without any fleeting separation or the smallest distinction. 

We can not say that God is part love, and part wrath, and part knowledge, and part grace, and part justice. His attributes are not separate pieces of the pie of God that all fit together to make a unified whole. Rather, all of these wondrous attributes are identical with and gloriously descriptive of who God is in His one, divine, perfect, unrivaled, and distinct essence. 

Even from 1561, the Belgic Confession states this profound truth: "that there is a single and simple spiritual being, whom we call God”.  The Bible teaches this repeatedly. God is love (1 John 4.8).  God is light  (1 John 1.5).  God is spirit (John 4.24). God is a consuming fire (Hebrews 12.29). The LORD is a warrior (Exodus 15.2). The LORD is peace (Judges 6.24). The LORD is upright (Psalm 92.15). The LORD is gracious and merciful (Psalm 145.8). The Lord is full of compassion (James 5.11). The Lord is faithful (2 Thessalonians 3.3). All of these wonderful statements declare who God is in His being and essence. They do not declare what God is in parts or in percentages or in halves or in pieces. God’s very essence and being consists of these marvelous wonders! 

For this reason, then, you cannot rank God’s attributes higher than the others. We cannot say God is loving but sometimes he shows His angry wrath and just fury. God is always ever living out who He is in his most excellent Being! God is distinct and infinite and most transcendent above all else! (That’s what it means, again, for God to be holy!) 

Let this be reason for you to praise and glory in your God for who He really is. You as a person may show love, show patience, show compassion, extend forgiveness which are God-like qualities. Let these truths in your life compel you to worship your God who is these marvelous qualities in fullness.  To sum it up, God’s wondrous attributes comprise who He is simply, perfectly, incomprehensibly and profoundly! Worship your God! Get lost in wonder and praise and honor! Contemplate Him and His transcendence with humble awe today! 

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The HAPPINESS of God.

THE HAPPINESS OF GOD. 

Geoffrey R. Kirkland

Pastor, Christ Fellowship Bible Church 

 

God is an infinitely happy God.  The happiness of God means that God finds infinite, eternal, delightful joys in and of Himself. God is supremely happy. He is a rejoicing God. Paul speaks of the glorious gospel of the “blessed God” (1 Timothy 1.11). Isaiah 62.5 speaks of God rejoicing over His people. This signifies deep and profound glory that God exudes in Himself and in His character. He rejoices when sinners come to faith (Luke 15.7). This marvelous attribute that springs from God’s character is a most exhilarating and breathtaking quality flowing from the divine nature because it teaches that God is a God of emotion, of relatability, of infinite and boundless joys. And He can relate to us. Imagine that for a while!

As has been said by the Puritans: the happiness of God consists in the knowledge of Himself, and his own perfections, and His wondrous and infinite delights in them. God — and God alone — is the perfect and ultimate object of His own happiness. It has been well said that the knowledge of God consists of His own happiness and so our knowledge of God is what produces our real happiness as well. The more we know God, the happier and more joyous we become. 

For God to be blessed means that He is infinitely joyous and receives infinite delight in Himself. God cannot be infinitely happy outside of Himself for that would mean something is greater than Himself because His happiness and joy would depend on something else. But that is not the case. He is the perfect sum total, in Himself, of all immeasurable delights. This is not a selfish narcissistic joy but a good, righteous, appropriate and infinite delight in His own perfect worth and glory. It is right for God to be happy in Himself because He truly is the only One who is infinitely glorious and good. 

Learn and study your God for He alone is the fountain and source and well-spring of all true and real happiness. Why, then, is God truly happy?  First, God is truly happy in Himself. He has perfect fellowship with each of the divine and eternal members of the Godhead. Each member delights and satisfies one another as each member is God. Each member is co-equal, co-eternal, co-existent and happy fellowship and marvelous delight springs within the perfect Godhead. 

Second, God rejoices in His works of creation. He spoke all things into existence and pronounced it very good. God rejoices in His works (Psalm 104.31). Third, God is supremely happy in His Son. The Father spoke and said how he was well-pleased with His Son (Matt 3.17; 17.5). It is the Son of God who magnificently reflects the glory of the Father because He is God (Hebrews 1.2-3). Jonathan Edwards put it well: “the infinite happiness of the Father consists in the enjoyment of His Son.” 

Next, God finds happiness in His people. He rejoices over His own (Isa 62.5). He exults over the covenant-ones with loud singing (Zephaniah 3.17). His own reflect His glory as the redeemed ones become more conformed to the image of Christ (Romans 8.29). God delights in this. God is well-pleased in the prayers of His people. Indeed, the prayers of the upright are acceptable to God (Proverbs 15.8).  Finally, God is happy in the redemptive work of the Son. He loves His glory and wants His glory to be restored in the corrupt and sin-cursed world. And that wondrous work of the Son that completes atonement and promises ultimate consummation gives joy to the heart of God.  Contemplate your happy God today! The more you know Him, the happier you become! 

 

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The GUIDANCE of God.

THE GUIDANCE OF GOD.

Geoffrey R. Kirkland

Pastor, Christ Fellowship Bible Church

 

God’s guidance is His wise, decreed, good, and timely direction in orchestrating and directing His people and everything that exists. The guidance of God stems from His good wisdom, His perfect decrees, His infinite knowledge, and His all-sufficient Word. The Psalmist declared: “Lead me in your truth and teach me” (Psalm 25.5). What is so amazing about the guidance of God is that God happily and clearly directs His people through the unchanging Truth of His Word. In fact, God clearly led His people in the wilderness wanderings every step of the way (Deuteronomy 8.2). 

God leads His people in wisdom through His counsels (Proverbs 4.11). His guidance is always best, upright and good. Today, the guidance of God comes through His revealed Word, the Scriptures, and those who “speak the word of God to you” (Hebrews 13.7). Through godly counselors there is victory and help (Proverbs 11.14; 15.22).  Practically and preeminently for the believer, direction and guidance from God is clearly received through the testimonies of Scripture (Psalm 119.24). 

So how does God guide a child of God nowadays? He guides through His Word (2 Timothy 3.16-17; 2 Peter 1.5). God does not speak or direct apart from His revealed and complete revelation nowadays. In times past, God spoke through prophets and visions (Hebrews 1.1) but now He has spoken preeminently in the Son (Hebrews 1.1-2) who is beautifully seen and portrayed in the Scriptures (John 5.39). 

What encouragement springs from the truth of the guidance of God! He guides because He is alive and involved in the affairs of His people (Joshua 3.10). Additionally, God is true and His word is always timely and wise (Psalm 25.5). God sends out His light and truth and leads His own (Psalm 43.3). Even through afflictions, uncertainties, trials, and great struggles of life, God remains with His people He promises to His covenant-ones, “I am the LORD your God who teaches you to profit, who leads you in the way you should go” (Isaiah 48.17). 

How do you find guidance from God? Where does it come from? Clear truths and Scriptures provide perfect guidance and truth to hear, believe, embrace, and obey. Also, there are principles that can be gleaned from Scriptures to provide helps to navigate life and make godly decisions (2 Timothy 2.22). Pray for God’s direction (Psalm 27.11) and study God’s counsels (Psalm 119.24), receive biblical counsel from wise saints full of the Word (Proverbs 24.6), and happily rest and believe that for His own sake He will lead and guide you (Psalm 31.3). Thank God for His guidance. Praise Him for His direction. Consider your God and His providential workings in your own life, every day, minute by minute. Thank Him and praise Him for His manifold wisdom (Romans 11.33-36)!

 

 

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The GOODNESS of God.

THE GOODNESS OF GOD. 

Geoffrey R. Kirkland

Pastor, Christ Fellowship Bible Church

 

THE LORD IS GOOD! Believe the Bible’s declaration about this essential character quality of your God. The goodness of God is a moral attribute of God whereby He is the source of all benevolence, kindness, care and tenderheartedness. The goodness of God requires that God has no evil, no darkness, no impurities. Think on this: your God is good and his love is everlasting (Ps 100.5). Your God is good so all must sing praise to His name for it is lovely (Ps 135.3). The Lord is good “to all” (Ps 145.9). The Lord is good to all those who wait for (that is to say: ‘eagerly and actively pursue’) Him (Lam 3.25). The Lord is so good that He proves to be a stronghold in the day of trouble (Nahum 1.7). 

This essential quality flows from the very being and nature of the Almighty God. God’s goodness is not some passive quality. God does not just see what happens and then respond in a good way to the events of life. No! Rather, God’s goodness demonstrates itself in His infinite benevolence in active motion at all times. God is good in amazing ways. He is good in who He is. Also, He is good in what He does. These two points on the essential qualities of God’s goodness must ignite a loving trust and a steady reliance on our God. We can trust Him and lean on Him. He is sturdy and merciful. He is a Stronghold and faithful. 

For God to be good means that every other attribute flowing from His majestic character must be perfect. For example: God’s love is good.  His wrath is good.  His mercy is good.  His justice is good.  His eternality is good.  His holiness is good.  The goodness of God highlights the praiseworthiness of all that God is and all that He does.  That’s why you can confidently speak truth to your heart from Romans 8:28: “We know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God and who are called according to His purpose”. This truth brings us to the very character of God, His dealings with all mankind, and His decrees in all of creation.  In fact, God’s goodness extends even to the wicked and unbelieving in what we call “common grace”. For example: rain and sunshine that the ungodly enjoy come from the good hand of God. That the rebels and blasphemers have provisions, food, water, shelter, health and laughter prove that God is good generally (commonly) to all His creation. 

But O! How marvelous is God’s goodness most magnificently seen in Christ at His cross! Taste and see that the Lord is good; how blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him (Ps 34.8). What amazing goodness springing from the very heart of the infinite God that He would be so kind and benevolent toward the ill-deserving like us. We deserve infinite wrath, but He lavishes us with infinite love. This is an expression of God’s goodness. For God so loved the world that He gave His Son (John 3.16). 

Eschatologically, in the last days, in the glorious Kingdom of Christ, all will come to the Lord and to His goodness (Hosea 3.5). Not only that, God promises that His covenant-people will “be satisfied with my goodness” (Jeremiah 31.14). What awesome promises! What holy wonder! What glories to come! What worldwide joys await all the redeemed! 

This attribute proves to sustain weary souls through sufferings. We would despair unless we believed we would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living (Psalm 27.13). In every circumstance of life, at all times, I can know that my God will actively, perfectly, caringly and perfectly do what is best in my life for His glory and my good. This theological foundation gives hope and stability in sufferings. It encourages trust in the good hand of God when the thunderclouds burst upon our heads. It motivates us to live holy and happily for Him even when uncertainty and confusion invades. I must be persuaded that my God is good. This grand vision of God’s essential goodness provides hope and joy for the suffering saint not because of our circumstances but because of our God who always remains immutably the same in His magnificent goodnesses (Psalm 23.6).

 

 

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The RIGHTEOUSNESS of God.

THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD.

Geoffrey R. Kirkland

Pastor, Christ Fellowship Bible Church

 

God is righteous and upright (Deuteronomy 32.4). The RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD is an essential quality of God flowing out of His perfect holiness whereby He is morally perfect and always acting in perfect harmony with His character. He cannot deny Himself or go against His own character. God is the standard of what is right and He shall always uphold what is right and cannot deny His own perfect standard. 

We may say that the righteousness of God is the glorious expression of His perfect holiness. What makes God to be God and what sets God apart as the glorious Almighty shows itself in His righteousness. Because God is infinitely pure and holy, He must be opposed to all sin (Romans 3.25). This character quality of God is so beautiful that the psalmist extols: “the Lord is righteous and He loves righteousness” (Psalm 11.7). He is righteous in all His ways (Psalm 145.17).  Daniel knew that the Lord is righteous with respect to all His deeds (Daniel 9.14). That means that every single thing God does in all of human history is good and right. 

But here at this glorious point of God’s character is an insurmountable problem for unrighteous humanity. We by nature are sinners and unholy and impure. God’s righteousness is measured by His own perfect character and all mankind falls short (Romans 3.10). And God’s righteousness means that He will and must act in accordance with His own will, His own moral perfections, and His own truthful faithfulness. His character and conduct is always right and must do what is right. The Scripture says: “You are righteous and your judgments are right (Psalm 119.137). Because He is righteous and must uphold His own perfect, inflexible, glorious moral standard, all sinners are in a desperate condition because we fall short of His perfect glory (Romans 3.23). 

God says that He is the righteous God and Savior (Isaiah 45.21). This is unspeakably good news for helpless lawbreakers like us. Through faith alone in Jesus Christ and in His gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith (Romans 1.17). That means that through faith in Jesus Christ, God’s only provision for sinners to be forgiven, God imputes or reckons the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ to that sinner’s account (2 Corinthians 5.21). Paul exclaims that faith is credited as righteousness (Romans 4.5). What wonderful news! We can be made right with the Righteous God all by His doing (1 Corinthians 1.30). 

Most certainly and fearfully, God will return to judge the world in righteousness (Psalm 96.10). In fact, God will judge the world through Jesus Christ, His appointed Judge (Acts 17.30). And what a hopeless condition for every unbelieving sinner to be measured by God’s perfect character and standard. All sinners fall infinitely short with no hope of salvation within himself. God most marvelously wraps His people with a ‘robe of righteousness’ (Isaiah 61.10).  This saving righteousness comes through faith in Jesus Christ — from God on the basis of faith (Philippians 3.9). Oh, what manifold reasons to rejoice happily!

True believers who are born of God will practice righteousness (1 John 2.29) because the righteous position of salvation granted through faith in Jesus Christ will inevitably produce a righteous conduct and practice as the believers grows in Christlikeness (1 John 3.7). Ponder God’s character! Consider His righteousness! Meditate on His nature! And stand in awe of His righteousness!

*This is part of the ongoing blog-series on the ATTRIBUTES OF GOD. Click here for more.

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The JUSTICE of God.

THE JUSTICE OF GOD. 

Geoffrey R. Kirkland

Pastor, Christ Fellowship Bible Church 

The Justice of God is that serious and praiseworthy attribute of God whereby He always does right; that is, he alone determines right from wrong. The Scriptures say: "Does God pervert justice? or does the Almighty pervert what is right” (Job 8.3)? Of course God loves justice because it flows from His very essence and nature (Psalm 33.5; 37:28). The very kingship and power of the Almighty God rests on the foundation of God’s justice (Psalm 89.14). 

The justice of God flows out of His infinitely perfect holiness. For God to be set apart and infinitely different than His creatures in essence and in purity means that God alone is upright, righteous, true and the standard of what is right and wrong. And he upholds what is right — always. God’s justice means He upholds what is right and He always does what is right and in accordance with His character and decrees. Christ will sit on the throne of David one day in the future and He will establish and uphold His kingdom with justice and righteousness (Isaiah 9.7).  Simply, the justice of God refers to God as a strong Rock, and all His ways are perfect, for all of His ways are just; always faithful and without injustice (Deuteronomy 32:4). 

This essential character trait of God Almighty is hugely comforting to the believer as we live in a world with so much injustice. The plague of injustice drips in every part of human society. God says: “Do not pervert Justice” (Ex 23:6). But we see that all around us. God said to his people: “Justice and only justice you shall pursue” (Deuteronomy 16.20). But that is not the case currently. Rulers are to decree justice (Proverbs 8.15). But we don’t see that taking place from our political administrators. God advises: “learn to do good; seek justice; reprove the ruthless; defend the orphan; plead for the widow” (Isaiah 1.17). But that’s not happening. So we find hope in knowing that in the kingdom of Messiah, there will be justice and the nations will be blessed by this divine justice and worship the Lord (Jeremiah 23.5; 33.15). 

The justice of God must awaken unbelieving and slothful sinners from their dangerous condition as God promises to always do what is right. And the justice of God demands that sin be punished (Romans 6.23). God is the Just one who must pour out punishment upon lawbreakers (Romans 3.26). But here is where we come to Calvary and see what Jesus did. He took the curse of God (Galatians 3.13). He received the just — and right — punishment in our stead (Romans 3.24-25). Therefore, for the believing sinner in Christ, God is both just and the justifier (Romans 3.26). Rejoice in this essential character quality of God’s Being because He does and shall always do what is right! The kingdom of Christ and of justice shall come! The unjust and all injustices shall be punished by the God who shall act with holy justice. Rejoice in Him, ponder His commitment to perform what is right, always and evermore. 

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