The WILL of God.

THE WILL OF GOD

Geoffrey R. Kirkland

Christ Fellowship Bible Church,  pastor

The WILL OF GOD is a multifaceted reality of God’s being that includes God’s thinking, choosing, and doing that flows from His omnipotence and His sovereignty. God’s will always is perfect and right and true and appropriate. God does what He wants all the time in accordance with His perfect will and sovereign decrees.  God raised up David, a man after God’s own heart who “will do all my will” (Acts 13.22). 

Consider how theologians have referred to the will of God in a few ways. First: the DECREED will of God. This is God’s sovereign, efficacious, unhindered, never-thwarted plans and decrees of God. The LORD does whatever He pleases (Psalm 115.3).  Second: the PRECEPTIVE will of God. This is the will of God that is revealed in His Word, the Bible. Teach me your statutes (Psalm 119.12). Teach me discernment and knowledge (Psalm 119.66). Teach me to do your will, for you are my God (Psalm 143.10). This speaks to the revealed will of God as found in the sufficient Scriptures. These are the things revealed so that we may know and do them and teach them to our children (Deuteronomy 29.29).  Third: the PERMISSIVE will of God. This is the will and plan of God whereby He allows and permits all that happens in the world to occur — even evil and lawlessness. God does not sanction sin but He has decreed it and He allows it (to further His sovereign and perfect will for His glory in His infinite wisdom). Fourth: the DESIRED will of God. God has desires and longings for His people to know Him, obey Him, trust Him, and be saved. God desires all men to be saved and come to a knowledge of the Truth (1 Timothy 2.4).

The will of God most often refers to the sovereign, decreed, predetermined, unchanging plans and purposes of God that can never be thwarted. No angel, or army, or person, or circumstance can ever hinder God’s purposes. The will of God shall always be fulfilled for his sovereign purposes shall come to pass. He alone receives glory, ultimate glory, as He unfolds His perfect plan in human history. 

Also, we must strive to know and learn the will of God so as to obey Him.  This is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality (1 Thessalonians 4.3). The will of God in Christ Jesus is for you to give thanks in all circumstances (1 Thessalonians 5.18). And God must be praised for He glories in His own perfect plans and will that will be accomplished, even through His creatures who obey and follow Him (Isaiah 46.10). 

This should lead to 3 responses: devotion, delight, and duty.  We must be devoted truly and fully to God’s Word. The will of God, the mind of Christ, the voice of God is found in the Word of God, the Scriptures. We must strive to diligently study the Word, be devoted to the Word, and hide it in our hearts. For therein will we learn and grow in understanding the will of God.   Second, we must delight in God. We must delight in our God who is absolutely sovereign and perfect. Nothing shall ever change or alter or thwart His mighty and majestic and foreordained decrees (Psalm 93.1; Job 42.2). How awesome to think of this God of Almighty power who is in control unswervingly! Third, we must seek to fulfill our duty in walking in obedience to God’s Will as revealed in the Bible. We must present ourselves to God fully as living sacrifices — to do His will (Romans 12.1-2). 

Rest confidently in your God and in His perfect will! Study His Word, the revealed will, and make every intention to know Him deeply, obey Him fully, and worship Him daily for His wisdom, power, glory, and strength!  Consider His will and be drawn to worship!

 

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The SPLENDOR of God.

THE SPLENDOR OF GOD

Geoffrey R. Kirkland

Christ Fellowship Bible Church 

In a song of praise to God, David, Asaph, and the worship-leaders proclaimed: “Splendor and majesty are before God” (1 Chronicles 16.27)! THE SPLENDOR OF GOD emanates from the glorious Being of His majesty and power and holiness.  The splendor of God signifies His beauty and glory and worth and radiance! This wonderful reality evokes awe and humility on the part of the observers. 

One writer so aptly put it like this: Our God is not only great, but good. Not only big, but beautiful. Not only strong, but stunning. He is, in a word, majestic. The majestic splendor of God are radiances of the stunning power of our beautiful God. The splendor of God is joined with his majesty, strength, and beauty, all beheld in His sanctuary (Psalm 96.6).

As you reflect on God’s power in creation and His unrivaled ability to do the impossible by creating with His own absolute word, the psalmist exclaims: Bless the LORD O my soul, O LORD my God you are very great; you are clothed with splendor and majesty (Psalm 104.1).  This splendor finds expression in the greatness of God and in the power of God.  The word for splendor often speaks of majesty, strength, glory, honor (thus, splendor). It often arises is passages juxtaposed with majesty. 

David says that He will meditate on the wonderful works and glorious splendor of God’s majesty (Psalm 145.5). That meditative splendor is seen in creation (Psalm 8.2). Indeed, the splendor of God even speaks of the Messiah who will rebuild the Temple and have royal, divine, majestic honor and splendor in the latter days (Zechariah 6.13). Everything discussed here can be summed up in the phrase: “awe-inspiring splendor.” 

When you gaze upon God the King rightly you should bow low in humble adoration with cheerful and submissive devotion. The splendor of God covers the heavens (Habakkuk 3.3). God actively, daily, consistently displays His most excellent splendor in the heavens with the moon and the stars which He sets carefully in place (Psalm 8.1). Oh to gaze upon the royal majesty of your King! 

The splendor of God should should affect you practically and personally in these ways.  First, it should instill hope. Your God always promises to bring good out of every circumstance and situation of life. You can hope not in self and in situations and in expectations but you can and should hope in God and in His steadfast and splendid character.  Second, it should embolden trust. Your God is not only powerful but He is good. This splendid and majestic God of royal power is absolute in authority and merciful in tenderness and good in His ways. Third, it should eliminate all fear and worry. Your God as the splendid Monarch over the universe governs all things well and is working out His perfect decrees in every single moment. Never fear or worry because it adds nothing, it does nothing, it accomplishes nothing, and it changes nothing. Fourth, it should evoke awe and humility and worship! Praise your King! 

Finally, the splendor of God must instill incredible trembling in the hearts of unbelieving sinners and willful God-rejecters. The proud may strut along fine now but soon enough they will hide in the rocks from the terror of the Lord and the splendor of His majesty (Isaiah 2.10). In judgment against all arrogant unbelievers, God will arise and make the earth tremble in the splendor of His majesty (Isaiah 2.19). The greatest of God’s most splendid, majestic, and royal works is the coming to save guilty worms who deserve His very own wrath. What a Savior! Splendid and majestic is His work (Psalm 111.3). Seek Christ the King and bow low in humble trust in Him alone for there is no other name, under heaven, given among men by which you may be saved (Acts 4.12)! 

**More from this ongoing blog-series can be found HERE.

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The INFINITY of God.

 THE INFINITY OF GOD.

Geoffrey R. Kirkland

Pastor, Christ Fellowship Bible Church 

The INFINITY OF GOD means that God has no limits or bounds whatsoever. He is free from any and all limitations. God has no one constraining him. There is no scientific law that binds him. No creature or person or circumstance can limit or hinder God in any way. This essential part of God’s character reminds us of the infinite vastness of the magnitude of God’s splendor. He is totally unlike us. Therefore, the infinity of God consists of His non-communicable attributes (that is: those characteristics of God that we as people cannot emulate; e.g., his omnipresence, his omniscience, his infinity, etc.).

The Bible exclaims that God’s greatness is “unsearchable” (Psalm 145.3). No one can withstand God or resist Him in any way (2 Chronicles 20.6). Marvel at this amazing truth of the psalmist: “Our God is in the heavens and He does whatever He pleases" (Psalm 115.3)! One must be infinite in order to do whatever He pleases! 

Solomon prayed and affirmed the infinite largeness and unmeasured glory of God when he said: “even heaven and the highest heavens cannot contain you” (1 Kings 8.27). Some have called this attribute of God’s infinity a “meta-attribute” because it, in a sense, qualifies all the other attributes of God’s blessed character and being. This is a most gloriously positive and wonderful attribute. It highlights the supremacy, preeminence, and incomparable nature of our God’s personhood! 

Our minds get lost in the magnitude of sheer exaltedness of the infinity of God. God has internally, in and of Himself, no limitation nor defect in any way or form. Furthermore, He alone has boundless potentiality. He can do all His holy will. He has potential to do anything that He wants. This brings us back to the majestic perfection of His being. What comfort! What hope! What joy! What stability to know and trust and love — and be loved by — this God! 

God has no restrictions to His attributes. Furthermore, God lacks nothing and needs nothing. He is complete and not needing anything or anyone to fulfill Him. All the perfections and attributes of God find a direct link to this infinity of God because His love is infinite, His mercy is infinite, His compassions are infinite, His righteousness is infinite, His holy wrath is infinite, and so on. 

Everything God made has limits. You and I have limits. Just examine your own physical body. You have limits: physical form, bodily shape, mental limitations. But not so with your God!  Ponder Job 11:7 — Can you discover the depths of God? Can you discover the limits of the Almighty? Even David acknowledged: “I have seen a limit to all perfection; but God’s Word is exceedingly broad” (Psalm 119.96)!  Oh how mighty and majestic, how infinite and incomparable, how limitless and unhindered is your God. 

Because this is true, why worry? Why fear? Why get caught up in the trivial sins and temptations and worldlinesses of today? Transfix your heart on the deep and sturdy infinity of God. Be shocked and amazed that this mighty and limitless God of all the universe who could — and should! — crush me and you because of our vile sin and evil rebellion. Yet He has, in unspeakable and infinite grace poured out the riches of His love upon us to save us from infinite wrath! What an infinite cost! What an infinite Savior! What an infinite love! What infinite reasons we have to bless this God!  Do so today! Praise and consider your God for His infinity.

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The INCOMPREHENSIBILITY of God.

THE INCOMPREHENSIBILITY OF GOD.

Geoffrey R. Kirkland

Christ Fellowship Bible Church, pastor

The incomprehensibility of God refers to the fact that God’s nature, being, ways, and decrees are beyond human understanding. Even the Apostle Paul exclaimed: “How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable are His ways” (Romans 11.33)! The INCOMPREHENSIBILITY OF GOD speaks to the unrivaled truth of God that He is unfathomable. No one can fathom, or understand, or fully know all that there is to know about God. 

This means God is independent, self-sufficient, dependent on no one or nothing or existence, powerful, and simple. All of God and the depths of God are beyond human reckoning. We cannot fathom the fullness of the depth and breadth and height and length and bounds of God. Indeed, there are no bounds to God. The Reformers would often say: “The finite cannot grasp the infinite."

An important and essential point must clearly be understood by us. Though God is incomprehensible, He is at the very same time truly knowable.  Though we cannot know all there is to know about God, we can know God truly and genuinely. We can know God personally and individually.  Though we cannot plumb the depths of the mind of God, we can know the mind of Christ accurately as He has revealed Himself in Scripture. 

Ponder these truths. God’s thoughts are not our thoughts; His ways are not our ways; for as high as the heavens are above the earth, so His ways are higher than our ways (Isaiah 55.8-9). This puts people in the proper place as we humbly bow before His infinite transcendence and His exclusive position of authority. Indeed: “the secret things belong to the LORD” (Deuteronomy 29.29a). God is incomprehensible. You can’t ever figure out all of God’s ways. 

This mind-blowing reality of God and His unfathomable and unsearchable knowledge and wisdom should cause our hearts to erupt with humility and praise. We must bow low before our God and never grumble or complain or question any of His ways. Rather, we must trust our good God who is wise and perfect in executing His decrees every moment of every day for every person for His ultimate glory. This amazing truth of God should propel us to greater, deeper, prolonged study of Him in His Word, the Scriptures. We can know God truly by studying His revelation of Himself through Christ as seen in the pages of the Bible. So then, God is both hidden and revealed! We cannot know the deepest thoughts of God’s heart (so we trust Him!) but we engage in heartfelt and devotional study of Him through His Word (so we can know Him and obey Him!). 

The incomprehensibility of God should have a real impact on your life this very day. For you to grasp this truth in your heart means that you must trust in your God in all of His ways. Everything that happens in your life is from the decreed and perfect hand of God. Even the trials that take us by surprise and may linger long in hard times should remind us to not chafe nor rebel nor grumble at God’s doings. Rather, we must praise and worship Him and acknowledge that whatever God ordains is always right and good. Every event, every nation, every kingdom, everything in nature and creation, and all circumstances and meetings and occasions are all from the incomprehensible mind and plan of God. He is always working out His perfect and fore-ordained decrees. Thus, worship Him in humble and heartfelt wonder and praise! Though we cannot know God fully, let’s keep studying Him to know Him truly and personally! As God says of His covenant-people: “I will give them a heart to know me; for I am the LORD” (Jeremiah 24.7)!

 

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The COMPASSION of God.

THE COMPASSION OF GOD.

Geoffrey R. Kirkland

Christ Fellowship Bible Church 

The LORD your God is a COMPASSIONATE GOD (Deut 4.31).  The compassion of God is an attribute of God’s essential nature and marvelous being whereby He willingly shows mercy and kindness to His creation. Some have called it a ‘core’ attribute of God. It flows from His wondrous nature. It’s the spring through which He manifests expressions of love and tenderness toward weak and pitiful creatures. 

Psalm 86.15 describes God as being “full of compassion”. The Hebrew word for ‘compassion’ speaks of a deep, internal, emotion-filled love for an object. It is used for a mother’s tender love toward her nursing baby (Isa 49.15). It speaks of a father’s kind love toward his very own children (Psalm 103.13). The word underscores the deep and tender love God has for weak creatures. God knows the weaknesses of fallen and helpless creatures. He can sympathize and relate to human temptation and weakness (though without sin!). He never excuses our sins or overlooks sin or winks at sin but He does have much tender mercy and internal affection toward His creatures in such a miserable condition. 

The Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the King of glory and the God of all majesty pronounced denunciation judgments on unbelievers (Matthew 23). And yet, in that very same context and setting, our Lord has tender compassions toward unbelieving Jerusalem wishing and yearning for her repentance unto life! (Matthew 23.37). What melting mercy and what undeserved grace and what lavish tenderness our sovereign Lord shows toward men! 

Think of it: a bruised reed He will not break (Matthew 12.20)!  What a loving and understanding Savior!  Our Lord saw the crowds and He had compassion for them and didn’t want them to faint on their journey home (Mark 8.2). Our Lord saw a weeping woman and had great compassion toward her (Luke 7.13). 

Think of it:  the Lord God of heaven and earth is ‘full of compassion and is merciful’ (James 5.11). The prophet Joel pleaded with sinners to return to the Lord God in genuine repentance for He is gracious and compassionate (Joel 2.13). O sinner, wretched sinner, hell-bound sinner, sin-loving transgressor, turn to God thru faith in Christ right now! God, being compassionate, forgives iniquity and is willing to not destroy sinners (Psalm 78.38). But if you slight his compassions now, He will cease His invitations to you when you don’t expect it, and there will be no mercy for you but only justice. Flee to God’s merciful compassion through repentance from sin and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ and be saved from the Almighty judgment of God that will unendingly crush you in hellfire for endless eternities to come!  

But in Christ, we know that His lovingkindnesses never fail and His compassions never fail (Lamentations 3.22). Child of God, adopted into God’s family through His sovereign predestination (Ephesians 1.5), remember and rejoice that you now stand in the secure position of being chosen of God, holy and beloved (Colossians 3.12). And because you have received compassion from God, now you must show this same compassion toward others (Colossians 3.12b). Be astonished and let this truth humble your heart that God who said: "I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion” has selected you to be an eternal object of His passionate and kind compassions forevermore (Romans 9.15). Let the tender, emotional, kind, sweet compassions of your Savior fill you with hope and rest, joy and worship, humility and a holy resolve to show this same compassion toward others!  All for the glory of your God who is the “Lord God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in lovingkindness and truth” (Exodus 34.6)!

 

 

**More entries from this ongoing blog series on the ATTRIBUTES OF GOD are here.

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The ETERNITY of God.

 THE ETERNITY OF GOD

Geoffrey R. Kirkland

Christ Fellowship Bible Church 

The ETERNALITY OF GOD means that God has no beginning and no end.  From everlasting to everlasting, He is God (Psalm 90.2). How amazing to think that the God, the one and only God, has perfect, timeless, infinite, unfathomable duration — without beginning, without ending, and without succession. God does not grow older today than He was yesterday. He is not learning or growing in knowledge with the passing of years. God remains eternal, both now and ever.

Amazingly and unfathomably, God is timeless and unchangeable and therefore always perfect.  He cannot grow or improve or become better. He never needs improvement or revising or editing. He never needs to change with the times and become more relevant to His creatures. God proclaimed about Himself: “Even from eternity, I am He” (Isaiah 43.13). 

Therefore, this eternity of God means that He is the sure and steadfast dwelling place for all His creatures (Deuteronomy 33.27). He is Lord over time, existing both above time and within time for His own glory and purposes. He is totally free from the passing of time and never hindered or limited by the demands of time and urgency of the moment. God is never frustrated or stressed out!

Additionally, the eternity of God comforts the child of God because He is an “eternal Father” (Isaiah 9.7). For the true child of God who knows Jesus as Savior, God has always known Him, from eternity past, and has set His Almighty love upon the individual as His own possession (Romans 8.29-30). 

Most soberingly, the eternity of God also necessitates that His wrath shall endure forevermore in eternal hell as He punishes sinners justly, relentlessly, fairly and unendingly. Unbelievers will be cast into the eternal fire (Matthew 25.41). Oh run, unbelieving sinner! How will you escape the almighty and eternal judgment that awaits you! One day in hellfire would be bad enough. A million years would be worse still! But endless eternities in the presence of the eternal God is too much to even bear or contemplate! Hasten quickly to Christ and be converted that your sins may be wiped away (Acts 3.19)! Come at once, come right now to this eternal God who is mighty and able to save (1 John 5.13). If you reject, you will endure a severe punishment from this God of eternity (Hebrews 10.29-31)!

At the same time, the eternity of God causes the heart of the Christian stop soar because He has given us “eternal life” (1 Timothy 1:16). Indeed, this is a very promise from the unchanging God: eternal life (1 John 2.25). Our God is good and His lovingkindnesses are everlasting (Jeremiah 33.11). So therefore, child of God, get lost in the wonder of the eternity of God and stand confidently on this amazing Rock in the shaky culture in which we live: “for in God the LORD, we have an everlasting Rock” (Isaiah 26.4). 

So we remember with Habakkuk and shout: “Are you not from everlasting, O Lord my God, my Holy one” (Habakkuk 1.12). The dominion of God is an everlasting dominion (Daniel 7.14).

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The EXCELLENCIES of God.

THE EXCELLENCIES OF GOD.

Geoffrey R. Kirkland

Christ Fellowship Bible Church,  St. Louis, MO

The biblical writers speak of the “Greatness of God’s excellence” (Exodus 15.7). The EXCELLENCE of God refers to the sum-perfection, the complete totality of characteristics and traits that speak of God’s uniqueness and perfections. The excellence of God teaches that God is supreme and satisfying, perfect and good.  Some may see the excellence of God as the over-arching attribute that encompasses all the other perfections of God’s being.  

Everything God is and all that God does is marked by and distinguished by perfection and excellence. This speaks of his beauty and bounteousness. It underscores His glory and wonderful ability. The excellence of God speaks to the absolute standard of integrity and perfect purity. All that God is speaks of wondrous excellence. All of His deeds are supremely complete, blameless and impeccable with integrity (2 Samuel 22.26; Psalm 18.30).  

Additionally, the excellencies of God consist of His heroic and incomparable deeds. Our God has all power. And He alone can do all His holy will, all the time, effortlessly and unhesitatingly. Nothing is too difficult for the Lord (Jeremiah 32.27)!  Because of this mighty work of our Christ, He has inherited a more ‘excellent’ Name than the angels (Hebrews 1.4). 

When the Scriptures speak of the excellence of God, the Hebrew word points to that which is majestic, lofty, royal and glorious.  Negatively, it can refer to haughtiness and one whose pride has lifted him up. But when speaking of our perfect God, it highlights the exalted, high and wondrously unique character of God. He is perfectly excellent, beautiful, bounteous, good, and satisfying in every way. He is enjoyable and pleasing and fulfilling to the humble heart who trusts in Him! 

In the New Testament, the Greek word for God’s excellencies points out His moral excellence and His quality of eminent endowment of purity and virtue. Notably, the Scriptures speak of proclaiming God’s excellencies — in the plural! God’s people have the blessed obligation and joyful duty to proclaim our God’s excellencies for He has saved us, called us out of darkness, and delivered us by His sovereign love. Peter says that God called us by His own glory and excellence (2 Peter 1.3). Believers must dwell and focus intently on the things that are excellence (Philippians 4.8). In our day to day lives, we must strive to add to our faith moral excellence (2 Peter 1.5). Interestingly, in the Hebrew Old Testament, Boaz spoke of the godly Ruth as a woman of “excellence” (Ruth 3.11).  Your God is manifoldly excellent, entirely satisfying, eminently glorious, and bottomlessly blameless. 

No wonder the Apostle Paul was stunned and overwhelmed at the privilege of proclaiming the ‘unfathomable riches’ of Christ (Ephesians 3.8). This is your duty as well! Consider your God who is infinite in excellencies and then let us speak of Him and His heroic wonders to one another and to the lost who need a Savior. What must we do?  Isaiah 12 speaks of kingdom praise: “Praise the LORD in song, for He has done excellent things” (Isaiah 12.5). What perfect and complete excellence God has in His manifold traits. Let your heart ponder Him deeply so you love Him more intensely and obey Him more fully! O get lost in wonder of the “greatness of His excellence!”

**More from this ongoing blog-series can be found HERE.

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The TRANSCENDENCE of God.

THE TRANSCENDENCE OF GOD.

Geoffrey R. Kirkland

Christ Fellowship Bible Church (STL), pastor 

 

 

The Lord is “high and lifted up and greatly exalted” (Isaiah 52.13). This speaks of the TRANSCENDENCE OF GOD. This wonder attribute of God’s transcendence speaks to His essential quality of being high above and superior to anything and everything in all of creation.  This is not something that God becomes or grows into but it speaks to the unending, unchanging, and continuous state of His glorious Being. God is highly exalted (Exodus 15.1). Quite simply: the transcendence of God means that God’s glorious Being is royally exalted in perfect and pure and sovereign and secure dignity.  God alone is “enthroned on high” (Psalm 113.5).

God is transcendent in His BEING. God is exalted above all the peoples (Psalm 99.2). No one can relate to God because He alone far surpasses all other gods, all men, and everything in creation. This attribute of God that splendidly flows from His essential nature underscores His holiness, majesty, glory and worth. 

God is transcendent in His POWER. God is exalted in His mighty strength (Psalm 21.13). God’s nature is limitless and His being is perfect and unmatched. At the same time, our God who is transcendently powerful is also intimately present and involved in our lives. 

God is transcendent in His UNIQUENESS. God brings down rulers (Luke 1.52) but He alone is exalted (Isaiah 57.15).  God is totally independent from all His creation. He succeeds over His creation and is Lord over His creation. Nothing can compare with God for He alone is greater. None is higher. None is more worthy than our Lord! What likeness would we compare with God (Isaiah 40.18)? 

God is transcendent in His SUPERIORITY. God is exalted even above the heavens (Psalm 57.5). At God’s right hand there are pleasures forevermore (Psalm 16.11).  

While all of this is true, let us guard from any hint of deistic thinking. This error asserts that God is distant, uninvolved, unconcerned, and not working in His creation. Not so! The Bible teaches the exact opposite. Our sovereign and transcendent God is active working all things together for good (Romans 8.28) and He promises to accomplish all His will (Isaiah 9.7; 46.10). God’s grace comes to us through the working of His power (Ephesians 3.7). 

 

Marvel today at your transcendent God who sits in heaven, reigning over all things in existence, high above all nations and kings and rulers and angelic authorities! Consider your God. Rest in His power. Find comfort in His love. Remember His strong grip on you. Ponder His exalted loftiness with a heart of humble awe and heartfelt praise.

 

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The SOLITARINESS of God.

THE SOLITARINESS OF GOD. 

Geoffrey R. Kirkland

Christ Fellowship Bible Church 

The SOLITARINESS of God means that God is God alone. There is no one like Him! From all eternity past, God is unrivaled and unmatched. God has no equals and no rivals. None can compare with our God!  The true and living God is totally distinct and entirely separate from all His creation. 

The song in Exodus extols this: “Who is like you, among the gods, O Lord” (Exodus 15.11)? Psalm 89 says: “Who is like you, O mighty Lord” (Psalm 89.8)? Even God Himself asks: “Who is like me? Let him proclaim and declare it” (Isaiah 44.7).  Again, God affirms: There is no God besides me, no savior besides me and no other besides me (Isaiah 43.11; 44.6; 45.5, 6). 

From all eternity past, from before the creation of all things, God existed in perfect solitary and exclusive joy. God existed alone in perfect, triune, inter-trinitarian relationship and delight. For God to be solitary in His essential being and perfections means that God depends on nothing and no one for life and for existence. He is independent and self-sufficient. He is wondrously self-contained, self-sufficient, self-relying, self-satisfied, self-magnifying and in need of nothing outside of Himself. It is this most unique and wondrous quality of God’s being that sets Him apart from anything and everything in all the universe! 

God perfectly lives in total completeness in His own essential being! He is the source and sustainer of everything. He gives life to all but needs nothing from all because He is perfectly whole and sufficient in Himself. God forever lives as the uncaused cause of everything. He creates by His own miraculous, powerful, irresistible word. He therefore is unique and distinct from His creation. 

This is why the prophet Jeremiah exclaimed: “There is none like you” (Jeremiah 10.7)!  King David affirmed in prayer: "O LORD, there is none like You, nor is there any God besides You” (1 Chronicles 17.20).  Ponder this unique and God-magnifying truth today. God is solitary because none can be compared with Him! The solitariness of God defines the grand beauty and exclusive uniqueness of God and impacts all of God’s being and all the attributes and actions of our God. 

This reminds us of the many occasions in the gospels when Jesus did a miracle, or taught the gospel and crowds would respond with something like: “who is this” (Luke 9.9; Matt 21.10)? Ponder this today and get lost in wonder and praise of your Triune God. Each member — the Father, the Son, the Spirit — is unique in His unrivaled majesty, in His royal excellencies, unmatched in His perfections, and He sustains everything but is independent from everything.  This should cause you and me to rejoice deeply in His essential being. Simultaneously, it should prompt humility in our hearts in knowing that this God — the solitary God — cares about us, gives life to us, is interested in us, and loves us! Trust Him! Rest your soul in Him! Cast all your burdens, your anxieties, your fears, your cares upon this mighty and unmatched Savior!  Run to Him afresh today!  This solitary God desires and deserves your praise and worship!  

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The GLORY of God.

THE GLORY OF GOD

Geoffrey R. Kirkland

Christ Fellowship Bible Church, pastor

The GLORY OF GOD consists of the beauty of His being. God’s glory comprises the fullness of his infiniteness of all His excellencies arrayed in marvelous splendor.  It does not refer merely to something that is made that catches the eye or comes across as aesthetically beautiful, but rather the glory of God is the emanating effulgence of His infinitely arrayed excellencies. Some have said that God’s glory is the “magnificence, worth, splendor, loveliness and grandeur of His many perfections which He has and which He displays in His being, in His creative actions, and in His redemption. 

Quite simply, in a word, the glory of God is the fullness of His beautiful being. That’s why the Hebrew word for glory speaks often of His weightiness and heaviness of His manifold and wondrous being!  This is why King David exulted and said: “We praise your glorious Name” (1 Chronicles 29.13)!  We meditate on the glorious splendor of God’s majesty (Psalm 145.5). One day, Jesus Christ, the Lord of majesty, will return and reign and He will be beautiful and glorious on the earth (Isaiah 4.2-5). The Apostle Paul calls Jesus the “Lord of glory” (1 Corinthians 2.8). That means that Jesus is the fullness of God’s excellencies in His person.

First, the glory of God consists in the manifold beauty of His infinite perfections. God’s glory is not a part of who God is or what God does, but it is the blessed and boundless magnitude of His wonders all harmonized and working together. God’s glory is His enjoyment of Himself because of His infinite perfections. 

Second, God shows His glory visibly and manifestly at certain times when He tangibly displays His wondrous character and unrivaled power before the eyes of men. For example: before the eyes of all the sons of Israel, the glory of God appeared like a consuming fire on time of Sinai (Exodus 24.17). Moses couldn’t enter the newly constructed tabernacle because the glory of God filled it (Exodus 40.35). When Solomon prayed after he built the Temple, fire came down and consumed the sacrifices and the glory of God filled the Temple (2 Chronicles 7.1). John said that Jesus the Word became flesh and we saw His glory (John 1.14).

Third, the glory of God appears in His wonderful acts as He created all things, sustains all things, upholds all things, and brings all things to their appointed end (Psalm 19.1; Isaiah 43.7).

Fourth, humans must behold the glory of the Lord (2 Corinthians 3.18) by gazing on Christ so as to respond and reflect, to mediate and marvel, to proclaim and ponder, to praise and honor the God of glory.  We must glory in His Holy name (1 Chronicles 16.10). We are to worship God by ascribing — giving — God glory and strength (Psalm 29.1). We shall speak of the glory of God’s kingdom (Psalm 145.11). And one day, in the Kingdom, we shall all cry out: “Glory to the Righteous One” (Isaiah 24.16). We must grow strong in faith (like Abraham), giving glory to God (Romans 4.20). In fact, everything that we do, whether eating and drinking, should all be done for the glory of God (1 Corinthians 10.31). 

Fifth, what is heaven by the infinite effulgence and happy radiance of God’s glory for endless eternities and our enjoyment in His glory. The Lamb who sits on the throne shall receive glory forevermore (Revelation 5.12,13; 7:12; 21.23).

So then, in conclusion, if the glory of God consists in the fullness of God’s personhood and the going forth of His beauty and the happy enjoyment of God being God and putting His wonders on display for all to behold, then let us contemplate God today. Let us get lost in wonder in His deep splendors and bottomless excellencies. And let us think on Him, and consider Him, and speak of Him, and worship Him, and ascribe the highest honors and reverence and praises to Him and to Him alone (Psalm 96.3)! 

**More on this ongoing blog-series on the Attributes of God HERE.

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