Understanding the attributes of God is foundational to the Christian faith. God’s attributes reveal who He is, how He acts, and how His creatures should respond to Him. They are not abstract theological ideas, but glorious realities that shape our worship, obedience, trust, and understanding of salvation.
Scripture does not leave us to imagine what God is like. He has revealed Himself in His Word. The Westminster Confession of Faith summarizes that revelation by declaring that there is “one only, living, and true God,” who is infinite in being and perfection, eternal, unchangeable, almighty, most wise, most holy, most loving, gracious, merciful, just, good, and true (WCF 2.1–2).
Christians have traditionally considered these divine attributes under two broad headings: communicable and incommunicable attributes.
The Attributes of God: An Overview
The incommunicable attributes of God are those perfections that especially emphasize the distinction between God and His creatures. God alone is self-existent, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable.
The communicable attributes of God are those perfections that His creatures may reflect in a finite and dependent way. Human beings, for example, may possess wisdom, holiness, love, justice, and mercy, though never in the infinite and perfect manner in which these belong to God.
This distinction is useful, but it should not be pressed too rigidly. Even those attributes called “communicable” belong to God in a manner altogether greater than they belong to us.
We must also remember that God’s attributes are not separate parts of Him. God is not partly loving, partly holy, and partly just. The Westminster Confession describes Him as “without body, parts, or passions” (WCF 2.1). His attributes are inseparable from His being. His love is holy love; His justice is wise justice; His mercy is righteous mercy.
God is entirely and perfectly all that He reveals Himself to be.
God’s Incommunicable Attributes
1. Independence (Aseity)
God is self-existent and self-sufficient. He depends upon no one and nothing for His existence, life, blessedness, or perfection.
When Moses asked God His name, the Lord answered, “I AM THAT I AM” (Exodus 3:14). God simply is. He has no beginning, no cause outside Himself, and no source from which He receives life.
Paul expresses the same truth in Acts 17:24–25:
“God that made the world and all things therein… neither is worshipped with men’s hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things.”
This attribute is sometimes called aseity. Everything else depends upon God; God depends upon nothing.
He did not create because He lacked something. Father, Son, and Holy Ghost possessed perfect blessedness before the world existed. Creation adds nothing necessary to God. Rather, He freely gives life and being to His creatures and continually sustains them by His power.
This truth places us in our proper position before Him. We do not sustain God. He sustains us.
2. Immutability
God does not change. His being, character, purposes, and promises remain perfectly constant.
Malachi 3:6 states:
“For I am the LORD, I change not.”
James likewise describes God as the one “with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning” (James 1:17).
God cannot improve because perfection cannot improve, nor can He decline because perfection cannot deteriorate. He does not gain knowledge He previously lacked or revise His eternal purpose because events have surprised Him.
This does not mean that God is inactive or indifferent toward His creatures. Scripture speaks richly of His love, compassion, wrath, delight, and grief. His dealings with people may change as their relationship to Him changes, while God Himself remains perfectly faithful to His own character and purpose.
His immutability is therefore a great comfort to believers. Human life changes constantly. Circumstances alter, relationships change, health fails, and cultures shift. God does not. His covenant faithfulness and promises remain steadfast through every generation.
3. Infinity
God is infinite in His being and perfection. Nothing limits, contains, or measures Him.
Psalm 147:5 declares:
“Great is our Lord, and of great power: his understanding is infinite.”
God’s infinity is seen in what Scripture reveals about His knowledge, presence, and power. He is omniscient, knowing all things perfectly. He is omnipresent, present everywhere without being contained by creation. He is omnipotent, possessing all power necessary to accomplish His holy will.
Human beings are limited in every direction. Our knowledge is partial, our strength finite, and our presence confined to one place at a time. God possesses no such creaturely limitations.
His infinity should humble us. We may truly know God because He has revealed Himself, but we can never comprehend Him exhaustively. As Psalm 145:3 says, “his greatness is unsearchable.”
Yet the infinite God is not remote from His people. The One whom heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain nevertheless knows His children personally and cares for them perfectly.
4. Eternality
God is eternal, without beginning or end.
Psalm 90:2 proclaims:
“Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God.”
God did not come into existence. He does not grow older or move toward the end of His life. The passing of centuries does not diminish Him.
He is Lord over time and history rather than a creature carried helplessly along within them. His purposes are eternal, and the future contains no uncertainty for Him.
For believers, God’s eternality gives stability to faith. The God whom we worship is the same God who kept covenant with Abraham, preserved His people through the centuries, sent His Son in the fulness of time, and raised Him from the dead. He remains faithful from generation to generation.
God’s Communicable Attributes
1. Holiness
God is perfectly holy. He is utterly pure, free from all evil, and exalted above His creation.
Isaiah 6:3 records the cry of the seraphim:
“Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory.”
God does not conform to a standard of goodness above Himself. His own character is the standard of holiness.
This helps us understand the seriousness of sin. Sin is more than human failure or social harm; it is rebellion against the Holy One.
God’s holiness also shapes His purpose for His redeemed people. Peter writes, “Be ye holy; for I am holy” (1 Peter 1:16). Grace does not merely deliver believers from condemnation. God increasingly conforms them to the holiness of Christ.
2. Love
Scripture declares simply that “God is love” (1 John 4:8).
His love is seen most clearly in the person and work of Jesus Christ:
“Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” — 1 John 4:10
God’s love is not sentimental indulgence. The God who is love is also perfectly holy and just. Scripture therefore defines divine love according to God’s own character rather than according to changing human ideas about what love ought to require.
The cross gives us the clearest revelation of that love. God does not dismiss sin as unimportant; He gives His Son to bear the judgment due to His people.
His love becomes both the foundation of our salvation and the pattern for our love toward others: “We love him, because he first loved us” (1 John 4:19).
3. Wisdom
God is infinitely wise. He not only knows all things; He orders all things according to His perfect purpose.
Paul declares:
“O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!” — Romans 11:33
Human knowledge and wisdom are imperfect. We lack information, misunderstand circumstances, and often choose poor means even when our intentions are good.
God never does.
His wisdom assures believers that His purposes remain wise even when His providence is difficult to understand. We will not always be able to explain why God permits a particular trial or leads us along a particular path. Faith rests in the character of the One whose wisdom is infinitely greater than ours.
4. Justice
God is perfectly righteous and just.
Deuteronomy 32:4 declares:
“He is the Rock, his work is perfect: for all his ways are judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he.”
God never misjudges, condemns the innocent, excuses wickedness through weakness, or acts corruptly. Abraham therefore asks, “Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?” (Genesis 18:25).
His justice raises one of the great questions of salvation: How can a righteous God forgive guilty sinners?
The gospel answers at the cross. God does not save by setting His justice aside. Christ bears the judgment due to His people so that God may be “just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus” (Romans 3:26).
God’s justice and mercy therefore do not compete with one another. Both are displayed gloriously in the salvation accomplished by Christ.
5. Mercy
God is also merciful and gracious, showing compassion to sinners who have no claim upon His favor.
Paul writes in Ephesians 2:4–5:
“But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved).”
Mercy meets us in misery; grace gives what we could never deserve.
This is why the gospel gives real hope to guilty people. Salvation is not reserved for those who can present a worthy past to God. Christ came to save sinners.
At the same time, divine mercy never means that God regards sin lightly. The cross reveals both the seriousness of our guilt and the greatness of His compassion. The mercy by which God forgives sinners is a righteous mercy secured through the finished work of Christ.
The Unity of God’s Attributes
Although we study God’s attributes individually, they are never separate or in conflict.
God does not sometimes act according to love and at other times according to justice, as though one attribute temporarily displaced another. His justice is holy justice; His love is righteous love; His mercy is wise mercy; His power is good power.
The cross of Christ displays this unity with particular clarity. There God’s holiness is seen in His judgment of sin, His justice in the penalty borne by Christ, His love in the gift of His Son, His mercy in the salvation of the guilty, and His wisdom in the way sinners are reconciled to Him without His righteousness being compromised.
We therefore must resist the temptation to construct a God according to the attributes we happen to prefer. A God of love without holiness is not the God of Scripture. Neither is a God of sovereignty without goodness, or justice without mercy.
God must be known as He has revealed Himself.
Worshiping the God of Glory
The attributes of God are not merely truths to be catalogued. They summon us to worship.
If God is all-knowing, we cannot hide from Him. If He is holy, sin can never become harmless simply because society approves of it. If He is unchangeable, His promises remain secure when our circumstances change. If He is wise, He may be trusted when His providence is beyond our understanding. If He is merciful, guilty sinners have reason to come to Him through Christ.
Psalm 145:3 declares:
“Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised; and his greatness is unsearchable.”
Here in Greenville, as everywhere Christ gathers His church, believers are called to make this God known in a world constantly tempted to redefine Him according to human preference. Christian worship begins by receiving God as He has revealed Himself rather than imagining Him as we would prefer Him to be.
Conclusion
The attributes of God reveal His incomparable majesty and perfection. He is self-existent, eternal, infinite, and unchangeable. He is holy, wise, loving, just, and merciful. Every perfection exists in Him without defect or contradiction.
And Christians do not know these truths merely as an abstract description of deity. God has made Himself known supremely in His Son. Jesus Christ declares the Father, and at the cross the holiness, justice, wisdom, love, and mercy of God shine with extraordinary clarity.
The study of God’s attributes should therefore lead beyond information to worship. The more clearly we see who God is, the more fitting it becomes to trust Him, obey Him, love Him, and desire His glory.
“The LORD is gracious, and full of compassion; slow to anger, and of great mercy. The LORD is good to all: and his tender mercies are over all his works” (Psalm 145:8–9).
Westminster references: WCF 2.1–3; WLC 6–11; WSC 4–6.