Theology Proper

How Do We Know God Exists?

Before examining what God is like, it is worth asking whether we have good reasons to believe He exists at all. Scripture assumes God's existence rather than arguing for it ("In the beginning, God…"), but theologians and philosophers have offered several classical arguments that support belief in God through reason and observation. Grudem identifies four major arguments:

The Cosmological Argument: Since every known thing in the universe has a cause, the universe itself must also have a cause. Something cannot come from nothing. Whatever began to exist must have been caused by something outside itself. That uncaused first cause is what we call God (Grudem).

The Teleological Argument: This argument focuses on the harmony, order, and design of the universe and argues for an intelligent designer. The Greek word telos means "end," "goal," or "purpose." Since the universe appears to operate with consistent purpose and fine-tuned precision, it points to a purposeful intelligence behind it (Grudem).

The Ontological Argument: Developed by St. Anselm of Canterbury (1033–1109), this argument reasons that if God is the Greatest Conceivable Being, the being than which nothing greater can be thought, then He must exist, since existence is a perfection. A God who existed only as a concept would be less great than a God who actually exists. Therefore, God must exist in reality (Grudem).

The Moral Argument: This argument begins from humanity's universal sense of right and wrong. All people possess moral intuitions, a sense that some things are truly wrong, not merely culturally unfashionable. This moral sense requires grounding in something beyond human opinion or evolutionary preference. God is the best explanation for the existence of objective moral truth (Grudem).

Grudem also notes what he calls "humanity's inner sense of God," the near-universal intuition across all cultures and times that there is something divine. While none of these arguments alone is a knock-down proof, together they make belief in God entirely reasonable.

What Is God Like? Attributes Defined

Attributes are the characteristics or qualities that express the nature of something or someone. God's attributes are the things that make Him distinctly God: the qualities that describe His very being.

Aristotle distinguished between essential attributes (those that belong to the very essence of a thing and cannot be removed) and accidental attributes (qualities not a part of a thing's essence, like hair color or height). Most theologians agree that God has no accidental attributes: every quality that belongs to God is essential to His being. You cannot remove an attribute from God and have the same God remaining.

God's attributes are also permanent and fixed, exist in God objectively (not just in our perception of Him), and extend equally to all three persons of the Trinity. What might differ between the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are what we might call properties, personal distinctions within the Godhead rather than attributes of the divine essence itself.

Incommunicable & Communicable Attributes

One of the most useful ways to organize God's attributes is by distinguishing between those He shares with us and those He does not. Theologians call these communicable and incommunicable attributes respectively. This is not a perfectly clean distinction. No attribute of God is completely one or the other. It is more helpful to think of communicable attributes as those God has shared more with humanity, and incommunicable attributes as those He has shared less.

One challenge in thinking about incommunicable attributes is anthropomorphism: the tendency to picture God in human terms. This is natural and even unavoidable, but we must remember that God is genuinely "other" and different from us in these ways. Recognizing this is not a problem. It is a reminder of His transcendence.

Incommunicable Attributes

Independence (Aseity): "God does not need us or the rest of creation for anything, yet we and the rest of creation can glorify him and bring him joy." (Grudem). This attribute is also called God's self-existence, or aseity (from the Latin a se, meaning "from himself"). God's existence depends on nothing outside of Himself.

Unchangeableness (Immutability): "God is unchangeable in his being, perfections, purposes, and promises, yet God does act and feel emotions, and he acts and feels differently in response to different situations." (Grudem). God's essential nature does not change, though He genuinely responds to events in time. See Psalm 102:25–27; Malachi 3:6; James 1:17.

Eternity: "God has no beginning, end, or succession of moments in his own being, and he sees all time equally vividly, yet God sees events in time and acts in time." (Grudem). God exists in an eternal "now," unconstrained by linear time. He created time, acts within it, and is completely outside of it simultaneously.

Omnipresence: Just as God is unlimited in relation to time, He is unlimited in relation to space. "God does not have size or spatial dimensions and is present at every point of space with his whole being, yet God acts differently in different spaces." (Grudem). God is not spread thin across space. His whole being is fully present everywhere. See Colossians 1:17.

Unity: "God is not divided into parts, yet we see different attributes of God emphasized at different times." (Grudem). All of God's attributes are a part of His unified essence. He is not a mixture of competing qualities. He is wholly and completely each of His attributes at once.

Communicable Attributes

Grudem organizes the communicable attributes into five categories:

1. Attributes Describing God's Being

Spirituality: "God is Spirit" (John 4:24). He is not composed of physical or material components and cannot be compared to anything in creation. Grudem calls this "the fullness or essence of being."

Invisibility: God's total essence cannot be seen by human beings. No one has seen God in His fullness (John 1:18). This is connected to His spirituality: since God does not have a physical body, He cannot be seen. This raises the question of Jesus: "He is the image of the invisible God" (Colossians 1:15). The Son makes the invisible God visible.

2. Mental Attributes

Omniscience (Knowledge): "God fully knows himself and all things actual and possible in one simple and eternal act." (Grudem). God is "perfect in knowledge" (Job 37:16) and "knows everything" (1 John 3:20). His knowledge is not sequential or learned. It is complete and immediate.

Wisdom: "God always chooses the best goals and the means to those goals." (Grudem). Wisdom is applied knowledge. God uses His omniscience in everything He does, and it is always perfectly right. God is not just the standard of truth but the standard of what is right.

Truthfulness / Faithfulness: Truthfulness: "God is the true God, and all his knowledge and words are both true and the final standard of truth." Faithfulness: "God will always do what he has said and fulfill what he has promised." These two are deeply linked: because God is truth itself and cannot change, He cannot lie or break His promises.

3. Moral Attributes

Goodness: "The goodness of God means that God is the final standard of good, and that all that God does is worthy of approval." (Grudem). God is not accountable to some external standard of "good." He is that standard. "No one is good but God alone" (Luke 18:19).

Love: "God's love means that God eternally gives of himself to others." (Grudem). This love is agape: self-sacrificial, active, chosen. "God is love" (1 John 4:8). Love is not merely something God does; it is part of who He is.

Mercy, Grace, and Patience: These three can be understood as unified expressions of God's goodness in response to human need and sin: Mercy is "God's goodness toward those in misery and distress"; Grace is "God's goodness toward those who deserve only punishment"; Patience is "God's goodness in the withholding of punishment toward those who sin over a period of time." (Grudem).

Holiness: "God's holiness means that he is separated from sin and devoted to seeking his own honor." (Grudem). Erickson identifies two dimensions: (1) uniqueness: God is totally set apart from all creation; and (2) absolute purity: He is unstained and untouched by evil. Holy means set apart, pure, and entirely consistent with God's character.

Peace (Order): "God's peace means that in God's being and in his actions he is separate from all confusion and disorder, yet he is continually active in innumerable well-ordered, fully controlled, simultaneous actions." (Grudem). In the Old Testament, the Hebrew word shalom carries the sense of wholeness, completeness, and harmony. "God is not a God of confusion but of peace" (1 Corinthians 14:33).

Righteousness (Justice): "God's righteousness means that God always acts in accordance with what is right and is himself the final standard of what is right." (Grudem). In Hebrew and Greek, "righteousness" and "justice" are the same word, inseparable in God's character.

Jealousy: "God's jealousy means that God continually seeks to protect his own honor." (Grudem). We tend to think of jealousy as inherently negative, but God's jealousy is the righteous refusal to share His honor with something unworthy of it. "For you shall worship no other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God" (Exodus 34:14). Note: Erickson views jealousy not as a separate attribute but as an expression of God's holiness and love.

Wrath: Grudem: "God's wrath means that he intensely hates all sin." Erickson takes a different position, viewing wrath not as an independent attribute but as an expression or result of God's holiness and justice: a response to sin, not an inherent quality. Both agree that God's wrath is real and holy.

4. Attributes of Purpose

Will: "God's will is that attribute of God whereby he approves and determines to bring about every action necessary for the existence and activity of himself and all creation." (Grudem). God's will is consistent with His character. He cannot act in ways that contradict who He is.

Freedom: "God's freedom is that attribute of God whereby he does whatever he pleases." (Grudem). God is not bound by anything external to Himself. His freedom and His character are perfectly united. He is free to do whatever He wills, and He always wills what is consistent with His nature.

Omnipotence (Power/Sovereignty): "God's omnipotence means that God is able to do all his holy will." (Grudem). He is all-powerful, with no external constraints. "Is anything too hard for the Lord?" (Genesis 18:14; Jeremiah 32:27). Importantly, omnipotence does not mean God can do logically contradictory things (like make a square circle). His power is exercised in accordance with His nature.

5. Summary Attributes

Perfection: "God completely possesses all excellent qualities and lacks no part of any qualities that would be desirable for him." (Grudem). God is complete and whole. Jesus calls us to "be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect" (Matthew 5:48), a call to reflect God's wholeness in our relationships.

Blessedness: "God's blessedness means that God delights fully in himself and all that reflects His character." (Grudem). Happiness isn't merely something God feels. In some sense, it is something He is. God is perfectly and fully delighted in Himself and in His creation.

Beauty: "God's beauty is that attribute of God whereby he is the sum of all desirable qualities." (Grudem). Grudem notes that perfection and beauty describe the same truth from two directions: "Perfection means God doesn't lack anything desirable; beauty means that God has everything desirable." See Psalm 27:4.

Key Vocabulary

Key Scriptures

• John 4:24
• Exodus 3:14
• Psalm 90:2
• Psalm 102:25–27
• Psalm 139:7–10
• Malachi 3:6
• James 1:17
• 1 John 4:8
• 1 John 3:20
• Luke 18:19
• Exodus 34:14
• 1 Corinthians 14:33
• Deuteronomy 32:4
• Isaiah 6:3
• Colossians 1:17
• Genesis 18:14
• Psalm 27:4