Catechism Study – Question #3

Question:
What is God?

Answer:
God is a spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable, in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth.

Scripture:
“God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”
-John 4:24

“God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.”
-Ex. 3:14

“Great is our Lord, and abundant in power; his understanding is beyond measure.”
-Ps. 147:5

“For I the LORD do not change, therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed.”
-Mal. 3:6

Summary:
God is unlike any being in the world. He has certain attributes (or characteristics) that make him different from anything or anyone else in existence.

First thing we must know is that God is a Spirit. As Jesus said “God is spirit…”(John 4:24). By Spirit, the most important thing to remember is that God does not have any material substance. God does not have a body. God is invisible. They only way that we can “see” God is indirectly. We can see Him through his reflection in creation.

But what else is God beside that. There are many more attributes that the Bible tells us beside just being a Spirit. There are two types of attribute that God has. The first are those which belong to God alone. We call these incommunicable attributes. The second are those that God has given man as well. We call those communicable attributes.

Incommunicable Attributes
There are certain attributes that belong to God and to God alone. He does not “share” these characteristics with man at all. For example, God is infinite. He has always existed. Man is finite, meaning that there was a time when man did not exist. Another example would be that God is unchangeable. He cannot change anything about Himself because He is already perfect. But man on the other hand is not unchangeable. Man can and does change over time. We get older and our appearance looks different than it did a few years ago. This is not so with God.

Communicable Attributes
But there are also characteristics that God has that man has as well. Some of these are that God has wisdom and man has wisdom. Another is that God has power and man has power as well. The thing that we must remember here when we look at characteristics that we “share” with God, is that there is still a difference between God and his image (man). Think of it as looking into a mirror. When you look into a mirror, are those eyes that you see in the mirror your eyes? Or are those eyes you see “the image” of your eyes?

Of course, those eyes you see are just an image. Same with the attributes we share with God. Me may have wisdom, but it is just a tiny reflection of the wisdom of God. Where our wisdom can change (for example, it can increase), God’s wisdom cannot change because He already knows everything there is to know. We cant confuse the fact that God is God alone, and we are just an image bearer of Him here on earth.

Worship Him
Learning these characteristics of God should lead us to worship Him. When we see something that overwhelms us (like the Grand Canyon), we are amazed by it. How much more should we be amazed at the God that created the Grand Canyon. Think on these characteristics of God and had them lead you to “see” Him in such a way that you desire to know Him more.

Study Questions:
1. What do we mean by the word “Spirit”?

2. What does the terms, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable mean?

3. What is a “incommunicable attribute”? What are some examples?

4. What is a “communicable attribute”? What are some examples?

5. How would you explain to someone that although we “share” some similar characteristics of God, they are not exactly the same? How are they different?