Understanding God's Incommunicable Attributes and Our Response

Thank you, Yassim. Last Sunday, we looked at the fact that we know God because God has revealed himself to us. And today and next Sunday, we'll look at some of the attributes, some of the characteristics, some of the qualities that God has revealed about himself, who he is. And when we speak about the qualities of God, we normally categorize them into two large categories, just for, you know, so that we can discuss them easily. [00:00:01]

And those two categories are two. Number one, it is the incommunicable attributes of God and the communicable attributes of God. And the difference between those is simply this. That the incommunicable attributes are the ones that God does not give to us. He does not share them with human beings. For instance, God is eternal. [00:00:43]

We in ourselves are not. God is omnipresent. He is present everywhere. We cannot. In fact, there is nothing else in all creation that can be everywhere at the same time in all fullness. So that's... The incommunicable attributes, things that are about God that belong to him alone, and then there are communicable attributes, those qualities of God, those characteristics of God, that he does share with us, things like faithfulness, things like love. [00:00:58]

Now in Isaiah chapter 57 verse 15, it says, God is the one who is high and lifted up. He is like beyond everything that he has created. He is enthroned in the heavens, say Psalm 123, 1, which is to indicate to us that he is above everything else. The son in Colossians chapter 1 verses 15 to 16, Jesus is called the firstborn of all creation in the sense that he has the rights over the world. [00:04:47]

He is the one who has the rights over all creation. He owns all creation. And he talks about his pre -eminence. And it talks about the fact that all creation was created by him and for him. And so once again, the incommunicable attributes, those qualities that God has in him, that he does not share with us, we see from them that God is very high in his creation. [00:04:47]

God's independence is that he is self -existent خداوند کو کسی نے بنایا نہیں خداوند خود ہی exist کرتا ہے and he has always existed and this is his self -existence ہم میں سے کوئی بھی خود exist نہیں کرتا ہے we are all dependent upon God and that's one of the differences between the creator and the creatures God is all sufficient God is self -sufficient he does not need anybody else he does not need anything else خداوند اپنے میں ہی sufficient ہے اپنے لئے اس کو کسی اور کی یا کسی اور چیز کی ضرورت نہیں ہے [00:05:58]

ہم کبھی بھی, بہت ہم کو کئی دफ़ا गर्व होता है कि हम independent हैं, बगर हम कभी भी इस किसी भी हाल में independent नहीं होते हैं, because we are always dependent on, you are dependent on, you and I are dependent on the air that we breathe, यहां से हवा निकल जाए और हवा ना available हो, साफ हवा available ना हो, we cannot live, we are dependent upon each other, we are dependent upon the supplies that we get, if you think you are going to be independent, well, you are strong, you made your life, you made a wonderful career, you made it because somebody helped you all along the way, there was a company you worked for, there was a department they work, who worked for, there were people who worked for you, the richest people in the world may think they are independent, but they are rich because there are other people who are working for them, who create value, and they just manage it, so no matter how strong you are, how wealthy you are, how educated you are, you are never independent, हम लोग हमेशा और लोगों के उपर निर्भर हैं, हम independent नहीं हैं, we depend on, this is something that we try to teach in the church always, we stay together with each other because we are interdependent, हम एक दुसरे के उपर निर्भर हैं, and so that is an important thing, and above all, we are dependent upon God, He is the source of life, He is where our life comes from, now the next attribute that we want to talk about is God's immutability, इम्यूटेबिलिटी का मतलब होता है, unchangeableness, वो बदलता नहीं है, He does not change, in Malachi chapter 3, [00:08:04]

Verse 6, it says, I, the Lord, God says, I, the Lord, do not change. Main badalta nahi hoon. And then in James, we read, with him there is no variation or shadow due to change. And so this tells us that God is stable. God is who he is. If today God says that I love you, then you can be sure that he will love you in all eternity. He is not going to change. If God says to you today that I accept you, then you can be sure that he will always, always accept you. He is not going to say that today I accept you, tomorrow I reject you. When he accepts you in Christ, he is eternally the same. He is unchanging. [00:09:57]

Now there are four things about his immutability that we are going to look at. And the first of this is he is immutable in terms of his essence. Jo wo khud apne aap mein hai. God exists eternally as the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. That's what the Bible tells us. Khudavand nahi yeh apne baare mein bataya hai ki hamesha hamesha se khudavand pita, khudavand beta aur khudavand pakroo. He, in his essence, he's always been the triune God. He never changes. He's always been that. He's one. And he is three. And so this is something that we need to remember that in his essence, he's always the same. Psalm 102 tells us, verses 26 and 27, the psalmist is speaking about the heaven and earth and saying how the heaven and earth can change. He says they will perish. Heaven and earth will perish, but you will remain. [00:10:49]

they will all wear out like a garment you change them like a robe it says God you are going to change the heavens and earth like this they will pass away but you are the same and your ears have no end you are always going to be there you are always going to be the same so in his essence God never changes God never never changes in his essence now another thing he does not change in is according to his perfections or his attributes he is always eternally like omnipresent means present everywhere he knows everything he is always loving he is holy all of those things are always what is true about God remains true about God forever and so we must recognize the Bible tells us this is the kind of God that we are talking about then he is immutable or unchangeable in respect of his plan or his decree whatever he has planned for our salvation whatever he has decreed whatever he has established as his purpose for creation will be changed will be fulfilled nothing can move it from fulfillment so that's an important thing for us to remember why is it important one is of course this is the kind of God he is this is what he has revealed in the scriptures about himself but to us it brings us great comfort that our God does not change he is always the same he is stable and we can depend upon him we can rely upon him His plan he will bring to pass. [00:11:54]

The plans and purposes of human beings, they come to nothing. Sometimes they succeed. Sometimes they don't. But what God is able to do is to say and promise something and make a plan, degree something, and he will bring it about. So we can depend upon that. Now, God is also unchanging in respect to his promises. Whatever he has promised right from the beginning, whatever he did, right from Adam and Eve, and you go through the entire... [00:15:20]

Old Testament, and you come to the New Testament, everything that God has said, he has accomplished, you know, over the centuries, over the lives of many, many generations of people, the things he has promised, he completely fulfills those commitments. He never goes back on his pledges. So when you have a promise from God, you can be sure that he will fulfill it. We can absolutely depend upon it. We can absolutely depend at any risk to our lives or to our well -being as well, temporarily, that God is going to fulfill his promises. [00:15:59]

And in Numbers 23, we know this verse is a commonly quoted verse, Numbers 23 verse 19, God is not mad that he should lie, right? Remember, God is independent. God is self -sufficient. But if God is all -powerful and he is independent, he is totally free, he doesn't even need to lie. There's no need, there's no falsehood or lie in him. He is, God is not man that he should lie, or the son of God. He is the son of a man that he should change his mind. Has he said, and will he not do it? Has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it? And so we can trust that his word remains. He is unchanging with respect to his promises. So once again, as we look at these elements of how God is unchangeable or immutable, [00:16:46]

Now the third attribute that we want to talk about is his eternity. His eternity, that is, hamesha hamesha meh rehne wala So this is like he is not bound by time. In fact, we have a hard time trying to figure out eternity because we are creatures who are bound by time. How is our life? We live in time. We cannot even imagine what eternity will be like outside of time. Eternity is not like forever. Eternity is a total thing outside of time. God has created both time. And space, right? God has created both time and space. Time is a created thing. And God is not limited to his creation. So he is eternal. He is not bound by time, but he can act in time. He can do something in between time and time. [00:18:45]