3. God

"I am who I am." "I lift up my hand to heaven and say, I live forever." "The everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, does not faint or grow weary; there is no searching of his understanding." "His understanding is infinite." "Do I not fill heaven and earth, says the Lord?" "For thus says the high and lofty one who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy, I dwell in the high and holy place; also with him who is contrite and humble in spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones." "I beg you, show me your glory, and he said I will make all my goodness pass before you; and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before you; and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy to whom I will show mercy." "And the Lord passed by before him [1] and proclaimed, The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, slow to anger, abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression, and sin, and by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children's children, to the third and to the fourth generation" — "and showing mercy to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments." "O Lord God of Israel, who dwells between the cherubim, you are God, even you alone, you have made heaven and earth. Hear, O Israel — Jehovah our God is one Jehovah [2] — the Lord our God is one Lord." "Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come." "Great and marvelous are your works, Lord God Almighty, just and true are your ways, you king of saints." "Who shall not fear you, O Lord, and glorify your name, for you alone are holy," "He is the Rock, his work is perfect; for all his ways are judgment; a God of truth and without injustice, just and right is he." "Glorious in holiness, awesome in praise, doing wonders."

These are a few — a sample of the Divine declarations about himself; repeated and echoed by the purest and most intellectual beings in heaven and earth. It is from his word and his works that we learn the being and perfections of God. Just as we form a character of a person from what he says and does, so we learn the Divine character. "The heavens declare his glory, and the firmament shows forth his handiwork: day to day utters speech, and night to night reveals knowledge." Creation reveals the power, wisdom, and goodness of God. Providence also proclaims his justice, truth, and holiness. Redemption reveals his mercy, condescension, and love; and all these are again characterized by infinity, eternity, and immutability. Nature, then, attests and displays the knowledge, wisdom, power, and goodness of God. The law and the providence of God especially declare his justice, truth, and holiness — while the gospel unfolds his mercy, condescension, and love; and all these proclaim that God is infinite, eternal, and unchanging. God appears before the universe of intellectual beings in the threefold role of Creator, Lawgiver, and Redeemer; and although each of these involves and reveals many of his excellencies, still in each role three are most prominent. As Creator: knowledge, wisdom, power, and goodness; as Lawgiver: justice, truth, and holiness; as Redeemer: mercy, condescension, and love. In each and all of these roles, he is infinite, unchanging, and eternal.

But the Scriptures speak of his divinity or godhead, as well as of the unity, spirituality, and eternity of his being. We have not, indeed, much said on this incomprehensible theme; for — who by searching can find out God, or know the Almighty to perfection? The knowledge of him is as high as heaven, what can you do? deeper than hell, what can you know? The measure of it is longer than the earth, and broader than the sea.

Paul and Peter indeed speak of the divine nature in the abstract, or of the divinity or godhead. These are the most abstract terms found in the Bible. Eternity and divinity are, however, equally abstract and almost equally rare in holy scripture. Still, they are necessarily found in the divine volume; because we must separate nature from person before we can understand the plan of salvation. For the divine nature may be communicated or imparted in some sense; and indeed while it is essentially and necessarily singular, it is certainly plural in its personal manifestations. Hence we have the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit equally divine, though personally distinct from each other. We have in fact but one God, one Lord, one Holy Spirit; yet these are equally possessed of one and the same divine nature.

Some conceive of God as a mathematical unit; and since a thing cannot be both mathematically singular and plural, one and three, at the same time and in the same sense, they deny the true and proper divinity of the Son of God and of the Spirit of God. But it seems to us that they do not reason in harmony with the sacred style of inspiration. But why should we imagine that there cannot be a plurality of personal manifestations in the divine nature any more than in the angelic or human, especially as man was created in the image of God?

The relations in human plurality are indeed limited to three. For while all human nature was at one time originally and wholly in the person of Adam, it was afterward found equally in the person of Eve — and again in the person of their firstborn. Now as to its origin and mode of existence, it was different in the three. In Adam it was underived as regards human nature, in Eve it was derived from Adam, and in Cain it was again derived from Adam and Eve. Here the matter ends; for while Eve proceeded from Adam in one way, and Cain proceeded from Adam and Eve in another, all the rest of human nature is shared without any new relation or mode of impartation. While, then, our nature is plural as to its participation, it is limited to three relations or modes of existence. Now as man was made in the image of God, we must conceive of him as having plurality, relation, and community in himself — though far be it from us to suppose that the divine nature either is, or can be fairly or fully represented by any resemblance or illustration drawn from angel or man, or from any created thing. Still, there is a resemblance between God and the sun that shines upon us — between God and an angel — between God and man; and even in the mode of his existence, and in the varieties of relation and personal manifestation, there is enough resemblance to firmly forbid all dogmatism about what is, or is not, compatible with the unity, spirituality, and immutability of God. But of this more fully and clearly when we have examined the record concerning the word and the spirit of God.

• 1: Moses.
• 2: So reads the Hebrew. Deut. 6:4