The Doctrine of God
When we consider the doctrine of God, we need to confine our both our thoughts and conclusions to the Bible (Sola Scriptura principle), and, in keeping with bibletruth.org, present the sum total of Scriptural teaching on the subject. Now, more than ever, our presentation of God to the world cannot be tainted with popular notions, sentimental leanings that tone down some of God's essential attributes, such as His holiness, justice and wrath, and other aberrant views that fail to present Him as Scripture does. In his Doctrine of God, professor John Frame reminds us that "God claims the authority to direct all our thinking and all our decisions" (p. 89). He also reminds us that God's authority extends to every area of our life (1 Cor. 10:31; Frame, p. 89), including how we should think about Him or define Him.
Definition of God
In defining God, we need venture no further than the Westminster Catechism, namely, "God is a Spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable, in His being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth." This definition accurately represents God's essential nature, character, and attributes (though not exhaustively).
The Attributes (qualities of God)
Some Important Attributes
Spiritual
Spiritual God is spirit (Gk. pneuma) John 4:24, "God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth." Thus God is personal, self determining, and quite alive.
No property of matter may be ascribed to God (sometimes called "non-corporeal.") No parts, form, bulk or mass, and quite invisible 1 Timothy 6:16, "...who alone is immortal and who lives in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see. To him be honor and might forever. Amen." Thus the importance of the second commandment forbidding all attempts to create some kind of image of Him (Exodus 20:4-6, "You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.") Such images or representation of God distort His being and in reality create an idol.
Self-Existent
The ground of God's being is Himself (or, God is His own cause). On the contrary, everything else is dependent on God. John 5:26; Isa. 40:18; Ro. 11:33-36.
Changeless (or, immutable)
God does not change in His essential being. He is devoid of all change in His purposes and promises. His knowledge forever remains the same: God does not grow at all in wisdom or knowledge; He does not learn new things. He can neither improve nor deteriorate. Mal. 3:6; Ps. 102:25-27.
Infinite
God has no limitations. He is not limited by the universe or the time-space world, and is not confined to this universe. Matt. 5:48, "Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect." Also, Ps. 145:3.
External
God has no beginning, and has no end. His duration is prolonged both backwards and forwards. Ps. 90:2; 102:12.
When we say eternal, we include past and present and future. He never began, does not experience growth, and will never do so.
Psalm 29:10, "The LORD sits enthroned over the flood; the LORD is enthroned as King forever."
Psalm 48:14, "For this God is our God for ever and ever; he will be our guide even to the end."
Isaiah 40:28, "Do you not know? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom."
1 Timothy 1:17, "Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen.
Immutable (God does not change)
Psalm 102:26, "They will perish, but you remain; they will all wear out like a garment, like clothing you will change them and they will be discarded."
Malachi 3:6, "I the LORD do not change. So you, O descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed."
James 1:17, "Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows."
Omnipresent
God has no spatial limitations whatever, and is present in every point of space with His whole being. 1 Kings 8:27; Jer. 23:23, 24.
Psalm 139:7-10, "Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast."
1 Kings 8:27, "But will God really dwell on earth? The heavens, even the highest heaven, cannot contain you. How much less this temple I have built!"
Proverbs 15:3, "The eyes of the LORD are everywhere, keeping watch on the wicked and the good."
Acts 17:27-28, "God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. 'For in him we live and move and have our being.' As some of your own poets have said, 'We are his offspring.'"
Now, God is not the universe - Pantheism. God is everywhere present and living, but is greater than the universe He created.
Omnipotent (God's power or sovereignty; means He is able to do what He wants to do)
God is all-powerful, and always in control. Neither man nor Satan can take Him by surprise, and no one can challenge His authority. God's absolute rule and authority has never been threatened, and never will be. Ps. 135:6, "The Lord does whatever He pleases."
Psalm 115:3, "Our God is in heaven; he does whatever pleases him."
Genesis 18:14, "Is anything too hard for the LORD? I will return to you at the appointed time next year and Sarah will have a son."
Luke 1:34, 37, "How will this be,' Mary asked the angel, 'since I am a virgin?'" "For nothing is impossible with God.'"
Ephesians 1:19-20, "...and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms..."
Of course, God cannot do anything contrary to His nature or ethics. For example, God cannot lie (Titus 1:2, "...a faith and knowledge resting on the hopes of eternal life, which God, who does not lie, promised before the beginning of time...") or change (Malachi 3:6, "I the LORD do not change. So you, O descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed.").
Omniscience
God is quite aware of everything that ever was, now is, or even shall be. This has always been the case. His knowledge is immediate (He knows it all, exhaustively, and He knows it all now!) He does not learn anything or "get ideas" from any source.
Psalm 147:4, "He determines the number of the stars and calls them each by name."
Hebrews 4:13, "Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account."
Matthew 10:29, 30, "Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall on the ground apart from the will of your Father. And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered."
Isaiah 42:8,9, "I am the LORD; that is my name! I will not give my glory to another or my praise to idols. See, the former things have taken place, and new things I declare; before they spring into being I announce them to you."
Holy
The basic idea of "holy" is "separation," or "over the creation." Of course it also speaks of absolute moral purity.
1 Peter 1:15-16, "But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written, 'Be holy, because I am holy.'"
1 John 1:5, "This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all."
Habakkuk 1:13, "Your eyes are too pure to look on evil; you cannot tolerate wrong. Why then do you tolerate the treacherous? Why are you silent while the wicked swallow up those more righteous than themselves?"
Just (God is righteous)
Deuteronomy 32:4, "He is the Rock, his works are perfect, and all his ways are just." A faithful God who does no wrong, upright and just is he."
God judges according to absolute righteous and faithful criteria.
Psalm 7:11, "God is a righteous judge, a God who expresses his wrath every day."
Psalm 96: 10-13, "Say among the nations, 'The LORD reigns.' The world is firmly established, it cannot be moved; he will judge the peoples with equity. Let the heavens rejoice, let the earth be glad; let the sea resound, and all that is in it; let the fields be jubilant, and everything in them. Then all the trees of the forest will sing for joy; they will sing before the LORD, for he comes, he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples in his truth."
Daniel 9:14, "The LORD did not hesitate to bring the disaster upon us, for the LORD our God is righteous in everything he does; yet we have not obeyed him."
2 Thessalonians 1:5-7, "All this is evidence that God's judgment is right, and as a result you will be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are suffering. God is just: He will pay back trouble to those who trouble you and give relief to you who are troubled, and to us as well. This will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels."
Truth
God is both faithful and reliable in all matters. From this we conclude that, first of all, God actually exists, and everything He claims about Himself is true. We cannot say the same about the so-called gods of the world (1 Corinthians 8:4, "So then, about eating food sacrificed to idols: We know that an idol is nothing at all in the world and that there is no God but one." See also 10:19-20, "Do I mean then that a sacrifice offered to an idol is anything, or that an idol is anything? No, but the sacrifices of pagans are offered to demons, not to God, and I do not want you to be participants with demons.") God's words and action never contradict each other because God cannot lie (Titus 1:2, "A faith and knowledge resting on the hope of eternal life, which God, who does not lie promised before the beginning of time..."). Whatever God promises He will perform.
1 John 5:20, "We know also that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true. And we are in him who is true-even in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life."
Love and Goodness
God's very nature is love, and He deals in kindness toward His Creatures (1 John 4:8; 16," Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love". . . "And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him." Psalm 73:1, "Surely God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart." Psalm 118:1, "Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever." Acts 14:17, "Yet he has not left himself without testimony: He has shown kindness by giving you rain from heaven and crops in their seasons; he provides you with plenty of food and fills your hearts with joy."). Indeed, God gave His Son for the world (John 3:15-16, "...that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.") with the express intention of displaying His kindness toward them throughout eternity (Ephesians 2:6-7, "And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus").
Application
1. The worship of other gods is senseless. First, they do not exist. Secondly, if they did, they're no rival to the one and true God.
2. Most people "quantify" (count) their problems, then consider God one of the solutions. Wait! He is much more than a match for your problems. Put differently, your problems are no match for God, none at all. He is the solution, really the only one.
3. Derive comfort from the fact God could deliver you if He so chose {all-powerful). Since God is good, we know there is always a good reason for our troubles.
4. God is all-wise, and knows how much we can take, and what we can take, and just what we should take.
5. Think of it: God is incapable of letting you down! His promises have to be fulfilled! When others around you change (sometimes for the worse), God will never. Why? He can't!
We recommend Jerry Bridges' excellent book Trusting God Even When Life Hurts where he combines and applies three of God's attributes: love, wisdom, and sovereignty.