What is the Doctrine of God? Or Theology Proper?

This is one that I’d like to start with.  Because it’s kinda foundational for many other doctrines.  How can we possibly know what good doctrine looks like if we don’t know who God is?

A.W. Tozer said, “What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.

A good question to start with is:  What is God?

Scott Swain uses the Westminster Larger Catechism to provide a summary:

“God is a Spirit,  (John 4:24) in and of himself infinite in being, glory, blessedness (or happiness) and perfection; all-sufficient, eternal, unchangeable, incomprehensible, everywhere present, almighty, knowing all things, most wise, most holy, most just, most merciful and gracious, long- suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth.”

That’s a pretty solid list of his attributes – and all of his attributes can be gathered together under two attributes – “independence and infinity”. 

Before thinking about God in a divine way, we should address idolatry.  God sure did.  He said who he was: “I Am Who I Am”, and then in the first two commandments addressed the importance of knowing God to avoid idolatry.  And despite no physical golden calves around these parts, idolatry is very much alive and well in our day, and in our very hearts. 

Martin Luther once said, “Your God is whomever or whatever you put your trust in.”

Where do you put your hope?  What do you find yourself thinking about the most, or ruminating on continually?  Is it money, and the security it (supposedly) provides, family – spouse or children, the goal of retirement, marriage itself, your job, your status?  Oh, there’s more. It’s a wise thing to periodically check yourself for your idols.

So, why are we susceptible to idolatry?  Aside from the fact that our sinful nature is a reality in this life – design and language are forces to be reckoned with.  What do I mean?

In “Design” – we can view it as God towards creatures – we are made in God’s image, we resemble God. We are like him, but He is not like us! He does not resemble His creatures.  We tend to want to turn it around, pulling from our own experiences.  For example: “I know what human love is, so I know what divine love is.”  God shares some attributes with us, ones we label “communicable” such as mercy, wisdom, grace, and love.  What distinguishes these attributes between God and man? God’s are independent of anything and everyone, and infinite!

In terms of “Language” – how he reveals himself to us, we see that he stoops down or condescends to our level and speaks to us in human language instead of in a divine language.  Biblical language of God is called “anthropomorphic”.   This is where God uses creation to describe himself.  For example: “God’s strong arm” or “Our God is our Rock” etc.

So how can we avoid idolatry and instead think about God in a divine way? 
“God is infinite and independent in his being, attributes, and actions, and, as such, he is the ‘happy God’”. ( 1 Tim 1: 11; 6:17)

Let’s start with his independence.  God is independent in his being, attributes, and actions.  As Scott Swain put it – “he is not dependent on a power source”!  He is truly self-existent.  God is independent in all his attributes and perfections, in all his decrees and deeds.  He is independent in his intellect, his will, his counsel, his love, and power.    We are who we are – outside of ourselves. God creates us and we are completely, 100%, totally dependent on God.  He is his own explanation.  And – here’s an important thing for us to remember: we don’t add anything to him, and he does not need us or anything!

Moving over to his infiniteness.  God is infinite is his being, attributes, and actions.  We can look at it in 2 ways – negatively stated, he is not finite. No end, no beginning, no restrictions or limitations, or boundaries.  Positively stated – “God in himself is fullness.” What does that mean? Nothing and no one can contain God.  Heaven and the highest heavens can’t contain him!  God doesn’t dwell in something. He is everywhere, all the time.   God is inherently and intrinsically FULL.  Sometimes we think of infinity as a blank, endless void of nothing.  So, why is he not contained by boundaries?  Because of his fullness. There is no empty infinity.  It’s full!

Romans 11:33 “Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable are his ways!”  He is a depth of riches that is unsearchable!  God is wise to an infinite degree.  There is nothing he does not know.  He abounds, flows over – no limits. His steadfast love endures forever: that’s infinite language! 

Vos said, “How we can know that God’s love for us will never end is because it never began.” – his love has always been as he has always been. 

This is staggering, mind blowing stuff.  Hard to comprehend, but oh to believe it, is joy! 

What about a “happy God”?  What do we make of that?  His independence and his infiniteness equals him being happy/blessed.  A divine beatitude.  Divine happiness refers to God’s fullness (infinity) of being, wisdom, power, goodness etc, and he has it all within himself independently. God in and of himself is perfection – and he possesses all perfection.  He loves himself – as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, as the one who possesses all perfection – He is a happy God. A blessed God.   And in God we have everything we need!  Therefore, we can be happy, too.  Why? Because of the covenant of his grace. He is our God, and we hold all things in common with God – although we lack in many ways.  Yet, the truth is that in God we have everything we need and can be happy.  And because of the covenant of grace, all of his attributes are there for our benefit. 

What benefits?  Here Scott Swain lays it out:

His infinite and independent wisdom is there to minister to our folly.

His infinite and independent grace is there to minister to our guilt.

His infinite and independent mercy is there to minister to our misery.

His infinite and independent power is there to minister to our weakness.

His infinite and independent sufficiency is there to minister to our want.

Everything we are or have is because of and from God. This is why a works-based salvation simply doesn’t work.

I hope this helped a little bit in understanding a teeny part of the Doctrine of God.

Till next time, grace and peace!