Attributes of Purpose – God is One who has revealed Himself to be purposeful. We exist by the determined purpose of God; and our destiny in heaven also reveals God’s good purpose.
Will. Grudem writes that, “God’s will is that attribute of God whereby he approves and determines to bring about every action necessary for the existence and activity of himself and all creation. This definition indicates that God’s will has to do with deciding and approving the things that God is and does.”
“Scripture frequently indicates God’s will as the… ultimate reason for everything that happens.” Paul refers to God as the one “who works all things according to the counsel of His will” (Eph. 1:11). The phrase “all things” is often used by Paul to describe everything that exists or all creation. The Greek verb for works (energeo) in this verse “is a present participle and suggests continual activity.” God is always actively executing His will for all creation.
Revelation 4 describes a scene of heavenly worship where 24 elders extoll God for His purposeful will, “Worthy are You, our Lord and our God, to receive glory and honor and power; for You created all things, and because of Your will they existed, and were created.”
The Bible consistently affirm that things occur according to God’s sovereign will and wise plan. The verb “predestined” affirms that things according to God’s decrees aforehand. The good news is that God predestines all of us who love God to be conformed to Christ’s image, that we might be worthy to be known as His children in eternity.
Even when people rebel against God’s moral will and act defiantly toward Him, they too are mysteriously guided by God’s predestining power. Acts 4:27-28 describes the united prayer of the early disciples, after they were forbidden by the Jewish High Court from proclaiming Jesus publicly. “For truly in this city there were gathered together against Your holy servant Jesus, whom You anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, 28 to do whatever Your hand and Your purpose predestined to occur.” Although Herod and Pilate acted wickedly in condemning the Lord Jesus to death, we all understand that they unwittingly accomplished God’s redemptive plan for the ages – an immeasurably greater good than the suffering they inflicted.
This recalls the patriarch Joseph’s wise appreciation of God’s sovereign will when he told his brothers who had sold him as a slave, “As for you, you meant it against me for evil; but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result, to preserve many alive.” Joseph’s persecution was a type of Christ’s in that he suffered unjustly to redeem Israel and Egypt from famine unto death.
This affirms that while people may disobey God morally, no one acts outside of God’s sovereign will. That is why James “encourages us to see all the events of our lives as subject to God’s will.” James 4:13-15 says, “Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit.” 14 Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. 15 Instead, you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that.”
Distinctions in Aspects of God’s Will: Necessary will and free will. In understanding God’s will it is helpful to make some careful distinctions. Grudem first points out the difference between God’s necessary will and His free will. “God’s necessary will includes everything that He must will according to his nature.” God wills that He forever and immutably be Himself. When God says, “I AM who I AM” or “I WILL BE who I WILL BE” He is declaring His unchanging will to be who He is. “God cannot choose to be different than he is or to cease to exist.” That is His necessary will.
“God’s free will includes all things that God decided to will but had no necessity to will according to his nature.” God’s decision to create the universe or to make planet Earth how and when He did, or to make man in His image, or to redeem us through Christ’s death are all acts of divine free will. God in no wise was compelled to make anything apart from Himself out of necessity. God didn’t even need to make us for love – because the Triune has existed in a love relationship from all eternity.
The tension between God’s free will and man’s free will is one that poses questions for us all. If God’s free will affects our free will to be saved or not, in what sense do human beings have free will. The Reformers would answer that God never hinders us from making choices. But our radically corrupt nature impels us repeatedly to choose what our sinful nature deems most pleasurable or desirable at the moment. People willfully shut God or God’s will out of their minds to pursue what seems right at the time to them.
Secret will and revealed will. It’s also helpful to distinguish between God’s secret will and revealed will. Once can also call these God’s sovereign will and moral will. Deut. 29:29 says, “The secret things belong to the LORD, but the things revealed belong to us and to our sons forever, that we may observe all the words of this law.” Moses understood that what God reveals is intended to help us obey Him and prosper thereby. However, there are many things, which God does not reveal to us – “details about future events, specific details of hardship or blessing in [our] lives, and so forth” (Grudem, 213.)
God’s revealed will is sometimes referred to as God’s will of precept or will of command. “This revealed will of God is God’s declared will concerning what we should do or what God commands us to do.”
God’s secret will includes hidden decrees by which he governs the universe and determines everything that will happen. Except for future prophecies, God doesn’t reveal these decrees to us. “We find out what God has decreed when events actually happen.” This aspect of God’s secret will is sometimes called God’s will of decree.
When Jesus taught us to pray, “Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” this is a prayer that people would obey God’s revealed or moral will. God’s sovereign, secret will shall surely come to pass. Jesus’ teaching points us to prayer in accordance with scriptural guidance on how the righteous should live. Jesus taught later in the same sermon, “Not every one who says to me ‘Lord’, ‘Lord’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven.” He was referring to the revealed, moral will of God, not His secret will.
This is also how we should view 1 Timothy 2:3-4, which says, “God our Savior… desires all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth.” And also 2 Peter 3:9, which says that God “is not willing for any to perish.” This is God’s revealed, moral will; but we know that many will in fact perish for having refused the salvation God freely offers. Jesus and His apostles said so, and history amply proves this.
When James and Paul used the phrase “if the Lord wills” this referred to God’s secret will, which was unknown to them. Jesus prayed, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to babes; yea, Father, for such was your gracious will” (Mt. 11:25-26 RSV). This reflected God’s secret will in deciding who would understand Jesus Christ and believe in Him. Jesus went on to say, “no one knows the Son except the Father; nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son wills to reveal Him” (Mt. 11:27). Here we see a juxtaposition of the two wills of God. Those whom the Son wills to reveal the Father are not known in advance by us, so they are part of God’s secret will. But it is clearly God’s revealed will for the Son to reveal the Father to many.
Grudem says, “There is danger is speaking about evil events as happening according to the will of God, even though we speak of them in this way. One danger is that we might begin to think that God takes pleasure in evil, which he does not do (see Ezek. 33:11), though he can use it for his good purposes. Another danger is that we might begin to blame God for sin, rather than ourselves, or to think that we are not responsible for our evil actions. Scripture, however, does not hesitate to couple statements of God’s sovereign will with statements of man’s responsibility for evil.
Freedom. Another attribute of purpose is God’s freedom. “God’s freedom is that attribute of God whereby he does whatever he pleases. This definition implies that nothing in all creation can hinder God from doing his will. This attribute of God therefore is closely related to his power. Yet this aspect of freedom focuses on the fact that God is not constrained by anything external to himself and that he is free to do whatever he wishes to do. There is no person or force that can ever dictate to God what he should do. He is under no authority or external constraint.”
Psalm 115:3 says, “Our God is in the heavens; He does whatever He pleases.” Psalm 135:6 reiterates this, “Whatever the Lord pleases, He does, in heaven and in earth, in the seas and in all deeps.” Proverbs 21:1 declares God’s sovereignty over the rulers in the earth, “The king’s heart is like channels of water in the hands of the LORD; He turns it wherever He pleases.” And after being humbled by God for seven seasons, King Nebuchadnezzar acknowledged, “But He does according to His will in the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of earth; And no one can ward off His hand or say to Him, ‘What have You done?’” All these scriptures affirm God’s absolute freedom.
Omnipotence (Power, Sovereignty) Consistent with God’s will and freedom is His omnipotence or infinite power and sovereignty. Omnipotence combines two Latin words to mean, “All power” and indeed that is what God possesses. The ancient Semitic name for God, El Shaddai, means God Almighty. “God’s omnipotence means that God is able to do all his holy will.”
God rhetorically asked Jeremiah the prophet, “Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh; is anything too difficult for Me?” (Jer. 32:27)
The Apostle Paul says that God “is able to do exceeding abundantly beyond all that we can ask or think.” That’s infinite power. The angel Gabriel told May at the annunciation of Jesus’ birth, “With God nothing will be impossible” (Lk. 1:37), and Jesus says, “With God all things are possible” (Matt. 19:26).
“However, [Grudem observes] there are some things that God cannot do. God cannot will or do anything that would deny his own character. This is why the definition of omnipotence is stated in terms of God’s ability to do “all his holy will”. It is not absolutely everything that God is able to do, but everything that is consistent with his character. For example, God cannot lie” – as stated in Titus 1:2.
“God’s exercise of power over his creation is also called God’s sovereignty. God’s sovereignty is his exercise of rule over his creation.”
Humans also exercise greater will, freedom and power than any other creature on Earth. God gives us free will to decide whether to align our will with His; and this is the final test of faith. Jesus rightly asks, “Why do you call me ‘Lord’ ‘Lord’ and do not do what I say?” Our ability to accept or reject the Lordship of Christ is our birthright of freedom; but only those who submit to Him experience the inner freedom of being in harmony and fellowship with God, which frees us from the power of sin. I hope each of you has decided to follow Jesus to your dying day. If you do, the moment of death will be the happiest day of your life.
Summary Attributes. I will conclude this message by discussing the final area of God’s communicable attributes. Grudem calls these “summary attributes” – attributes that apply to all of God’s attributes – attributes of being, of mind, morality, and purpose.
Perfection. Grudem notes that perfection overlaps with all of God’s other attributes because God possesses everything in perfection, and lacks nothing in any of them. Jesus tells us, “You are to be perfect [or complete] as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Mt. 5:48). And David says of God, “His way is perfect” (Psa. 18:30, cf. Dt. 32:4).
Blessedness. Another of God’s summary attributes is blessedness. Grudem says, “To be ‘blessed’ is to be happy in a very full and rich sense.” For example, the first Psalm begins, “How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand in the path of sinners, nor sit in the seat of scoffers.”
“God’s blessedness means that God delights fully in himself and in all that reflects his character.” God is the one Being who must delight in himself above all things because He is the best, the greatest, and the source of all other things. That God dwells in eternal blessedness is the best news for us because God intends for us to be eternally happy with him. That is a great consolation for enduring the sorrows of this life.
Beauty. Another attribute of God that applies to all others is His beauty. “God’s beauty is that attribute of God whereby he is the sum of all desirable qualities.” Beauty is clearly implicit in all of God’s attributes, especially His perfection. “Beauty is defined in a positive way to show that God actually does possess all desirable qualities.”
God’s beauty evokes delight and desire in all of creation. Jesus implied this when He said our “angels in heaven see continually the face of My Father.” When not on assignment, the angels love to be in the presence of God; for He is their highest desire. The mighty seraphim whom Isaiah beheld in a trance continually shouted out the glory of the Lord. David prayed, “One thing I have asked from the Lord, that I shall seek: That I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, To behold the beauty of the Lord And to meditate in His temple” (Psa. 27:4). Another Psalmist asked, “Whom have I in heaven but you, and besides You I desire nothing on earth.” When people encounter God’s beauty, everything else pales before Him and He becomes our sole desire.
“But,” Grudem adds, “we also delight in God’s excellence as we see it manifested in the lives of our brothers and sisters in the Lord. Therefore it is right that we feel joy and delight in the fellowship of one another, and that this joy deepens as our conformity to the life of Christ increases. It is right that we long to be in the fellowship of God’s people in which God’s character is manifested, for when we delight in the godliness of God’s people, we are ultimately delighting in God himself as we see his character evidenced in the lives of his people” (p.220).
Glory. Consonant with God’s beauty is His glory. In one sense the word glory “simply means ‘honor’ or ‘excellent reputation.’ This is the sense of Romans 3:23 which says, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Hebrews 1:3 says that the Son (Jesus) is the radiance of God’s glory. Jesus extolled God, “The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one.” God gave Jesus the highest honor, and He gives the highest honor we may possess – being God’s children, who are forever unified within God’s household.
“In another sense, God’s “glory” means the bright light that surrounds God’s presence.” This light is beautiful, so there is great overlap between God’s beauty and His glory. “God’s glory is the created brightness that surrounds God’s revelation of himself.” Since this light is created, “God’s glory in this sense is not actually an attribute of God in himself. Nevertheless, God’s glory is something that belongs to him alone in the appropriate outward expression of his own excellence.”
David asks (Psalm 24:10), “Who is this King of Glory? The LORD of hosts; He is the King of Glory.” Toward the end of his life, David extolled God, “Yours, O LORD, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty, indeed everything that is in the heavens and earth” (1 Chronicles 29:13).
“If Thou but Suffer God to Guide Thee”
If thou but suffer God to guide thee,
And hope in him through all thy ways,
He’ll give thee strength, whate’er betide thee,
And bear thee through the evil days;
Who trusts in God’s unchanging love
Builds on the rock that naught can move.
What can these anxious cares avail thee,
These never-ceasing moans and sighs?
What can it help if thou bewail thee
O’er each dark moment as it flies?
Our cross and trials do but press
The heavier for our bitterness.
Only be still, and wait his leisure
In cheerful hope, what heart content
To take whate’er thy Father’s pleasure
And all-deserving love hath sent;
Nor doubt our inmost wants are known
To him who chose us for his own.
All are alike before the highest;
‘Tis easy to our God, we know,
To raise thee up though low thou liest,
To make the rich man poor and low;
True wonders still by him are wrought
Who setteth up and brings to naught.
Sing, pray, and keep his ways unswerving
So do thine own part faithfully,
And trust his Word, though undeserving,
Thou yet shalt find it true for thee;
God never yet forsook at need
The soul that trusted him indeed.