THE ATTRIBUTES
OF GOD
Lesson # 22
The
Life of God Ephesians 4:18
My
purpose and desire in these studies of God’s character is to assist (if God the
Holy Spirit will be pleased to bless my efforts) the reader in beholding the
supreme excellence, glory, and greatness of God. Oh, that we may be consumed by
it! If we are, indeed, consumed with a sense of God’s greatness and glory, we
will do whatever we can to make him known. That is my heart’s desire. I pray
that God will be pleased to make himself known in this generation (1 Kgs.
18:36-39). We must know God. There is no salvation apart from the knowledge of
God himself as he is revealed in Christ (John 17:3). It is the ever increasing
desire of every believing sinner, saved by grace through faith in Christ, to
know him (Phil. 3:10). And those who know him desire to make him known to
others (Rom. 10:1-4).
Nothing
is more suitable to that end than a study of the divine attributes. In
Ephesians 4:18, Paul tells us that all unbelievers, all unregenerate men and
women, live in the vanity of their minds, “Having
the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the
ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart.” But
believers, those who are born again, are by the grace of God made partakers of
the life of God.
I
realize that it is impossible for us, with our puny, finite brains, to
comprehend the life of God. I only hope in this study to set before you a sense
of the infinite, incomprehensible greatness of God’s life. The one thing that
must be grasped is the fact that God is life; and apart from him there is no
life.
GOD IS LIFE ESSENTIALLY. There are many
forms of life in the universe. The lowest form of life is plant life. In
animals there is a higher degree of life. Like us, animals breathe, see, smell,
hear, taste, and feel. Like us, they eat and drink. But there is a much higher
form of life in God’s rational creatures, in angels and men. Angels and men
have all the senses of life possessed by plants and animals; but we have other
senses of life which set us apart from those lower creatures. Angels and men
are rational creatures, capable of understanding, affection, and will.
However,
there is still a much higher form of life among God’s creatures, spiritual
life. Spiritual life is that which is given to men and women in the new birth.
It is a principle of life, grace, and holiness implanted in us by the Spirit of
God. Spiritual life makes us partakers of the divine nature (2 Pet. 1:4; Gal.
2:20). Spiritual life produces in the believer a nature that is as far above
natural human life as human life is above plant life (Gal. 5:22-23). But even
this highest form of life among God’s creatures falls far short, infinitely
short, of that life which is God. All creature life is derived life. God is
life essentially. All creatures get life from God. God gets life from no one.
He is life!
God
is life in and of himself (John
5:26). As we have seen in previous studies, God alone is eternal and
self-existent. God the Father has life in himself. And he has given to the Son,
(not to the Son as God, but to the Son as Man), as our Mediator to have life in
himself. God the Father is life. God the Son is life (John 1:1-4). And God the
Spirit is life (Rev. 11:11 - “The Spirit
of life.”).
Because God is life in and of
himself, God’s life is totally free and independent. There is no cause for his life and nothing upon which his life is
dependent. Our lives, both naturally and spiritually, depend entirely upon God
(Deut. 30:20). He gives us life, physical life and spiritual life. And he
sustains us in life, physical life and spiritual life. But God lives his own
life. Our natural lives depend upon the union of our bodies to our souls. And
our spiritual lives depend upon the union of our souls to Christ (John 15:1-6).
This union of our souls to Christ is a union of grace and of faith, an
indissolveable union with the Son of God (Eph. 5:30-32). But the life of God
depends upon nothing. His name is El-Shaddai, God all-sufficient, blessed and
happy in himself forever.
The
Lord our God is the one true and living God. Throughout the Scriptures, God’s
very glory by which he is exalted above and distinguished from the idols of men
is his life.
1.
The law was given by the authority of the living God (Deut.
5:26).
2.
Joshua led Israel in triumph into the land of promise by the
power of the living God (Josh. 3:10).
3.
David’s love and the thirst of his soul was for the living
God (Psa. 42:1-2; 84:2).
4.
Our Savior is the Son of the living God (Matt. 16:16).
5.
And as believers we are the temple of the living God.
All
the idols of men are motionless, lifeless, and dead (Jer. 10:5, 10, 15, 16;
Acts 14:15; 1 Thess. 1:9). Therefore, the worshippers of idols place great
emphasis on dead ceremonies. But we believe, trust, worship, and submit to the
living God (Rev. 10:5-6).
When
I was a boy, a professor at a religious college near my hometown started a
foolish lie that caught the nation and spread like wildfire. He said, “God is
dead!” Well, that wretch is now dead. His blasphemy did not even disturb God.
Some say, “God is alive.” But that is not true either. God is not alive. God is
life! God is life essentially.
GOD IS LIFE ETERNALLY (1 John 5:20).
God is life without beginning, without succession, and without end. The
eternality of God is a subject that baffles human reason. We cannot think in
terms of eternality. But God is eternal. His life is eternal. The eternality of
life in God implies many things: His simplicity, his spirituality, his
independence, etc. But for the purposes of this study, let me direct your
attention to just twov things that are revealed in the eternality of God.
1.
Immutability (Psa.
102:26-27; Mal. 3:6; Heb. 13:8; James 1:17) - Only God is eternal. And only God
is immutable. God who is eternal life must also be immutable life. He never
experiences any change of any kind. Blessed be his name! Because God is
immutable his purpose is steadfast; his promises are sure; and his people are
secure. Eternality and immutability go hand in hand. And eternality and
immutability go hand in hand with...
2.
Immortality (1 Tim. 1:17;
6:16). Angels are immortal because God made them so. The souls of men are
immortal because God made them so. The bodies of the saints shall be made, like
Christ’s human body, immortal, because God will make them so in the
resurrection. Even the bodies of the damned in hell will be made immortal by
God. However, God alone has immortality in and of himself, because God alone
has life in himself eternally.
GOD IS LIFE EFFICIENTLY (Psa. 36:9).
God is the source, the Spring, the Author, and the Giver of life. Life in its
lowest form and in its highest form is the gift of God. And God is totally
sovereign over all life. He gives life to the grass; and he takes it away (Gen.
1:11-12; Isa. 40:7). He gives life to the beasts; and he takes it away (Gen.
1:20-25; Psa. 104:29). He gives life to men upon the earth; and he takes it
away at his pleasure (Gen. 2:7; Psa. 68:20; Heb. 9:27). When he is pleased to
do so, God can make a jackass talk and reason like a man (Num. 22:28). And when
he is pleased to do so, God can cause a brilliant, powerful man to eat grass like
an ox, grow feathers like an eagle, and his nails to become claws like a bird’s
(Dan. 4:32-33). God is totally sovereign over all life. He alone can give life.
No man can make a living fly. He might as easily create a world. And no man can
destroy a fly. He might as easily destroy the world. As God is sovereign over
all natural, physical life, so he is sovereign over all spiritual, eternal
life.
Spiritual life is the free gift of God (John
5:21, 25; 11:25; Rom. 8:2). All men by nature, though alive physically, are
dead spiritually, dead in trespasses and in sins. They cannot give themselves
life. No one can give what he does not have. It is God alone who gives us life.
He gave us life legally by the sacrifice of Christ (Rom. 7:4). He gave us life
spiritually by the regeneration of the Holy Spirit (Eph. 2:1-6). The new birth
is a resurrection from the dead (John 5:25), the first resurrection over which
the second death has no power (Rev. 20:6). He gives us life continually by the
power of his grace (1 Pet. 1:5).
And eternal life, so often spoken of in the
Scriptures as that which the saints shall enjoy forever, is the gift of God’s
free and sovereign grace (Rom. 6:23). It is our predestined inheritance,
promised before the world began (Eph. 1:11 Acts 13:48; Tit. 1:2). It is our
purchased possession (Eph. 1:14), purchased for us by the blood of Christ (Heb.
9:12). It is the gift of God to all who trust his dear Son (John 17:2; 10:28; 1
John 5:12). Because every aspect of eternal life is the free gift of God’s
sovereign grace in Christ, all who believe the gospel message of salvation by
grace alone must reject the ridiculous notion that there are degrees of reward
in heaven!
"If
ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ
sitteth on the right hand of God. Set
your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God."
Colossians 3:1-3