God’s attribute: God is unique

This is a new series we are starting on the attributes of God.

Selected Scriptures

Purpose: this session we looked at five truths concerning the truth that God is unique so that we would worship and cultivate a loving awe of God.

1. General statement that God is unique
2. God is different than humans
3. There is Only One God
4. God is different than false gods
5. Three ways God can be distinct

 

Note: Some Words before we begin this study.

• Sometimes in Systematic Theology and Apologetics writing this is called the Creator/Creature distinction
• By unique I mean that God is unlike us or anything other creatures and creation.
• Also when we talk about God’s incommunicable attributes we are talking about attributes that He alone possess, which makes God unique of all beings.

 

Truth 1: General statement that God is unique

1. “For this time I am going to send all My plagues on you and your servants and your people, so that you may know that there is no one like Me in all the earth.” (Exodus 9:14)
   1. In the context God is speaking to Moses.
   2. Moses has been speaking to the king of Egypt to free the Hebrews from slavery in Egypt.
   3. Here in this verse God explains the reason why God is sending plagues is so people know God is unique in that God said “there is no one like Me in all the earth.”
2. “See now that I, I am He, And there is no god besides Me; It is I who put to death and give life. I have wounded and it is I who heal, And there is no one who can save anyone from My hand.” (Deuteronomy 32:39)
   1. Here again we see God saying He is unique for God says “there is no god besides Me”
   2. In what ways is God unique?
      1. “It is I who put to death and give life.”
      2. “I have wounded and it is I who heal”
      3. “And there is no one who can save anyone from My hand”
3. Other verses: Deuteronomy 4:35, Psalm 18:31, Isaiah 43:10, 44:8, Isaiah 45:5-6, 45:18, 45:21, 46:9.

 

Truth 2: God is different than humans

1. God rebukes those who thinks God is like man: “These things you have done and I kept silent; You thought that I was just like you; I will rebuke you and present the case before your eyes.” (Psalm 50:21)
2. “God is not a man, that He would lie, Nor a son of man, that He would change His mind; Has He said, and will He not do it? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?” (Numbers 23:19)
   1. In the context this is Balaam the false prophet speaking.
   2. God is speaking truth through Balaam to rebuke the evil king Balak (18)
   3. In this rebuke there is a statement of what is not like: “God is not a man,”
   4. What specific differences are mentioned?
      1. God does not lie.
      2. God does not change His Mind.
      3. God is one who keeps His Word
3. Similar to Numbers 23:19 is 1 Samuel 15:29: “Also the Glory of Israel will not lie nor change His mind; for He is not a man, that He would change His mind.”
4. “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” declares the Lord.  ⁹ “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways And My thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isaiah 55:8-9)
   1. We see here that man cannot be compared to God.
   2. God is different from us in terms of:
      1. Thoughts
      2. Ways
   3. Specifically the reason why is because God is greater in terms of His:
      1. Ways
      2. Thoughts
   4. Note there is a poetic emphasis of “Ways” with this verses’ Chiasm (Hebrew word ‘sandwich’):
      1. Thoughts
         1. Ways
         2. Ways
      2. Thoughts
5. “Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. (1 Corinthians 1:25)
   1. Distinctions between God and men being made.
   2. Discussion Question: How is God different?
6. “Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways! ³⁴ For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who became His counselor?” (Romans 11:33-34)
   1. This is a doxological praise that Paul broke into after some serious intense theology of God’s predestination and the role of Israel and Gentiles in Romans 9-11.
   2. No one can search His ways and His Judgment.

 

Truth 3: There is Only One God

1. Here we see God is not just different qualitatively but quantitatively there is only one God, further reinforcing the point that God is unique.
2. Yahweh, the God of the Bible is alone in that He is qualitatively incomparable: “Who is like You among the gods, O Lord? Who is like You, majestic in holiness, Awesome in praises, working wonders?” (Exodus 15:11)
   1. Here in context is Moses’ song after the Exodus
   2. With all that Moses heard and seen He knew God was different than other so called “gods.”
3. “See now that I, I am He, And there is no god besides Me; It is I who put to death and give life. I have wounded and it is I who heal, And there is no one who can deliver from My hand” (Deuteronomy 32:39)
   1. Here in context is Moses’ song to the people (44)
   2. Some people have argued that the Bible is a product of evolution; that in the beginning of the Bible the people believed in henotheism which “is the belief that there are other gds, but only one God is to be worshipped.”[1] See for example above in Exodus 15:11.
   3. But note the “no god… no one” language in this verse that shows the possibilities of other gods being closed.
   4. This is significant in that this appeared in the first five books of Moses thus questioning the thesis that the Bible was originally henotheistic.
   5. Thus reference to other gods must be seen as rhetorical. More about false gods below.
4. Other Old Testament monotheistic passages in historical books affirmed by others: 2 Samuel 7:22, 1 Kings 8:60, 1 Chronicles 17:20.[2]
5. Isaiah’s Theology is clearly monotheistic: Isaiah 43:10, 44:6, 44:8, 45:5-6, 45:14, 45:18, 45:21-22, 46:9.[3]
   1. Survey these passages and we see the strong use of “no other besides me” language.
   2. Note how Isaiah 37:16 refer to the fact that there is one God even when considering other kingdoms and their gods: “OLord of hosts, the God of Israel, who is enthroned above the cherubim, You are the God, You alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth.”
   3. For an Old Testament book Isaiah is definitely heavier in its emphasis on Monotheism.
6. Jesus Himself affirmed there is only one true God: “This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.” (John 17:3)
   1. Jesus the Son of God Himself attest to the One True God.
   2. Do you value your knowledge of the one true God? Don’t forget John 17:3 that this is eternal life!

 

Truth 4: God is different than false gods

1. He is different than other false gods
   1. “For even though they knew God, they did not^[n]honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. ²² Professing to be wise, they became fools, ²³ and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and ^[o]crawling creatures.” (Romans 1:21-23)
   2. “For they exchanged the truth of God for^[p]a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed ^[q] Amen.” (Romans 1:25)
      1. Both Passages imply that the Creator ought to be Worshipped.
      2. Both Passages shows that it is a bad thing to worship creatures and creation.
2. What does the Bible says about other gods?
   1. The Bible calls other gods idols: “Forall the gods of the peoples are idols, But the Lord made the heavens.” (Psalm 96:4-5)
   2. The Bible evaluates idols as worthless; read Psalm 115:4-7 and also verse 8 with its implication of what it means for those who follow them.
   3. These other gods do not truly have Divine natures: “However at that time,when you did not know God, you were slaves to those which by nature are no gods.” (Galatians 4:8)
   4. These other gods are demonic: “However at that time,when you did not know God, you were slaves to those which by nature are no gods.” (Galatians 4:8)

 

Truth 5: Three ways God can be distinct

1. Quantity (how much)
   1. When we think of some of God’s communicable attributes for instance God’s patience, God’s patience is longer in duration in time than our ability to be patient.
   2. Yet God being quantitatively different than us isn’t fully adequate to capture the essence of His uniqueness: For example the difference between God and creatures isn’t that God has more being and creature has less being.[4]
2. Quality (which)
   1. When we think of some of God’s communicable attributes for instance God’s love, God’s love is greater than our love.
   2. Yet God being qualitatively different than us isn’t fully adequate to capture the essence of His uniqueness: God is a different king of being than the class of humans so with God and creatures it isn’t as if there’s a comparison of two more item within the same class and judging which one is better.[5]
3. Quiddity (what)
   1. Quiddity is an uncommon term but it refers to the idea of “what” in which God is different than what creatures and creation are.[6]
   2. This type of difference acknowledge that God in comparison to us are “apples and oranges” differences.

 

Theological Implications

1. We should not be surprised that some of God’s attributes are not like us and His creation (incommunicable attributes).
2. We should not be surprised that even some of God’s attributes that we have (communicable attributes) is different from us not in terms of degrees but kind as well.
   1. His knowledge is not like our knowledge of something.
   2. His love is not like our love.
   3. With importance for the Trinity: His personhood and Being is different than our personhood.
3. Yet this does not mean it is meaningless to talk about God and humans in relations to God. We can talk about God analogously.
   1. What we mean by analogous isn’t by means of analogy or illustration but in the sense that we think or speak of God we acknowledge there’s connection and disconnection between God and humans.[7]
   2. For example to talk about God is love we say He is love in His attribute in proportion to Him as God while human love as an attribute is to the portion of us as humans.[8]
   3. This means that we keep in mind that God’s love is original, eternal, perfect, Holy, etc.

 

What does this mean for our lives?

1. Knowing He’s different than us as our Creator and we are His creatures means we should worship Him with awe and praise!
2. Have humility when we study God: We don’t know about Him unless He reveals Himself to us and its not because of our wisdom!
3. We should expect to learn about things about God that shows how He is different than us—and that includes the possibility that He is Triune.
4. Meditate on how is He different than us has implication for our lives:
   1. He does not lie; we can trust in Him!
   2. His ways of things are different but also better than our plans and ways: we need to trust in Him.
   3. He does not lie so His words are promises: we must love to trust in Him!
5. Yet at the same time though He is different He is also the original archetype and we are to “mirror” Him in a creaturely humble way as His image; How have your life mirror God in terms of love, holiness and patience?
6. What other implications can you think of?

 

[1] Tim Chester, Delighting in the Trinity (Purcellville, VA: The Good Book Company, 2010), 24.

[2] As cited from Robert Morey, The Trinity: Evidences and Issues (Iowa Falls, IA: World Bible Publishers, 1996), 64.

[3] As cited from Robert Morey, The Trinity: Evidences and Issues (Iowa Falls, IA: World Bible Publishers, 1996), 63-64.

[4] Samuel Renihan, Deity and Decree (Seattle, WA: Kindle Direct Publishing, 2020), 24.

[5] Samuel Renihan, Deity and Decree (Seattle, WA: Kindle Direct Publishing, 2020), 24.

[6] Samuel Renihan, Deity and Decree (Seattle, WA: Kindle Direct Publishing, 2020), 25.

[7] Samuel Renihan, Deity and Decree (Seattle, WA: Kindle Direct Publishing, 2020), 28.

[8] Samuel Renihan, Deity and Decree (Seattle, WA: Kindle Direct Publishing, 2020), 28.