Does God have a foundational attribute

Thursday, September 06, 2007

Does God have a foundational attribute
I know many people whom I love dearly who would say that God’s foundational attribute is his holiness. For example:
“God does not present His holiness as a horizontal prescription for human activity. God displays holiness as the central and defining essence of his character…Fact is, God’s holiness demanded that sin be paid for, and then His love compelled Him to pay the price Himself.” ~ James MacDonald
I think I understand where this sentiment that without God’s holiness he would not be so different from you and I.

I also know many people whom I also love dearly who would say that God’s foundational attribute is his love. After all the greatest commandments are not to be Holy for I am Holy but rather:
“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these.”
I also think I understand this sentiment that without God’s love is so central to who he is that the scriptures say that he IS love. We all cherish both his love and his holiness.

I must confess that I’ve never really understood the need to determine God’s foundational attribute. He is both of these things to the highest degree possible. I want to suggest that there is no need to determine God’s foundational attribute simply because scripture does not speak of God having a foundational attribute. Scripture does tell us to “Be Holy, because I am holy” (1 Peter 1.16), and as has already been mentioned “God is love” (1 John 4:8). I think that these two attributes of holiness and love meet so wonderfully in our Lord, especially in the mystery of the incarnation. How a holy God was able to
1.      Humbly take on human flesh (Phil 2)
2.      Live a holy life: “He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth” 1 Peter 2:22
3.      Demonstrated his love for us while we were still sinners (Romans 5:8) He did not come to condemn the world, but to save the world through him (John 3:17)
Jesus is the only one who has been able to be both holy and loving to perfection or completion. Please understand me when I say that: these two qualities kiss in the person of Jesus Christ. This is our challenge as Christians to be like him in the world while not of the world. I think we must keep these two qualities in tension in our own lives. The danger I think is to focus on one to the exclusion of the other. We don’t want to focus on holiness to the exclusion of love so that pull out of the world all together and forget that we are also commanded to love. And we don’t want to focus on love to the exclusion of holiness and fall into being conformed to the world. What a challenge!

In Sunday school the next two weeks, we will be talking about God’s holiness. I can’t wait. I love meditating upon his holiness. James MacDonald encourages us to ask God to open up our hearts to reveal his holiness to us so that we can truly worship him. I think this is a good challenge for us.

Spend some these next two weeks reading through Isaiah’s call in Isaiah 6:1-7. See if you can spot how God’s holiness and his love are both visible in this passage!