 |
||
|
|
|
|
|
|
||
-18-
The God Who Is
The Moral Attributes
It is essential to establish three things if we would have a proper understanding of the moral attributes.
First, God is the pattern of morality. There is only one Lawgiver, and that is God. Therefore, when we hear someone say, "What is right for you is not necessarily right for me," we would do well to remember the words of William Penn: "Right is right if everyone is against it, and wrong is wrong if everyone is for it." God has inscribed the Moral Law upon the heart of every man who comes into this world. (Romans 2:15; John 1:9) Contrary to the desires of ungodly men, morality is dogmatic. It is neither relative, nor open to dialogue.
Second, The will of God is the rule of morality. We are moral when we do the will of God. Since the Creator is the Lawgiver, that is right that is in accordance with His will. The sole standard for morality is the will of God, not the "vox populi," or the "voice of the people."
Third, Disobedience is antithetical to morality. This generation has attempted to obfuscate the line of demarcation that separates right from wrong, truth from error. The foundations of these are everlasting foundations, yet men have been told that all things are relative. But right and wrong, truth and error, do not change. God has designed them according to His will, and His will is changeless. "God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent" (Numbers 23:19).
Holiness
God is holy. By the word "holy" we mean that character in God whereby he abhors sin and demands purity. Holiness is basic to both the divine and the moral attributes of God. The following chapter is therefore devoted to a study of the holiness of God. Here, note two Scripture passages given earlier.
"Who is like unto thee, O LORD, among the gods? who is like thee, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders?" (Exodus 15:11). And, note again what the cherubims in heaven say, "Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory" (Isaiah 6:3b).
Righteousness
God is a God of righteousness. He imparts this to godly people. It has already been noted that it is God's right as the Creator to determine what is right. So the word "righteousness" comes from the Anglo-Saxon and means "right wiseness," or "the wisdom of that which is right."
The Bible tells us, "The LORD is righteous in all his ways, and holy in all his works" (Psalm 145:17). God is a righteous Lord; and because He loves righteousness, He does things righteously. Is it possible for God to be a God of holiness and a lover of righteousness, who Himself does what is right—is it possible that He could have children who are unholy and who are continually doing that which is not right? Yet, many people who claim to have been "born again," "born of God," live strangely like the children of the Devil. They tell the church that they are the people of God, but the Lord has never set His mark of righteous-ness in them. In vain do such people hope for heaven.
In Hebrews chapter 1, in verse 8, we read, "But unto the Son, he saith, `Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever.'" The Jehovah's Witnesses falsely claim that nowhere in the New Testament is it declared that Jesus is God. Note the verse again: "But unto the Son, he", that is, Jehovah, says, "`Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever.'" Here God the Father clearly says of His Son that He is God.
The passage continues. "A scepter of righteousness is the scepter of thy kingdom." Heaven is a place of righteousness. It is a place where people do what is right in complete obedience to God. It would be a worse judgment for a rebellious, hard-hearted, and stubborn sinner to be sent to Heaven, so God in His mercy sends him to Hell.
The apostle Paul preached in Athens "...For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, `For we are also his offspring.' Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man's device. And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent: because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead" (Acts 17:28-31).
Note first that the standard by which God will judge the world is a righteous standard.
Note second, that we are expressly told who will be the judge. "He hath appointed a day in the which He will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead." The one ordained to judge the world in righteousness is He "that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, (He) is alive for evermore" (Revelation 1:18a). His name "LORD of Hosts" means "Lord of the armies of Heaven."
The righteousness of God is a great blessing to the people of God. "For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labor of love, which ye have showed toward his name, in that ye have ministered to the saints, and do minister" (Hebrews 6:10). What is done for the Lord is not for naught. All the prayers we pray, all the work we do, and all that we spend for the cause of God and for His truth —all that we expend for the Gospel and for the glory of God, as the songwriter wrote, "Jesus will repay." "God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labor of love," but, if we are tight-fisted with our time, our talents, and with our money, or if we give grudgingly—we lose all. Note here, however, that everyone whom God declares to be righteous, He makes righteous.