Over the last year, went went over arguments for and against the existence of God. We will now turn our attention to describing and defining what the one true God is like using Wayne Grudem’s Systematic Theology.
These are commonly known as God’s attributes which are classified in two categories, communicable and incommunicable. Last week we went over God’s names in scripture. This week we’ll finish what anthropomorphic language means when describing God, and then move on to the incommunicable attributes in subsequent blogs:
There is yet a third reason for pointing out the great diversity of descriptions about God taken from human experience and from the natural world. This language should remind us that God made the universe so that it would show forth the excellence of his character that is, that it would show forth his glory. God is worthy to receive glory because he created all things (Rev. 4:11); therefore, all things should honor him.
Psalm 148 is an example of all creation being summoned to give praise to God:
Praise him, sun and moon,
praise him, all you shining stars! …
Praise the Lord from the earth,
you sea monsters and all deeps,
fire and hail, snow and frost,
stormy wind fulfilling his command!
Mountains and all hills,
fruit trees and all cedars! …
Kings of the earth and all peoples …
Let them praise the name of the Lord,
for his name alone is exalted;
his glory is above earth and heaven. (Ps. 148:3, 7–11, 13)
As we learn about God’s character from Scripture, it should open our eyes and enable us to interpret creation rightly. As a result, we will be able to see reflections of the excellence of God’s character everywhere in creation: “the whole earth is full of his glory” (Isa. 6:3).
It must be remembered that though all that Scripture tells us about God is true, it is not exhaustive. Scripture does not tell us everything about God’s character. Thus, we will never know God’s full or complete “name” in the sense that we will never understand God’s character exhaustively. We will never know all there is to know about God. For this reason theologians have sometimes said, “God has many names, yet God has no name.” God has many names in that we know many true descriptions of his character from Scripture, but God has no name in that we will never be able to describe or understand all of his character.
Grudem, W. A. (2004). Systematic theology: an introduction to biblical doctrine (pp. 159–160). Leicester, England; Grand Rapids, MI: Inter-Varsity Press; Zondervan Pub. House.