attributes of god

When we think of attributes of God, it is a little helpful to think of them in two categories because it is impossible to say everything the Bible teaches about God's character all at once. As with nearly anything helpful, this approach has inherent risk but I find it useful so I'll go with it. These categories are:

• Incommunicable - those attributes that God does not share or “communicate” to others
• Communicable - those attributes that God shares or “communicates” with us

The following is taken directly from Grudem, W. A. (1994). Systematic theology : An introduction to biblical doctrine (156). I post this as part of several potential posts related to some excellent dialog I've had with Jonathan Brink. The stems from his posts here and here (and even here, here, here, ...) and relates to an important post I made here and a lesser one here. Note; Jonathan is a really good guy. He loves God. This is not to debate him but to simply record some thoughts. You will see Jonathan is original while I am not - I typically quote someone who says what I want to say but does it better. That doesn't mean I have no thoughts, I just don't think I'm a good communicator. Anyway, here's Grudem on at least part of the topic.

Examples of the incommunicable attributes would be God’s eternity (God has existed for all eternity, but we have not), unchangeableness (God does not change, but we do), or omnipresence (God is everywhere present, but we are present only in one place at one time). Examples of the communicable attributes would be love (God is love, and we are able to love as well), knowledge (God has knowledge, and we are able to have knowledge as well), mercy (God is merciful, and we are able to be merciful too), or justice (God is just and we, too, are able to be just). This classification of God’s attributes into two major categories is helpful, and most people have an initial sense of which specific attributes should be called incommunicable and which should be called communicable. Thus it makes sense to say that God’s love is communicable but his omnipresence is not.

However, upon further reflection we realize that this distinction, although helpful, is not perfect. That is because there is no attribute of God that is completely communicable, and there is no attribute of God that is completely incommunicable! This will be evident if we think for a moment about some things we already know about God.

For example, God’s wisdom would usually be called a communicable attribute, because we also can be wise. But we will never be infinitely wise as God is. His wisdom is to some extent shared with us, but it is never fully shared with us. Similarly, we can share God’s knowledge in part, yet we shall never share it fully, for God’s thoughts are higher than ours “as the heavens are higher than the earth” (Isa. 55:9). We can imitate God’s love and share in that attribute to some degree, but we will never be infinitely loving as God is. So it is with all the attributes that are normally called “communicable attributes”: God does indeed share them with us to some degree but none of these attributes is completely communicable. It is better to say that those attributes we call “communicable” are those that are more shared with us.

Those attributes we call “incommunicable” are better defined by saying that they are attributes of God that are less shared by us. Not one of the incommunicable attributes of God is completely without some likeness in the character of human beings. For example, God is unchangeable, while we change. But we do not change completely, for there are some aspects of our characters that remain largely unchanged: our individual identities, many of our personality traits, and some of our long-term purposes remain substantially unchanged over many years (and will remain largely unchanged once we are set free from sin and begin to live in God’s presence forever).

Similarly, God is eternal, and we are subject to the limitations of time. However, we see some reflection of God’s eternity in the fact that we will live with him forever and enjoy eternal life, as well as in the fact that we have the ability to remember the past and to have a strong sense of awareness of the future (unlike much of God’s creation; cf. Eccl. 3:11). God’s attributes of independence and omnipresence are perhaps those that are least easy to see reflected in our own natures, but even these can be seen to be faintly reflected in us when we compare ourselves with much of the rest of God’s creation: as we grow to adulthood we attain some degree of independence from others for our existence; and, though we cannot be at more than one place at one time, we have the ability to act in ways that have effects in many different places at once (this again sets us apart from most of the rest of creation).

These are not entirely precise classifications (there's a lot of overlap) but they serve the purpose of providing a grid for further discussion.