What is the character of God?

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Scripture reveals two great declarations about what God is in His essential nature: "God is light" (1 John 1:5) and "God is love" (1 John 4:8). These are not merely things God does but what He is -- the unchanging moral character of His being, perfectly manifested in the Person of Christ. God is Light The first thing John's epistle brings before us is the message of holiness. Hamilton Smith traces how this truth was revealed through Christ: The Apostle tells us that the One in Whom the eternal life has been manifested in all its perfection is also the One in Whom God has been perfectly declared -- the God with Whom that life brings us into fellowship. Thus he can write, "This then is the message which we have heard of Him, and declare to you, that God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all." The Apostles, as they looked upon Christ, saw the perfect revelation of all that God is. They saw the perfect purity of Christ, and they realised that God is light -- absolute holiness. They saw the perfect love of Christ, and they realised that God is love. These are the great truths that the Apostle presses in the course of the Epistle -- God is light and God is love. Life and light and love have been perfectly set forth in Christ. Hamilton Smith Smith further explains that this was something the Old Testament could only partially reveal: In the days of the Old Testament, God dwelt in thick darkness. Certain attributes of God were revealed, but His nature had not yet been declared. The full revelation of God awaited the coming of Christ. None but a divine Person could reveal a divine Person. Thus, when Christ became flesh, we read, "The only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him" (John 1:18). Not only is it true that "God is light", but through the full revelation of God in Christ He is also in the light. William Kelly draws out the significance with striking force, noting that this truth is the necessary counterpart to God's love: "Light" is a burning word, expressive of His intrinsic and absolute purity of nature; "love" of its sovereign activity to others as well as in Himself. There is no sacrifice of His light to His love; indeed if it were so conceived, it would entail the greatest loss on His children. But it is as untrue, as it is impossible. "God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all." Therefore is He intolerant of darkness in His own, who are made free of His presence, and have fellowship with Himself. William Kelly Kelly also underscores what this means in practice: It is of urgent moment for us never to forget, from the very beginning to know, that He who is our Father is God, and that, however the grace may flow, the truth of His nature, His holy nature, is brought into immediate association with our souls... Grace and truth are come through Christ. And the truth is that He is a God who reveals His hatred of sin, incomparably more now when He is known as Father than when He was adored by His people as Jehovah. God is Love The second great declaration -- "God is love" -- is not merely that God loves, but that love is the very essence of His nature. Hamilton Smith opens this out: God is love, and God has acted in love toward us. Thus there is a twofold motive for loving one another. Firstly, the very nature of God is love, and, being born of God, we partake of His nature. By loving one another, we give a practical proof that we are born of God and know God. If we have no love for the brethren, it would prove that we are strangers to God. He continues, showing how God's love was not drawn out by anything in us: We have not only a statement that God is love, however true, but we have the manifestation of God's love toward us. In our unregenerate days we were dead to God and in our sins. In order that we might live and have our sins forgiven, God manifested His love toward us by sending "His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him" and, further, He "sent His Son a propitiation for our sins." "God is love" William Kelly expounds the nature of this love with great precision: The precious fact as to the love that is of God is this: the entire motive is His own goodness; as man has the reverse of that in his nature. The believer receives grace as a lost sinner in all its sovereignty as its object, and having life eternal in Christ has it flowing out habitually... to love is inseparable from being born of God; and so he that loves proves by this very fact that he is a child of God. It has nothing at all to do with natural affections, which everybody ought to know may be strong in the most wicked men and women. William Kelly J.N. Darby speaks of how we come to know this love experientially: How do I know God is love? I have it in me. The proof is that He "sent His Son the propitiation for our sins." This is what the conscience wants; but as to the enjoyment of it, I have it, because God dwelleth in me and I in God. J.N. Darby Light and Love Together in Christ These two truths are never set against each other. They find their perfect union in Christ. As Hamilton Smith puts it: We look at Christ and we see that God is light and God is love. But more, Christ not only brings God into the light, He also fits the believer for the light by His blood which cleanses from all sin. Hamilton Smith The Attributes of God Beyond these two essential declarations of His nature, Morrish's Bible Dictionary summarises the principal attributes of God as revealed in Scripture: Scripture reveals what God is in Himself, 'God is love' (used absolutely), 1 John 4:8; and 'God is light' (used relatively, in opposition to darkness), 1 John 1:5; and Christ is the expression of both in a Man. Morrish's Bible Dictionary It then lists fourteen attributes: (1) Eternity, (2) Invisibility, (3) Immortality, (4) Omnipotence, (5) Omnipresence, (6) Omniscience, (7) Incorruptibility, (8) Immutability, (9) Wisdom, (10) Holiness, (11) Justice, (12) Grace and mercy, (13) Longsuffering, and (14) Faithfulness. And it concludes: God's eternal power and divinity may be known in creation, Rom. 1:20; but He has revealed Himself in the person of Christ, the Son, the eternal Word. The character of God, then, rests on two great truths that together form the bedrock of all Scripture teaches about Him. God is light -- He is absolute in holiness and purity, and in Him there is no darkness at all. God is love -- not merely in sentiment but in sovereign, self-giving action, sending His own Son into the world for those who were dead in sins. These two declarations are not in tension; they are perfectly harmonised at the cross, where the full blaze of God's holiness judged sin and the full depth of His love saved sinners. It is only in the Person of Christ -- the One Who "was from the beginning" -- that both are perfectly and fully revealed. As Kelly memorably puts it, light is "expressive of His intrinsic and absolute purity of nature," while love speaks of "its sovereign activity to others." Together they are the complete revelation of who God is, and the foundation of all fellowship with Him.

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