Which of God's attributes is above all others?
Ask which of God's attributes ranks highest, and the writers in this collection first push back on the question itself: Scripture distinguishes between what is attributed to God and what He is. That distinction decides everything, and it leads to two short statements — God is light, God is love — where the commentators both agree and, on the ranking, differ.
Attribute and Absolute
An attribute describes God in relation to something outside Himself. That is why one writer insists power and wisdom, righteousness and holiness, however true of God, are not the deepest word about Him.
J. N. DarbyI do not call power the Absolute (though God be Almighty), because its action supposes will; that is, it is not what is in His nature. The Absolute can be preceded by nothing, but is itself: love is itself; light is itself. Power is wielded by Him — it is what the Self-existent One ('who is') has, not what He is. God, though all-wise, is not wisdom any more than He is power, and for the same reason. I do not call righteousness or holiness the Absolute. They are the relation of power and nature to something else. So the written word, which is the truth, calls God "God," "love," "light"; not power, nor righteousness, nor holiness. Power and wisdom belong to Him: He is righteous and holy. But these are relative, especially the last two — so they are not what He is, though they characterise Him.
Two Words for His Nature
To call God righteous, you must think of His dealings with others; to call Him holy, you must think of evil He rejects. Only two words go behind all of that.
J. N. DarbyThere are two words applied to God which reveal His nature — Love and Light — and only these two. They affirm what He is in nature, not any attribute. Love is goodness, but in supremacy; for in its abstract nature goodness is identified with supremacy, because it must be free.
Whether Love Stands Alone
Commentators differ over whether love takes first place even over light. One argues that light is shared with creatures, so love is the more absolute term.
James Boyd"God is Love" is the only absolute title used of the supreme Being; and what a wave of infinite happiness and indescribable joy overwhelms the soul as we think about the marvellous fact that love is the nature of the One we have to do with. The Word also declares that "God is light," but we are said to be light too, and so I take it that light is a more relative term, and not so absolute as love.
Another writer flatly denies that love is the single definition of God, and warns what happens when light drops out of the picture.
The Bible TreasuryIt is not true that "the one absolute definition of the Almighty, self-existent, supreme Being is that He is Love." The apostle John, who deals with this beyond all others, is careful in 1 John 1 to report to us that He is Light. Only in chapter 4 of the same letter does he tell us He is Love. Light is the essential purity of His nature, which makes everything and everyone manifest; Love is rather the energy of His nature, which goes out in active goodness. To leave out Light is to imagine a false god who can let off sin and sinners easily — not the true Self-existent One, who is Love as well.
Nothing Out of Proportion
Where we grade qualities by their strongest, God has no strong side and no weak one.
Frederick W GrantAnd this is again true, in the fullest and highest way, of God alone. In His perfection there is no predominance of any attribute, and no defect. His wisdom must be equal to His power; His love equal to His power and wisdom.
That balance is not a theory. It shapes how God is free to act toward guilty people.
C E StuartOf God's nature we read, He is light, and He is love (1 John 1; 4:8). All that is contrary to light is contrary to Him. Untarnishable holiness and inflexible righteousness must always characterise Him. Now holiness, as someone has remarked, is the necessity of His nature, while love is the activity of it. Since God is love, He can act in mercy and grace apart from what the guilty creature deserves; but since He is light, He can only act that way in perfect righteousness. So a sacrifice was necessary, one by which everything He is would be glorified, if any sinful creature was to enjoy everlasting blessing.
The Cross Settles It
If you want to see which quality wins, watch the one place where none of them was surrendered.
J. N. DarbyIf God judged sin only, then He is righteous, but there is no love. If He had said of men, "They are poor wretched things and cannot help it, so I will pardon them all," there might be love shown, but there would be no righteousness. It would not be holy love. But when we come to the cross, we have perfect righteousness and perfect love.
Summary
- Is, not has. God has power and wisdom; He is light and He is love — the first are attributes, the second two are His nature.
- Two, not one. Light is the purity of that nature; love is its energy going out in active goodness. Drop either and you have invented a different god.
- No favourites. In God there is no predominance of any attribute and no defect: His wisdom equals His power, His love equals both.
- Necessity and activity. Holiness is the necessity of His nature, love the activity of it — which is why grace could reach us only through a sacrifice.
- Proved at the cross. Judgment alone would show no love; pardon alone would show no righteousness. At the cross both are perfect at once.