Encyclopedia of Dogmatic Theology

The Attributes of God Are All Integrated Together

The Attributes of God Are All Integrated Together

Our holy and good God, in whom all beautiful attributes are gathered, whom the psalmist sang about in the Psalm saying: “Who is like You among the gods, O Lord? Who is like You?” (Ps 71:19; Ps 89:8). He is the God in whom all virtues are integrated, even those that appear contradictory among human beings.
In Him gentleness is united with firmness, as the Apostle said: “Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: on those who fell, severity; but toward you, goodness, if you continue in His goodness. Otherwise you also will be cut off” (Rom 11:22).

In Him meekness and decisiveness come together; simplicity and wisdom come together; glory and humility come together; forgiveness and punishment come together; service and contemplation come together; silence and speech come together; power and refraining from using it come together. Let us speak about all these in detail:

Meekness and Firmness
As for meekness: He is the One who said, “Learn from Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls” (Matt 11:29). And it was said of His meekness that He “will not quarrel nor cry out, nor will anyone hear His voice in the streets. A bruised reed He will not break, and smoking flax He will not quench” (Matt 12:19–20). He also praised meekness, saying, “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth… Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God” (Matt 5:5, 9).

In His meekness—when King Herod wanted to kill the children of Bethlehem—He fled with His mother to Egypt (Matt 2), although He was able to put an end to that king, yet He did not do so.
And in meekness He stood before Pilate the governor to be judged, remaining silent and not defending Himself, until it was said of Him in the book of the prophet Isaiah: “He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth; He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so He opened not His mouth” (Isa 53:7).

As for firmness: He cleansed the temple, “He drove out all those who bought and sold in the temple, and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves. And He said to them, ‘It is written, My house shall be called a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves’” (Matt 21:12–13).
He also rebuked the leaders of the people, the scribes and the Pharisees, saying to them: “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men; for you neither go in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in… Woe to you, blind guides” (Matt 23:13, 16).
He also rebuked the priests of the people in His days and struck for them the parable of the wicked vinedressers, saying to them that the kingdom of God would be taken from them and given to a nation bearing its fruits (Matt 21:43). He also silenced the Sadducees and the lawyers (Matt 22).

Even His disciples He sometimes rebuked firmly. When two of them asked that fire come down from heaven—as Elijah did—to consume a Samaritan village that rejected Him, He rebuked them, saying: “You do not know what manner of spirit you are of. For the Son of Man did not come to destroy men’s lives but to save them” (Luke 9:55–56). He also rebuked His disciple Peter, saying to him, “Get behind Me, Satan” (Matt 16:23).

Simplicity and Wisdom
The Lord Christ was simple by nature. His teaching was simple, far from any complexity, understood by the young and the old, the educated and the ignorant. In simplicity He taught in the fields, on the road, in open places, on the ground, from the mountain, and on the shore of the lake. He spoke in parables to make understanding easier for the listeners.
In simplicity He accepted children, embraced them, laid His hands on them, and blessed them, saying, “Let the children come to Me, and do not forbid them” (Mark 10:14, 16).

As for wisdom, He is the hypostasis of wisdom, “the power of God and the wisdom of God” (1 Cor 1:24). When He spoke to the crowds, they were astonished at His teaching, for He taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes (Matt 7:28–29).
When the Jews asked Him, “Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?” He perceived their wickedness and answered wisely, saying, “Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s” (Matt 22:17–21). When they heard it, they marveled, and His saying became wisdom.

Glory and Humility
His glory is known, of whom the Apostle said, “Let all the angels of God worship Him” (Heb 1:6), and also said of Him, “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever; a scepter of righteousness is the scepter of Your kingdom… You, Lord, in the beginning laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of Your hands. They will perish, but You remain” (Heb 1:8, 10).
Something of His glory appeared on the Mount of Transfiguration (Mark 9). It also appeared when He appeared to John the Beloved on the island of Patmos: “His eyes were like a flame of fire, and His face was like the sun shining in its strength.” So that this great apostle said, “When I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead” (Rev 1:14–17). His majesty also appeared when the soldiers came to arrest Him; when He said to them, “I am He,” they drew back and fell to the ground (John 18:6). Because of His majesty Pilate also said during His trial, “I find no fault in Him,” and wanted to release Him (John 18:38–39).

From His glory and majesty, He rebuked demons and cast them out, and they cried out to Him, saying, “Have You come here to torment us before the time?” (Matt 8:29). In the temptation on the mountain, when He rebuked Satan, saying, “Away with you, Satan,” the devil left Him, and behold, angels came and ministered to Him (Matt 4:10–11).

With all this glory, His humility appeared in that He was born in a manger, lived on earth without a job and without a dwelling. He emptied Himself and took the form of a servant (Phil 2:7), and had nowhere to lay His head (Luke 9:58).
In His humility He allowed Satan to tempt Him, and Peter was able to rebuke Him, saying, “Far be it from You, Lord” (Matt 16:22). In His humility He endured the ظلم of the wicked.

Forgiveness and Punishment
How often we read in the Gospel about His forgiveness and mercy. He forgave the sinful woman who washed His feet with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head, and He said of her to Simon the Pharisee that her many sins were forgiven because she loved much (Luke 7:47). He also forgave the woman caught in the act of adultery, whom the Jews wanted to stone, and He saved her from them, saying to her, “Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more” (John 8:4–11). More than all this, He forgave His crucifiers and asked an excuse for them, saying, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do” (Luke 23:34).

He said, “Forgive, and you will be forgiven” (Luke 6:37), and “If you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses” (Matt 6:15). When the Apostle Peter asked Him, “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Up to seven times?” He answered him, “I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven” (Matt 18:21–22), that is, an innumerable number of times.
It is also known how He forgave Zacchaeus the tax collector and entered his house, saying, “Today salvation has come to this house” (Luke 19:9).

Yet He also spoke about punishment. He said, “Unless you repent, you will all likewise perish” (Luke 13:3, 5). He said to the Jews, “You will seek Me and die in your sin. Where I go you cannot come… for if you do not believe that I am He, you will die in your sins” (John 8:21, 24).
More than this, He said regarding punishment, “Whoever says to his brother, ‘You fool,’ shall be in danger of hell fire” (Matt 5:22). How many punishments He mentioned in Revelation 8, and He mentioned a list of those whose destiny is the lake of fire and brimstone (Rev 21:8).

Service and Contemplation
There are people who are engrossed in service to the extent that they have no time for solitude and contemplation, and others who devote themselves to solitude and contemplation and have no field of service. But the Lord Christ combined both together.
As for service: He went about all the cities and villages, preaching the gospel of the kingdom and healing every sickness and every weakness among the people (Matt 4:23). He taught everywhere and discipled a group of apostles to spread the kingdom on earth.
In His service He cared for all: adults and children, women and children, tax collectors and sinners. He cared for the sick, healing them, granting sight to the blind, and casting out demons from the possessed. His service also included the hungry, feeding the multitudes in the miracle of the five loaves and two fish and others. He raised from the dead the daughter of Jairus, the son of the widow of Nain, and Lazarus.
The success of His service reached the point that the Pharisees said about Him, “Look, the world has gone after Him” (John 12:19).

Despite His extensive service, He also cared for prayer, solitude, and contemplation. He had times of solitude in the Garden of Gethsemane and on the Mount of Olives. How beautiful is what was said of Him: “Everyone went to his own house, but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives” (John 8:1). It was said that “He went out and departed to a solitary place; and there He prayed” (Mark 1:35); that “He went up on the mountain to pray” (Mark 6:46); that “He often withdrew into the wilderness and prayed” (Luke 5:16); and that “He continued all night in prayer to God” (Luke 6:12–13), before choosing His twelve disciples.
The Gospel recorded for us His intercessory prayer to the Father in John 17. From His teachings was that one ought always to pray and not lose heart (Luke 18:1).

Power and Refraining from Using It
His power appears in creation, for “all things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made” (John 1:3, 10). He created new matter in the miracle of turning water into wine at the wedding in Cana of Galilee (John 2). He also granted sight to one born blind (John 9). We do not forget His power in walking on the water and helping His disciple Peter to walk with Him (Matt 14:25, 29). There was also His wondrous miracle in His power to rise and come out of the tomb while it was sealed, and His entering to the disciples in the upper room while the doors were shut (John 20:19). His power appeared in signs and wonders.
Yet at times He did not wish to use His power. He allowed them to arrest Him and endured slapping and scourging without resistance.

Silence and Speech
At times He was silent, as during His trial before the Sanhedrin and before Pilate. In teaching He spoke with great effect and authority, and they called Him the good Teacher.
At times He was silent and did not declare His divinity, and at other times He said, “I am He,” as in the Gospel of John: “I am the good shepherd” (John 10); “I and the Father are one” (John 10:30); “I am in the Father and the Father in Me” (John 14:10); “I have come as a light into the world, that whoever believes in Me should not abide in darkness” (John 12:46); “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live” (John 11:25); “I am the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6). The examples are many.