Sometimes I think it’s good to think about the characteristics of God. In fact, AW Tozer has a great book called The Attributes of God where he describes some of the things that Job’s friend Elihu mentions concerning God in 37:23: His power, justice, and righteousness. The characteristics of power and righteousness aren’t as difficult for me to wrap my mind around as God’s justice. Tozer, however, helped to clear that up for me.
When God looks at us He sees a moral situation: His justice requires that we equal Him morally, or we face eternity away from him. It’s almost like looking at one of the old “scales of justice.” The problem is that our sin creates an inequity with the moral state of God, and His justice requires that we be cast away from him because of it. That’s where Jesus steps in. His sacrifice puts us in a right moral standing with God. So when God looks at us he sees us as equal because of what Christ did for us. It’s a big concept, and it’s kind of confusing.
It’s important to know that God is totally unified. That means He is total justice while He is total grace, total mercy, total wrath, total love, etc. He doesn’t turn away from one attribute so the others can come forward. His justice is satisfied because of Jesus’ death… He doesn’t have to turn away from justice so He can also be mercy. If you’re interested in learning more about God’s attributes, I encourage you to pick up the book. Tozer does a much better job of explaining such a huge concept than I have done here!
This would be a great way to be…treating each person and situation that comes along with equal everything. I’m good at the justice and wrath of situations; grace and mercy, not so much.
I’m in constant wonder at how God reveals His character to me on a personal level. We are all extremely different people, each made with uniqueness that He gave us. He knows us better than we do ourselves. He also knows just what it’s going to take for us to understand Him, when we take the time to want to, which involves us drawing close to Him through prayer and daily reading of His word. He knows how to reveal Himself to me in a way that I can wrap my mind around even if it’s just puzzle piece by puzzle piece over long periods of time. The way He reveals Himself to you may not be in the same way that He reveals himself to me. After we have this understanding we may not even be able to communicate it to each other in a way that makes sense to the other. The Lord working through Aiden Tozer is what it will take for some to come to greater understanding. Others may read it and still say, “I don’t get it.” only later to look at the feather of a bird and it become crystal clear. There are many times a day that I wish I could download my experiences with God into the minds of my children or the experience of other’s more wiser than myself into my mind. However, that wasn’t His plan. He is for everyone, but He is for each of us on a one on one basis. I could try to tell my children the depth of what God has revealed to me but they wouldn’t get it until they experienced it for themselves. If a certain person just kept going on and on about how wonderful their French bread pizza was but you didn’t experience yourself, then you wouldn’t have a clue as to how wonderful it supposedly was. If two people experienced the pizza they would allegedly both like the pizza but perhaps they would experience it in different ways due to their different taste pallets. While the pizza remains the constant those who are experiencing it don’t. Isn’t it neat how if we really want to know who He is, He knows exactly which way is the best way to reveal Himself to us personally? That should just make everyone feel so special!
Question: Seth, I’m interested in this book, but I just logged on to Amazon and there are several titles which include “The Attributes of God” written by or co-written by A.W. Tozer. Which do you recommend delving into first? Does one include all the writings of the remainder?
If you click on the link in the post, then you will be connected to the book that I read. There is also a second book that covers other attributes. I haven’t read the second one, but I know the first one is good.