How can “invisible attributes be seen”? How does it make us all “without excuse”?
Mankind would suppress all truth about God and ignore the consequences of sin. Rather than focus on all His wonderful attributes, man wants to focus on God’s Wrath and point to a terrible God. But God is not some angry character sitting on a mountain waiting to throw darts at sinners.
God’s creation displays His attributes. (Psalm 8) While they were given instructions on how to live, no one had to tell Adam and Eve that they were guilty. God asked them, “Who told you that you were naked?” (Genesis 3:11) But when they came into the presence of the Most Holy God; they were very aware of their sin.
And what did God do? He lovingly made clothing for them and removed them from the Garden of Eden so that they would not have to live in their sin forever. (Genesis 3:20-24)
The Psalmist David often used the attributes of God in his praise (Psalm 103 & 136)https://biblia.com/books/esv/Ps103 and in his repentance. (Psalm 51) He listed many of them in His creation puts us in awe of Him, His holiness and our sinfulness.
All of Creation speaks of God’s love and mercy for us. Just in experiencing His creation we can know that God exists. All His attributes become visible. The great Theologian, Jonathan Edwards made a practice of looking at everything in creation with wonder. He began to see God in the birth of a baby, the marriage of a couple, the growth of a tree. It all pointed to God and caused Edwards’ love of God to grow greater and stronger. [Desiring God]
If we look at God and all His attributes together as one, we will find that everything works together. We see and understand that His love and mercy mesh together with His righteousness and holiness making His anger soften in our eyes. Ah, yes, note I said “understand” which was mentioned earlier in defining righteous anger.
Ann Voskamp encourages us too keep a running gratitude list. She found that joy comes from gratitude and not the other way around. It really is true when we look at all the good blessings of God, we find Him to be an amazing and wonderful Creator. If you haven’t started a gratitude list, maybe it’s time to start one.
-Mandy
This is an excerpt from my Bible Study at Gracefully Truthful. To read more on the subject, click the image below.
Questions Day 14 Is God Loving Or Angry?: Digging Deeper – Gracefully Truthful
Pastor’s Wife (retired) & Chronic Pain Warrior blogs about how to make it through anything by relating her own life experiences to her writing. She is passionate about her love for the Lord and desires to spread that passion to others. She has a great desire to encourage women who are following behind her.
