May 13, 2026  |  Lesson 3

Divine Essence of God

SOVEREIGNTY

The sovereignty of God is His eternal, infinite, and perfect divine volition. The sovereignty of God is His eternal, and infinite will which is expressed in His divine decrees, manifested in the divine administration of history called dispensations, and the unique plan regarding the Church Age. God is free to make any decision He pleases. However, God has limited Himself by divine decrees. For example, God cannot violate a person’s free will because He decreed free will for us.

OMNISCIENCE

God knows perfectly, eternally, and simultaneously all that is knowable, whether it is actual or possible. He knows our thoughts, motives, decisions and actions. God is eternal and has eternal knowledge. God is truth and His knowledge is totally and perfectly accurate. Since God has always existed, His knowledge has always existed with Him. Therefore, He knows perfectly and simultaneously everything that has occurred or ever will occur. He knows perfectly and eternally all that is knowable, whether actual or possible.

There are three factors of divine knowledge: 1) it is eternal – Acts 15:18   2) it is incomprehensible – Romans 11:33   3) it is wise – Ephesians 3:10. The future is as clear to God as the past. God foreknows the future but does not predetermine it! He doesn’t interfere with your volition. God foreknows what will be the choice of everyone. Likewise, He may influence their choice by gracious guidance and/or influence of the Holy Spirit, but He doesn’t coerce.

Psalm 33:13-15, 139:2, 147:4; Matthew 6:8, 10:29-30; Hebrews 4:3; Acts 15:8; Malachi 3:16; Isaiah 46:9-10, 44:28

RIGHTEOUSNESS

God’s righteousness is perfect therefore He demands perfect righteousness to live with Him forever. Perfect righteousness requires the knowledge of Bible doctrine to understand God’s essence. Divine righteousness and justice always precede divine love. God cannot love personally that which is not perfect. Perfect righteousness demands perfect righteousness. Therefore, a person must possess God’s righteousness to have eternal life. No amount of human good works results in obtaining the perfect righteousness of God. However, when someone puts their faith in Christ as their Savior, believing that He paid the penalty for their sin, God gives that person His very own righteousness. (II Corinthians 5:21)

OMNIPRESENCE

God is personally present everywhere. The whole of God is in every place. This is not pantheism, since pantheism denies the Person of God saying that God is in the rocks, the grass, etc. God, in the total of His essence fills the universe. (Psalm 139:7-8; Jeremiah 23:23-24; Acts 17:27) God is also free to be local, as in the mountain with Moses, or in the Holy of Holies above the Mercy Seat. He is free to become flesh and dwell among us, as Christ did. (John 1:14)

LOVE

God is love. God is motivated by His love. Like all of divine attributes, love belongs to God’s being. God is and always was love, regardless of having an object to love. This is perfect love, whether there is an occasion to bestow it or not. (I John 4:8) God loves His own integrity and He loves the other members of the Trinity. God can personally love only God or another being with His perfect righteousness. Therefore, God’s love for unbelievers is impersonal love.

JUSTICE

God is fair; it is impossible for God to be unfair. Justice administers the penalty which perfect righteousness demands. Righteousness and justice always go together. Divine justice is portrayed in salvation. And the issue in salvation is whether divine justice is accepted or rejected. You get divine justice sooner or later. You get it sooner by believing in Christ. You get it later in the Lake of Fire by rejecting Christ. Sin is not the issue in salvation, justice is.

Because of propitiation, God is free to pardon and justify anyone who by faith in Christ appropriates the saving grace of God. God is free to save those who believe because of His justice. The basis for an unbeliever’s indictment to the Lake of Fire at the White Throne Judgment is not sin, but rejection of Christ as Savior. (Revelation 20:12-15) Justice prevailed at the Cross and will again prevail at the White Throne Judgment.

Deuteronomy 32:4; II Chronicles 19:7; Job 37:23; Psalm 19:9, 50:6, 58:11, 89:14; Isaiah 45:21; Romans 3:26, 12:3; Hebrews 10:30-31

OMNIPOTENCE

God is all powerful, infinitely able to do all things by His power within His holy character or essence. However, He will not make wrong right, nor will He act foolishly. He will not abuse His power and compromise His justice. If God is limited at any time, it is because of a self-limitation consistent with His own essence. God can do all He wills to do, but He may not will to do all He can. (Isaiah 44:24; II Corinthians 4:6; Ephesians 1:19-21, 3:20; Hebrews 1:3)

IMMUTABILITY

God is unchanging. He cannot change, cannot be better or worse than He is. The problem is that anthropopathic and anthropomorphic representations of God in the Bible are misunderstood. They really represent the attitude of God toward variations in mankind or history, in human language, so that we can understand God’s policies. God doesn’t hate, get angry, change His mind, have hands or eyes. When God “seems to change,” He is actually remaining the same, consistent with His own essence. (Hebrews 13:8; James 1:17)

ETERNAL LIFE

God is eternal life. Eternity applied to God means He has always existed and always will exist. He has always existed totally apart from time. God is not subject to time, because He is the cause of time. Both time and space, though without substance, are both objects of His creation. God is not in time, but time is in God; He is the origin of time. God transcends all creation including time. Therefore, He has always existed. God does not need to be chronological, as we do. (John 3:16-18; I John 5:13)

TRUTH

God cannot lie. God’s truth is absolute truth. God is infinite perfection in truth and faithfulness. God’s truth is expressed to us in Bible doctrine. God is true to His essence and His character. God is the truth. (John 14:6) God did not acquire truth; He is truth from eternity past. This attribute guarantees the genuineness of divine revelation. Bible doctrine (absolute truth) is the expression of God’s holiness. God’s truth is directed toward Himself and His plan for us, as revealed in His Word. (Deuteronomy 32:4; I John 5:20; John 6:32, 15:1; Hebrews 8:2)