cli – the attributes of god

Christian Life Institute Alfred Street Baptist Church

May 20-22, 2014

The Attributes of God A. W. Tozer

Rev, Cynthia T. Turner, D.Min., Instructor

Aiden Wilson Tozer

Born: April 21, 1897

Died: May 12, 1963

Birthplace: Newburgh,

PA

Wife: Ada C. Pfautz

“I refuse to allow any man to put his

glasses on me and force me to see

everything in his light.”

“Refuse to be average; let you heart

soar as high as it will.”

“Hardly anything else reveals so well

the fear and uncertainty among men as

the length to which they will go to hide

their true selves from each other and

even from their own eyes.”

- A.W. Tozer, That Incredible Christian

“What we think about when we are free

to think about what we will – that is

what we are or will soon become.”

- A.W. Tozer, Born After Midnight

“I am among those who believe that our Western

civilization is on its way to perishing. It has many

commendable qualities, most of which it has

borrowed from the Christian ethic, but it lacks the

element of moral wisdom that would give it

permanence. Future historians will record that we

of the twentieth century had intelligence enough

to create a great civilization but not the moral

wisdom to preserve it.”

~ A.W. Tozer, Man, The Dwelling Place of God

“The world has yet to see what God can

do with a man fully consecrated to Him.

By God’s help, I aim to be that man.”

- D. L. Moody (via Henry Varley, a

British revivalist)

n. attribute

n. : an inherent characteristic; also : an accidental

quality

an object closely associated with or belonging to a

specific person, thing, or office <a scepter is the

attribute of power>; especially : such an object

used for identification in painting or sculpture

adj: a word ascribing a quality

n. attribute (Tozer)

For Tozer, an attribute is not merely a quality or characteristic of God; rather, it's who and what God is.

Why do we need to take

time to appreciate

God’s attributes?

The Infinitude of God

“Christianity is a gateway into God. And then

when you get into God, ‘with Christ in God,’ then

you’re on a journey into infinity, into infinitude.

There is no limit. No place to stop.” -- TAG, 3

Understanding Infinitude

Infinity… no, beginning, no end; can’t be

measure; boundless; unlimited

Trinitarian delight, TAG 9

Moving away from nominal Christianity

Focus on God rather than man

(“Thou Art,” not “I am”) TAG 14

Understanding Infinitude

If there were a point where God stopped, then

God would not be perfect; and God’s power

would not be omnipotent. TAG, 6

“Christianity is decaying and going down into the

gutter because the god of modern Christianity is

not the God of the Bible. I don’t mean to say we

do not pray to God; I mean to say that we pray

to a god short of what he ought to be. We have

got to think of God as the perfect One.” TAG 7

Understanding Infinitude God takes delight in God’s self and the works of

God’s hands – So should we (not at ourselves)

Singing at creation (Job 38:7)

Singing at incarnation (The Magnificat)

Singing at resurrection (as foretold in Ps. 57:9)

Singing at the rapture (Rev. 5:9-12) “Worthy is

the Lamb!” TAG 15

The Immensity of God

“If there’s anything necessary to your eternal

happiness but God, you’re not yet the kind of

Christian that you ought to be.” TAG, 30

Understanding

Immensity

Anything + God ≠ happiness

God alone = happiness

We are hid with Christ in God. (Col. 3:3)

“Only God, only God, only God!” -- Julian of

Norwich

Understanding

Immensity Whereas Infinitude deals with TIME,

Immensity deals with SPACE

Julian of Norwich: “This is all that was made; this

is all that was made” regarding the hazelnut

TAG 20

God doesn’t travel to go anywhere. … there’s no

place that God is not. Psalm 139:8-10 TAG 22

Understanding

Immensity Nominal faith vs. real faith; knowing about God

vs. knowing God, God’s character

Revelation is not enough! It’s external – not

internal. TAG 19

We seek illumination: Quakers call this “an

opening”

Understanding

Immensity

“Anything less than God

ever me wanteth.” – Julian

of Norwich

Christian Life Institute Alfred Street Baptist Church

Wednesday, May 21, 2014

The Attributes of God Rev, Cynthia T. Turner, D.Min., Instructor

Tozer facts

Avoided greeting congregation – fearing too many compliments

Preferred students, children, and young parents

Voracious reader, with only ~14 yrs education

Received two honorary doctorates

Wrote The Pursuit of God in one day

Pants tailored to withstand long hours of prayer; often prayed prostrate

Dinner at home always when in town

Tozer Prayer

O God, I have tasted Thy goodness, and it has both satisfied me and made me thirsty for more. I am painfully conscious of my need for further grace. I am ashamed of my lack of desire.

O God, the Triune God, I want Thee; I long to be filled with longing; I thirst to be made more thirsty still. Show me Thy glory, I pray Thee, so that I may know Thee indeed. Begin in mercy a new work of love within me. Say to my soul, “Rise up my love, my fair one, and come away.”

Then give me grace to rise and follow Thee up from this misty lowland where I have wandered so long.

The Immanence of God

“To have found God and still pursue God is the

soul’s paradox of love.” – A. W. Tozer

Understanding Immanence

God is everywhere, IN everything. Penetrating

everything. God is always there, always

around, always in and always through

everything. God answers our yearnings to be

close to God through God’s Immanence.

Understanding Immanence

“Divine Remoteness:” Claiming salvation and still feeling the absence of God

How can we feel far away from a God who is immanent, who penetrates the universe? How can we be like a person starving to death will seated before a lavish banquet?

God is everywhere, in everything, penetrating everything.

“We need never shout to an absent God. He is nearer than our soul, closer than our most secret thoughts.”

Understanding Immanence

Why does Tozer say it is sometimes natural for

us to sometimes feel as if God is far away?

What are we really praying for when we pray for

God to come near? TAG, 145

Divine remoteness is answered by Divine manifestation.

Understanding Immanence

Atonement: becoming at one with God again through the salvific work of Jesus Christ; repairs the breach

Justification: overrides the penalty of sin; just as if I never sinned; where condemned criminals are made righteous

Regeneration: overcomes the power of sin; where malicious, hateful, enslaved sinners are transformed into lovers of God and humanity

Understanding Immanence

Atonement: becoming at one with God again through the salvific work of Jesus Christ; repairs the breach EXTERNALLY ACCOMPLISHED

Justification: overrides the penalty of sin; just as if I never sinned; where condemned criminals are made righteous

EXTERNALLY ACCOMPLISHED

Regeneration: overcomes the power of sin; where malicious, hateful, enslaved sinners are transformed into lovers of God and humanity

INTERNALLY ACCOMPLISHED

Understanding Immanence

Atonement: LEGAL ACT: becoming at one with God

again through the salvific work of Jesus Christ; repairs the breach

Justification: LEGAL ACT: overrides the penalty of sin;

just as if I never sinned; where condemned criminals are made

righteous

Regeneration: ACT OF GRACE: overcomes the power

of sin; where malicious, hateful, enslaved sinners are transformed

into lovers of God and humanity ...

Understanding Immanence

Atonement: LEGAL ACT: becoming at one with God again through the salvific work of Jesus Christ; repairs the breach

Justification: LEGAL ACT: overrides the penalty of sin; just as if I never sinned; where condemned criminals are made righteous

Regeneration: ACT OF GRACE: overcomes the power of sin; where malicious, hateful, enslaved sinners are transformed into lovers of G...od and humanity ... “Born again” ... Moral likeness to God; bearing God’s likeness

Understanding Immanence

How do we miss out on the manifestation of

God’s presence? TAG 153-4

How do we arrive at the manifestation of God’s

presence? What’s needed to bring it about?

TAG 154

Understanding Immanence

Holiness: To be morally pure, in a class

separate and distinct by itself, other worldly, to

be ‘other,’ different in a special way

(fabric) “A cut above,” outstanding, of superior

excellence (A.C. Sproul)

>>>Sometimes we miss the Immanence of God

because we are too worldly.

Understanding Immanence

Unselfishness: Jesus was completely unselfish and gave of Himself. >>>Sometimes we miss the

Immanence of God because we are too selfish.

Love: Jesus showed that love gives! It is limitless; doesn’t keep a tally, and goes beyond and above. It’s not

cheap or on a budget with God and does not seek to self-please. >>> Sometimes we miss the Immanence of

God because we count the cost too much, keep the score too often, and sell ourselves too short to truly

demonstrate the love of Christ.

The Holiness of God

“A true love of God must begin with a delight in His holiness, and not with a delight in any other attribute; for no other attribute is truly lovely without.”–Jonathan Edwards

Holiness is foreign soil for us fallen creatures. We were made to be holy by our Creator, but we are fallen beings – spiritually, morally mentally and physically. -- Tozer

The Holiness of God

Holiness implies an awe-full (awful) thing.

How is holiness imparted on God’s people:

Through direct contact with “The Holy One.”

Through impartation of holiness by contact or

association with God.

Problem: We have become too familiar with

God to appreciate God’s holiness.

Understanding Holiness

Don’t Disregard God’s Fiery Holiness

God is not only comfort. He is also the Supreme

terror. ... Some people will talk as if meeting the

gaze of absolute goodness would be fun. They

need to think again. They are only playing with

religion. -- C S Lewis

Understanding Holiness

If we better understood God’s awesome holiness, we would not neglect to repent of the “hanging on” sins.

We should not insult God, His Majesty, by coming to Him in prayer with a “shopping list.” He is the God of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity.” (Hab. 1:13)

It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed. (Lam. 3:22)

Understanding Holiness

Don’t Disregard God’s Fiery Holiness Devouring fire

Everlasting burnings

Pillar of cloud by day

Pillar of fire by night

Thunder and lightning

Explain what happens when iron goes in fire; clay; gold...

Understanding Holiness

Shekinah: A place where you can experience

the feminine presence of God. The presence of

God on hearty, or a symbol or a manifestation of

God’s presence. The fire that came down after

Solomon finished praying and the glory of the

Lord filled the house (2 Chron. 7)

Understanding Holiness

Tozer claims some folks should not be allowed

to join church, because they don’t meet P. 172

Christian Life Institute Alfred Street Baptist Church

Thursday, May 22, 2014

The Attributes of God Rev, Cynthia T. Turner, D.Min., Instructor

Tozer facts

Had 7 children, whom he often quizzed on what they were reading

Created special bedtime stories for his children, though he struggled to connect with them in latter years

Died 1963 in hospital in Canada, alone

“This is the price that every true man of God pays. You cannot follow the Lord and make friends with everyone around you.” – Tozer

After his death, Ada remarried: “A.W. was God’s man; my new husband is my man.”

REVIEW

Infinitude: God has no beginning, no end

Immensity: God has no special barriers

Immanence: God penetrates everything

Holiness: God’s excellence is awe-full, terrible

AHEAD

Omnipresence:

Justice:

Grace & Mercy:

Goodness:

Perfection:

The Goodness of God

Christianity at any given time is strong or weak

based on her concept of God. TAG 41

The solution to a shallow concept of God:

“Magnify the Lord,” Psalm 34:3

Understanding Goodness

Signs of God’s Goodness

God created creation

God spared Adam & Eve, TAG 46

God is not revolted by our wretchedness, TAG

54

God takes no pleasure in our tears, TAG 55

Understanding Goodness

Nobody ever got anything from God on the

grounds s/he deserved it. – Tozer

Understanding Goodness

Proof of God’s Goodness:

God came near! God is not an absentee

engineer running the universe by remote

control (deism). TAG 44

God allows us near! We can BOLDLY

approach the throne.

Understanding Goodness

Proof of God’s Goodness:

God came near! God is not an absentee

engineer running the universe by remote

control (deism). TAG 44

God allows us near! We can BOLDLY

approach the throne.

The Justice of God

Justice is not something God does, Justice is something God is.

Justice does not “require” God to do anything. God does not have to bow to justice – God is justice.

God brings justice to a moral situation. If a person’s ways are equal, then justice favors the person. If not, then the person is judged.

God’s “foreign policy” cancels man’s death sentence!

Understanding Justice

How can a holy God justify a wicked man?

Unity of God: No internal conflict. Not by

compromise, but by Jesus Christ coming ALL

THE WAY, because there was no way for us to

get to Him.

Read pp. 65-6 on the error of thinking God has

conflict.

Understanding Justice

How can a holy God justify a wicked man?

Passion of Christ: As in suffering ... For us.

Shedding of the infinite, almighty and perfect

blood.

The holy suffering on the cross and the

resurrection of the dead cancels our sin and

abrogates our sentence.

Understanding Justice

How can a holy God justify a wicked man?

Passion of Christ: As in suffering ... For us.

Shedding of the infinite, almighty and perfect

blood.

The holy suffering on the cross and the

resurrection of the dead cancels our sin and

abrogates our sentence. It cancels the moral

sin-debt that we ran up but could not pay.

Understanding Justice

How can a holy God justify a wicked man?

Passion of Christ: As in suffering ... For us.

Shedding of the infinite, almighty and perfect

blood.

The holy suffering on the cross and the

resurrection of the dead cancels our sin and

abrogates our sentence.

Understanding Justice

All the attributes agree!

When God sentences a man to die, all the

attributes – love, mercy, grace, etc., -- agree

that death is deserved.

Atonement: But in steps atonement – mystery

that it is – which confronts an unprotected sinner

and introduces him/her to a changed moral

situation. TAG 70

Understanding Justice

Jesus’ death did not change God; it changed the law – the moral situation.

The atoned-for sinner no longer is subject to the law; not because the sinner has gotten it all right and turned him/herself around, but because the sinner has accepted the blood of the covenant.

While we were YET sinners, ...

If we confess our sins...

The un-atoned-for sinner must die. TAG 71

Understanding Mercy

Error in thinking: OT is a book of severity and

law; NT is grace and mercy. Truth: >>Mercy and

grace are in both NT and OT. (God is the same)

Psalm 103:8-17

2 Cor. 1:3

James 5:11

2 Peter 3:9

The Mercy & Grace of God

Grace is getting what I don’t deserve; mercy is

not getting what I do deserve.

Mercy stoops in kindness to inferior humanity; it

has pity on and is actively compassionate. Verb

tense: Mercy compassionates suffering

humanity! God takes action. TAG 79

Understanding Mercy

Goodness is the source of God’s mercy. TAG,

78

God takes pleasure in the pleasure of God’s

people, provided their pleasure is in God.

Understanding Mercy

Mercy is infinite

INCORRECT: God showed mercy because

Jesus died.

CORRECT: Jesus’ dying is evidence of God’s

mercy.

Discuss: Mercy of God

Tozer said: Describing Jesus’ death on the cross

as merely “paying a price” is vulgarizing the

atonement.

The Operation of Mercy

Mercy is God’s goodness confronting human guilt and suffering

“In all their affliction he was afflicted.” – Isa. 63:9

“It is of the Lord’s mercy that we are not consumed, because God’s compassion fail not. They are new every morning.” – Lam. 3:23

Consider the prodigal; everybody is a candidate for mercy ... At all times.

Discuss: Grace of God

People often say: “God is too good to punish

anyone.”

The Operation of Grace

Grace is that in God which brings into favor one

justly in disfavor.

Grace is God’s good pleasure and it is what God

infinitely is.

We are saved by GRACE, through faith... It is

the gift of God.

It is the only means of salvation.

The Operation of Grace

Grace is that in God which brings into favor one

justly in disfavor.

Grace is God’s good pleasure and it is what God

infinitely is.

We are saved by GRACE, through faith... It is

the gift of God.

It is the only means of salvation.

The Omnipresence of God

The Scriptures have their origin in the nature of

God.

God is near to everything, everywhere, everyone

and everything.

God is with us always: If we feel God’s presence

has evaded us, ask yourself who moved?

Understanding Omnipresence

Reasons we feel God’s absence: Sin, Dissimilarity in Nature

Moral vs. Immoral: Sin blinds us and shuts us off from God because our natures are different; i.e., angel and ape

Cultural barrier: Sin divides us from God and we share no common ground.

Language barrier: God speaks the language of the Spirit; we speak flesh.

Understanding Omnipresence

Sinful man cannot see or experience the

manifest presence of God.

Hell is the absence of life with God. “Surely the

Lord was in this place and I knew it not.” (Gen.

28:16)

C. S. Lewis: Bus trip from hell to heaven. The

residents of hell can’t enjoy heaven because it is

not made for them.

Understanding Omnipresence

Restoring the Relationship

Reconciliation: Not by compromise, but by Jesus

Christ coming ALL THE WAY, because there

was no way for us to get to Him.

Communion: We must come ALL THE WAY

back to God by partaking of God’s holy nature.

No compromises here

The Perfection of God

Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God has

shined. – Psalm 50:2, KJV

God shines brightly from Zion, the most beautiful

city. -- CEV

From the dazzle of Zion, God blazes into view. --

The Message

Understanding Perfection

Losses in Past 50 Years

No “religious fear”

No awareness of the eternal

No recognition of God’s absence

No understanding of majesty,

Gains in Past 50 Years

More churches

More schools

Better communication

More organizations

Understanding Perfection

Losses in Past 50 Years INTERNAL

No “religious fear”

No awareness of the eternal

No recognition of God’s absence

No understanding of majesty,

Gains in Past 50 Years EXTERNAL

More churches

More schools

Better communication

More organizations

The Perfection of God

We must see again how awe-full God is, how

beautiful and perfect. TAG 181

Christian Life Institute Alfred Street Baptist Church

May 20-22, 2014

The Attributes of God A. W. Tozer

Rev, Cynthia T. Turner, D.Min., Instructor