1. A brief study of the Attributes of God
The Holy One

2. Larger Catechism #7 God is a Spirit, in and of himself infinite
in being, glory, blessedness, and perfection;
all-sufficient, eternal, unchangeable, incomprehensible,
everywhere present, almighty,
knowing all things, most wise, most holy, most just,
most merciful and gracious, long-suffering,
and abundant in goodness and truth.

3. Moral Attributes There are two broad moral attributes of God:
His Holiness and His Goodness
Holiness seems to be God's defining Attribute.
The fundamental meaning of Holiness is “Set Apart” - the notion of separation, of uniqueness, of one-of-a-kindness.
Holiness also has the notion of “Awe-Fullness” emphasizing His Majesty and Transcendence.

4. Holiness
That divine perfection by which He is absolutely distinct from all His Creatures, ad us exalted above them in infinite majesty.
That perfection of God in virtue of which he eternally wills and maintains His own moral excellence, abhors sin, and demands purity in his moral creatures.

5. Moral Attributes
God's Justice and Righteousness Flows out of His Holiness.
He establishes standards for His moral creatures based on his own moral nature.
He holds them accountable bring reward or punishments.
When God acts, He acts in a right way, righteous way. Righteousness refers to the quality of God in action, as it were, always expressing what is true of His intrinsic moral nature.

6. but holiness is His beauty” Charnock)
“This may be said to be a transcendental attribute, that, as it were, runs through the rest, and casts luster upon them. It is an attribute of attributes. (J. Howe, 1670)
“As it seems to challenge an excellency above all His other perfections, so it is the glory of all the rest: as it is the glory of the Godhead, so it is the glory of every perfection in the Godhead; as His power is the strength of them, so His holiness is the beauty of them . . “ Pink
“Power is God’s hand or arm, omniscience His eye, mercy His bowels, eternity His duration,
but holiness is His beauty” Charnock)

7. From The Chapter on Holiness
“In the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures God carries forward His self-revelation and gives it personality and moral content. This awful Presence is shown to be not a Thing but a moral Being with all the warm qualities of genuine personality.
“More than this, He is the absolute quintessence of moral excellence, infinitely perfect in righteousness, purity, rectitude, and incomprehensible holiness. And in all this He is uncreated, self-sufficient and beyond the power of human thought to conceive or human speech to utter.

8. “ Because He is holy, His attributes are holy; that is, whatever we think of as belonging to God must be thought of as holy. God is holy and He has made holiness the moral condition necessary to the health of His universe.
“Sin’s temporary presence in the world only accents this. Whatever is holy is healthy; evil is a moral sickness that must end ultimately in death. The formation of the language itself suggests this, the English word holy deriving from the Anglo-Saxon halig, hal, meaning, “well, whole.”

9. “Since God’s first concern for His universe is its moral health, that is, its holiness, whatever is contrary to this is necessarily under His eternal displeasure. To preserve His creation God must destroy whatever would destroy it. When He arises to put down iniquity and save the world from irreparable moral collapse, He is said to be angry.
“Every wrathful judgment in the history of the world has been a holy act of preservation. The holiness of God, the wrath of God, and the health of the creation are inseparably united. God’s wrath is His utter intolerance of whatever degrades and destroys.

10. “God is holy with an absolute holiness that knows no degrees, and this He cannot impart to His creatures. But there is a relative and contingent holiness which He shares with angels and seraphim in heaven and with redeemed men on earth as their preparation for heaven.
“This holiness God can and does impart to His children. He shares it with them by imputation and by impartation, and because He has made it available to them through the blood of the Lamb, He requires it of them.
To Israel first and later to His Church God spoke, saying, “Be ye holy; for I am holy.” He did not say “Be ye as holy as I am holy,” for that would be to demand of us absolute holiness, something that belongs to God alone.

11. Holiness
” Holiness, then is the characteristic of God that sets him apart from his creation. In this, holiness has at least four elements:
Majesty which links holiness to sovereignty
Personal Will - God is not indifferent to how He is regarded – he wills and acts to see his glory is recognized.
Wrath – not the human emotional reaction – but the necessary and proper stance of the holy God to all who oppose him.
Righteousness. What God wills is right –its ethical sense. The right is what God is and reveals to us.

12. Justice - Righteousness
The perfection of God by which he maintains Himself over against every violation of His holiness, and shows in every respect that He is the Holy One.
Justice flows out of holiness, refers to the fact that God establishes standards for His moral creatures that are in accord with his intrinsic righteousness and He judges His moral creatures by their conformity to these righteous standards. God conforms in word, in thought, and action to the moral law that makes up his very nature.

13. Justice - Righteousness
When God acts, he acts in a right way, righteous way. Righteousness refers to the quality of God in action, as it were, always expressing what is true of His intrinsic moral nature.

14. A study of the concordance will show that there are more references in Scripture to the anger, fury, and wrath of God, than there are to His love and tenderness. Because God is holy, He hates all sin; and because He hates all sin, His anger burns against the sinner.
Now the wrath of God is as much a divine perfection as is His faithfulness, power, or mercy. It must be so, for there is no blemish whatever, not the slightest defect in the character of God; yet there would be if “wrath” were absent from Him!
The wrath of God is His eternal detestation of all unrighteousness. It is the displeasure and indignation of divine equity against evil. It is the holiness of God stirred into activity against sin.

16. The Moral Attributes: Goodness
“The goodness of God is that which disposes Him to be kind, cordial, benevolent, and full of good will toward men. He is tenderhearted and of quick sympathy, and His unfailing attitude toward all moral beings is open, frank, and friendly. By His nature He is inclined to bestow blessedness and He takes holy pleasure in the happiness of His people.
“The original Saxon meaning of our English word God is “The Good.” God is not only the greatest of all beings, but the best. All that emanates from God—His decrees, His creation, His laws, His providences—cannot be otherwise than good.”

17. “The original Saxon meaning of our English word God is “The Good
“The original Saxon meaning of our English word God is “The Good.” God is not only the greatest of all beings, but the best. All that emanates from God—His decrees, His creation, His laws, His providences—cannot be otherwise than good.”
“ It is a foundation stone for all sound thought about God and is necessary to moral sanity. To allow that God could be other than good is to deny the validity of all thought and end ill the negation of every moral judgment.
If God is not good, then there can be no distinction between kindness and cruelty, and heaven can be hell and hell, heaven.

19. Since God is immutable He never varies in the intensity of His loving-kindness. He has never been kinder than He now is, nor will He ever be less kind.
He is no respecter of persons but makes His sun to shine on the evil as well as on the good, and sends His rain on the just and on the unjust. The cause of His goodness is in Himself, the recipients of His goodness are all His beneficiaries without merit and without recompense.

20. With this agrees reason, and the moral wisdom that knows itself runs to acknowledge that there can be no merit in human conduct, not even in the purest and the best. Always God’s goodness is the ground of our expectation.
Repentance, though necessary, is not meritorious but a condition for receiving the gracious gift of pardon which God gives of His goodness.
Prayer is not itself meritorious. It lays God under no obligation nor puts Him in debt to any. He hears prayer because He is good, and for no other reason.
Nor is faith meritorious; it is simply confidence in the goodness of God, and the lack of it is a reflection upon God’s holy character.

21. Christ walked with men on earth that He might show them what God is like and make known the true nature of God to a race that had wrong ideas about Him. This was only one of the things He did while here in the flesh, but this He did with beautiful perfection. From Him we learn how God acts toward people. The hypocritical, the basically insincere, will find Him cold and aloof, as they once found Jesus; but the penitent will find Him merciful; the self-condemned will find Him generous and kind. To the frightened He is friendly, to the poor in spirit He is forgiving, to the ignorant, considerate; to the weak, gentle; to the stranger, hospitable.

22. The Patience of God
“When I consider how the goodness of God is abused by the greatest part of mankind, I cannot but be of his mind that said, The greatest miracle in the world is God’s patience and bounty to an ungrateful world.” William Gurnell
“There is nothing in His justice which forbids the exercise of His mercy. God is never at cross-purposes with Himself. No attribute of God is in conflict with another. God.’s compassion flows out of His goodness, and goodness without justice is not goodness. ”

23. Faithfulness
“God never forgets, fails, never falters nor forfeits His Word.
To every declaration of promise or prophecy the Lord has exactly adhered, every engagement of covenant or threatening He will make good God is true. His Word of promise is sure.
In all His relations with His people God is faithful. He may be safely relied upon. No one ever yet really trusted Him in vain. His people need to know that faithfulness is an essential part of the divine character.

24. “God is faithful in preserving His people
“God is faithful in preserving His people. Since God has promised to His Son a certain people for His inheritance, to deliver them from sin and condemnation, and to make them participants of eternal life in glory, it is certain that He will not allow any of them to perish.
God is faithful in disciplining His people. He is faithful in what He withholds, no less than in what He gives. He is faithful in sending sorrow as well as in giving joy.
God is faithful in glorifying His people. God deals with us not on the ground of our merits (for we have none), but for His own great name’s sake. God is constant to Himself and to His own purpose of grace. . .”

25. “The greatness of God rouses fear within us, but His goodness encourages us not to be afraid of Him. To fear and not be afraid - that is the paradox of faith.”