God is truth
God is truth
God is truth (CP De 32:4; Psa 31:5; Isa 65:16). Truth in this respect means not merely ethical truth, but truth in all its fullness and scope, pure from all error or falsehood (CP Nu 23:19; 1Sam 15:29; Psa 146:5-6; Isa 55:8-11; 2Ti 2:13; Tit 1:2; He 6:17-18; 10:23). Jesus Christ is the perfect expression of the truth that is God's nature (CP Jn 14:6). As the perfect expression of the truth that is God's nature, Jesus is the only way by which anyone can come to God. He is the way to God because He is the truth of God (CP Jn 1:14), and the life of God (CP 1:4; Jn 3:15-16; 11:25). Every promise of God is fulfilled in Christ (CP 2Cor 1:19-20).
God is holy. Holy means absolute purity of nature. This is a characteristic unique to the nature of God (CP Ex 15:11; 1Sam 2:2; Isa 6:1-3). Holiness belongs to God as Divine and He would not be God without it. In that respect there is none holy like the Lord, as in 1Sam 2:2. Holiness is basically a term for the moral excellence of God (CP Hab 1:13). God is so perfectly holy He could not look upon His son, Jesus Christ, on the cross where He died as the sin offering for all mankind (CP Isa 53:1-12; 2Cor 5:21; Ga 3:13; Eph 5:2). Jesus on the cross bore the sin of all men, but God could not look upon sin even if it was borne by His Son, and at that moment in time Jesus experienced the abandonment and despair of being separated from God as punishment for sin (CP Mt 27:45-46).
As the absolute holy one God is free from evil, and hates and abhors sin. His holiness is the standard of life and conduct for His children (CP Psa 99:9; 111:9; Rev 15:4). God can present Himself as the pattern for holiness because He is the origin and source of it (CP Lev 19:2; 1Pe 1:15-16 with Eph 1:4; He 12:5-10; 1Jn 1:5). As holiness is the principle ruling God's actions towards His children, He demands obedience to, and uniformity with, such a standard. As He is, so must His children be (CP 1Jn 4:17). God's children cannot expect to be recipients of His love, if they are not holy like Him. It must be stressed here that if His children could not be holy, then God would not have commanded it. Christ in His life and character is the supreme example of the Divine holiness. In Him it consisted of more than mere sinlessness: it was His total consecration to the will of God, and to this end He sanctified Himself (CP Jn 17:19), and was made of God Christians' sanctification (CP 1Cor 1:30). Christians are made pure and holy in Christ. His holiness is both the standard of the Christian character and its guarantee. Both He and they have the same Father - God - and for that reason He is not ashamed to call them brethren.
There is also a retributive aspect to Divine holiness (CP Rev 22:10-12). In the age to come it involves the world in judgement (CP He 12:25-27 with Rev 6:12-17; 20:4-15). But it is not the end of the world. There will be a final restoration afterwards: the heavens and the earth will be renewed and righteousness will reign throughout eternity (CP Isa 65:17; 2Pe 3:7, 10-13; Rev 22:1).
God is wisdom (CP Pr 8:12, 22). In the beginning of His way in V 22 does not refer to a point in time but to the fact that wisdom has always been God's essential nature from all eternity past, before creation (CP V 23). God through wisdom brought everything into being (CP Psa 74:16-17; Pr 3:19-20; 8:24-31; Jer 10:12-13). In His wisdom God separated light and dark and called them day and night. He set the bounds between sea and land and the national boundaries between countries. He separated heat and cold and called them summer and winter. God through wisdom made all things (CP Psa 104:24; 136:5-9). God's wisdom is never overcome or taken unawares (CP Ro 8:28; 11:33; Col 2:3).
The highest expression of God's wisdom is His plan of redemption. It is referred to in scripture as the wisdom of God in a mystery (CP 1Cor 2:7-8). The wisdom of God in a mystery is His plan to redeem fallen man through Christ's death on the cross for sinners, which was hidden even from the angels and prophets in the Old Testament (CP 1Cor 1:18, 21-24, 30). What Paul is saying here is that while the story of Christ dying for sinners - the preaching of the cross - is foolishness to the ungodly, it is the power of God to save those who believe. Christ is the manifestation of that power and is the wisdom of God, which means that Christ is the revelation of God's plan of redemption. Christians are made the righteousness of God in Christ (CP 2Cor 5:21). In Christ Christians are sanctified - made holy - and redeemed.
God's plan of redemption astonishes both men and angels (CP Eph 3:9-11; 1Pe 1:12). The church is the perfect means of displaying God's wisdom - manifold in Eph 3:10 means variegated, multifaceted, in the way that many facets of a diamond reflect and enhance its beauty. The wisdom that God is includes His knowledge of all things, past, present and future, making Him the only wise God (CP 1Ti 1:17 with Psa 139:1-6; Ac 15:18; He 4:13). As the preincarnate God by whom everything that is made was made, Christ is the Lord referred to in Pr 8:22 (CP Pr 8:22 with Jn 1:1-3; Ro 11:36; 1Cor 8:6; Eph 3:9; Col 1:16-17; He 1:1-2; Rev 4:11; 10:6).