How Would I Describe the Triune God!

[Clete]

This thread was inspired by, and is in direct response to, another thread with a similar but distinctly different title.

The format of the opening post of that other thread inspired me to give some thought to the attributes of God. My goal was to think them through and place them in a coherent order rather than as a random collection of loosely connected ideas. What has emerged is a list of 21 attributes, which fall very naturally into 3 sets of 7. I did not set out to hit a special number. In fact, I didn't even notice that it had happened that way until I was editing this post. The structure built itself as I worked through what is essential to God's being, what flows naturally from that essence, and how those realities are expressed in His dealings with creation.

Here what I came up with...

I. God in Himself – Essence and Moral Core

Living
God is the living God, the source of all vitality. Without life, nothing else follows.
(Deuteronomy 5:26, I Timothy 4:10)

Personal
God is self-aware and volitional. Life alone could still be impersonal, so personhood must be affirmed next.
(Exodus 3:14)

Reason (Logos)
God is Logic and Truth itself. His nature is coherent and non-contradictory. Without reason, morality has no foundation.
(John 1:1, Isaiah 1:18)

Relational and Triune
God is never solitary but eternally exists in fellowship. Father, Son, and Spirit share perfect communion.
(John 1:1–2, John 17:24)

Goodness and Righteousness (Holiness)
Flowing from reason, God’s character is the standard of moral perfection. Goodness describes His being; righteousness, His action; holiness, the integrity of both.
(Psalm 119:68, Psalm 145:17, I Peter 1:16)

Love
God’s unwavering commitment to the true good of others, grounded in truth, guided by reason, and expressed through righteousness.
(I John 4:8, John 3:16)

Wisdom
The perfect ordering of means to right ends, depending on reason, moral goodness, and love.
(Romans 16:27, Proverbs 3:19)


II. God in Relation to All Reality – Stability and Sovereign Scope

Everlasting Existence
God has always existed and never ceases to exist. He experiences real sequence and interaction, not timeless abstraction.
(Psalm 90:2, Revelation 1:8)

Immutability of Character
God does not change in who He is, though He responds dynamically in His relationships.
(Malachi 3:6, James 1:17)

Omniscience
God knows all that is knowable and that He chooses to know. His knowledge is living, personal, and morally grounded.
(Hebrews 4:13, Isaiah 46:10)

Omnipotence
God is the fountainhead of all power. He may delegate power but retains the ability and right to recall it at His wisdom and discretion.
(Job 42:2, Romans 13:1)

Omnipresence
God is everywhere He wills to be at once, fully present and attentive in each place.
(Psalm 139:7–10, Jeremiah 23:24)

Creator
God brought the world into being, reflecting His rational nature.
(Genesis 1:1, Nehemiah 9:6)

Sovereign
God rules as the highest authority over what He has made, delegating freely yet never relinquishing His right to reign.
(Psalm 103:19, Daniel 4:35)


III. God in Action – His Dealings with Creation

Father, Shepherd, Teacher
God provides, nurtures, guides, and reveals.
(Psalm 23:1–3, Matthew 6:9, John 14:26)

Jealousy (Righteous Zeal)
God’s holy zeal that demands exclusive devotion. He will not approve of rivals that destroy His people through idolatry.
(Exodus 34:14, Deuteronomy 4:24)

Judge
God discerns and enforces moral truth.
(Acts 17:31, Psalm 9:8)

Wrath
God’s righteous opposition to evil, the necessary counterpart to His justice and love.
(Romans 1:18, Revelation 19:15)

Mercy and Compassion
God’s goodness applied to suffering and failure, bringing relief and restoration. Mercy is not indulgence; it is moral goodness directed toward healing.
(Exodus 34:6, Psalm 103:8)

Patience and Longsuffering
God’s enduring love that gives time for repentance without compromising justice.
(II Peter 3:9, Romans 2:4)

Redeemer
God delivers and reconciles through Christ, satisfying righteousness in love.
(Ephesians 1:7, Titus 2:14)

God is the living, personal, triune Creator whose reason, goodness, love, and wisdom define morality and reality itself. He is everlasting, unchanging in character, infinite in knowledge, power, and presence, and He relates to His creatures as Father, Judge, Redeemer, and Shepherd. He shows mercy, patience, zeal, and wrath in perfect harmony with His nature.

This is the God revealed in Scripture: Rational, Righteous, Relational - REAL.

 

[Clete]

The OP has been revised. The order of some attributes have been changed to flow more logically, particularly in section III.

 

[Clete]

The Absolute Beginning of Theology

The proper place to begin theology is not with what God has done, but with who God is. This is the starting point of all sound doctrine, and it is why the study of God's nature is rightly called theology proper. When one begins with salvation, judgment, providence, or divine power, the danger is that one will define God by His works rather than interpret His works in light of His nature. Once that mistake is made, theology loses its center of gravity. Doctrines that were meant to flow from the being of God begin instead to reshape our view of God, leading us to imagine Him as a collection of His most dramatic acts, rather than the living and morally perfect being from whom all those acts proceed. The only sound course is to begin with God's essence, to ask what He is in Himself, before asking how He relates to His creation or engages in the work of redemption.

The attributes presented in this first section form the foundation not only for this essay but for the entirety of Christian theology. They are not derived by observing how God has acted within the created order but are recognized through the necessary reflection on what it means for God to be God. These attributes do not describe temporary roles or reactive functions; they express the immutable character of God, revealed in the moral consistency of His being. They describe the character of the One who was, and is, and is to come. Without them, no other divine attribute can be rightly understood. Knowledge, power, justice, and mercy all take their shape from the moral and rational core of God's being. These seven attributes are not optional considerations to be added to our doctrine of God when convenient. They are the moral and metaphysical core of divinity. If they are neglected, distorted, or misordered, the result will not merely be a partial understanding of God, but an incorrect one.

The consequences of beginning elsewhere are not theoretical. The history of theology is filled with examples of systems that exalted one divine attribute at the expense of others, resulting in distorted portraits of God. When sovereignty is emphasized without first establishing God's moral nature, He begins to resemble a cosmic despot, defined more by control than by character. When love is elevated without anchoring it in righteousness and reason, it degrades into indulgence or sentimentality, hollowing out the very justice that gives it meaning. When omniscience is affirmed without first recognizing God's personality, knowledge becomes mechanical and impersonal, like the data retrieval of a vast cosmic machine. When wrath is preached before holiness and love have been understood, it loses its moral clarity and begins to resemble cruelty. These are not merely errors in doctrine. They are errors in sequence. They occur when the theologian begins with what is secondary and leaves the primary truths unstated or undeveloped. The attributes in this first section are not only logically prior. They are morally essential. They are the lens through which everything else must be seen. God's actions are not arbitrary or reactive. They are consistent with who He has always been and continues to be.

These seven attributes have not been selected as a matter of convenience, nor are they an arbitrary list. Each one arises necessarily from the question of what kind of being God is. They are not listed as a rigid sequence, yet they do unfold with a meaningful order. Life comes first, for nothing follows unless God is alive. Personhood follows, because life that is not personal cannot think, choose, or love. Once personhood is affirmed, reason becomes essential, because personality without rationality is not mysterious or unknowable, it is incoherent. A person who is not rational is not simply unpredictable; he is insane. God is not erratic or self-contradictory. He is the very ground of logic, order, and meaning. Rational personhood leads inevitably to relationship, and God is not merely capable of relationship, but is relational in His very being. He exists eternally as Father, Son, and Spirit, not in isolation but in fellowship. That fellowship is not arbitrary, but morally perfect, which brings us to goodness, righteousness, and holiness. God is good in His essence, righteous in His action, and holy in the seamless integrity of both. From this moral foundation flows love—not a vague sentiment, but the unwavering commitment to the true good of others, directed by reason and rooted in righteousness. Finally, wisdom draws all the previous attributes into harmony. It is not superior to the others, but is their proper coordination. Wisdom is what makes God's character not only true and good, but also beautiful.

These seven attributes are not compartments, nor are they theological options that can be emphasized or ignored according to personal preference or denominational tradition. They are interdependent. Each one supports the others and is supported by them. A God who is not living is no God at all. A God who is personal but not rational is insane. A God who loves but is not righteous is a codependent enabler. A God who is powerful but not wise is a tyrant. These attributes must all be true, and they must all be present, or the result is not the God of Scripture, but a theological construct made in the image of our confusion.

This foundation is not merely abstract or philosophical; it is deeply moral. The commands of God are not the result of divine preference or sovereign whim but are the necessary expression of His nature. What He commands is good because He is good, and His goodness is not measured by anything outside of Himself but is revealed in the consistency and harmony of His character. Righteousness is not a standard God conforms to, nor is it something He invents; it is what He is. For this reason, morality is neither subjective nor artificial. It is not imposed upon reality from above, nor constructed from below by human cultures or individual preferences. It is embedded in the structure of reality because reality itself is the expression of the living, personal, rational, and morally perfect God. To know God rightly, then, is not merely to know what is sacred, but to know what is real. Sound theology begins here, and when it begins anywhere else, it loses its anchor in both truth and meaning.