There is only one living, and true God, who is infinite in being and perfection, a most pure spirit, invisible, without body, parts, or passions; immutable, immense, eternal, incomprehensible, almighty, most wise, most holy, most free, most absolute; working all things according to the counsel of his own immutable and most righteous will, for his own glory; most loving, gracious, merciful, long-suffering, abundant in goodness and truth, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin; the rewarder of those who diligently seek him; and in addition, most just and terrible in his judgments, hating all sin, and who will by no means clear the guilty. (WCF 2.1)
Over the past few weeks we have been looking at what the WCF has had to say on the Word of God, and that’s a good place to start, because we know what we can know and say about God because of His special revelation to us (1 Cor 1:21, 2:13-14; WCF 1.1). And so this week we turn to a part of the Westminster Confession in which we start to look at the nature of God and His purposes (WCF 2-8). First up, we are offered this incredibly rich theological paragraph, of which we will very briefly look at in five sentences.
There is only one living, and true God who is infinite in being and perfection, a most pure spirit, invisible, without body, parts, or passions. So first the confession points us to God’s very being. We see here that He and He alone is God. That’s made clear in passages such as Deut 6:4 and 1 Cor 8:4,6 to which God clearly declares elsewhere, “before Me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after Me.” (Isa 43:10b c.f 44:6). He is also infinite in being, which means though He is one, He is without any limitation and perfect in and of Himself and all that He does (Job 11:7-9; 26:14). And we can be thankful about that because God always acts in accordance with His perfect nature and good will without being swayed like a human (Acts 14:11,15 c.f Jam 1:17). That’s made even clearer as next we are told that God is immutable, immense, eternal, incomprehensible, almighty, most wise, most holy, most free, most absolute. So what makes God? Well to be clear, nothing “made” God, as He IS and ALWAYS has been (Ex 3:14, Lam 5:19; 1 Tim 1:17). In other words, the Bible reveals to us that He is an eternal Spirit, who created space and time, who reigns supreme and is sovereign in every conceivable situation and realm - seen and unseen (Gen 1, Job 1 c.f. Matt 8-9). There is nothing, no not a rogue atom in the universe that is not under the sovereignty of God’s almighty hand as R.C. Sproul once put it.
From what God is, the confession then takes us to God does in and with His creation (thus destroying pantheistic theories). We read that God works all things according to the counsel of his own immutable and most righteous will, for his own glory. As it has been stated, God always acts in accordance with His perfect nature and good will. That can’t be changed, and that is a good thing because what our good and holy God has planned and created, He works with and within to see it come to it’s glorious predestined end, where He will be glorified by all creation for who and what He is (Rom 11:36, Eph 1:11). With everything we have looked at here, we are totally at the mercy of God, but notice the wonderful truth in all this, God is most loving, gracious, merciful, long-suffering, abundant in goodness and truth, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin; the rewarder of those who diligently seek him, which is to say God will utterly wash us clean when we turn to Him, no matter who we are or what we have done (Ex 34:6-7, Lk 15, 1 Jn 1:5-10), but notice it in the fifth and final point, though God is indeed loving, we are in great need of His mercy as He is also most just and terrible in his judgments, hating all sin, and who will by no means clear the guilty.