Which is God’s Greatest Attribute?
Who is like the LORD our God—the one enthroned on high? (Psalm 113:5).
The psalmist asks a profound question. When we stop and ponder the Lord our God, what comes to our minds? Do we recall His unparallelled works—how He created the heavens and the earth, parted the Red Sea, and raised Jesus from the dead? Or do our thoughts turn to His countless, glorious attributes?
As we meditate on who God is, His character, nature, and ways flood our hearts and minds and lead us to wonder. Which of God’s manifold attributes is His greatest?
Could it be His steadfast love?
The Power of God’s Steadfast Love
When God first saved me, I was captivated by His love. It consumed me—because it rescued me and continues to keep me secure for eternity. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16 ESV).
God’s love is incomparable. It’s perfect and unchanging. Because Christ loved us immeasurably, He laid down His life as a sacrifice to save us from sin while we were still His enemies. That love transforms everyone who believes in Him, turning us from His enemies into His friends—His beloved children. To wholly explain the fullness of such love would require explaining the fullness of God Himself, for “God is love” (1 John 4:8).
What greater attribute of God could there be than His love?
Except maybe His sovereignty—God’s complete and absolute rule over all powers and circumstances in heaven and on earth from eternity past into eternity future, forever.
Could His sovereignty be His greatest attribute?
The Greatness of God’s Sovereignty
The longer I follow Christ—through the ups, downs, and trials of both my own making and those I didn’t bring on myself, the more I cling to the comfort of God’s sovereignty. To follow a God who is all-loving yet unable to control what happens to us or to rescue us would leave us consigned to a life of fear and uncertainty. But God’s sovereignty silences those fears and roots us in the certainty of His all-loving will, which always works for our good and His glory (Rom. 8:28–29).
When the news headlines proclaim doom, our hearts can remain at rest because no matter what the world may believe, God oversees every life and circumstance. He moves the powers and people of this earth like a wise and loving chess master—not as if life were a game, but as part of His perfect plan. He’s working out every detail of His eternal plan: to redeem His people, destroy sin and death, and welcome all who trust in His Son into His glorious kingdom. “I declare the end from the beginning, and from long ago what is not yet done, saying: my plan will take place, and I will do all my will” (Isa. 46:10).
When ungodly governments and rulers tempt our hearts to fear, God’s sovereign rule steadies our gaze on the truth and allows us to live in peace. “Let everyone submit to the governing authorities, since there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are instituted by God” (Rom. 13:1).
No one rises to power by their own might nor does anyone remain in authority one second longer than God ordains. They can’t wreak more havoc than God allows—and even what He permits works together for the good of those who love Him, who are called according to His purpose (Rom. 8:28). “[God] does what he wants with the army of heaven and the inhabitants of the earth. There is no one who can block his hand or say to him, ‘What have you done?’” (Dan. 4:35).
We may not understand why God allows evil such a long leash, but we can rest assured that the leash can never slip from God’s hand. One day, those who do evil will give an account for all their actions as they stand before the Lord, our righteous Judge. Like Governor Pilate, they may think they can do whatever they want. Pilate even believed he was Jesus’ judge. He boasted that he controlled Jesus’ future and His fate, but
God is sovereign. This truth brings me overwhelming comfort now that my children are grown and live far from my (un-sovereign) ability to guide their steps or keep them safe.
Yes, maybe God’s sovereignty is His greatest attribute.
Unless, perhaps, it’s His wisdom. After all, if God weren’t all-wise, even His most loving and sovereign acts could lead to our ultimate demise.
The Sureness of God’s Wisdom
I used to think God hadn’t intended the Fall in the Garden of Eden to happen. I thought He unwisely let Satan wander unattended on earth, and that His unwise choice led to the unintended consequence of the Fall of man. I also believed we could breathe a sigh of relief afterward because God had quickly cobbled together a plan to fix the damage and save us—even as I questioned the wisdom of that plan. Surely, I reasoned, a wiser plan wouldn’t require such a great cost to God—and especially to Jesus.
Fortunately, I have learned the errors of my earlier beliefs. God is never unwise and can never make a foolish decision. His wisdom is infallible. As we look back over history—and over our own lives, from the worst to the best events—we can rest in the truth that God, in His unfailing wisdom, ordained these events to occur, knowing what we (and the world) need and how to bring it about.
We may survey the vast devastation wrought by human cruelty and natural disasters and question this truth, but our doubts arise from our limited understanding. God lacks nothing. His wisdom and knowledge are complete. He can never learn anything because He already knows everything.
We never need to question whether our all-loving, sovereign God has made a wrong choice—or worse, a mistake. “Oh, the depth of the riches and the wisdom and the knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments and untraceable his ways!” (Rom. 11:33).
God sees the end from the beginning, whereas we often learn in the end that what we thought at the start was “so wise” is actually a disaster. Consider asbestos and kudzu. In our human wisdom, we encased our homes and office buildings with fireproof asbestos and planted kudzu vines along our highways. Time revealed the limits of our understanding when hospitals filled with patients suffering from asbestos-related illnesses and kudzu threatened to overtake entire landscapes.
As we grow in wisdom, we change our minds (no more asbestos or kudzu), but God never needs to change His. “God is not a man, that he might lie, or a son of man, that he might change his mind. Does he speak and not act, or promise and not fulfill?” (Num. 23:19).
With the confidence that God’s perfect wisdom brings, maybe His greatest attribute is that He is wise.
Unless it’s that God is gracious.
Without God’s grace, none of us would even exist. “He himself gives everyone life and breath and all things” (Acts 17:25). Even more, it’s His grace alone that saves us from sin.
The Comfort of God’s Grace
When I look back over the cesspool of sins I’ve committed, I shudder. It’s only by the grace of God that I was born—and by an even greater grace that I’m still alive. I did nothing to earn my birth, yet I’ve done plenty to deserve my death and God’s righteous judgment of hell—the just penalty for sin.
Because we all have our own cesspool of sin, we all deserve sin’s penalty. Some pools are deeper and murkier than others, but we are all guilty. And yet, while we were still sinners, God poured out His grace and sent His Son to save all who will believe in Him. John Newton expressed it well in his hymn: “Amazing Grace! How sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me.”
Once we’re saved, God continues to pour out His grace on us every moment of every day. When sorrow or pain sink their talons into our lives, His grace gives us the strength to endure. When sin tempts us to give in, His grace empowers us to stand firm. And when, in the pride of our own hearts, we follow sin rather than Christ, God’s grace allows us to continue to live—both believers and unbelievers alike.
God’s grace enables us to receive forgiveness and to forgive others for even the most unimaginable sins. His grace restores us into His love and gives us gifts and talents we don’t deserve so we can live fruitful lives that glorify Him and overflow with joy. How extraordinary is the grace of God!
Surely, God’s grace is His greatest attribute.
He Is God
As I consider my original question—Which of God’s attributes is His greatest?—and ponder the fullness of His character, nature, and ways, the answer becomes clear. The greatest attribute of our good and gracious, all-loving, sovereign, and wise God is that He is the sum of all His perfect and infinite attributes. He’s our holy and merciful, unsearchable and unfathomable, uncreated Creator—whose matchless glory outshines the sun from eternity to eternity.
Every glorious attribute exists because God exists in all His perfect and infinite attributes. We can’t elevate one aspect of God above another, for everything about Him is equally glorious, infinite, and perfect. To quote Moses, “The LORD is God; there is no other besides him” (Deut. 4:35). And, “The LORD our God, the LORD is one” (Deut. 6:4).
In light of God’s supreme greatness and eternal oneness, the only answer to this question is that God’s greatest attribute is Himself. He is God.
From the rising of the sun to its setting,
let the name of the LORD be praised.
The LORD is exalted above all the nations,
his glory above the heavens.
Who is like the LORD our God—
the one enthroned on high?
—Psalm 113:3–5
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