Solitary Sovereign: God’s Peerless Perfections
A.W. Pink’s book The Attributes of God is a classic work on the being and essence of God. Each month we’ll explore one chapter, summarize the main ideas, and discuss our favorite passages. We begin today with chapter one: The Solitariness of God.
Summary
This chapter explores God’s solitariness. God existed alone and self-sufficiently before creation, requiring nothing, and gaining nothing from His creation. His decision to create was a sovereign act of His will, solely for the manifestation of His glory, not out of necessity or obligation. God’s perfections, including His sovereignty, transcendence, and independence, set Him apart from humanity. Human reason cannot fully comprehend God, but only through His self-revelation in Scripture and the work of the Holy Spirit in the hearts of believers can we know Him.
Discussion
Pink says:
few today are accustomed to meditate upon the personal perfections of God.
This language of perfections is important because it differentiates God from man. Man is taken by passions such as love or anger. But God is not moved by passions the way we are. He loves perfectly and everlastingly. He is justly angry with sin and not carried away or ruled by His anger.
The creating of them [universe, angels, men] when He did, added nothing to God essentially. He changes not (Mal 3:6), therefore His essential glory can be neither augmented nor diminished.
God is solitary in His excellence, existing “from everlasting,” before time and the universe, independent, self-contained, self-sufficient, self-satisfied, needing nothing from creation.
God created the world as an act of His sovereignty, purely out of His own good pleasure, and for His own glory, not out of any necessity or obligation or gain from His creatures.
God is no gainer even from our worship. He was in no need of that external glory of His grace which arises from His redeemed, for He is glorious enough in Himself without that.
When we worship God, we ascribe to His name what He is due as the eternally self-existent, perfectly holy and righteous, omnipotent, omniscient God. But our worship doesn’t add anything to God. His glory isn’t increased by our worship, only acknowledged, reverenced, and delighted in.
…our Lord Jesus Christ added nothing to God in His essential being and glory, either by what He did or suffered.
The incarnation of Christ didn’t add to God’s essential being or glory, though He manifested it to us through His perfect life, substitutionary death, and glorious resurrection.
He manifested, or displayed His glory to us in the works of creation, providence, and redemption, but He existed perfectly blessed before, and apart from, creation.
Scripture reveals God as sovereign, transcendent, and infinitely superior to humanity. Our attempts to comprehend or explain God’s nature always fall short and fail to grasp His true majesty. In my favorite passage from this chapter, Pink writes:
Such an One is to be revered, worshipped, adored. He is solitary in His majesty, unique in His excellency, peerless in His perfections. He sustains all, but is Himself independent of all. He gives to all, but is enriched by none.
This God, who is beyond human comprehension, can only be known through His self revelation in Scripture and the work of the Holy Spirit in the hearts of believers. Pink says:
“God is Spirit” (John 4:24), and therefore can only be known spiritually. But fallen man is not spiritual; he is carnal. He is dead to all that is spiritual. Unless he is born again…
God exists, we can infer that from creation around us. That’s what Romans 1 says. But we can’t know God, have a saving relationship with Him, apart from Him graciously revealing Himself in the Word and through the Spirit.
Nature isn’t enough. We need God’s special revelation, the Scripture. And because it is God’s Word, it must be spiritually comprehended. And since we are dead in sins and trespasses, we must be made spiritually alive by the power of God the Holy Spirit, before we can comprehend the excellencies and saving grace of God in Christ Jesus.
Defining Theology
When discussing theology, defining your terms is important. Brance and Lauren have a discussion of theology term Creed, what it means, why it’s important, and how the creeds should be used.
Resources Mentioned:
- The Attributes of God by A.W. Pink
- Chappel Library
- 2LCF (2nd London Baptist Confession of Faith)
- Affirming the Apostles’ Creed by J.I. Packer