A. W. Tozer - The Attributes of God Volume 1: A Journey into the Fathers Heart

The Attributes of God
Volume 1

A Journey Into the Fathers Heart

by

A. W. Tozer

with Study Guide by

David Fessenden

The Attributes of God Volume 1 1997 by Zur Ltd.

The Attributes of God Volume 1 Study Guide 2003 by David E. Fessenden.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Tozer, A. W., 1897-1963

The Attributes of God Volume 1, with Study Guide / A. W. Tozer.

ISBN: 978-1-60066-279-9

Contents

Gods Infinitude

If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. (Colossians 3:1-3)

The last eight words of this verse would make a good sermon for anybody: Your life is hid with Christ in God. I want to go to a book written six hundred years ago and quote a few things, weaving it into this message about the journey into the heart of God: with Christ in God.

The Journey to Infinity

This book was written by Lady Julian of Norwich, a very saintly woman.

I want to quote what this lady said about the Trinity: Suddenly the Trinity filled my heart with joy. And I understood that so it shall be in heaven without end. This is a step up from the utilitarian heaven that most people want to go to, where theyll have everything righta split-level home, two cars and a fountain, a swimming pool and golden streets. Lady Julian saw that heaven will be heaven because the Trinity will fill our hearts with joy without end, for the Trinity is God and God is the Trinity. The Trinity is our Maker and Keeper, and the Trinity is our everlasting love and everlasting joy and bliss.

All these things marked Jesus Christ, and, as Julian said, where Jesus appeareth the blessed Trinity is understood. We must get into our heads and hearts that Jesus Christ is the full, complete manifestation of the Trinity: He that hath seen me hath seen the Father (John 14:9). He set forth the glory of the Triune God, all the God there is! Where Jesus appears, God is. And where Jesus is glorified, God is.

I wouldnt quote anybody unless there were Scripture to confirm it, and Scripture does indeed confirm that the Trinity will fill our hearts. No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us. Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit (1 John 4:12-13). There you have the Father and the Spirit. And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world. Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God (4:14-15). There you have the Father and the Son, or the Trinity.

Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; that they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me (John 17:20-21). Do you believe on Jesus Christ through the word of the apostles? If you do, then Jesus said distinctly here, Im praying for you that you all may be one as the Father is in me and I in him, that you may be one in us. I in you and the Father in me.

The other day I heard a man pray this prayer: Oh God, who art the truth, make me one with Thee in everlasting love. It wearieth me often to read and hear many things, but in Thee is all that I would have and can desire. The Church will come out of her doldrums when we find out that salvation is not a lightbulb only, that it is not an insurance policy against hell only, but that it is a gateway into God and that God is all that we would have and can desire. Again I quote Julian: I saw that God is to us everything that is good and comfortable. He is our clothing; His love wrappeth us and claspeth us and all encloseth us for His tender love, that He may never leave us, being to us all that is good.

Christianity is a gateway into God. And then when you get into God, with Christ in God, then youre on a journey into infinity, into infinitude. There is no limit and no place to stop. There isnt just one work of grace, or a second work or a third work, and then thats it. There are numberless experiences and spiritual epochs and crises that can take place in your life while you are journeying out into the heart of God in Christ.

God is infinite! Thats the hardest thought I will ask you to grasp. You cannot understand what infinite means, but dont let it bother youI dont understand it and Im trying to explain it! Infinite means so much that nobody can grasp it, but reason nevertheless kneels and acknowledges that God is infinite. We mean by infinite that God knows no limits, no bounds and no end. What God is, He is without boundaries. All that God is, He is without bounds or limits.

Infinity Cannot Be Measured

Weve got to eliminate all careless speech here. You and I talk about unlimited wealth, but theres no such thing; you can count it. We talk about boundless energywhich I dont feel I have at the momentbut theres no such thing; you can measure a mans energy. We say an artist takes infinite pains with his picture. But he doesnt take infinite pains; he just does the best he can and then throws up his hands and says, It isnt right yet, but Ill have to let it go. Thats what we call infinite pains.

But that is a misuse of the words boundless, unlimited and infinite. These words describe Godthey dont describe anything but God. They do not describe space or time or matter or motion or energy; these words do not apply to creatures or sand or stars or anything that can be measured.

Measurement is a way created things have of accounting for themselves. Weight, for instance, is one way we account for ourselvesby the gravitational pull of the earth. And then we have distancespace between heavenly bodies. Then we have lengthextension of the body into space.

We can always measure things. We know how big the sun is, how big the moon is, how much the earth weighs, how much the sun and other heavenly bodies weigh. We know approximately how much water is in the ocean. It seems boundless to us, but we know how deep it is and we can measure it, so it really isnt boundless at all. There is nothing boundless but God and nothing infinite but God. God is self-existent and absolute; everything else is contingent and relative. There is nothing very big and nothing very wise and nothing very wonderful. Its all relatively so. It is only God who knows no degrees.

The poet says, One God, one Majesty. There is no God but Thee. Unbounded, unextended unity. For a long time I wondered why he said, unbounded, unextended unity; then I realized he meant that God doesnt extend into space; God contains space. C.S. Lewis said that if you could think of a sheet of paper infinitely extended in all directions, and if you took a pencil and made a line one inch long on it, that would be time. When you started to push your pencil it was the beginning of time and when you lifted it off the paper it was the end of time. And all around, infinitely extended in all directions, is God. Thats a good illustration.

If there were a point where God stopped, then God wouldnt be perfect. For instance, if God knew almost everything, but not quite everything, then God wouldnt be perfect in knowledge. His understanding wouldnt be infinite, as it says in Psalm 147:5.

Let us take all that can be knownpast, present and future, spiritual, psychic and physicaleverywhere throughout the universe. And let us say God knows all of it except one percentHe knows ninety-nine percent of all that can be known. Id be embarrassed to go to heaven and look into the face of a God that didnt know everything.