on the attributes of God

[the following is something I've meant to write about for a while, so here goes]

truth. love. mercy. justice. these are human words that we use to describe ideals our world approaches, but never quite reaches. and since it is humans that utter these words, different people consider these ideals to mean different things: when one man speaks of mercy, another hears its absence. the ideals represented by these words vary wildly from person to person, leaving us with a question - whence good?

this question does not have a definite answer attained by human means. the most we can do, unassisted, is to note the appearance of a 'natural law' that usually holds in the heart of man.* this 'natural law' usually takes the form of a moral substrate, giving rise to the basic presuppositions that lead even many atheists to hold their moral reasoning in high regard. of course, conscience is not binding and so this 'natural law' may be rejected (by choice) and replaced with a new substrate ["without immortality.."], but the rejection is still present.

we then have a potential (but otherwise unbinding) definition of the good, namely that afforded by 'natural law.' but if it is a choice to reject natural law, it is also a choice to affirm it, and so the 'good' is only a signifier of one's choice. such a definition is then weak (but not meaningless), providing a moral realisation of the starry light kant gives as its partner.

the same holds for all purely human notions of ideal qualities.

but we are not bound to the purely human - for God has revealed Himself to mortal man! on the basis of revelation, without which we could not know anything outside of our experience, we have knowledge of God from God. that knowledge leads us to know God's perfect love for us and how we have rejected Him, choosing sin and death over Love and Life Incarnate. there is therefore an infinite gulf that only God can remove and not by the works or human love we can attain, for the gap is infinite and even the best of our love is tainted with death.

it is into this despair (under the power of sin) that Christ and His Gospel enters: that He came to remove our separation from God and reconcile us to Him, that He came when we were yet in rebellion, that He came knowing that He would die at our hand, and that He was resurrected into eternal glory (for our death and sin has no power over Him). glory be to God!

through the justifying work of Christ, we have received the mercy and pardon of God. amen.

---

as we pair these words - justice and mercy - we realise that our human notions of the good must be subsumed by the Absolute and Actual, realised in the person and attributes of God. 'natural law' must bow before the Source of Law and so must we. and so it is here, in the triune God, that we find the origin and definition of the Ideal. it is here that we find perfect Truth and perfect Love dwelling in absolute unity. it is here that we must look to know Justice apart from self-righteousness and Mercy apart from empathy. and it is here that we learn that these Ideals are not realised in isolation.

the perfect Love of God is accompanied by the root and knowledge of perfect Truth. that Truth does not bind the Love of God, nor does His Love blind Him to His creation. He sees all and loves all, and if He saw any less His love would decrease as it only loves an avatar of the creature before Him. in turn, if He loved less, His vision would become constrained by hardness.

so it is with God and so it is with His children. knowledge esteemed above love will harden a man's heart, but the opposite will blind him and render his love meaningless. this dialectic does not hold in pairs, but in full generality: the fullness of Love is inextricably linked to Justice and Compassion and Righteousness and Power. all of these attributes are only rightly understood in God, and it is there that they are only rightly understood in their union.

and so - called by God, reconciled by Christ, and led by the Holy Spirit - we imitate God and Christ and learn Ideals from His Hand. as He develops His attributes in us, we are continually linked to Him, lest we consider our love or justice to have any value or life apart from His covering work in us. He thus covers us with His righteousness, teaches us how to love as He does (and then covers it yet again), and instructs us in the way of justice. in this, He keeps us close from the temptations away from Him back into self-righteousness and poison.

we are not good on our own merits, but on His. in turn, the person (and its attributes) He grows in us must not be rooted in us, but in Him. that He does this in the present is His promise, accompanied by His present indwelling.

again, glory - glory! - be to the God who does and is all this! may we ever be connected to Him as He is, and not merely as we conceive Him. amen.

---

*if you disagree, steal and wreck a foucault-fan's car. observe the results.