THE SHORTER CATECHISM: Question 4
Question: What is God?
Answer: God is a Spirit, (John 4:24) infinite, (Job 11:7–9) eternal, (Psa 90:2) and unchangeable, (Jas 1:17) in his being, (Exo 3:14) wisdom, (Psa 147:5) power, (Rev 4:8) holiness, (Rev 15:4) justice, goodness, and truth. (Exo 34:6–7)
James Robert Boyd describes the formulation of the answer to the Second Question in his 1856 book on the catechism. As he describes it when the question was asked “What is God?”, each man “felt the unapproachable sublimity of the divine idea suggested by these words; but who could venture to give it expression in human language! All shrunk from the too sacred task in awestruck reverential fear.” He continues to describe a scene where the divine wrangle over who would make the first attempt to answer this fundamental question. Finally as he tells it the decision was made that the youngest man attending would go first. Try to imagine yourself in that room and the weight that would be pressing in on the youngest man as all eyes turn to him and his youth expecting an answer. That man consented that he would attempt an answer if the other men would pray with him for guidance. George Gillespie his prayer, “0 God, Thou art a Spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable in thy being, wisdom, power holiness, justice, goodness, and truth…” beginning a path of this famous minister.
The Catechism is teaching material found the second chapter of the Westminster Confession and continues the practice that we find in most of the Standard of teaching what we believe and not what we are against. Jesus Christ himself in John 4:24 when he told the Samaritan woman that “God is spirit” provides the opening definition of what is God. The rest of the question is details a few of God’s most important incommunicable and communicable attributes. His incommunicable attributes, that that he does not share because they belong to Him alone, are infinite, eternal, and unchangeable. God’s communicable attributes, those that He shares with us, are wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth. These communicable attributes are shared with man who was made in the image of God, the Reformed insisting that the image was not totally corrupted by the fall.
God’s incommunicable attributes play an essential role in all of theology, and not understanding them and taking them into account is a sign of a man centered theology. For instance sin against the infinite God of the Bible is an act of infinite rebellion and requires an infinite punishment. This punishment cannot be satisfied by anything but an infinite sacrifice that no man could provide. This is the simplest of examples of how the attributes of God drives our theology. The communicable attributes need to be seen in the light of the incommunicable as well; the attributes of wisdom, power holiness, justice, goodness, and truth are in God perfect. Man has wisdom but just as a picture is an image that is not the same as the original, wisdom in man is in no way comparable to the perfect wisdom of God.
The first section in the second chapter of the Westminster Confession in the words of Robert Shaw:
asserted that this God is a most pure Spirit – that is he is an incorporeal, immaterial, invisible, and immortal being without body parts or passions… The confession affirms that God is a pure spirit according to the Scriptures, and in opposition to an ancient sect of heretics, who, understanding everything spoken of God in a literal sense, held that God has body paths and a human form. (The Reformed Faith, 1845)
Understanding the importance of a correct understanding of God the divines in the Shorter Catechism the Divines stress that God is a spirit over and against the ancient heresy of Anthropomorphites and foreseeing the future heresy of the Mormons the Divines cover this in the Confession and both Catechisms, in fact the exposition of the Third Commandment, especially in the Larger Catechism question 109 express the idolatrous nature of an incorrect understanding of God.
Leave a Reply