As mutable creatures, we are always changing. But God is forever the same. Today, R.C. Sproul studies the unique attributes of God that we do not share, characteristics that spur us to worship the Lord in all His holiness and glory. Receive R.C. Sproul’s book Everyone’s a Theologian, his 60-message teaching series Foundations: An Overview of Systematic Theology as a special-edition DVD collection, and lifetime digital access to the messages and study guide, all for your donation of any amount: https://gift.renewingyourmind.org/3887/donate Meet Today’s Teacher: R.C. Sproul (1939–2017) was known for his ability to winsomely and clearly communicate deep, practical truths from God’s Word. He was founder of Ligonier Ministries, first minister of preaching and teaching at Saint Andrew’s Chapel, first president of Reformation Bible College, and executive editor of Tabletalk magazine. Meet the Host: Nathan W. Bingham is vice president of ministry engagement for Ligonier Ministries, executive producer and host of Renewing Your Mind, host of the Ask Ligonier podcast, and a graduate of Presbyterian Theological College in Melbourne, Australia. Nathan joined Ligonier in 2012 and lives in Central Florida with his wife and four children. Renewing Your Mind is a donor-supported outreach of Ligonier Ministries. Explore all of our podcasts: https://www.ligonier.org/podcasts
Full Episode
We are dependent beings. We are created beings. But God is not dependent, not created, not finite. But He has the power of being in and of Himself. He doesn't derive it from something else.
To know who God is, we must study his attributes. He shares some of his attributes with us, like his love, goodness, and kindness. And we call those his communicable attributes. But today, on this Monday edition of Renewing Your Mind, R.C. Sproul will focus on those attributes that God alone possesses.
This week, you'll be hearing messages from Dr. Sproul's Foundation Series, a series designed to give you a solid foundation for your beliefs. Over 60 messages, it gives you an overview of theology to help you know what you believe and why you believe it. You can request this series in a special edition DVD set, along with digital access to the messages and study guide.
Plus, for those who'd prefer to read this overview of theology, we'll send you his book, Everyone's a Theologian. Simply give a donation of any amount at renewingyourmind.org. Well, to start this week's study, here's Dr. Sproul on the incommunicable attributes of God.
Sometimes when I go into a store and want to make a purchase or into the bank and want to cash a check, people will request some form of identification. And I usually open up my wallet and show them my picture on my Florida driver's license. And on the side of that license, it tells what color my eyes are, what color my hair is, and all that sort of thing, how old I am.
In other words, what is being done here. trying to identify me as a person is that a list of particular characteristics or traits are listed there. And we call these characteristics or traits or idiosyncrasies that define a human being their attributes. Now, when we study the doctrine of God, one of the most important things we're concerned with is an understanding of his attributes.
And so we seek to look at the specific characteristics of God, such as His holiness, His immutability, His infinity, and so on. All these different things that we say about God in order to gain a coherent understanding of who He is. Now, at the beginning of such an endeavor, we recognize a couple of important things.
One distinction that is made in theology with respect to the nature of God is the distinction between the communicable and the incommunicable attributes of God. On Atlanta, Georgia, we have a communicable disease center where the focus of attention there is to study those diseases that are easily transmitted from one person to another that we might say are contagious.
And when we talk about that which is communicable, we mean that which is able to be transferred from one to another. Now, in our next session, we will look at some of the communicable attributes of God. That refers to those attributes that God possesses that we, to some degree, can possess as well. But today, we're going to look at the incommunicable attributes in brief.
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