These articles are taken from the quarterly Chapel magazine from a series on the Attributes of God

God is beyond our limited and flawed thoughts and understanding. So how do we come to ‘know’ God?
Well, how do you really get to know someone in real life? You spend time in their company, speak with them, move in their circles. Perhaps if they are not local you read or watch a biography about them or spend time with people that know them well, who can tell you first hand about them.
God clearly presents himself to us in the Bible – if you’ve never read a Bible, or attended Church to hear preaching from the Bible, how do you know if your views of God match what he has revealed to us? The amazing thing is that we find in the Bible that we not only can know about God but we can know God personally, through his Son Jesus Christ. (below: The attributes of God, reproduced from Answers in Genesis)

In the Bible, God sets out his character or essential qualities that define who He is – known as his attributes.
These include His omnipotence (all-powerful); His omniscience (all-knowing); His omnipresence (present everywhere); and His immutability (unchanging). Additionally, God is described as holy, just, merciful and gracious, faithful, and loving.
These attributes together paint a picture of God and help us understand that God is perfect, sovereign, and trustworthy—worthy of our worship and trust.
In our daily lives, if we are Christians, understanding these attributes can bring us comfort and confidence. For example, knowing that God is omniscient reassures us that He understands our struggles and needs fully. His omnipotence reminds us that nothing is impossible for Him, encouraging us to trust in His power during difficult times. His omnipresence means we are never alone; God is always with us, providing guidance and support. And His perfect goodness and love inspires us to reflect those qualities in our own actions, fostering kindness and integrity.

This is the mystery of God, that he can perfectly and completely be all of these things in all of his being. But we can understand some of this. God's justice, mercy, and holiness are all interconnected aspects of His nature.
His justice ensures that sin is ultimately addressed and that right is upheld, meaning that wrongdoing doesn't go unpunished. At the same time, His mercy shows His compassion and willingness to forgive sinners, providing a way of being saved. His holiness reflects His perfect purity and separation from sin, which underscores the seriousness of sin and the need for justice.
Together, these qualities create a balanced understanding: God who is holy, just and merciful sent His Son to reconcile sinners like us to Him through His death. In Christ’s death He took the just penalty for sin and paid the price of our salvation so that all who put their trust and faith in Him will be forgiven and re-united to the Father as His children. At the cross, God’s love, justice and mercy met!
Do you recognise this God? If the “god” of your understanding loves everyone unconditionally, turns a blind eye to sin and welcomes anyone and everyone into heaven, then sadly, you do not know the God of the Bible; you’ve made a God of your own imagination.
If sin can be so lightly dismissed, then God would not have sent his only Son into the world, to live a perfect life of obedience and suffer and die on the cross to take the punishment our sins deserve. Don’t be deceived by a comfortable message that says “live how you please…God will ultimately accept you”. These things are too serious to leave to chance and imagination – come and hear the Word of God and truly ‘know’ God.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/christianity/history/welshrevival_1.shtml Just after eleven o'clock on a Wednesday evening in 1904, a solo voice rang out with the hymn "Here is love vast as the ocean". Maybe a thousand people were in Ebenezer Baptist Church, Abertillery at the time, leaning over the galleries, packing every pew and squeezing into every spare corner. Meetings like it were taking place across Wales night after night, with fervent prayer and passionate singing - and similar disregard for the clock. It was reckoned that in little over a year a hundred thousand people had made a commitment to Jesus Christ.
Whole communities changed, as men and women found themselves drawn into a powerful experience of God; and the hymn that soloist struck up spontaneously about "love vast as the ocean" was heard so often that it became known as "the love song of the revival." A simple, but rich hymn text written by William Rees, a 19th-century Welsh farmer, author, poet, and minister telling of the deep and abundant love of God and our response to that love.

The South Wales Gazette said of the Revival; "it...has been the absorbing theme of thought and discussion. Before it, the War, the state of trade, ordinary and extraordinary political topics, and even football, have been thrown into the shade as topics of general conversation.
Drunkards have been soberised, publicans have lost much business, conduct on public streets has been elevated, and the police and magistrates have had quieter times... The bottom of the pits have been utilised as centres for prayer and praise meetings, and there has been a general raising of the standard of public life."
It wasn’t only people leading outwardly dubious lives that were impacted. The pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church, Abertillery at the time, the Rev David Collier, wrote: “...some deeply intelligent but unconverted men, who had always led exemplary lives, would feel such sorrow of soul as made them tremble, turn deathly pale, and cry out for the prayers of their brethren... “.The love of God, coupled with an understanding of his justice and an experience of His mercy and grace through the Lord Jesus Christ has the power to transform lives, then and still today. Here is love, vast as the ocean… (reproduced from material by Roy Jenkins (BBC)
Below: collage from HSC Youth Work based William Rees’s hymn

In the last article we asked ’can you truly know God?’ and we introduced what the Bible says about God’s character or essential qualities that define who He is – known as his attributes.
This time we’re talking about LOVE. In our modern society, love is rooted in feelings, attraction, or personal satisfaction. Love is relative and subjective. If someone or something makes me happy, I’ll enjoy it as long as it feels good or benefits me (all to often regardless of whether it hurts others or is unnatural or selfish). The Bible’s teaching on love is completely different.
One of the most comforting and awe-inspiring truths revealed in the Bible is that God is love (1 John 4:8). God is both the essence and definition of love. But in the Bible, this love is never considered in isolation—it is one of God’s many perfect attributes, always in harmony with His holiness, justice, sovereignty, and truth. God’s love is not sentimental or fickle, as often portrayed in popular culture, but is rooted in His eternal, unchanging nature.
God’s love is sovereign. He loves because He chooses to love, not because of anything in us. “In love He predestined us for adoption to Himself as sons through Jesus Christ” (Ephesians 1:4–5). This means His love is not earned, nor can it be lost. It is grounded in His gracious will.
A central verse that reveals the depth of God's love for sinners is John 3:16: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” This verse proclaims the astonishing truth that God, in His mercy, sent His Son into a world in rebellion. The “world” here is not lovely or worthy, but lost and fallen. God's love is displayed not in overlooking sin, but in providing a Savior who would bear the punishment sin deserves. In this act, God's love is both sacrificial (it gives at great cost) and redemptive (it restores), offered to all, yet effectually applied to those whom the Spirit enables to trust in Christ.
God’s love is also holy. It does not ignore sin but moves God to act to save sinners without compromising His justice. That’s why the cross is the ultimate display of divine love: “But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). At Calvary, God’s love and justice meet. Jesus bore the penalty we deserved so that those who believe in Him could be forgiven and brought into fellowship with the Father.
Importantly, God's love is particular and covenantal. While God has a general benevolence toward all creation (Matthew 5:45), His saving love is reserved for His people—those chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world. This covenant love (Hebrew: hesed) is steadfast, faithful, and unbreakable. It assures believers that nothing “will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:39).
The Bible does not reduce God’s love to mere emotional affection. It sees God's love as active, powerful, and redemptive. It assures us that the God who rules the universe is also the God who tenderly cares for His sheep, disciplines them in love, and will never abandon them.
In a world where love is often confused with permissiveness or passion, the biblical view of God’s love stands as a firm foundation. It is a love that saves, sanctifies, and secures. It is a love that points us to worship—not just because God loves us, but because of the kind of God He is: holy, sovereign, and abundantly merciful.
You too can know this love that never fails—it is not dependent on anything in you, or about you, it is free to “whoever calls on the name of the Lord… shall be saved”. Such love can never fail.

Omniscience and the Coming of Christ
This is where the Christmas message shines. The birth of Jesus was not an afterthought or divine improvisation. It was the fulfilment of a plan conceived by the all-knowing God from before the world began. In Revelation 13:8, Christ is described as “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.” This means that the incarnation (Jesus taking on human form) was a plan woven into the fabric of history from the very beginning.
At Christmas, we celebrate not simply the birth of a child, but the arrival of the Saviour God had promised long before Eden’s gates closed behind Adam and Eve. He sent His Son at the exact moment He had ordained. Jesus’s coming was “no chance event,” but the fulfilment of God’s promise in Genesis 3:15 that the seed of the woman would crush the serpent.
Why God’s Omniscience Makes Christmas Good News
· Our salvation is not accidental – God knew we would fall—and planned our salvation accordingly
· Christmas is not sentimental mythology – it is the revelation of God’s eternal purpose. Because God’s plan is rooted in His omniscient, unchangeable decree, Christmas is the guarantee that redemption will succeed. As Jesus Himself declared: “All that the Father gives me will come to me” (John 6:37).
· God knows all about us and still provided a Saviour – Christmas reveals the wise, loving heart of an all-knowing God. His love is rooted not in ignorance but in perfect knowledge. He knows every sin we have ever committed—and still sent His Son Jesus, not because we were worthy, but because He is gracious.
The omniscience of God is warm and full of hope. Because God knows all things, He knew our need before we did. Because He knows all things, He planned a salvation that cannot fail if we are called of God. And because He knows all things, the birth of Jesus is not simply the beginning of a story—it is the outworking of an eternal purpose to redeem a people for Himself. This is why Christians rejoice at Christmas: the all-knowing God has acted for our salvation, and His purposes, from eternity to Bethlehem to the present day, stand firm forever.

The Bible teaches us that God’s justice is an aspect of his holy character. It is not something outside him to which he must conform; rather, justice flows from who he is. Unlike the infamous Judge Jefferies, God can be described as “the righteous judge” whose judgments are always pure and upright. His justice, therefore, is neither arbitrary nor emotional. It is moral perfection expressed consistently.
This has two important implications for our thinking about justice:
1. Justice is objective. It is grounded in God’s character, not human opinion.
2. Justice is moral. It reflects God’s holiness and righteousness.
Justice and Accountability
The Bible teaches that God’s justice requires accountability. Humanity’s fall into sin means that all people stand guilty before a holy God. As the Apostle Paul writes in the Epistle to the Romans, “There is none righteous, no, not one” (Romans 3:10).
This emphasis on accountability has historically shaped national thinking about civil society. If all people are morally responsible before God, then justice in society must involve laws, consequences, and impartial judgment. The theologian R. C. Sproul summarised it this way: God’s justice means he always does what is right according to his own righteous standard. He never overlooks wrongdoing; he never perverts judgment.
Justice and Mercy at the Cross
Yet the Bible shows us that God’s justice is not opposed to his mercy. The two meet at the cross of Jesus Christ when he bore the penalty that justice required. God’s justice demands that sin be punished, either through ourselves or by another. In the death of Christ, God remains just while justifying sinners.
This means divine justice is not cold or cruel. It is satisfied in a way that upholds moral order while providing salvation. Justice is not ignored; it is fulfilled.
How This Relates to Justice in the United Kingdom
The UK’s understanding of justice — fairness before the law, due process, equality of persons — did not arise in a vacuum. Historically, it developed in a culture deeply shaped by Protestant Christianity that contributed key ideas that still underpin British legal thought:
· The rule of law: Because God is just and consistent, law must be applied impartially.
· Equality before the law: Since all stand equally accountable before God, no one is above justice.
· Moral foundations of law: Law is not merely social convention; it reflects moral order.
Today, many in the UK would define justice in secular terms—yet historically, those definitions were derived from a theological conviction: that justice is real because it reflects the character of a just God.
Why It Still Matters
If justice is only a human construct, it can shift with culture and opinion. But if justice ultimately reflects the character of God, then it has permanence and authority beyond politics.
God’s justice is both a comfort and a warning:
· A comfort, because wrongdoing will not have the final word.
· A warning, because moral accountability is real.
And at the centre of it all stands the cross, where justice and mercy meet.
In a nation still shaped by its Protestant heritage, understanding the justice of God helps us understand not only theology, but the deeper roots of how we define justice itself.
The challenge
“So then each of us shall give account of himself to God”. Romans 14:12. If God is perfectly just, it means that one day, when we meet him we will be held accountable for our lives by a just judge, one that cannot be swayed by emotion, clever arguments, indifference, distraction or bribery. God’s justice is unable to ignore wrong-doing—and our only hope is that God’s justice is satisfied by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ if we know and believe He died for us.