Kathleene Grace Dadero Mascariña’s personal journey towards knowing the One True God; and making Him known.
In the Scriptures, the Lord is frequently titled as “The Holy One”. He is so because the sum of all moral excellency is found in Him. He is independently, infinitely, immutably holy. He is absolute Purity, unsullied even by the shadow of sin.
Stephen Charnock defines God’s patience as a part of the divine goodness and mercy; yet it differs from both. God being the greatest goodness has the greatest “mildness”.
The sterner, more awe-inspiring aspects of the divine character are counterbalanced by the gentler, more winsome ones. It is to our irreparable loss if we only dwell on God’s sovereignty and majesty, or His holiness and justice; we need to meditate frequently, though not exclusively, on His love, goodness, grace and mercy.
It is a strange and beautiful eccentricity of the free God that He has allowed His heart to be emotionally identified with men. Self-sufficient as He is, He wants our love and will not be satisfied till He gets it. Free as He is, He has let His heart be bound to us forever.
In God, mercy and grace are one; but as they reach us they are seen as two — related but not identical. As mercy is God’s goodness confronting human misery and guilt, so grace is His goodness directed toward human debt and demerit.
God’s mercy is eternal — it never began to be and it will never cease to be. It is infinite — it will never be more and it will definitely never be less. Nothing that has occurred or will occur in heaven or earth or hell can ever change the tender mercies of our God. Forever His mercy stands, a boundless, overwhelming immensity of divine pity and compassion.
There is such an absolute perfection in God’s nature and being that nothing is wanting to it or defective in it. He cannot be less than good than He is. Nothing can be added to it to make it better. He is eternally, immutably, and perfectly good.
Faithfulness is one of the glorious perfections of God’s being. For God to be unfaithful would be to act contrary to His nature. He never fails, never falters, never forgets. He always does what He has said. He always fulfills what He has promised.
When the Lord speaks, He always speaks the truth. His words are the final standard and definition of truth, for they are based on His perfect knowledge and they accurately reflect that perfect knowledge.
God is able to devise the most perfect ends, and He is able to achieve those ends by the most perfect means. He sees the end from the beginning. He sees everything in focus, each in proper relation to all. He doesn’t guess. He is able to work towards predestined goals with flawless precision.
What is meant by “foreknowledge”? I’m quite certain that if you are to be asked, you can immediately respond, “to know beforehand” — and you are correct. That’s exactly how dictionaries define it. However, to define it as an attribute of God, we must not solely rely on dictionary meanings. For it is not just a matter of its basic definition and etymology; what matters more is the way it is used in the Holy Scriptures.
GOD KNOWS ALL THINGS. This pretty much sums up the perfection God’s mental attributes; and that’s all we need to know about the extent of the Lord’s knowledge — He knows everything!
For the love of my life, Kenneth. 💕
The God I Know 