One of the most important things about God’s holiness is that he is completely separate from all that is wrong or impure or sinful. He has a life that cannot be stained by anything that is bad. Because God is truth, he cannot tell a lie or believe a lie. Because God is faithful, he cannot go back on his word or break a promise. Because God is righteous, he cannot do what is evil or consider the evil that others do as okay or acceptable. Another way to think of God’s holiness is this: because God is holy he cannot be less than who he is as God, and he cannot be other than who he is as God. God is wise and good and righteous and truthful and faithful, and God simply cannot be different than this. He is holy, and so he is separated from anything that is contrary to his own life as God.

Third, God is unchangeable. We should be able to understand this from what we’ve just seen of God’s holiness. God is God, and this means that God cannot be less than who he is as God, just as God cannot be other than who he is as God. God has every quality within his own life as God, and because of this, he simply cannot change for the better or for the worse. A beautiful statement of this truth is expressed in Psalm 102:25–27: “Of old you laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands. They will perish, but you will remain; they will all wear out like a garment. You will change them like a robe, and they will pass away, but you are the same, and your years have no end.” Yes, indeed, God is the same, and his years never come to an end. God is who he ever is, and nothing in the very character of God can change.

Considering that God is eternal and holy and unchangeable should bring to us both praise for God’s greatness and trust because of the faithfulness of his character. Knowing God is this way, we truly can count on him. He always lives, and he always has all power and wisdom and goodness that he alone has as a holy God. He can never change in his character, becoming less or other than he is. We know that we can believe his word and trust his wisdom and power to do what is right. Knowing the richness of God, then, leads us to honor him, worship him, trust him, and humble ourselves before him. God alone is God, and God’s richness is without measure and without end.

Questions for Thought

1. God is so different from us. What are some of the ways God is not like anything he has made? How does this show God’s greatness?

2. God never changes in being the perfect God that he is. How does this truth about God bring comfort, strength, and hope to those who trust in God for what they face in their lives?

Memory Verse
Exodus 15:11—“Who is like you, O Lord, among the gods? Who is like you, majestic in holiness, awesome in glorious deeds, doing wonders?”

Some Truths about God’s Kindness That Make Him God

In learning who God really is, we find that he not only is separate from us in his richness and fullness as the eternal God, but he is also with us as a patient, gracious, forgiving, and loving God. So, not only is God rich in his life as God, he also is gracious and kind in his relationship with his people. Here we look together at three truths about God that show the greatness of his kindness, truths that help us know God better and realize even more why our hope and trust and dependence should be placed in God.

First, God is wise. In fact, the Bible teaches that God’s wisdom is so vast and perfect that it is right to call him “the only wise God” (Romans 16:27). Even though people may have some bits of wisdom—some more than others, and all of it from God!—only God is perfectly wise.