“What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.”[1] These words by the well know theologian, A.W. Tozer, are just as true today as they were the day those words were penned. If what comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us, then Theology Proper cannot be more vital for us to study in this present day.
Definition
Theology proper is the study of the attributes of God. Another way of understanding the attributes of God is to understand them as God’s perfections. John MacArthur helps us understand why we might want to think of attributes in the term of perfections, “God’s perfections are the essential characteristics of his nature. Because these characteristics are necessary to his nature, all his attributes are absolutely perfect and thus rightly called perfections. Further, since these perfections are essential to God’s nature, if any one of them were denied, God would no longer be God.”[2] So rightly understood, the perfections of God give us a right understanding of who God is. Further, Theology Proper also considers the makeup of the Godhead and how one is to understand who God is. This means that any study of Theology Proper will consider the Trinity and how God as one Being exists in three persons, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit.
Our natural tendency is to try to make God like us. Click To TweetScriptural Evidence
In reality, all of the Bible is the Scriptural evidence for studying the makeup and character of God. If we rightly understand that “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness,that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work” (2 Tim 3:16-17) then we see that God’s Word is his own disclosure to us about himself. To be able to see the perfections of God properly we must begin by admitting to ourselves and others what Jeremiah says about God, “Inasmuch as there is none like You, O Lord You are great, and Your name is great in might.” (Jeremiah 10:6) If we genuinely then desire to understand that there is no one like God than the only place we can turn is to the Word of God to see who he is.
Each one of God’s perfections will have a chorus of Scripture that sing out about that particular perfection in detail. Further, while the Bible never uses the word Trinity, the Scriptures make a case for the triune nature of God. To put it simply the best way for us to study Theology Proper is to immerse ourselves in the depths of riches found in the Scriptures. When we immerse ourselves in them looking at God’s character, we find out that Jeremiah is correct, there is no one like God.
Historical Perspective
Historically speaking, there has been little debate over the perfections of God. What has developed over the years is the way that we understand the perfections of God. This development has been to place the perfections of God into two categories, incommunicable and communicable perfections. It is worth mentioning that not all theologians agree on these two categories or the perfections that are listed in each category. In the end, what we must understand is that humans are trying to describe the character of God and as fallible humans, will struggle to describe Him accurately.
Practical Application
Why study theology proper? Simply put, to remind us that we are not God and God is not us. As people who live in a culture of hyper-individualism and also being fallen human beings, our natural tendency is to try to make God like us. Theology Proper teaches us that God is not like us in any way. He stands supremely above all of creation and distinct from it. With a world around us that wants to make God more appealing to those with objections, Theology Proper fights against the temptation to do just that. As people who teach and preach God’s Word, Theology Proper helps our people to see God rightly for who he is. When we teach the different perfections of God, it helps the people around us to see not just the one perfection of God but how his perfections work together for his own glory. So, pastor, teacher, or Christian dig into the perfections of God so that you too can show people how a sovereign God loves people while never changing who He is all the while promoting the fact that He is, in fact, Holy, Holy, Holy.
Click here to read the Introduction to the series, Why Study Theology
Click here to read part one of Rooted: An Introduction to Systematic Theology, Bibliology
Click here to read part two of Rooted: An Introduction to Systematic Theology, Theology Proper (
Click here to read part three of Rooted: An Introduction to Systematic Theology, Christology (available October 30, 2019)
Click here to read part four of Rooted: An Introduction to Systematic Theology, Pneumatology (available October 31, 2019)
Click here to read part five of Rooted: An Introduction to Systematic Theology, Angelology (available November 1, 2019)
Click here to read part six of Rooted: An Introduction to Systematic Theology, Ecclesiology (available November 4, 2019)
Click here to read part seven of Rooted: An Introduction to Systematic Theology, Anthropology (available November 5, 2019)
Click here to read part eight of Rooted: An Introduction to Systematic Theology, Hamartiology (available November 6, 2019)
Click here to read part nine of Rooted: An Introduction to Systematic Theology, Soteriology (available November 7, 2019)
Click here to read part ten of Rooted: An Introduction to Systematic Theology, Eschatology (available November 8, 2019)
Click here to read part eleven of Rooted: An Introduction to Systematic Theology, Dispensationalism (available November 8, 2019)
[1] Tozer, A.W. The Knowledge of the Holy (New York: HarperCollins, 1978), 1.
[2] MacArthur, John; Mayhue, Richard. Biblical Doctrine (Wheaton: Crossway, 2017), 161.
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