The Character of God is who the Lord is in Himself,
made known by what He says and does.
He proclaimed His name to Moses:
merciful and gracious,
slow to anger,
abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness,
forgiving iniquity, and
by no means clearing the guilty.
Scripture does not invite us to invent a God we prefer.
It calls us to behold the God who is,
and to worship Him in spirit and in truth.
God is not an idea assembled from our best thoughts. He is the living Lord who speaks, acts, and names Himself.
When Moses asked to see His glory, the Lord put him in the cleft of the rock and proclaimed His name.
- That name is the Bible’s short portrait of His character: mercy and justice together, grace and truth together, patience and holiness together.
- The rest of Scripture fills the portrait.
- He is holy, and the seraphim cry that the whole earth is full of His glory.
- He is love, and He sent His Son.
- He is faithful, and every promise finds its yes in Christ.
- He is righteous in all His ways and kind in all His works.
- He does not change.
- The Son is the radiance of His glory and the exact imprint of His nature.
False gods are patient without judgment, or just without mercy, or strong without goodness.
The Lord is all that He is at once,
and none of His attributes cancel another.
- God reveals His character; we do not vote it into being.
- Mercy and justice meet in the name He proclaimed and in the cross of Christ.
- The Lord is slow to anger, and He will by no means clear the guilty.
- His steadfast love is covenant love, not a mood.
- Holiness is not one trait among many. It is the quality of all that He is.
- Jesus is the exact imprint of God’s nature. To see the Son is to see the Father.
- The God who is light calls His people to walk in the light.
- Holy – Set apart, pure, and glorious; there is none like Him.
- Merciful and Gracious – He pities sinners and gives what they cannot earn.
- Slow to Anger – His patience is real and aimed at repentance.
- Abounding in Steadfast Love – His loyal love keeps covenant for thousands.
- Faithful and True – He cannot lie; His word stands.
- Righteous and Just – He does what is right and will not clear the guilty without atonement.
- Love – He loved the world and gave His Son; He is love.
- Unchanging – The same yesterday, today, and forever in His nature and purpose.
- Almighty and Wise – He does all that He pleases, and He does it in wisdom.
- Near and Present – He dwells with the contrite and fills heaven and earth.
- Exodus 34:6-7 – “The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, ‘The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.’”
- Exodus 33:18-19 – “Moses said, ‘Please show me your glory.’ And he said, ‘I will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you my name “The Lord.”’”
- Deuteronomy 32:3-4 – “For I will proclaim the name of the Lord; ascribe greatness to our God! The Rock, his work is perfect, for all his ways are justice. A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and upright is he.”
- Psalm 103:8-13 – “The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love… As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him.”
- Psalm 145:8-9, 17 – “The Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. The Lord is good to all, and his mercy is over all that he has made… The Lord is righteous in all his ways and kind in all his works.”
- Isaiah 6:1-3 – “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!”
- Isaiah 40:28 – “The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable.”
- Jeremiah 9:23-24 – “Let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the Lord.”
- Malachi 3:6 – “For I the Lord do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed.”
- 1 John 1:5 – “This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.”
- 1 John 4:8-10 – “Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”
- John 1:14, 18 – “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth… No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.”
- John 14:9 – “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.”
- Hebrews 1:3 – “He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power.”
- Hebrews 13:8 – “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.”
- James 1:17 – “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.”
- Numbers 23:19 – “God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind. Has he said, and will he not do it?”
- Psalm 86:15 – “But you, O Lord, are a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.”
- Nahum 1:3, 7 – “The Lord is slow to anger and great in power, and the Lord will by no means clear the guilty… The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; he knows those who take refuge in him.”
- Romans 11:33 – “Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!”
- 1 Timothy 1:17 – “To the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.”
- Revelation 4:8, 11 – “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!… Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things…”
- Micah 7:18 – “Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity and passing over transgression for the remnant of his inheritance? He does not retain his anger forever, because he delights in steadfast love.”
The Lord, the Lord, merciful and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.
That is His name. That is His character.
He forgives iniquity. He will not clear the guilty without a covering.
Look at the Son if you would know the Father. Full of grace and truth, He is the exact imprint of God’s nature.
Do not carve a smaller god who is only kind, or only severe.
Boast in this: that you understand and know Him, the Lord who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth.
He does not change. Take refuge in Him. Walk in the light, as He is in the light.
Entry compiled for the JESUSaves.com Bible Glossary. Optimized for wiki.js Visual Editor.