God’s Incommunicable Attributes
by Herman Bavinck
Scripture itself reveals the general attributes of God’s nature before, and more clearly than, it
reveals his trinitarian existence. God is independent, all-sufficient in himself, and the only source
of all existence and life. yhwh is the name that describes this essence and identity most clearly: “I
will be what I will be.” It is in this aseity of God, conceived not only as having being from himself
but also as the fullness of being, that all other divine perfections are included.
Immutability is a natural implication of God’s aseity. While everything changes, God is and
remains the same. If God were not immutable, he would not be God. To God alone belongs true
being, and that which truly is remains. Contrary to both Deism and pantheismGod who is cannot
change, for every change would diminish his being. This doctrine of God’s immutability is
important; the very distinction between Creator and creature hinges on the contrast between
being and becoming. Our reliance on God depends on his immutability. Philosophic notions of
absolute becoming have no place in Christian theology, nor should immutability be understood
in static philosophic terms. The unchanging God is related to his creatures in manifold ways and
participates in their lives. God is transcendent and immanent. Without losing himself he can give
himself and, while absolutely maintaining his immutability, he can enter into an infinite number
of relations to his creatures.
When applied to time, God’s immutability (or infinity) is called eternity; when applied to space
it is called omnipresence. Properly understood, infinity is not a philosophical notion obtained
negatively by abstraction from finite things. God is positively infinite in his characteristic essence,
absolutely perfect, infinite in an intensive, qualitative sense.
God’s eternity, contrary to Deism, is qualitative and not merely quantitatively an infinite
extension of time. Christian theology must also avoid the error of pantheism, which simply
considers eternity as the substance or essence of time itself. Eternity excludes a beginning, an end,
and succession of moments. God is unbegotten, incorruptible, and immutable. Time is the mode
of existence of all finite creatures. God, on the other hand, is the eternal I AM, who is without
beginning or end and not subject to measuring or counting in his duration. God’s eternity,
however, is not static or immobile but fullness of being, present and immanent in every moment
of time. God pervades time and every moment of time with his eternity; he maintains a definite
relation to time, entering into it with his eternity.
Infinity in the sense of not being confined by space is synonymous with God’s omnipresence.
While heaven and earth cannot contain God, neither can he be excluded from space. Rather, he
fills heaven and earth with his presence. This omnipresence includes God’s being as well as his
