OF THE VERACITY OF
GOD
John Gill
The apostle says, "Let
God be true, and every man a liar", #Ro 3:4 this must be affirmed of him,
whatever is said of creatures, he is true and truth itself.
1. God is
true in and of himself: this epithet, or attribute, is expressive,
1a. Of the reality of his
being; he truly and really exists: this is what every worshipper of him must
believe, #Heb 11:6. Creatures have but a shadow of being, in comparison of his;
"Every man walks in a vain show", or image; rather in appearance
than in reality, #Ps 39:6 but the existence of God is true, real, and
substantial; hence he has the name Jehovah, "I AM that I AM"; which
denotes the truth, eternity, and immutability of his essence. What seems to be,
and is not, is not true; what seems to be, and is, is true.
1b. Of the
truth of his Deity; he is the true and the living God; so he is often called,
#2Ch 15:3 Jer 10:10 1Th 1:9 in opposition to fictitious deities; who either
have reigned themselves such, or are feigned so by others; gods only by name,
not by nature; of which there have been many: but the true God is but one, and
in distinction from such who are called gods in a figurative and metaphorical
sense, gods by office under God; as Moses was to Pharaoh,
and as kings, judges, and civil magistrates be, #Ex 7:1 #Ps 82:1,6,7. But the
Lord is God in a true and proper sense.
1c. This title includes the
truth and reality of all his perfections; he is not only omnipotent,
omniscient, omnipresent, eternal, and immutable, but he is truly so: what is falsely claimed by others, or wrongly given to them, is
really in him; he is not only good and gracious, holy and just, but he is truly
so; what others only appear to be, he is really.
1d. This may be predicated of
each Person in the Godhead; the Father is the only true God,
#Joh 17:3 though not to the exclusion of the Son, who is also the true God and
eternal life; nor of the holy Spirit, who is truth; and who, with the Father
and the Son, is the one true and living God, #1Jo 5:20,6,7. --This attribute of
truth removes from the divine nature everything imperfect and sinful: it is
opposed to unrighteousness, #De 32:4 and has the epithet of just or holy along
with it, when God is spoken of in his persons, ways, and
works, #Re 3:7 6:10 15:3 16:7 19:2 it removes from him all imputation of lying
and falsehood; he is not a man, that he should lie, as men do; the Strength of
"Israel will not" lie; yea, he is God that "cannot" lie; it
is even "impossible" that he should, #Nu 23:19 1Sa 15:29 Tit 1.2 Heb
6:18 this frees him from all deception, he can neither deceive nor be deceived;
Jeremiah, indeed, says, "O Lord, thou hast deceived me,
and I was deceived", #Jer 20:7 but this must be understood either as a
misapprehension and mistake of the prophet; or the sense is, if I am deceived,
God has deceived me; but as that cannot be, therefore I am not deceived: though
rather the words may be rendered, "thou hast persuaded me, and I was
persuaded", to enter upon his prophetic office, and to proceed
on in the execution of it. Moreover this attribute clears God of the charge of
insincerity, hypocrisy, and dissimulation, which, if in him, he could not be
true. Nor on the supposition of his decree to save some men, and not all, are
his declarations chargeable with anything of that kind; as that he has no
pleasure in the death of him that dies, and that he will have all men to be
saved, #Eze 18:32 1Ti 2:4 since the former respects not
eternal death, but the captivity of the Jews, their return from it, upon their
obedience, to their own land, and living in it. And the latter respects the
will of God to save some of all sorts, of every rank and condition in life, and
particularly Gentiles as well as Jews. In short, it removes all unfaithfulness
from God, or any shadow of it: it strongly expresses the faithfulness of God;
hence "true" and "faithful" are joined
together, when the sayings or words of God are spoken of; nor is it any
objection to the veracity of God, when what he has promised or threatened is
not done; since thereunto a condition is either openly annexed or secretly
understood; see #Jer 18:7-10 but the faithfulness of God, in his promises,
&c. will be distinctly considered hereafter. Concerning the veracity of
God, let the following things be observed:
1d1. That it
is essential to him, it is his very nature and
essence; he
is truth itself; he is not only called the God
of truth, but
"God the truth", #De 32:4 and so Christ
asserts
himself to be the "truth", #Joh 14:6 and the Spirit
is likewise
so called, #1Jo 5:6. To be false, fallacious,
and
insincere, would be to act contrary to his nature, even
to deny
himself; which he cannot do.
1d2.
It is most pure and perfect in him; as in him is light, and
no darkness
at all; he is righteous, and no unrighteousness
is in him; is
holy, and no unholiness in him; is good, and
no evil in
him; is wisdom, and no folly nor weakness in him;
so he is truth,
and no falsehood in him, not the least
1d3. It is
first, chief, and original in him; it is first in him,
as he is the
first cause; it is chief, as it is perfect in
him, and all
truth is originally from him; natural and
rational
truth, which is clear and self-evident to the mind:
as the Being
of God, from the works of his hands, called the
truth of God
made manifest in men, and showed unto them,
#Ro
1:18-20,25. Moral truth, by which men know, in some
measure,
though sadly depraved, the difference between moral
good
and moral evil, #Ro 2:14,15. Spiritual truth, truth
in the inward
parts, or the true grace of God; and
evangelical
truth, the word of truth, and the several
doctrines of
it; these are not of men, but of God. All
untruth is
from Satan, the father of lies; but all truth is
from
the God of truth, and from the Spirit, who leads into
all truth, as
it is in Jesus.
1d4. Truth,
as in God, is eternal; what is truth now, was always
truth with
him in his eternal mind; for "known to him are all
his
works from the beginning", or from eternity, #Ac 15:18
as also his
"word is true from the beginning", or from
eternity, #Ps
119:160. What is true with us today, might
not be true yesterday,
and will not be true tomorrow,
because
things are in a succession with us, and are so known
by
us; but not so with God, in whose eternal mind all things
stand in one
view; and besides, as veracity is his nature,
his essence,
it must be eternal, since that is, which
contains all
truth in it; and his truth will be to all
generations,
even for ever, #Ps 100:5 117:2.
1d5. It is
immutable and invariable, as he himself, as his nature
is; truth
does not always appear in the same light to men;
at first more
obscurely, then more clearly; it has its
gradations
and increase; but in God is always the same:
creatures
are mutable, fallacious, and deceitful; but God is
the same,
true and faithful, yesterday, today, and for
ever. An
attribute on account of which he is greatly to be
praised and
celebrated, #Ps 89:5 Isa 38:19.
2. God is
true in his works; or all his works are true, and his veracity is displayed in
them; and these are either internal or external.
2a. Internal acts within
himself; some relative to himself, to the divine persons, their modes of
subsisting, and distinction from each other; as paternity, filiation, and spiration; which are true and real things: the Father is truly
and properly the Father of Christ, and not in name only; and Christ is his own
proper Son, not in a figurative sense, or by office, as magistrates are called
the children of the most High; but the Son of the Father "in truth"
and love, #2Jo 1:3 and the Spirit of truth is really breathed, and proceeds
from the Father and the Son, #Joh 15:26 others are relative
to creatures; the decrees of God within himself, which are the secret actings
and workings of his mind, the thoughts of his heart, the deep things of God,
his counsels of old, which are "faithfulness" and "truth";
truly made, and truly performed, #Isa 25:1.
2b.
External works, as the works of creation, providence, and grace, which are all
true, and real things; and in which the veracity of God appears, both in making
and in continuing them.
2b1. The works
of creation, the heavens and the earth, which are
both
his handy work, and all that are in them; in which the
invisible
perfections of his nature are displayed and
discerned,
his eternal power and Godhead, and his veracity
among the
rest. The heavens above us, the sun, moon, and
stars we
behold, and the earth on which we live, are real,
and
not imaginary, they truly exist. Satan pretended to show
to Christ
"all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of
them", #Mt
4:8 but this was a false and delusive
representation,
a "deceptio visus", by which he would have
imposed on
Christ, but could not.
2b2. The
works of providence; those in an ordinary way, by which
God governs
the world, and disposes of all things according
to truth and
righteousness; and such as are of an
extraordinary
kind, as those done by the hands of Moses, in
Egypt;
and by Christ and his apostles: these were real
things, to
answer some wise ends and purposes in the world;
when those
done by the magicians were only in show, in
appearance,
and by a sort of legerdemain; as those done by
antichrist,
in the sight of men, as they imagine, whereby he
deceives
them that dwell on the earth; and therefore are
called
"lying wonders", feigned things, which have no truth
in them, #Re
13:13,14 2Th 2:9, 10 but the wonderful
works of God
are true, and without deceit, as are all his
judgments he
executes by the sword, famine, pestilence, &c.
2b3. The
works of grace done by him, his acts of grace, both in
eternity and
time; his choice of persons to eternal life, is
true, firm,
and real, the foundation of God, which stands
sure; the
covenant of grace, made in Christ, full of
blessings
and promises, faithfully performed; the mission of
Christ into the
world, and his incarnation, who was really
made flesh,
and dwelt among men; the truth of which the
apostle
confirms by the various senses of seeing, hearing,
and handling,
#1Jo 1:1. Justification by his righteousness
is
really imputed to his people, and by which they truly
become
righteous; and not in a putative and imaginary sense;
pardon by his
blood, which is not merely typical, as by the
blood of
slain beasts, but real; atonement by the sacrifice
of himself,
which he really and truly offered up to God; and
sanctification
by the Spirit, which is the new man, created
in
righteousness and true holiness; and not outward,
typical, and
ceremonial, nor feigned and hypocritical: and
adoption, by
which the saints are now really the sons of
God; though
it does not yet appear what they shall be; and
to
which the Spirit bears a true and real witness; and which
is unto an
inheritance, real, solid, and substantial.
3. God is true in his words,
in his essential Word, his Son, who was "in the beginning with God";
had a true and real existence with him, and was God, really and
truly God; he is true in his person and natures, the true God and eternal life,
who took unto him a true body and a reasonable soul; and whose human nature is
the true tabernacle God pitched, and not man: true in his offices he bears; the
true prophet raised up and sent of God, the true light, that lightens men in
every sense; the true priest, not of the order of Aaron, but of the order of
Melchizedek; the true and only Potentate, King of kings,
and Lord of lords; the true Mediator between God and men, and not a typical
one, as Moses.
God is true in his written
word; the scriptures are the scriptures of truth, even the whole of them, #Da
10:21 they are given by inspiration from God, are the breath of God, who is the God of truth, and therefore to be received,
"not as the word of man, but as in truth the word of God", #1Th 2:13
the legal part of them is truth; the apostle speaks of the "truth in the
law", known by men, #Ro 2:20 there is not a precept in it but what is true
and right; "The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous
altogether", #Ps 19:9. And the gospel part of them is eminently the word of truth, #Eph 1:13 and all the doctrines of it, which are
"pure words, as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven
times", #Ps 12:6. And the truth and veracity of God appears in the
fulfilment of the predictions, promises, and threatenings contained in his
word, which is the same with his faithfulness; which we shall particularly
treat of in the next chapter, being naturally led to it; the veracity of God is the foundation of his faithfulness; and his
faithfulness is a branch of that; and they are often put one for the other, and
signify the same thing.