The Being and Attributes of God

The being and attributes of God form the foundation of all Reformed and Puritan theology. These authors insist that God is not a distant abstraction but the living, personal, sovereign Creator whose character determines how salvation, judgment, providence, and daily faith actually work. Charles Spurgeon, Jonathan Edwards, and Matthew Henry, though writing in different centuries and contexts, return again and again to the same conviction: God is infinitely powerful, perfectly just, unchangeably faithful, and abundantly gracious. Understanding who God is matters because every doctrine of Scripture—law, gospel, election, justification, perseverance—rests on his nature. To misunderstand God is to misunderstand everything else.

God as the sovereign source of all things

Matthew Henry emphasizes that God is the first cause and final end of all reality. Reflecting on Romans 11:36, he writes that God is the first efficient cause, the supreme directing cause, and the ultimate final cause of all things, for the Lord has made all things for himself. This means nothing exists or occurs apart from his will. Henry also insists that God's sovereignty extends to the eternal destiny of individuals. Commenting on Romans 9:14–18, he says God disposes of people's eternal state as an absolute owner and benefactor, not merely as a governor rewarding or punishing according to revealed law. The thought that this could make God unrighteous must be rejected outright (Romans 9:14).

Jonathan Edwards approaches the same truth from a philosophical angle. In his discussion of justification by faith alone, he argues that all effects, including physical and spiritual effects, require a causal union with the power that produces them. Even if there is no intermediate cause of gravitation, the first cause must be causally present and united to every effect, since in God we live and move and have our being (Acts 17:28). Edwards is not merely speculating about physics; he is showing that God's sustaining power is immediate and personal. Henry would agree, adding that God's calling things that are not as though they were expresses his sovereignty, absolute power, and dominion, which is a mighty support to faith when all other props fail (Romans 4:17).

The infinite excellence and justice of God

Edwards stresses that God's infinite excellence makes sin infinitely heinous. Sin's evil is infinite because it violates an infinite obligation to love and honor an infinitely excellent God. This is not a rhetorical exaggeration for Edwards. He argues that the creature's sin against God is aggravated by both God's infinite greatness and the creature's meanness, while the creature's respect toward God is worthless because of the creature's lowliness. Because of this, it is inconsistent with the honor of God's majesty to accept anything from a condemned malefactor until his condemnation is removed (Romans 3:19–20).

Spurgeon agrees that God's justice is absolute. In his sermon on Romans 5:8, he states that God's justice required that sin be punished by death, so if sinners were to be pardoned, someone else had to bear their punishment as a substitute. Henry adds that God's wrath is not a passionate outburst but a righteous judgment, his settled will to punish sin because he hates it (Romans 2:5). Yet Henry also notes that God is more ready to save upon an imputed righteousness than to condemn upon an imputed guilt, because showing mercy is more agreeable to his goodness than punishing (Romans 5:15). This is not a contradiction but a recognition that God's justice and goodness are both perfect and harmonious.

The faithfulness and truthfulness of God

One of the most prominent themes across all three authors is God's unbreakable faithfulness. Spurgeon repeatedly insists that human unbelief cannot nullify God's promises. He writes that human unbelief cannot make God's faithfulness ineffective or damage the gospel in any way (Romans 3:3). God is true even if every human being contradicts him, because God cannot lie or change (Romans 3:4). Henry makes the same point: the unbelief of the Jews cannot nullify God's faithfulness or prevent the fulfillment of his prophecies and purposes (Romans 3:3).

If God says one thing and every man in the world says another, God is true, and all men are false! God speaks the truth and cannot lie. God cannot change. His word, like Himself, is immutable Charles Spurgeon, sermon “God Justified, Though Man Believes Not”

Let God be true but every man a liar; let us abide by this principle, that God is true to every word which he has spoken, and will let none of his oracles fall to the ground, though thereby we give the lie to man; better question and overthrow the credit of all the men in the world than doubt of the faithfulness of God Matthew Henry, “Exposition of the Old and New Testaments”

For Spurgeon, this faithfulness is the ground of all Christian confidence. Abraham's faith rested solely on God's bare word, without any visible evidence to support it (Romans 4:17). Abraham was fully persuaded that God was able to perform what He had promised, believing that God cannot lie (Romans 4:21). Henry adds that our wavering arises mainly from distrust of God's power, so we must believe both that God is faithful and that he is able (Romans 4:21). The authors differ slightly in emphasis: Spurgeon tends to stress the emotional and practical confidence that comes from God's faithfulness, while Henry more often frames it as a doctrinal certainty rooted in God's covenant. But both agree that God's word never fails.

The grace and goodness of God

Grace, for these authors, is not merely God's kindness but his sovereign, overflowing goodness to the undeserving. Spurgeon declares that grace surpasses sin in its origin, because while sin traces its parentage to the human heart, grace traces its origin to God himself (Romans 5:20). Edwards adds a profound insight: God's goodness appears more abundant when He shows kindness without any excellency in the receiver to draw it forth, because abundant goodness flows from within rather than needing external attraction. This means grace is not a response to human worth but an expression of God's own nature.

Sin shows us its parent, and tells us our heart is the father of it, but grace surpasseth sin there, and shows the Author of grace—the King of kings. The law traces sin up to our heart; grace traces its own origin to God Charles Spurgeon, sermon “Law and Grace”

Henry connects this grace to the Father and the Son. All good comes from God as Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ as Mediator, who conveys grace and peace from his fullness (Romans 1:7). He also notes that God is the same Lord to all people, not kinder to Jews than to Gentiles, and is rich in goodness toward all who call on him (Romans 10:12). Spurgeon emphasizes that this grace is secured by the blood of Christ and by God's unbreakable oath and promise (Romans 5:21). The throne of grace, he says, rests on God's unchanging purpose and decree, which are fixed forever (Romans 5:21).

The wisdom and incomprehensibility of God

Henry is especially rich on the theme of God's unfathomable wisdom. Commenting on Romans 11:33, he writes that God's wisdom and knowledge in the work of redemption are so deep that even the most spiritually enlightened human minds cannot fully comprehend them. God's knowledge consists in his seeing all things by one clear, certain, and infallible view, while his wisdom consists in ruling and ordering all things for his own glory. Henry adds that God's paths of providence cannot be traced because he leaves no footprints and does not go the same way often enough to make a track (Romans 11:33).

Paul was as well acquainted with the mysteries of the kingdom of God as ever any mere man was; and yet he confesses himself at a loss in the contemplation, and, despairing to find the bottom, he humbly sits down at the brink, and adores the depth Matthew Henry, “Exposition of the Old and New Testaments”

God leaves no prints nor footsteps behind him, does not make a path to shine after him; but his paths of providence are new every morning. He does not go the same way so often as to make a track of it Matthew Henry, “Exposition of the Old and New Testaments”

This does not lead Henry to despair but to worship. After discoursing at length on God's counsels concerning man, Paul concludes by resolving everything into the divine sovereignty, in which alone the mind can safely and sweetly rest (Romans 11:33–36). Edwards would agree that God's ways exceed human comprehension, though he tends to emphasize the moral and rational consistency of God's actions rather than their mystery. Spurgeon, for his part, often turns incomprehensibility into a pastoral comfort: when believers cannot understand their circumstances, they can still trust the God who understands all things.

God's revelation in creation and conscience

Henry insists that God has made himself known to all people through creation and conscience. God himself implanted in human nature an innate sense of a deity, which distinguishes humans from animals (Romans 1:19). God's invisible attributes, especially his eternal power and divine nature, are clearly perceived through the created world (Romans 1:20). The order, beauty, and design of creation prove that it was made by an intelligent, eternal, powerful Creator (Romans 1:20). This knowledge has been available since the beginning of the world, not as a recent discovery but as an ancient truth (Romans 1:20).

Yet Henry also notes that this general revelation leaves people without excuse. All people know enough about God from what he has revealed to leave them without excuse for not worshiping him alone (Romans 1:20–21). The problem is not lack of knowledge but lack of acknowledgment. There is a difference between knowing God and acknowledging him; the pagans knew God but would not acknowledge him (Romans 1:28). Spurgeon would add that the present age is marked by a casting off of the fear of God (Romans 3:18). Edwards, while less focused on natural revelation in these excerpts, would agree that sin is not merely ignorance but rebellion against known truth.

God's fatherly care and covenant faithfulness

For all their emphasis on sovereignty and justice, these authors never present God as cold or distant. Henry writes that God being for believers sums up all their privileges, meaning he is reconciled to them, in covenant with them, and engaged for them with all his attributes and promises (Romans 8:31). The saints' inheritance consists in the vision and enjoyment of God himself (Romans 8:17). God is the author and foundation of all patience and consolation, giving the grace of patience and supporting believers with comfort under affliction (Romans 15:5).

This includes all, that God is for us; not only reconciled to us, and so not against us, but in covenant with us, and so engaged for us—all his attributes for us, his promises for us Matthew Henry, “Exposition of the Old and New Testaments”

Spurgeon makes the same point in more vivid terms. Being at war with God is a terrifying condition because God is the all-powerful Creator on whom every creature depends (Romans 5:1). But for those who trust Christ, God cannot reject anyone who believes in Christ, because doing so would reverse His nature, stain His honor, and make His word and Christ's atonement false (Romans 3:25). Henry adds that God's searching of the heart is a comfort to sincere Christians, because he hears and answers desires that cannot be expressed in words (Romans 8:27). The God who knows all things is not a threat to believers but a refuge.

In all these themes, Spurgeon, Edwards, and Henry speak with one voice: God is infinitely great, perfectly just, unchangeably faithful, and abundantly gracious. They differ in style and emphasis—Spurgeon is more pastoral and emotional, Edwards more philosophical and precise, Henry more expository and comprehensive—but they agree on the substance. The being and attributes of God are not abstract theological puzzles but the living foundation of every promise, every warning, and every hope in Scripture.