God's Self-Existence

Welcome back to the blog. This week we will be continuing our study into the attributes of God. This time we will be talking about God's eternal self-existence. But before we get started I want to back up just a second and cover something I forgot to mention in our last article. That is the two major categories of God's attributes, communicable and incommunicable.

For one of God's attributes to be communicable it simply means that God graciously shares it with his image bearers (that's us!). There are certain attributes and characteristics which we are, incredibly, able to partake in with God. This does not, however, in any way take anything away from God, and it in no way makes us somehow equal to God. Because while we might have wisdom, show mercy, or be faithful, we hold these attributes imperfectly because we are flawed humans. God on the other hand is perfectly wise, perfectly merciful, and perfectly faithful and He never changes.

The second category is a little harder for us to comprehend and resonate with because for one of God's attributes to be incommunicable means that God does not share it with anything. These attributes and characteristics are completely unique to Yahweh God and Him alone. This can make it difficult for us to comprehend because we obviously have nothing to compare to. No earthly example or analogy can fully explain them. Examples of these attributes would be His self-existence, His omnipresence, or His unchangingness (immutability). We will get into all of these as we go on.

Okay, so now that we got that out of the way let's dive into today's topic, the self-existence of God. What does it mean to be self-existent? It means that before anything and everything else began to exist, God already existed. This means that He doesn't need anything to maintain Himself. He is completely self-sufficient. Let's go to scripture to support this claim.

The first place that comes to mind is the very first words of the Bible in Genesis 1:1. "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth" (LEB). I want you to pay special attention to the first four words, In the beginning God. Just in the first four words of the Bible we can see how God pre-exists creation and we also see that he has no origin, He just IS. Remember last time, when we went over the Hebrew name YHWH, I AM THAT I AM? This is further evidence of His self-existence. He is the uncaused cause, the originator of all creation. Now let's go to Psalm 93:2.

Your throne has been established from the beginning; you are from eternity. ~ CSB

Here the psalmist is showing us the Lord's pre-existent nature. He had no beginning, and He exists in eternity meaning He has no end. There was never an instant when God was not. He is the great I AM.

Yahweh God is not contingent upon anything or anyone. Being the great I AM is a declaration that He is the sole self-existent one, He is 100% unique in that. No other being in existence can say that. God alone is entirely dependent on Himself and He alone sustains Himself.

Now let's look at ourselves and the rest of creation for a second and see how we stack up when it comes to being dependent on others to sustain us. Well for starters we, as well as basically every animal on earth, are totally dependent on our mothers for survival as infants. For the first several years of our lives we are completely at the mercy of our caretakers for food, water, shelter, and basically every necessity in life. As we grow older we are still dependent on the climate, our jobs, our families, our health. Plants and animals in the wild are dependent on the sun, rain, nutrients in the soil, and their habitat. They are all dependent on each other to survive as are we. All of creation had and continues to have a beginning and is finite. But God is entirely independent of creation having no beginning and no end. Instead He is the self-existent source of all being and the creator of all things.

Here's what Paul has to say about it:

For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be glory foever. Amen. ~ Romans 11:36 | ESV

What Paul is saying here is that all of creation exists for the purpose of pleasing the Lord and bringing Him Glory. All Things being from God speaks to how He is the source of all things. All things being to God speaks to how He is the means of all things. And all things being through God speaks to Him as the goal of all things.

What a beautiful statement from Paul. We may not understand everything about God's self-existence. And how could we? But we can rest in the fact that God is perfect in every way and He is the source of, the means of, and the goal of ALL THINGS!

So here's the big question. Why is it important for us to have an understanding of God's self-existence? Well, if our goal in our Christian walk is to grow in our relationship with God then we must know the nature of our relationship to Him. Ultimately that we are finite and He is infite. He is uncreated and has no beginning, while we were created by God for the express purpose of bringing glory to Him. He is self-sustaining, independent of all creation, but we are dependent on so much. When we realize our position in accordance to God we can humble ourselves before Him and give our lives over to Him more freely.

Understanding who is the uncreated creator and who is the creation in your relationship with God will help immensely in your walk with God. It's not to say that we humans are somehow worms and dirt to God. No, not so! We are His representatives on this earth and He cares deeply for His creation, which is why he made us stewards of it. But when we don't understand where God's place is as the eternal self-existent creator, we can begin to place ourselves on or near the same level as God. It goes like this. We are equal to God so we deserve certain blessings. We deserve more money, more power, more intelligence, more possessions, a better job, etc. Many people seem to believe that God is just an add-on. We see some of this type of thinking in the ancient nation of Israel in the Bible. There was a time when they thought that because they were God's chosen people that God needed them. They believed He needed their sacrifices and worship, so they thought they could bribe God and coerce Him into doing their bidding. Here's Gods response:

I will not accept a bull from your house or goats from your fold. For every beast of the forest is mine, the cattle on a thousand hills. I know all the birds of the hills, and all that moves in the field is mine. If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for the world and its fullness are mine. ~ Psalm 50:9-12 (ESV)

The God of the universe didn't like this line of reasoning and made it clear to the Israelites that He was the one in control, not them. I think we are seeing some of this same mentality within the church in our own culture today. So many today treat God as a genie, only there to grant whatever wish they desire. Others treat God as some kind of investment banker in the sky, there to give them vast amounts of wealth and material possessions. These versions of God are no better than the pagan gods we see the heathen nations worship throughout the Bible and even today.

Do you see just how disrespectful and downright blasphemous it can be when we have the wrong understanding of God? That is why getting to know His nature is so important. When we strip Yahweh God of His self-existence, as the uncaused creator of the universe and bring Him down to our level, then we are now worshiping an idol. We must resist the urge to worship the creation instead of the Creator, and look away from ourselves and towards the everlasting self-existent God of all creation. This isn't always an easy thing though. Just like the Israelites in the wilderness, after being rescued out of Egypt, made a golden calf and worshiped it at Mt. Sinai and repeatedly turned to other idols, we must guard against this challenge every day. Read Hebrew 11:1.

"Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. For by it the people of old were approved. By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible." ~ ESV

So every day we must act with faith and make the decision to live our lives in submission to our Creator, God Almighty and the Lord Jesus Christ. Being followers of Christ means living a God centered life. We should concern ourselves with bringing glory to Him in all that we do. We should pursue a life that honors Him and points others to Him as well. Understanding God's perfect self-existence is important for us because it reveals to us just how truly dependent we are on Him. And this should humble us, because our lives are not our own! Just like God brings glory to himself in all that He does, we exist to bring glory to Him! So be thoughtful in all you say and do this week and bring glory to the Lord.

See you next time as we tackle another one of God's great attributes!

Be bold and unashamed for the gospel of Jesus.

~ Alex