God is…Self-Existent
“Again, it is certain that man never achieves a clear knowledge of himself unless he has first looked upon God’s face, and then descends from contemplating him to scrutinize himself.”
~ John Calvin (Institutes of the Christian Religion, I.1.2)
We’re starting a series on God’s attributes and how they apply to our lives. There is no greater object of our study and meditation than God Himself. There is nothing more relevant and practical than knowing God.
The Bible says that our boast should be that we know Him (Jer 9:23-24).
The Bible says that we should press on to know Him (Hos 6:3).
The Bible says that God delights in our knowledge of Him (Hos 6:6).
In fact, Jesus says that knowing God and His Son is eternal life (Jn 17:3). In knowing Christ, we know the true God and eternal life (1 Jn 5:20).
We are gloriously privileged people who know God as our God, as our heavenly Father in fact. And we know His Son Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. And His Holy Spirit dwells within us. So, every believer can confidently say that he or she knows God truly and personally.
And God is so kind to reveal who He is on the pages of Scripture. We do not have to resort to our own thoughts or experiences or try to find Him from some secret source. His Word lets us know who He is.
The first attribute we want to cover is God’s self-existence. Theologians call this His “aseity” (from the Latin words for “from” and “self”).
When God reveals His name to Moses, He says that it is “I AM” (Ex 3:14). This name tells us that God has always been. He didn’t come into existence at one point in time. He was, is, and always will be because He stands outside of time. He is the eternal, uncreated, and self-existent God who caused all things to come into being (Psa 90:2; Acts 17:24-25). Jesus says in John 5:26, “For just as the Father has life in Himself, even so He gave to the Son also to have life in Himself.”
Unlike our existence, God’s existence is necessary and independent of anything outside of Himself. So, we can’t even begin to think of God not existing because there would be no thinking, no universe, no reality.
This attribute also means that God has no needs. God didn’t need to make the world or us. He is perfectly sufficient within Himself. That’s what it means to be a self-existent Being.
Now, how does this relate to us?
It means that God is profoundly awesome. To have no needs and to be above all things and to have never not been means He alone is worthy of worship. Not only is He alone worthy of worship, but He alone inspires and sustains true and satisfying worship.
Since God is self-existent, we have a Father who has no imperfections or weaknesses. He will not grow old or change. He will never do anything outside of His perfect nature. So, He can always be depended on for our every need – always trusted in. He is our everlasting Rock in a world of quicksand and sinkholes. This reality is a great help to our faith, especially as we pray. And it gives us comfort and peace in our trials and times of uncertainty.
Lastly, since God is self-existent, it means He is not needy. A needy God could not save us. He would need saving. But a perfectly self-sufficient God who is absolutely free from His creation is the only kind of God who can save our souls. This means that the gospel does not depend on us. As Matthew Barrett has written, the gospel is such good news because it depends on a God who does not depend on us. If salvation depended on us, we would all be sunk.
Praise God for His aseity! Let’s rely on Him and His grace for all that we need today and every day.