The God Beyond Need
“The Christian is either strong or weak depending upon how closely he has cultivated the knowledge of God.” - A.W. Tozer
As John Calvin once said in the Institutes, all wisdom comes from the knowledge of God and the knowing of self. Between the two, the most needful knowledge of all is certainly the knowledge of God. Without this knowledge, we cannot even know ourselves. Which means, if we are not familiar with who God is, we cannot know who we are, and we will be doomed to repeat our confusions forever.
This teaches us something very instructive. To know anything rightly at all, anything under the sun, we must know God truly and rightly. We must know Him as He is, which cannot be done exhaustively by any stretch of the imagination. We may try peering down into the celestial caverns of His maximal infinitudes, straining to comprehend increasing degrees of knowledge, but, we will never understand the LORD as He understands Himself. We cannot and will not.
Yet, in spite our limitations, God in His grace has allowed us to understand Him truly. He has allowed us to gain real knowledge, while not omniscient, is true and accurate to who He is. That is what we are aiming at today.
Like all of the attributes of God, we will learn something about Him as we endeavor to study them. Take for instance, God’s holiness. In that great doctrine we learn that God is of such immense purity and otherness, that His presence is dangerous to us (Isaiah 6:5) without the help of a mediator. As we study God’s love, He begin to see the limitless reservoir of His care for His covenant people (1 John 4:16). In His wrath, an oft avoided attribute of God, we see both His holiness and His care wed together in perfect fury against the rebellion of man (Romans 1:18). Quite simply, His attributes teach us who our God is and allows us to behold Him in truth.
This is especially important, when looking at unfamiliar attributes, or the ones we may have trouble understanding, such as the aseity of God. It may not seem essential, however, to the average believer, to study such an ethereal doctrine with such an esoteric title. But to the degree that a Christian understands the aseity of God will be to the degree one may know Him. Thus, as all of His attributes behooves us to study, today we will narrow our focus onto His Aseity, not to gain more knowledge to store away in the head, but to gain the more of Him. To know Him better, to love Him more passionately, and to serve Him more faithfully.
WHAT IS THE ASEITY OF GOD?
When theologians talk about the Aseity of God, they are speaking about His independence. Unlike every other contingent being who is dependent upon causation to come into existence, God needs none of that. He exists because He determined it to be so. He is in need of no outside force or will to create Him, or sustain Him, He does those things timelessly for Himself, which put Him in a class all by Himself.
This is precisely why the Christian Church may sing on Sunday morning: “there is no one like our God." Because, when we do, we are acknowledging the clear and obvious fact, that nothing in heaven or on earth can rival Him, nothing is His equal, He has aseity.
This fact alone is enough to make our hearts leap in praise and to sing of His matchless power, which is the goal of all theology. Theology was never intended to produce a class of lifeless nerds who pine away in libraries. Theology was meant to produce musicians, composers, congregations of voices shouting to our God, with pastors at the helm leading the worshippers to Zion. But, there is still so much more!
FIVE ADDITIONAL ASPECTS OF ASEITY
1) GOD’S ASEITY IS FOUNDATIONAL
Among all of God’s attributes, it can be argued that aseity is fundamental. This is because it is the attribute that serves as the cornerstone for understanding all of His other attributes (like His love, mercy, grace, and justice). Think about it this way, if God were a contingent being like you and I, having both an origin and a cause, then all of His attributes would be subject to the same limitations as ours. He would be beholden to space and time and His attributes would have limits placed upon them that could be exhausted, overridden, or resisted. Along with that, a “god” who is subject to limitation - of any kind - is also capable of change, whether that means change in time such as decay or death, or change in space such as changing allegiances, motivations, or goals. With that it is simple, the only way you get a God, who is perfect in love, maximal in mercy, inexhaustible in benevolence, unlimited in kindness, immutable in regard to change, or insatiable in divine fury and justice is if that God has no cause and derives His existence from Himself alone. He must be free of any temporal constructs such as beginnings, middles, and ends. And He must be free of any limitations upon His person and instead able to perfectly and forever sustain Himself from within Himself. To say that differently, your God must have aseity in order to love you perfectly and to save you truly.
Exodus 3:14; Psalm 90:2; John 5:26.
2) GOD’S ASEITY AND NECESSITY
The attribute of aseity not only positions God as self-existent and independent but also reinforces the notion that His existence is essential and necessary. In philosophical terms, God is not a contingent being (one that might or might not have existed), but a necessary one - His existence is a fundamental aspect of all existence. This means that God is not an optional or accidental being, but rather one whose existence is mandatory for all reality. To say that most simply, He must necessarily exist for anything else to even have the possibility of existing.
This necessity is also crucial in understanding other attributes of God and why we see these attributes alive and manifesting in the world. For instance, His love, justice, and grace are not contingent characteristics that merely result from His will; they are necessary characteristics and essential parts of His nature. God's love is necessary and eternal, without which there could be no love in the world. His justice is not contingent upon external standards and not sent forth merely in response to time or circumstances; it is an intrinsic part of who He is, derived from His self-sufficiency, and the very reason there are shades of justice remaining in an unjust world. The reality of a necessary being, whose attributes are necessary to Him, is the only explanation for why love and mercy are in the world, and why civilizations - across time and space - universally applaud particular actions and have hated others. We are living in the world and will of a perfect and necessary sovereign whose attributes and character still echo through the chaos and brokenness of sin.
In this light, God's aseity is not just about Him being self-sufficient; it's about Him being the ultimate source of all reality and truth. Every other attribute of God is a reflection of His necessary existence. Hence, God's perfection, omnipotence, and omniscience (and others) are seen as fundamental truths emanating from His essential nature. By understanding aseity, we grasp a deeper insight into why God is the way He is – infinite, unchanging, and the ultimate foundation of all that exists.
Acts 17:24-25; Colossians 1:16-17; Revelation 4:11.
3) GOD’S ASEITY AND CREATION
Unlike everything else in the universe, which owes its existence to external forces and secondary causes, God's existence originates solely from within Himself. This sets Him completely apart from HIs creation. Everything in the material realm, from the largest galaxy to the smallest particle, has a material cause or a source that is dependent upon the will and agency of God to uphold and sustain it. Yet, His existence is caused and sustained by no one or nothing but Himself.
This is crucial in understanding not just who He is, but also how we perceive the universe and our place within it. Unlike God, everything that exists must have been caused by and sustained by Him. This makes the material universe far more than a string of blind causes and random effects, but a contingent cosmos that owes its entire origination, sustentation, and termination to Yahweh alone. This is how the stars, rocks, and trees all shout the praises of Yahweh, because God holds them immutably in existence by His will. Every breath you take, every mitochondrial replication occurring within your cells, is possible only because God allowed it. If for a single moment He pulled back His sustaining power from your life, you would cease from operation, like taking the batteries out of a flashlight. We live and move and have our being in Him (Acts 17:28).
Job 38:4-7; Psalm 90:2; Isaiah 44:24; Acts 17:24-28; Colossians 1:16-17; Hebrews 1:3
4) GOD’S ASEITY AND CHANGE
The eternality of God is not just an infinite life sequence, like never ending points on an infinite timeline, but a quality of His existence that transcends time itself. This means God exists outside the bounds of time and change, which are inherent limitations constraining this present created order. Because God is totally self-existent, He not only stands outside of time and space, but time and space cannot introduce change in any way upon Him. Unlike metal which time will rust, or bodies which time will wrinkle, the aseity of God guarantees that our God is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:18)!
This is not some highfalutin egghead speak, but a practical doctrine that speaks volumes about God's reliability and the nature of His promises and character. In a world where everything is subject to change – empires rise and fall, seasons come and go, spouses stop loving each other – God remains constant forever. Because God is independent and perfectly free, because He is uncaused and Lord over His own existence, His purposes, plans, and His very nature remain necessarily steadfast and unmoving, which is a source of tremendous comfort and assurance for believers.
You and I are shaken by change. We limp and ache under the weight of arthritis. We weep over the changes in our family, such as death, abandonment, or betrayal. We wince when our job is furloughed or our houses are foreclosed. Change begats anxiety, depression, and aggravation in us. But not so in God, whose constancy brings comfort to all who know Him. By coming into relationship with a being of uninhibited, self-determined, and perfect immutability, we are not only saying that God avoids change, or prefers to not change, but are saying that He is incapable of it. In the same way He cannot cease to exist, He also cannot cease to love the ones He has determined to love. In the same way He cannot sin, He also cannot abandon His promises, which lets us know we are more than safe. For this same God who loved us yesterday will love us today and forever and always and that is very good news. It would be more likely for mothers to universally abandon their young, than for our Father to abandon us. It would be more probable that the sun would fall from the sky than for any of His people to fall unnoticed from His hands. The God who promised salvation and redemption through Jesus Christ to all His elect, will necessarily see it through to the day of redemption.
Psalm 102:25-27; Malachi 3:6; Hebrews 1:10-12; Hebrews 13:8; James 1:17; 2 Timothy 2:13.
5) GOD’S ASEITY AND ETHICS
In addition to God being the source of all life, God is also the foundation for all reason and morality. Because He is a God of love, love exists in the world. Because He is a creator, creativity exists. In the same way, because God has infinite intelligence and morality, concepts and opinions about reason and ethics abound among humans. His being provides the foundation for all human understanding of and growth in the realm of science and ethics. For instance, our ability to reason and our moral compass are not evolutionary byproducts, social constructs, or some other kind of animalistic herd instinct passed along in our DNA from our primitive forebears. Instead, our ability to reason, and our entire ethical framework, is anchored in the nature of our self-existent, perfectly rational, and changlessly moral God.
And this is good news for you and I, because reason and morality are tethered to a changeless being. If God did not exist, humans could, and absolutely would, drift without recourse into increasingly chaotic, degenerate, and destructive behaviors. But because God is the source of all reason and morality, humans can only go so far afoul of God’s standards before the consequence of His perfect being silences them and squashes them. This makes ultimate ethical standards fixed, not subject to the changing winds of culture, not situational, or an expedient maxim for determining our next selfish impulse. The moral order of the universe is tethered to a perfectly moral God and all ethical understanding bears the imprint of His character. Which means, that if I am going to experience growth in righteousness, sanctification in my behavior, then it can only happen in the pursuit and chase of God. Christians do not improve themselves by working on themselves. They grow in grace and righteousness by drawing closer to the creator, whose spotless morality is a necessary feature of His being. And as we draw nigh unto Him, all that is in Him begins drawing night and welling up in us, making us more like Him and better able to image Him.
Genesis 2:7; Psalm 36:9; Psalm 119:68; Proverbs 2:6; John 1:1-14; John 14:6; Acts 17:25; Romans 1:20; Colossians 2:3; Hebrews 1:10-12; Hebrews 13:8; James 1:17; 2 Timothy 2:13.
CONCLUSION: ASEITY AND THE GOSPEL
Having understood what aseity means, how it defines God’s character, and is foundational for the world in which we live, now we end by lifting our gaze to the living Christ. And we do this because every attribute of God, every promise that He has given, finds its yes and amen in Jesus (2 Corinthians 1:20). He is the clearest and truest expression of God we will ever behold (2 Corinthians 4:6). When we have seen Jesus we have seen the Father (John 14:9). And when we know Jesus we know the one who makes our God, in all of His character and attributes, truly known. Through Jesus, the abstract concepts like aseity, His eternality, and immutability, become personal, tangible, and intimate. Through Christ, the transcendent becomes immanent.
And this is accomplished most perfectly at the cross of Christ. His life, death, and resurrection are the ultimate expression of God's attributes on display for a watching world. At the cross, the love of God is seen in how Christ died for the ungodly. The mercy of God is shown in how God withheld the punishment we deserved. His holiness is felt in that Christ was set apart for destruction so we would be set apart (made holy) unto God. His wrath is revealed from heaven to earth, being poured out on the one and only Son, so that we could experience His pleasure. On and on you can go, talking about His immutability, omniscience, or omnipotence, all of God’s attributes come into their sharpest focus on the cross where Jesus died. And because God is a necessary being, not owing His existence or sustenance to any other, His aseity is also most clearly demonstrated in our Lord Jesus Christ, who laid down His life of His own accord, and raised it back up without any aid or intervention save His own power and will.
In Him, we see the perfect love, justice, and mercy of God displayed. We see God’s aseity displayed, which means that we are safe! Through the finished work of Jesus Christ, we are brought into a relationship with this changeless God. And knowing Jesus offers us the stability and the security we could have never known on our own. In a world of constant flux, the crux of our faith is faith alone, by grace alone, in Christ alone, to the glory of God alone.
May the God of aseity ever be praised! And may you ever grow in the knowledge of God!
