The mountains humbled even the greatest braggart.”
–Dave P. Fisher (Where No Man Rules)
“But our God is in heaven; He does whatever He pleases.”
–Psalm 115:3 (NKJV)
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Children often ask, “Who made God?” or “Where did God come from?” It is hard to understand and even harder to explain, He always was! He was just there! That’s one reason I like that phrase by Francis Schaeffer, “The God Who Is There!” He was before the beginning–grasp that; and He will be continual throughout the eons when time is no more–He is there. I was criticized once when I taught this class saying that God does not need us. He is all sufficient within Himself. Since He is perfect, actually more than perfect, nothing can be added to Him and nothing can be taken away. He is the I AM, He exists, He is there! He cannot go out of existence and He never had a beginning. As Packer writes, “God necessarily continues forever unchanged, because it is His eternal nature to do that.”
The psalm of Moses declares, “Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God.” (Psalm 90:2, ESV) God is solitary in His excellency. Man does not like this thought and shuns it. He likes to think that He adds to God and if that could be remotely possible it would be creating an idol. When God created it did nothing to God essentially for He changes not. God’s glory can neither be augmented or diminished. “Who is like You, O Lord, among the gods? Who is like You, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders?” (Exodus 15:11, NKJV)
“God was under no constraint, no obligation, no necessity to create.” (Arthur Pink) He determines nothing but His own mere good pleasure. No, that is not ego. You have to remember that “ego” is a man-made term, something that is not related to God. He has nothing to prove to Himself (or to anyone else). Paul writes that He “worketh all things after the counsel of His own will.” (Ephesians 1:11, NKJV) God does not gain anything from His creation; it does not make Him bigger or better. Our obedience profits God nothing, for He is all within Himself.
He is referred to as the Father, which means “one who brings into existence.” (E.S. Williams) Why do you think there is such an attack on the image of the father, the role of the father, and the responsibility of the father as well as the role of man in general? Man does not like the thought that there is a Father in heaven who has the universe under His control. All of heaven and all of earth are under His control. All dominions, powers, spirits, angels, principalities, and earthly thrones are under His control and He does not need them.
God is both honored and dishonored by men. God would be God whether He created man or not. Job relates, “Indeed these are the mere edges of His ways, and how small a whisper we hear of Him!” (26:14, NKJV) He does not need us…yet He loves us. He is no better if we worship Him, yet He delights in the worship of His children. Ponder the words of Isaiah, lest we begin to get too big for our britches, “Behold, the nations are as a drop in a bucket, and are counted as the small dust on the scales; look, He lifts up the isles as a very little thing. And Lebanon is not sufficient to burn, nor its beasts sufficient for a burnt offering. All nations before Him are as nothing, and they are counted by Him less than nothing and worthless. To whom then will you like God? Or what likeness will you compare to Him?” (Isaiah 40:15-18, NKJV)
“God’s self-existence is a basic truth.” (Packer) Man in his worship, in his development, in his ideologies does not keep God going. He needs no support system. “The word ‘aseity,’ meaning that He has life in Himself and draws His unending energy from Him…was coined by theologians to express this truth.” (Packer) Because of the limits of our finiteness this doctrine of aseity stands as a bulwark against mistakes of making something out of God that is not there. Pink writes, “Such an One is to be revered, worshipped, adored. His is solitary in His majesty, unique in His excellency, peerless in His perfections. He sustains all, but He Himself independent of all. He gives to all, but is enriched by none.” Paul wrote to Timothy, “…He who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see, to whom be honor and everlasting power. Amen.” (1 Timothy 6:15-16, NKJV)
“He does not have to call for help, and you can’t confuse Him.
He doesn’t need you, and He doesn’t need me.
He stands alone in the solitude of Himself;
He’s august, and He’s unique;
He’s unparalleled, He’s unprecedented, He’s supreme…”
–Rev. S. M. Lockeredge