The Self-Existence of God

Guest post by: Lewis Kiger  (You can read part 1 in the series HERE)

Where did God come from? This is a question often asked. Sometimes, we who are indeed born again believers, ask this as we try to understand God more fully. But this is also a question asked by those who seek to scrutinize the Christian faith. However, the answer to either inquirer must come back to what God has said concerning Himself in His Word.  To resolve this matter, we need only to open our Bible to its first page where the Inspired Text plainly begins “In the beginning, God…” (Genesis 1:1). In the beginning of time…GOD was there. In fact, it is more accurate to say that in the beginning GOD IS. To say that God is self-existent is to say that God exists fully independent of all others. His Divine being was not brought about by any act or influence of any other. In other words, no one created God.

While our minds may find this concept difficult to grasp, I stress that it is necessary that God be fully self-existent. If there was ever anything that preceded God, anything that existed prior to God then whatever that is, must be at least equal to, if not superior to God. And any such suggestion, is not only fallacious and biased, it is irrational, and has no Biblical basis whatsoever. God is not an invention of the simple minded and needy. He is not the random result of cosmic chemical chaos. He is the Supreme Architect of all things. He is the uncaused Cause. The uncreated Creator. The God that reveals Himself to us in Holy Writ, identifies Himself as the Self-reliant, Self-existent, I AM. We read in Exodus 3:14 “And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.” The same God that appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as God Almighty, now appears to Moses in the mount and says “go tell my people that the “I AM” has sent you.” Here He declares Himself as Jehovah. The very name itself meaning, the “Self-Existent One.” I EXIST or I AM. This is always present tense with God because He dwells beyond both space and time, and is bound by neither – He always IS. No matter when in time or eternity, GOD IS. God is the Self-Existent One. God has no origin. God simply IS.  Everything we see around us, had a beginning, and will at some point come to its end –  but not God. The Triune God of Heaven and Earth is the supreme source for all things. The Origin of all things. He is the Gracious Giver of all life; animal life, plant life, angelic life, spiritual life, and eternal life.

God is in a category all by Himself. He is not dependent upon anyone for anything and relies on no one, and depends on none. He is complete in Himself. He did not create because there was something missing in Him and He did not construct the planet and place men on it, because He needed us. No, God is perfectly and fully complete in Himself.

  If sinners are to see the Glory of God, and if saints are to be moved by the character of God, we must realign our view of God as is revealed in Holy Writ. We must proclaim a “BIG GOD.” A God that is utterly unlike us, utterly beyond us in every notable way. I submit to you that the average Christian’s notion of God is so far from being accurate that it is borderline blasphemous. No wonder the world is so dismissive of our God; we have shrunk Him down to manageable terms. We have tried to make Him fit into our own idea of who He should be. Yet, in Psalms 50:21 the Psalmist corrects this grievous error by saying, you thought that God was altogether just like you [mortal men] but He isn’t; and time will prove it. Sadly, the god that is preached in many pulpits and is spoken of in many Christian circles no more resembles the God of the Bible than the dim flickering of a candle represents the noon-day sun.

God was not crafted by the hands of man, nor can He rightly be sculpted by our own imaginations. He must be understood as He reveals Himself to be. And although we are no more than children trying to describe the indescribable, may God give us a high and holy view of Him, as He is worthy of our praise and adoration.