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Exodus 3:13–14
“God said to Moses, ‘I am who I am.’ And he said, ‘Say this to the people of Israel: “I am has sent me to you”’” (v. 14).
Meditating on the perfection of God (2 Sam. 22:31), the fact that He lacks nothing and needs nothing outside Himself to be complete, will lead us to realize that our Creator is fully independent of creation. That is, God is not dependent on anything external to Himself for anything, not even for His existence. Thus we confess the scriptural truth that God is a se: He is of Himself; He is self-existent. This is the divine attribute of aseity.
Everything in creation depends on something outside itself for its existence. We exist because our parents conceived us and because we were nourished in our mothers’ wombs, and we continue to exist because we continue to have our need for food met by farmers and our need for shelter met by homebuilders. Plants produce food because sunlight, water, and more enable photosynthesis. Water depends on the union of hydrogen and oxygen, and hydrogen and oxygen depend for their existence on subatomic particles. We can keep tracing a chain of dependence back to something that exists of itself, to the First Cause of all things, to God Himself.
God, on the other hand, is not an effect of any prior cause, and He does not depend on anything outside Himself for His own existence. His creation, including us, does not and cannot give Him anything that He does not already have. We receive our being, our existence, ultimately from Him through various secondary causes. He does not receive being, or existence, but is the Giver of existence. As Dr. R.C. Sproul used to say, “God has the power of being in Himself.”
The truth about God’s self-existence is at least part of what our Lord reveals when He discloses His covenant name, Yahweh, or “I am” (Ex. 3:13–14). God, simply put, is. He exists of Himself and is the uncreated Being upon which all created being finally depends. In Him we live and move and have our being (Acts 17:28).
Consider how frightening it would be if God were not self-existent and independent, if He actually needed something from us. We can hardly supply our own needs at times, much less the “needs” of One who is far greater than we are. What an awful predicament we would be in if we had to make up for something that God lacks. In fact, if God were not self-existent and independent, then He would not actually be God; rather, that on which He depends would be more basic to reality and thus would be the real God. God’s aseity, His self-existence and consequent independence, is good news for us.
Coram Deo Living before the face of God
If God were in some way dependent on us, we would be in big trouble. Imagine the pressure that would come with having to make up for something that a being far greater than us might lack. Remembering God’s self-existence and independence guards us from fear and anxiety that comes with thinking that we need to help God or all will be lost.
For further study
- John 5:26
- Romans 11:36
The bible in a year
- Deuteronomy 3–4
- Mark 11:20–33
- Deuteronomy 5–10
- Mark 12