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The Hebrew
Scriptures have a four letter name for God that
sums up the attribute of God's self-existence
- "YHVH." YHVH appears almost seven thousand times
in the Tenach (Old Testament), far more than any
other name for God. YHVH is based on God's revelation
to Moses at the burning bush: I AM WHO I AM;
and He said, thus you shall say to the sons of
Israel, I AM has sent me to you... this is My
eternal name, and this is how I am to be recalled
for all generations (Ex. 3:14-15). YHVH comes
from the Hebrew verb "haya," which means "to be."
"YHVH" is a declaration that the God of Israel
is the source of all being. He is the foundation
of all reality. He alone is the ground of all
existence. He alone has being and existence inherent
in Himself. Everything else depends on the self-existence
of the One who can say, "I AM."
The human mind has a very difficult time understanding One who
is the cause of everything but is Himself caused by none.
Experience teaches us that everything came from something else,
and whatever exists must have a cause that was before it. When a
young child asks, "Where did God come from?" he
demonstrates that he knows the concept of cause and effect. The
idea of source and origin are already firmly fixed in his mind.
From a very early age a child intuitively knows that everything
around him came from something else, and he simply extends that
concept upward to God. When a young child asks the question,
"Where did God come from?" he must be told that God has
no origin. He will find this concept hard to grasp, since it
introduces a category with which he is totally unfamiliar. God's
self-existence contradicts the bent toward seeking out origins
which is so firmly ingrained in all intelligent beings.
But the LORD has no origin. It is precisely this concept of
"no origin" that distinguishes the true God from
everything-else-that-is-not-God. Origins, beginnings, starts, are
words that can only apply to created things. When we think of
anything that has an origin we are not thinking of God. God alone
is self-existent. He always existed. There was never one instant
when He did not exist. He has no beginning and no end, in
contrast to all other created things who originated somewhere at
sometime.
To think about that which has no origin is not easy for any of
us. When we try to focus our thoughts upon One who is a pure
uncreated being, we have difficulty seeing Him, for He dwells in
light that no man can approach. Most people will not let their
hearts gaze in wonder too long at the Self-Existent One. Those
thoughts are too difficult, too uncomfortable, and too painful
for us. It is difficult to acknowledge One who is totally outside
the circle of our normal experience. The human mind, which is
created, has an uneasiness with the Uncreated. We tend to be
uncomfortable with the thought of One who is responsible to no
one else, who is self-existent and self-sufficient.
Western society's intellectuals, our philosophers and
scientists in particular, have not been very friendly toward the
idea of God in recent years. These people are dedicated to the
task of accounting for things. They don't like anything that
refuses to give an account of itself. The philosopher and
scientist will admit that there is much they do not know; but
that is quite another thing from admitting that there is
something they can never know, and which they have no method of
discovering. To admit that there is One who exists outside
our normal categories, and who does not have to explain Himself
to us, requires more humility than most of us possess.
Why is it important to understand the self-existence of the
One who is who He is? The self-existence of God is necessary for
the existence of man. We were created dependent on Adonai for our
life and existence. Man is a created being, who in himself
possesses nothing. He is dependent for his existence upon the One
who created him. God is everything and man comes from nothing.
Apart from Him we can do nothing. Apart from Him we are nothing.
Deny God and you destroy yourself. Get rid of God and man has no
existence at all. Man apart from God passes back into the
nothingness from which he came before God created him.
Our greatest problem is pride - an independent attitude that
feels no need for God. Our pride wants to be independent from
God, to be the master of our fate, the captain of our own ship,
in control of our own destiny, dependent upon no one but
ourselves. Sin has many manifestations. It comes to us in a
billion ways, but its essence is just one thing - pride. We were
created by the Lord to depend on Him, to serve Him with all of
our hearts, all of our souls and all of our being. Whoever is
unwilling to worship before His throne is actually attempting to
sit on His throne and declaring, "I Am." When we seek
to be independent from God, we make ourselves supreme. We attempt
to dethrone the only One who has the right to sit on it, and we
usurp His place. This independent attitude is the essence of all
sin and is utterly self-destructive to all created beings. It is
essential we understand that we are usurpers, and we sit on a
stolen throne that rightfully belongs to God.
The sin of pride has affected all of humanity. All of us
like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own
way. But the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on
Him. (Isaiah 53:6). So subtle and widespread is
the sin of pride that hardly anyone is aware of it in themselves.
Because humanity is born into rebellion the sin of pride appears
normal. Man is unaware that he is a rebel since this is all he
knows. Human society appears to be perfectly normal, when in fact
humanity is a gross monstrosity.
Isaiah 53 tells us that the Messiah is the only one that can
save us because the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all to
fall on Him. He is YHVH - God in the flesh. He claims to be
"I Am." He claims self-existent life: Just as the
Father has life in Himself, even so He gave to the Son also to
have life in Himself (John 5:26). Messiah has self-existent
life inherent in Himself, something which is an attribute of God
alone. Messiah Yeshua too is the Self-Existent One. The
Scriptures declare that all things were created by Him
(Yeshua) and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come
into being (John 1:3). By Him (Yeshua) all things were
created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and
invisible... All things were created by Him (Yeshua) and for Him.
And He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together
(Col. 1:16-17).
Messiah Yeshua gave His self-existent life for the salvation
of men. To save us from ourselves Messiah must plant a new
principle within us. He must reverse the bent of our nature.
Instead of being independent from God, we must become God
centered. If anyone wishes to come after Me, let him deny
himself, and take up his cross and follow Me (Matthew 16:24).
Rabbi Paul discovered this life saving truth: I have been
crucified with Messiah; and it is no longer I who live, but
Messiah lives in me (Gal. 2:20). This is the essence of
salvation because it restores our innermost being to what God
intended, and places the Self-Existent One back on the throne of
our lives where He belongs. To be restored to spiritual health
and to live forever, every creature must realize that the Lord
our God is worthy to receive all glory and honor and power.
GOD'S SELF-SUFFICIENCY
The Father has life in Himself (John 5:26). With those
few words the Messiah expressed another attribute, the
self-sufficiency of God. What the Lord is, He is in Himself. He
is complete and sufficient within Himself. We should think
about God as the One who contains all, who gives all that is
given, but who Himself can receive nothing that He has not first
given to others. The life of God does not come from someone
else. If any other could bestow the gift of life upon God, then
that one would be God.
Again, we must try to reverse our ordinary thoughts and
understand that which is perfectly unique. We always allow for
the existence of need among created beings. Normally, nothing is
complete in itself. Everything requires something outside itself
in order to exist. But the words "need" or
"necessary" are totally foreign to God.
"Need" applies only to creatures, and cannot be spoken
of the Creator. If God could have a need, then there would be an
incompleteness in God's being.
Many people have wondered why God created the universe. Even
if we can't know why He created the universe, at least we can
know that He did not bring the universe into existence to meet
some unfulfilled need in Himself. The creation of the
universe is not part of some divine self-help plan because the
Almighty was needy, wanting, or lacking something to make Himself
happy or complete. So high is our opinion of ourselves that we
find it very easy to believe that we are necessary to God. But
the truth is that God is not greater because of our being, nor
would He be less if we did not exist. The prophets continually
refer to man as weak, whose breath is in his nostrils, who grows
up like grass in the morning and is cut down and withers before
the sun sets. All the nations are like a drop from a bucket
and are regarded as a speck of dust on the scales... All the
nations are as nothing before Him, they are regarded by Him as
less than nothing and meaningless (Isaiah 40:15-17).
One of the most difficult concepts for us to grasp is that
God does not need our help. Furthermore, He does not even need
us! The picture of a nervous God who needs to ingratiate
Himself to men to win their favor is not a pleasant one. And yet
this is precisely the picture that we see in much of twentieth
century Christianity. The truth is that God wills to have a
relationship with the beings that He made, but He has no need for
anything outside of Himself. His interest in His creatures
comes from His own good pleasure, not from any need His creatures
can supply. He is without need and is perfectly complete in
Himself.
Our existence is completely due to God's free will, not
because of our worthiness or because He needs us to feel good
about Himself. Nothing is necessary to Him. If anything were
necessary for Him, that thing would be the measure of His
imperfection. He chooses to create us, but not out of any lack.
He chooses to love us, but not out of any necessity. He chooses
to enter into a relationship with us, but not out of any need on
His part. If nothing is necessary to Him, then no one is
necessary, and if no one, then not even me.
If a mysterious comet were to pass by the Earth, and every
human being who looked at it suddenly became blind, the sun would
still shine by day and the stars would still shine by night. If
every man on earth were to become an atheist, it would not affect
God's existence in any way. To believe in Him adds nothing to His
perfections. To doubt Him takes away none of His splendor.
Biblical faith has to do with the relationship of God and man,
but its focal point must always be God, not man. Man's
claim to importance is that he was created in the image of God.
God exists for Himself, and man exists for the glory of God. The
honor and glory of God is first in heaven as it must be first on
earth.
Although He does not need us, God seeks us and loves us. But
we must seek Him because we need Him, for in Him we live and
move and exist (Acts 17:28). We live only because He lives.
He alone is sufficient. All others are insufficient. This is why
having faith in the true God is so important, and why unbelief is
such a deadly sin. No created being dare trust in itself. God
alone trusts in Himself. All others must trust in Him. When the
unbeliever denies the self-sufficiency of God, he takes to
himself that attribute which is not his. In doing so he dishonors
the One who alone is truly self-sufficient, and in the process
destroys his own soul. For our sanity, for our existence, and for
our very life, God must be restored to the proper place that He
deserves: the all-sufficient Lord of the universe, and the King
of our hearts.
I am indebted to The Knowledge of the Holy by A.W.
Tozer for this article.
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