Dial In with Jonny Ardavanis - Attributes of God - The Aseity of God

Episode Date: September 3, 2021

Dial In with Jonny Ardavanis: Attributes of GodIn this episode Jonny discusses the Aseity of GodWatch VideosVisit the Website Follow on InstagramFollow on Twitter

Hey guys, my name is Johnny Artavanis and this is Dial In. As we continue in our study of the attributes of God, in this episode we will discuss God's aseity. Let's dial in. Now I have some questions for you. What was God doing before he created the world? Was he twiddling his thumbs? Was he bored out of his mind? Was he lonely? Is that the reason God created the world? To satisfy his own

loneliness? Does God need us? Was God happy without us? Now the answer to this list of questions is found in exploring one of the attributes of God and it's by understanding this element of God's character that we are given the key that unlocks the totality of God's attributes. Now I want to look with you at Exodus 3, and as we look at Exodus 3, we are going to see a visual depiction of the attribute that we will discuss in this episode, but I want to get some context with you first. Now at this point in Moses's life in Exodus 3, we get this idea in our head or in our own imagination that he's this ruggedly handsome young man. But at this point, Moses is 80 years old. Nothing significant is happening in his life right now.

He is a shepherd, and his daily routine looks like taking sheep back and forth from his home to the base of Mount Horeb, which is a land in a wilderness of jagged rocks and wild animals. It is a land that literally means forsaken by God. It's ravaged by wind and sun, weather and beast. And Moses at this point in his life is unseen by everyone except for God. And for 40 years, this is what Moses does every single day. He isn't a prince anymore. He's not a sovereign ruler. He is a shepherd. And it's hard for us to imagine anything more mundane than watching sheep graze. But this is what Moses is doing at this point in his life. No one ever had to ask Moses, what are you up to this week, Mo? Now in Exodus 3, Moses is doing what he does every day. He's

leading his sheep to graze, but something catches his attention. It's a bush that is on fire, but it's not just a bush that is on fire. It's a bush that is on fire but not burning. We call this account, or even if you look at your Bibles, it'll say above chapter 3, the burning bush. But this account is not really of a burning bush because nothing was truly burning up. This bush serves as an analogy for the attribute that we will discuss in this episode, which is called the aseity of God. Aseity is the property by which God exists in and of himself. In Latin, ah means from and se means self. And this means that God exists in and from himself. And this is the most fundamental difference between a creature and the creator. There is only one who has life in himself, and then there are those who depend entirely on the one who gives life.

Unlike every other creature, God's existence is not dependent or contingent or derived from anything or anyone else. And as we consider the aseity of God, this is so important, I want to look with you at three realities regarding God's nature. Number one, Yahweh is self-existent. In verse 2 of chapter 3 of Exodus, Moses turns aside to see this bush that was burning but not burning up. Now in of itself, there is nothing supernatural about this bush. But what Moses saw was a fire in the bush. It wasn't besides the bush or on top of the bush. It was within the bush.

And the question is, from where did this fire come? Was it started with a match or a lighter or with flint? None of the above. The reason the bush is not consumed is because it was not using the bush as the fire source of fuel. The bush was burning from its own power. It was self-generated.

And this is who God is. He is like the fire Moses saw, self-generated. And this is who God is. He is, like the fire Moses saw, self-existent. You and I, we come to be and then we cease to be, but God simply is. Now, when we are speaking of existence, we have to consider the three logical options for all matters in existence. Number one, something or someone is self-created. Number two, something or someone is eternal. And number three, something or someone was created by something or someone else that is eternal. So three options, self-creation, eternality, or something or someone that was created by something or someone that is eternal.

Now Sproul notes that when the first possibility is eliminated, only the latter two remain, an eternal being and that which the eternal being creates. The first option of self-creation is a logical fallacy. Rabbids aren't really pulled out of hats and universes don't really create themselves. And in contrast to self-creation, which is illogical, there is this idea of self-existence or the idea of aseity. And this word captures all of the glory and perfection of who God is. And this is what makes God different from people, stars, and galaxies. It is that he alone exists by his own power.

No one ever made God. No one caused God. He exists in and of himself, and this is a quality that no creature shares with God. We are created. You are created, but God owes his being to nothing outside of himself because he is self-existent. Number two, Yahweh is self-sufficient. Now, when you and I hear about a forest fire in the news, we know that it will eventually go out because there is no energy left to sustain the burning. Eventually, there will be nothing left to burn. But this fire that Moses is looking at is entirely independent of what the bush provides to sustain its burning because it is a bush that is burning

but not burning up the bush. And this idea is consistent with the rest of God's nature because like this bush that is self-sustained, Yahweh himself is also self-sufficient. The question of whether or not God needs us to fulfill himself or to make himself happy is no. The God of the Bible who is self-sufficient doesn't actually need anything or anyone. Now, maybe you don't like the way that this sounds, but God doesn't choose to adopt us as sons or daughters due to his loneliness, but due to his desire to amplify and elevate his own glory and to reveal his love to us. Created beings like you and I are finite. We are powerless and out of control. We're out of control not in the sense of our wildness, but that we have no control over the

beating of our hearts or over the pumping of our lungs or over our own breathing. Now for a moment, you probably just thought about your own breathing, but God is so different than us in that way. He is not dependent upon the beating of his heart or the pumping of his lungs. He is beyond us because he is self-sufficient and he is also self-sustained. And one of the most happy and joyful moments in your life and my life are when we realize that we are sustained by a self-sustained God. God's self-sufficiency means that he has no needs. He isn't insecure. And one of the most difficult thoughts or challenging thoughts for you or I and our natural egotism is to entertain that God does not need our help. But a God, think with me, who needs our help can only help us while someone else

is helping him. A.W. Tozer writes this to God. He says, if nothing is necessary to you, God, then no one is necessary to you. And if no one is necessary to you, then not we. He says, if nothing is necessary to you, God, then no one is necessary to you. And if no one is necessary to you, then not we. He says, you do seek us though, not because you need us, but we seek you because we need you. For in you, we live and move and have our being. Tozer continues to highlight that need is a creature word and cannot be spoken of God who is a creator. God has a voluntary relationship to everything that he has made, but he has no necessary relation to anything outside of himself. God is completely independent of anything or anyone else to sustain him.

But I want you to think with me about your average day. You can't go a single hour or a couple hours without food or water or drink. You need those things to live. And if we take away oxygen or air, you would instantly perish. Every created thing needs some other created thing in order to survive.

But God alone exists in and of himself, and to him, nothing is necessary. So God is self-existent, number one. He's self-sufficient, number two. And number three, he is eternal. God tells Moses at the burning bush, I am the God of your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He's saying to Moses, I am the God of all of creation, and I am the God from past and into the future. I have no origin. I have no birthday. I have no aging, no wrinkles, no shakes, and I'm

not any wiser today than I was at the beginning of time. I have no altered perspective now than when I created the world because I am an eternal God. I am uncreated and I am uncaused. I'm unsustained because I am eternal. And Moses later on in his life is going to reflect upon this very conversation that he has with God at the burning bush. In Psalm 90 verse 2, he says, before the mountains were brought forth, wherever you created the earth and the world and the sea and everything in it, from everlasting to everlasting, you are God. Moses loves this about God, and you should too. At no point did

God not exist. There was never a point where God was not God. And as Moses is leaving for a daunting task, Yahweh wants Moses to know something about himself. He says, you're going up against Pharaoh, the mightiest man in the entire world, a man who has an empire. But I want you to know something about Pharaoh. Pharaoh has a beginning and Pharaoh has an end. But I am from everlasting to everlasting. And sometimes this reality about God that he is eternal just slips off the tip of our tongue. That he's everlasting, no big deal. But when the earth is shaking and the world seems to be crumbling all around us, God is telling Moses, you put Pharaoh up against the backdrop of my eternal nature,

and that giant that you are facing will instantly shrink, and you will be able to rest in my everlasting arms. As we close, three applications that we can glean from the aseity of God. Number one, only a God who has life in himself can offer life to those who are dead. Number two, only a God who has no needs and is completely self-sufficient can be trusted with all of our lives. Our greatest need in life is to surrender our wills to the God who has absolutely no needs. Number three, only a God who is eternal can grant to those who believe in him eternal life. John 5, 26 says, For as the Father hath life in himself, even so he gave to the Son also to have a life in himself.

God's aseity is something for us to find great comfort in. He is self-sufficient, self-existent, and he is eternal. And in light of his eternality, he is also a God that is personal and who offers himself to us to know and to love. Stay dialed in.