The Aseity of God

The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. (Acts 17:24-25)

I wonder if you’ve ever pondered this characteristic of God: his aseity.

Aseity, simply put, is the fact that God is not created, not formed, not brought to existence, but is self-evident. He is immutable.

Why does that matter? Considering the aseity of God is not some esoteric, abstruse theory reserved for scholars and theologians. Rather, it is a clear, strident reality that should inform the way we think (across the different segments and spectrums of our lives) and ultimately treasure Christ as supreme.

Here are five ways that the aseity of God should move us closer to him.

God Is the Creator

God is the initiator of all things that have ever been, ever are and ever will be. “For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made” (Romans 1:20). God created and formed the world out of nothing. This act was not a mere capricious enterprise because God was a lonesome deity. It was the revelation of his love. A love shared by the triune God. A love so amazing, so divine and so eternal, that it demands our soul, our lives, our all.

God Is Righteous

Being the creator, and ultimately powerful, God is also perfectly righteous. We see this righteousness clearly in his revealed word and the revelation of his glory through his Son, Jesus. “I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation. . . . For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith” (Romans 1:16-17). Paul tells us here that the righteousness of God is revealed through the gospel and that God’s righteousness is from faith, for faith. We are saved through the gospel and are sanctified to be more righteous through salvation.

God Is Omnipotent

God’s creation and righteousness are pointers to the fact that he has the absolute, unilateral, infinite power to do anything and has dominion over everything. We clearly see his omnipotence in the order of creation and most luminously in the powerful way he orchestrates his righteous salvation.

Since He has at His command all the power in the universe, the Lord God omnipotent can do anything as easily as anything else. All His acts are done without effort. He expends no energy that must be replenished. His self-sufficiency makes it unnecessary for Him to look outside of Himself for a renewal of strength. All the power required to do all that He wills to do lies in undiminished fullness in His own infinite being. ~A.W. Tozer, The Knowledge of the Holy.

God Is Sovereign

Another aspect of God’s aseity is His sovereignty. Just as the mystery of God’s predestined election is unmitigatedly his choice, there are no limits to His rule. He is utterly sovereign over everything. We see that the sovereignty of God is demonstrated in the sacrifice of his Son. Jesus died not only to offer salvation to the world, but also to bring his people to himself, to overcome their rebellion, and to gather them omnipotently to himself.

This is echoed in 2 Timothy 1:9 where God “who saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began.”

God Is Savior

We see the culmination of God’s Creation, Righteousness, Omnipotence, and Sovereignty on display in Salvation, and yes, that leads us to the CROSS. The place where God’s perfect love and justice meet. God poured out his wrath, full strength, undiluted, onto his Son. Paul summarizes the meaning of this great event, “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Cor 5:21).

God brings about a new creation to be a righteous people orchestrated by his omnipotent sovereign work of salvation through the Savior. That Savior is Christ Jesus.

Where do you stand before this God who has complete aseity? Are you bought by the precious blood of the Lamb? Will you stand complete in Him?

Complete in Thee—no more shall sin,
Thy grace hath conquered, reign within;
Thy voice shall bid the tempter flee,
And I shall stand complete in Thee.
Yea, justified! O blessed thought!
And sanctified! Salvation wrought!
Thy blood hath pardon bought for me,
And glorified, I too, shall be! 

~Complete in Thee (Aaron Wolfe, James Gray)

All praise to Him Whose love hath given,
In Christ His Son, the life of heaven;
Who gives us, for our darkness, light,
And turns to day our deepest night.
All praise to Him in love Who came,
To bear our woe, and sin, and shame;
Who lived to die, Who died to rise,
The all-prevailing the sacrifice. 

~All Praise to Him Who Built the Hills (Horatius Bonar)

Leave a Comment

Comments for this post have been disabled.