The Great I AM

God’s incommunicable attributes, the qualities about God that He alone possesses, like His transcendence and unchanging nature. The fact that He is all-powerful, all-knowing, everywhere present, He is sovereign, infinite, and eternal.

Today we will be looking at two of God’s incommunicable attributes: His self-existence and self-sufficiency.   

God is self-existent. He always existed and is the cause of all things in the universe, but He Himself was not caused. God is the only One who never came into being and One who always will be.

He is infinite and eternal so has no origin and has no end, whereas we all had a beginning (we were born at some point in time) and we all have a shelf-life (one day we will all expire). He is not contained by the universe nor is He dependent on it.
And Exo 3:14 testifies that God has always existed.

In John 1:1-2, the word “was” is in the imperfect tense, which means that even before time began to exist the Word was. John uses the word “Logos” to mean Jesus as the ultimate reality, the co-eternal God, who is outside of time, space and matter and is the reason we exist. All life came from God and would cease to exist without Him.

In our understanding, we will never fully grasp these attributes of God because an infinite God is incomprehensible to a finite mind. This means we will never fully comprehend His nature and His qualities completely or exhaustively.

God is also self-sufficient. He is utterly self-sufficient, independent of anything in creation, absolutely complete in every way. This means He depends on nothing outside of Himself for His existence, rather everything He has created depends upon Him for its existence (John 5:25 & Heb 1:3).

In Psalm 50:10-12, the Psalmist was teaching that unlike other religions and pagan worship, the worship of the one true God is not intended to meet God’s needs, but to acknowledge Him for His self-sufficiency and His sufficiency to meet our needs.

In Acts 17:24-27, the Apostle Paul is standing before a plethora of idols and Greek gods addressing the people of Athens about the true God not made by hands.

The world is not God nor any part of God, but something absolutely distinct from God; and that it differs from God, not merely in degree, but in its essential properties. The doctrine of creation implies that, while God is self-existent and self-sufficient, infinite and eternal, the world is dependent, finite, and temporal. The one can never change into the other.

In John 17:5, there was perfect love and fellowship between God the Father and God the Son before the creation of the world. They didn’t need to leave heaven, but out of His self-existent and self-sufficient character God freely acts, creates, sustains, saves and interacts with His creation. That is why it is vital that we place our faith in God alone.

The existence of God we will  touch on one today is the Cosmological Argument for God’s existence.

1. Whatever begins to exist has a cause. (whatever has a beginning has a cause)

2. The universe began to exist.

3. Therefore, the universe has a cause.

The first premise is based on the law of causality: Whatever begins to exist has a cause. Scientists today agree that nothing ever happens without a cause, so they try to discover what caused different types of phenomena, like how the universe came into being. Nothing comes into being from nothing.

What many scientists and philosophers agree on is that the universe had a beginning but whatever was the original cause of the universe, many agree that it must have been outside of space, time and matter and so both the atheist and the Theist must appeal to something that was uncaused and eternal.

The philosophical implications align with what the Scriptures ascribe to a self-existent, self-sufficient, personal, all-powerful God. Therefore, it is overwhelmingly reasonable to believe in an uncreated, supernatural God behind everything, rather than the absurd notion that the universe could cause itself.

Since the Bible provides an accurate account about who God is how He created the universe and everything in it then it logically follows that…

• There is a reason for the universe’s existence  

• Life has meaning

• Mankind has hope 

Let’s talk about the first point:

The reason for the universe’s existence

Paul said in Colossians 1:16,
For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him.

Rev 4:11 says that God created the universe for Himself and by His will. His creation declares His glory and the skies proclaim the work of His hands (Psalm 19:1). God created the material world and universe, space and matter to make His power and wisdom known to mankind and so that we could see His invisible qualities - His eternal power and divine nature (Rom 1:20).

Life has meaning
The implications of a self-existent, self-sufficient, all-powerful, personal living Creator of the universe is meaning and purpose but it also requires personal accountability to this Creator. Just remember this, our belief or unbelief has no effect on the reality of God’s existence.

When sin entered the world, all of the creation experienced the Fall and the subsequent natural and moral evils. However, God did not abandon the very ones He created but made a way for people to find their way back to Him through Jesus Christ His Son.

Mankind has hope!

• Hope of Salvation, redemption, forgiveness, restoration.

• Our hope is in an all-sufficient God who created and called us, and we can rest in the fact that He has all the knowledge and the power to equip us to do what He has called us to.

• We have hope in a God who is in control, who hears our prayers and is always able to meet our daily needs. 

• Our hope is not in the world, in dying men, in mythological beings - our hope is in the Great I AM, the Creator and sustainer of the universe.

• Our hope is in His Son, the resurrected Christ, our Redeemer and Savior.