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4 Bible Passages That Help Explain the Doctrine of God’s Aseity
God’s Life in Himself
When I’m trying to give the biblical justification for this doctrine, I like to give a constellation of biblical passages rather than just one single passage. I like to point, for example, to the creation story in Genesis 1—God created all that exists out of nothing. If we look at that passage and ask what kind of being must God be to create everything that exists out of nothing, the answer is he has to be the kind of being that has life in himself. The kind of being who can create everything out of nothing without being depleted or diminished in himself has to be the a se God—a God who has life in himself.
I like to point to passages where God contrasts his independence with the dependence of the gods of the nations. For example, you see this all throughout the prophet Isaiah, where Yahweh is mocking the pagan nations for chopping down a tree, using half of the wood to burn and warm themselves, and using the other half of the wood to create a god that they have to carry around. And God is saying, I’m not like those kinds of gods. I don’t need to be carried around. I carry all of you around.
The Fountain of Life
Samuel G. Parkison, Matthew Barrett
As part of the Contemplating God series, author Samuel G. Parkison offers an accessible and engaging exploration of divine aseity—God’s complete independence as the eternal plentitude of life—inviting readers to marvel at the wonders of the living God.
In Exodus 3, we see the doctrine of divine aseity hinted at by the fact that the bush that Moses is drawn to is burning, but it doesn’t consume the bush itself. It is a fire that does not need fuel to burn; it burns of itself. And then from that bush, God names himself not in relation to anything that God does or is in the way that we might name ourselves.
I name myself as a husband, as a dad, as a theologian, and as a human. I’m naming myself in relation to other things. God names himself as “I AM,” as the one who doesn’t need anyone or anything.
When we move forward into the New Testament and the unveiling of the gospel story, we see that this God exists as the fullness of Father begetting his Son eternally, and the Father and the Son pouring out the Spirit eternally. In other words, this a se God is a Trinitarian a se God. He is a God of triune perfection, of triune fullness of life. And we see this in many passages, but John 5:26 would be a really important one. Jesus says, “As the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself.”
God names himself as “I AM,” as the one who doesn’t need anyone or anything.
And if Jesus were to have simply said, As the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son to have life, that would’ve been altogether unremarkable. We can say that. But Jesus doesn’t say that.
He says, “As the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself.” In other words, As the Father has aseity, so he has granted the Son to have aseity. And so when you ask when did the Father give life to the Son, the answer is whenever the Father had life in himself. And there is no when. It’s a timelessly eternal granting of the Father to have life in himself and to give the Son to have life in himself.
So these would be passages that make up a constellation of a biblical presentation of not only an abstract doctrine of divine aseity but a distinctly Trinitarian and Christian presentation of divine aseity.
Samuel G. Parkison is the author of The Fountain of Life: Contemplating the Aseity of God.
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