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Where Does the Bible Actually Teach That God Is Completely Independent?
Created by a Creator
At what point does Holy Scripture introduce us to this attribute called aseity? In a sense, it never does; it doesn’t introduce divine aseity because it’s always assuming it. This attribute of God is the imposing context of all his works and self-revelation. Aseity calls attention to itself in the first words of Scripture: “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth” (Gen. 1:1). God created all that was not God “out of nothing”—ex nihilo in Latin. To be a creation is to be created by a Creator. Another way of saying this is that to be created is to be dependent on God for existence. This may sound unnecessarily obvious, but sometimes we forget to be properly wowed by the obvious. If creation’s trademark is to be utterly dependent on its Creator for its existence, what does that imply for God and his existence? It implies that he, as the one who caused creation’s existence, is essentially and existentially independent of his creation. We need him, but he does not need us at all.
The independence of God is assumed throughout the Scriptures when he contrasts himself to his creatures and their idols. Consider the example of Job, who famously questioned God and received a direct answer to his challenge. From within the whirlwind of God’s answer—with Job cowering appropriately under the awesome weight of the sovereign Lord speaking to him—God asks him,
Who has first given to me, that I should repay him?
Whatever is under the whole heaven is mine. (Job 41:11)
In other words, “I’m not like you. I can’t be enriched or diminished. I can’t be owed or indebted—everything is mine and testifies to its being mine.”
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.
Of course, Job, if he had paid better attention, might have known this already. God’s glory—his altogether unmatched and incomparable status as the independent Creator— is declared not only in the whirlwind but also through day and night:
The heavens declare the glory of God,
and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.
Day to day pours out speech,
and night to night reveals knowledge.
There is no speech,
nor are there words,
whose voice is not heard.
Their voice goes out through all the earth,
and their words to the end of the world.
In them he has set a tent for the sun,
which comes out like a bridegroom leaving his chamber,
and, like a strong man, runs its course with joy.
Its rising is from the end of the heavens,
and its circuit to the end of them,
and there is nothing hidden from its heat. (Ps. 19:1–6)
Commenting on these verses, the fourth-century church father Gregory of Nyssa writes,
The heavens, showing the Maker’s wisdom, practically shout with a voice, though silent, they declare the Creator’s craftsmanship. We can hear the heavens teach us: “O mortals, in looking on us and seeing our beauty and vastness, our incessant orbit with its orderly, harmonious movement, acting in one methodical direction, turn your thoughts to our Ruler! Through the beauty you see, envisage the beauty of the unseen Source!”1
To be a creation is to be created by a Creator.
Where there is day, where there is night, where there are heavens and the sky above, this message can be “heard.” Throughout the earth, God makes himself known through his handiwork. And what his dependent creation demonstrates is that he himself is independent. Creation needs him, but he needs not creation. Or again, consider the words of David in Psalm 24:1–2:
The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof,
the world and those who dwell therein,
for he has founded it upon the seas
and established it upon the rivers.
What do we learn from these few words? We learn that the cosmos has a Master. The earth does not simply happen to exist, and we do not simply happen to find ourselves here. Nothing that exists at all exists independently of the sovereign creative craftmanship and sustaining grace of God. God alone exists independently of anyone and anything. His existence is essential; ours is contingent and derivative. We are conditioned by him, but he is not conditioned by us. This means that whatever disparity lies between anything in the whole realm of creation and us, it does not even remotely approximate the distance between God and everything else—he alone is owner in an ultimate sense. This is why the Puritan pastor John Owen says,
What is an angel more than a worm? A worm is a creature, and an angel is no more; he hath made the one to creep in the earth—made also the other to dwell in heaven. There is still a proportion between these, they agree in something; but what are all the nothings of the world to the God infinitely blessed for evermore?2
In other words, as lofty a creature as an angel is, it is still infinitely closer to a worm than to God because it is a creature. Compared to God, worms and angels are “nothings.” They are part of the “fullness” of the earth that belongs to God (Ps. 24:10). Think about this word “fullness.” It is an exhaustive word. Every bit of wisdom ever discovered in human history is the Lord’s. Every bit of wealth ever accrued is the Lord’s. Every bit of joy ever experienced is the Lord’s. Every bit of food consumed, music heard, or equation solved exists within the parameters of this “fullness” that does not belong to itself—it is the Lord’s. Does this not whet the appetite for discovery? Are you not thirsty to seek and find the treasures of the earth that belong to the Lord? When “the earth . . . and the fullness thereof ” belong not to the impersonal domain of chance but, rather, to Yahweh—the Lord—our search for truth and beauty is given a profound justification. We look out into the world with questions expecting to find answers. We look for reason and find it. We look for order and, behold, it’s there!
Furthermore, this fact ought to fill us with gratitude. For if the earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof, what do we have that we have not received? We are, purely and exhaustively, recipients. All we do is receive, receive, receive, and our great benefactor gives and gives and gives. It is all gift! Another way to say this is that creation has its being by participation in the likeness of its Creator. What God has in and of himself (life and being), creation has by gratuitous participation in God.
Notes:
- Gregory of Nyssa, “Answers to Enomius’ Second Book,” in Dogmatic Treatises, in vol. 5 of Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, Series 2, ed. Philip Schaff and Henry Wace (Eerdmans, 1954), 272–73.
- John Owen, The Works of John Owen (Banner of Truth Trust, 1965), 2:60.
This article is adapted from The Fountain of Life: Contemplating the Aseity of God by Samuel G. Parkison and edited by Matthew Barrett.
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