Bulletin Articles
The Eternal God
Paul wrote to Timothy: “I charge you in the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus, who in his testimony before Pontius Pilate made the good confession, to keep the commandment unstained and free from reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, which he will display at the proper time—he who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see. To him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen.” (1 Tim 6:13-16)
Notice from this text that God gives life to “all things” and He alone has immortality. We often think of God as eternal, and this includes the fact that He has no beginning and no end. He is the alpha and omega. Because God “alone has immortality,” there must be something different about God and who He is that cannot be ascribed to any other being. God can give immortality to others, but this is still not the same as what He has (or else He alone wouldn't have it). This connects to eternality. If God alone has immortality, then eternality is the necessary corollary. He alone has immortality because He alone is eternal in the truest sense of having no beginning or end. Eternal life flows from God’s nature. In the resurrection, our bodies will be changed from the mortal to the immortal because of who God is and what He does (1 Cor 15:53).
For a being to be eternal in the same sense as God, that being must have life in himself, needing nothing from no one. This is what Paul says of God in Acts 17:26: “as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all people life and breath and all things.” But “life in Himself” is a divine attribute (John 5:26). People sometimes wonder if Satan is eternal, but if that is the case then he, too, must have life in himself, needing nothing from anyone else to exist or live. Scripture makes no allowance for this. God has life in Himself and gives life to all. God alone has immortality. That is exclusive.
The nature of God as the Creator who has life in Himself, then, precludes the eternality of any other being. If the devil is uncreated (which would necessarily follow from being eternal), then there is another being besides God who has life in himself and needs nothing to live. Yet life is something that God alone gives because life is in His nature. “All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men” (John 1:3-4). God is the giver of all life. Paul also put it this way with reference to Jesus, who is God:
“For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things have been created through Him and for Him.” (Col 1:16)
All things visible and invisible, including dominions, rulers, and authorities were made by Him. All things were created by God and for God. So much can be said about it. The point is that when we start considering the classical attributes of God, we cannot rightly say the same about anyone else. God’s classical attributes tie to His eternal nature and flow from it.
Isn’t this just theology though? Why does it really matter to us? Does it really have much practical value? Yes, it matters probably more than we are able to express. Why?
What we believe about God matters because the One in whom we put our trust is the One who promises us eternal life based upon the life He has in Himself. “And this is the promise that he made to us—eternal life” (1 John 2:25). This is meaningful because of who He is as the eternal One, the great I AM. God gives us life both physically and spiritually because He has the inherent power to do so. This is also why the resurrection matters. Because God is the Giver of all life and has life in Himself, what Jesus said about the resurrection is powerful: “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?” (John 11:25-26)
Because of the resurrection — God’s manifested power over death (Heb 2:14-15) — we can be born again to the living hope “to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you” (1 Pet 1:3-4). The mortal will then put on immortality and share in the life that proceeds from God. The Eternal One gives eternal life to those who trust Him.
It matters what we believe about God.
