The self-existence of God is vital for the meaning of life which is one reason why so many are depressed and living without meaning. God is the origin of all things and there can be no real answers to the questions of life apart from Him. Acts 17 points out how intimately involved God is with every moment of life: “22 So Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, “Men of Athens, I observe that you are very religious in all respects. 23 “For while I was passing through and examining the objects of your worship, I also found an altar with this inscription, ‘TO AN UNKNOWN GOD.’ Therefore what you worship in ignorance, this I proclaim to you. 24 “The God who made the world and all things in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands; 25 nor is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all people life and breath and all things; 26 and He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation, 27 that they would seek God, if perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; 28 for in Him we live and move and exist, as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we also are His children.'”In v. 23 Paul states that he is going to declare the truth about God. He is declaring this to the wisest of pagans who were steeped in worldly wisdom and Greek philosophy. He tells them that God created the world and is so great that He cannot be served by human hands. He is not served by human hands since He does not need anything at all. What can we do for a Being who needs nothing? We can also not serve Him because He is the one who gives life to every person, but even more, He gives them their breath and all things. In other words, since He gives life and all things to people, how can they give Him anything? Since He is the One who gives people their very breath, how can they do anything for Him who needs nothing with the breath that He gives them? It is in God that we live, move, and exist. He is sovereign over all things and He is intimately involved in the smallest details of life. While men may not think that their movements are in God and that they exist only because of Him and that the gives them their every breath, this does not negate the reality of it. But the purpose of life is seen in verses 26-27 which teach us that man is made to seek God. That is the purpose of God’s giving man being and upholding man’s every breath.
Now we can step back and look at this from the theme of self-existence. Who upholds God in existence? No one, He exists in and of Himself. But how does He uphold people in existence? While we don’t know for sure all the details, we can understand that for anything to exist at any point and that during the time of that existence someone or something must hold that being in existence. Only God who is self-existent exists in and of Himself. Therefore, He must uphold all those who are in existence because no one but a self-existent Being could uphold their existence. If we could get this glorious truth in our grasp we would never be the same. What a freeing teaching this is. How this takes the pressure off of man to keep himself and leaves him in total dependency upon the glorious One of the universe.
This text also teaches us about the meaning of life: “But you have exalted yourself against the Lord of heaven; and they have brought the vessels of His house before you, and you and your nobles, your wives and your concubines have been drinking wine from them; and you have praised the gods of silver and gold, of bronze, iron, wood and stone, which do not see, hear or understand. But the God in whose hand are your life-breath and your ways, you have not glorified” (Dan 5:23). In light of the God who holds the life-breath and ways of all beings in His hands, we are to live for His glory and not our own. How utterly absurd and wicked it was for Belteshazzar to praise false gods and ignore the living and self-existent God. It is just as absurd and wicked for men now who also have their life-breath and ways in the hands of God not to live for His glory. Today men think that they are too enlightened and modern to worship idols, but they forget that they worship what they love most. Idols can be money, material possessions, honor for self, and anything the heart loves.
How delightful it should be to live before this great God who exists in and of Himself. How this should move men to humility and the hatred of pride. How can man serve a God like this? How can man even think that he can earn anything from a God like this? No, this teaches us that all we have is by grace. It can’t be otherwise.
God Loves... Himself 
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