God Loves… Himself

An attribute of God must be determined from what He is within Himself rather than judged by our own standards. God is the standard of Himself and of all things.

Acts 17:22 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.

It is such a hard thing for man to come to the realization of his own utter helplessness and dependence upon God for all things. It sure seems to fallen man that he has a lot of control and that all things depend upon him, and man even takes great pride in that. When the biblical teaching of the self-sufficiency of God is taught to man, this is very disruptive to man and he hates the idea that he is not in control. Men cannot bear to think that their every breath and all things are in the hands of God and that they cannot serve Him. They cannot build a temple since He cannot dwell in a temple other than in a figurative way, so the building of a temple does not do the least thing for the living God. In the Old Testament, however, it did picture how men were to approach God.

Psalm 115:3 But our God is in the heavens; He does whatever He pleases.

The passage just above screams out and declares that the true God does whatever He pleases. The implications and deductions from the great truth that God does as He pleases are enormous. If God does as He pleases, then man can go no farther than the pleasure of God which means man is not free to do as he pleases. Now if man cannot do as he pleases and yet God does whatever He pleases, the teaching of that is that man is not free. God is God and man cannot do anything but what God “allows” him to do or ordains him to do. If God does whatever He pleases, then God is sufficient to do all He is pleased to do and to prevent whatever does not please Him. The glory of God’s self-sufficiency shines in this passage since God is sufficient to do all that He pleases and nothing can stop Him.

Psalm 50:9-12 I shall take no young bull out of your house nor male goats out of your folds. For every beast of the forest is Mine, the cattle on a thousand hills. I know every bird of the mountains, and everything that moves in the field is Mine. If I were hungry I would not tell you, for the world is Mine, and all it contains.

Can poor man who thinks that he is in control and can make a sacrifice actually do anything to benefit God or give God something? The point of the passage above is that man cannot serve God. All the animals in the world are His. Even if God could possibly be hungry, man cannot give God something since all is His. Even if God had no money, man cannot give any property or anything of value to God since it is all His. The earth is the Lord’s, the whole universe is the Lord’s, and everything (including human beings) in the universe and on earth is His. God is self-sufficient and everything that has come into being came into being by His power and is sustained each moment but Him. He cannot be served by man and man can do nothing for Him as He needs absolutely and utterly nothing at any point and at any time.

Self-sufficiency cannot be derived from what we think of human beings when we think of them as self-sufficient. A man is thought to be self-sufficient when he is able to live off the land by growing food, hunting, and making his own clothes. But the definition or concept of what self-sufficiency is regarding men cannot be used and applied to God. A man may depend on the tools that another makes, but no one can make something for God. A man can become hungry, but God cannot become hungry. A man can be injured or sick, but God cannot become injured or sick. A man must depend on food and water to exist, but God depends on nothing but Himself to exist. It is an utterly glorious and beautiful attribute of God which teaches us something of how He exists in and of Himself and yet of how utterly dependent we are upon Him. We should bow low before God in utter nothingness and seek His face. Oh that He would show us this grace that depends on Himself and not us.

An attribute of God must be determined from what He is within Himself rather than judged by our own standards. God is the standard of Himself and of all things.

Acts 17:22 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.

In moving from the self-existence of God to the self-sufficiency of God, it is most likely quite evident that we are not really moving from one thing to another but instead are simply looking at the same thing from another vantage point. In other words, the attribute of God that we think of as self-sufficient flows from and is an aspect of His self-existence. But then again, all of His attributes are one within Himself and all flow from Him in perfect unity and beauty as we behold Him in His glory. We can also think of God’s self-sufficiency as an application of His self-existence, or it is one way God exists in and of Himself.

Self-sufficiency teaches us that God is sufficient in all manners and ways in and of Himself. He has no need of anyone or anything. Whatever God is He is within Himself and needs nothing to maintain Himself and anything H wants to do. He is life itself and all life is within Him and from Him. He is totally sufficient within His eternal being for all eternity for everything. While these are words on a page or words in some form of modern technology, they are pointing to the one and true God who exists in and of Himself and is sufficient for all things that He does and desires to do. This attribute of God, if taught from every pulpit in our land, would be like a huge bomb going off and the waves of destruction that a bomb would bring is only a slight analogy to what this bomb would be. We need to hear from the pulpits in this land that God does not need us and that He is sufficient for all things quite apart from anything we can do. He has no need that we can fill and our attempt to fill a need of His is actually a very wicked thing and even idolatry.

What do we do for God? We know from Acts 17 above that “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 above 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.” In light of the beauty and glory of this great God who exists in and of Himself and lives in complete self-sufficiency, we can know that there is nothing we can do for God. There is absolutely nothing that we can supply Him and there is absolutely nothing that we can do that will benefit Him. The one and true God is self-sufficient and all that we “give” to Him must first be received from Him. The works we do that we think are for Him are really for ourselves, so they are not for Him. Any works that are truly out of love for Him must come from Him and through Him and be by Him in order to please Him. If our works come from Him, through Him, and are by Him, then His is self-sufficient and we have nothing to praise ourselves for we do not serve Him.

What do we give God that He is not sufficient for? When we think of this question when it is put this way, we can immediately see that of course we cannot do something for the true God. Our sufficiency is of Him and from Him and we must not think of any sufficiency we have to “serve” Him as coming from ourselves. Did God create us because He was lonely? Are we sufficient for good company? Surely the Lord Jesus Christ who is perfect in all things was and is far better company than we could ever be.

Do we do things for Him that He is not sufficient to do Himself? Again, do we really think that our puny little beings can do something for God that He is no sufficient to do for Himself? What do we have that does not come from His self-sufficiency? What is it that He is not sufficient to provide so that we have to do it? When we even start to think about the glory of God in His self-sufficiency, our independence and our self-sufficiency should open up and we should see the awfulness of our idolatry and our sin. Man depends on himself and wants to depend on himself even more, but what we fail to see is that this is man wanting to be like God. Man is not self-sufficient, but instead is totally dependent in reality. Oh for the grace to see this more and more.

Acts 17:22 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.

Isaiah 66:1 Thus says the LORD, “Heaven is My throne and the earth is My footstool. Where then is a house you could build for Me? And where is a place that I may rest? 2 “For My hand made all these things, Thus all these things came into being,” declares the LORD. “But to this one I will look, To him who is humble and contrite of spirit, and who trembles at My word.

The appalling ignorance of God demonstrated by pagans led them to misunderstand and be deceived about the true God, about true worship, and of the nature of salvation. The same is true today. Those who are ignorant of God may indeed fill buildings with the name “church” on the door, but that does not mean that they know God. Eternal life is to know God, though indeed eternal life is more than knowing about God, yet can we know God without knowing truths about Him? It is surely obvious that we cannot know God without knowing truths about Him. On the one hand we seem to think that great knowledge is what keeps men from knowing God, but in reality whether one has great knowledge (or knows a lot of things) or not it is ignorance of God that is the real problem. We must also add that we can only know God through Christ so ignorance of Christ is a cause of ignorance of God.

Hosea 5:4 Their deeds will not allow them To return to their God. For a spirit of harlotry is within them, And they do not know the LORD.

Hosea 6:6 For I delight in loyalty rather than sacrifice, And in the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.

In Hosea 5:4, just above, a spirit of harlotry and not knowing the LORD are linked. In Hosea 6:6 we are told that God prefers knowledge of Himself to burnt offerings which would include the commanded manner of worship. The knowledge of God and knowing God are vitally important and must not be casually dismissed or dismissed in any way. We must know God or we will perish. In a sense it is that simple and it is that plain. Men do not desire the knowledge of God and so they suppress the truth about God which is in them (Romans 1:18ff). But rather than suppress the truth of God, men are to pursue the truth of God that they may know about Him and know Him.

The Gospel is the good news of God in Christ. How can we trust in the God who gives good news if we are ignorant of the true God? The Bible is the Word of God, yet how can we trust in the Bible if we are ignorant of the God who wrote it? If we are ignorant of the true God, then we will not recognize His voice as He speaks in His Word. This Gospel is about the true God making people alive in Christ Jesus and doing so by grace alone. We cannot understand what grace is apart from knowing the truth of who God is and the fact that He exists in and of Himself and holds all things in existence at His mere pleasure. We misunderstand the Gospel of the glory of God if we think that God needs our help and that we can serve Him. Where does this eternal life of grace come from? It comes from knowing Him (II Peter 1:3). We must stress and press this home to people. They must give themselves to the study of knowing God and that this great God exists in and of Himself and that this attribute has a lot to instruct us regarding the Gospel.

In light of God’s self-existence and His not being able to be served, what are man’s works and efforts in terms of the Gospel? Man’s works and efforts in order to be saved show a great ignorance of God because He cannot be served and we cannot do anything for Him. Can our works earn anything from a God who upholds our existence each moment and has no need of us? Can we earn mercy from God or can He be inclined to show us mercy when He exists in and of Himself and has utterly no need at all? What did man do for Christ to come and save sinners? What did man do for Christ to come and suffer and die in the place of sinners? What did man do to raise Christ in the place of sinners? They did nothing, could do nothing, and can do nothing. We look to God for grace alone or we are not looking to the true God. There is only one reason and one causation of eternal life in the believer and that is God Himself alone. His self-existence & self sufficiency teach man how humble man must become to look to Him for salvation by grace alone, which is to say we have nothing to contribute at all.

Acts 17:22 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.

Isaiah 66:1 Thus says the LORD, “Heaven is My throne and the earth is My footstool. Where then is a house you could build for Me? And where is a place that I may rest? 2 “For My hand made all these things, Thus all these things came into being,” declares the LORD. “But to this one I will look, To him who is humble and contrite of spirit, and who trembles at My word.

Acts 17:24 “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.

While the Gospel of God benefits man, it is a declaration and manifestation of the glory of God. We will never understand the Gospel by looking at men, but instead we understand the Gospel by seeking and beholding the glory of God. As we cannot understand eternal life without some understanding of Him as the self-existent God, so we cannot understand the glory of the Gospel of God without understanding the God who shines forth in and by the Gospel. Men are so given to self-love and pride that they think of themselves first and foremost, but what men must understand is that they do that because they are sinners and that is what they do a fallen men. God alone can think of His own glory first and foremost and that is His holiness, but when men focus on themselves they demonstrate that they are fallen. When men take the Gospel and think of themselves first, they are abusing the Gospel in incredible pride as they play God because the Gospel is all about God Himself.

The promises of the Gospel depend completely on the self-existence of God who needs nothing from man to fulfill His promises and needs nothing from man or any other to fulfill His Word. Human beings try to help God out, but once again they are in terrible sin of pride and self when they do so. We cannot obtain life by any other way than my looking to Him who is self-existent life. We cannot obtain or fulfill any of the promises of the Scriptures and the Gospel comes to us by promise alone. There is nothing we can do to keep ourselves in existence and there is nothing we can do to obtain the slightest part of eternal life. We are completely and utterly dependent upon God for our physical existence each moment and for our spiritual life each moment as well.

It is so hard for man to think of receiving a salvation that depends on God alone. This is excruciatingly painful for proud man who hates to depend on anyone for anything, but especially to be totally and utterly dependent upon God for salvation. Man must repent from his own works, but man will try to repent of his own works by depending on himself to repent of his own works. God must work grace in the soul of man and show man what it means to depend totally on His grace and Christ for salvation alone. God must show men the utter vileness of the sin of looking to self rather than Christ alone for salvation and sanctification. It is vital to set out that it contradicts the very nature of God in His self-existence for man to try to help God save man. It contradicts the self-existence of God for God to save men while waiting on or depending on man to do one thing to help God. Eternal life can only come from the self-existent God and it can only come from Him by grace alone or it will contradict His very nature. Oh how hard this is for proud man to swallow and how men should strive for broken and humbled hearts before God in order that they may receive this great truth.

The Gospel of God comes to people who are dead in sin and excluded from the life of God. What kind of promise does the Gospel make to dead people? It is that God must make them alive by His grace alone and that they will rise from the spiritual dead and have eternal life. How can it be that any man can contribute to his own salvation in this light? How can it be that a dead man can help God give himself life? How can it be that a man who is dead in sins and trespasses can move God to show grace to him? How can it be that anyone could think that a dead man can come up with an act of faith and that will move the self-existent God to save that man? How can it be that the God who exists of Himself and supports all other beings in existence needs help or assistance from man to save a man? Behold the glory of God and repent from thinking that salvation is anything but by grace alone.

Acts 17:22 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.

Isaiah 66:1 Thus says the LORD, “Heaven is My throne and the earth is My footstool. Where then is a house you could build for Me? And where is a place that I may rest? 2 “For My hand made all these things, Thus all these things came into being,” declares the LORD. “But to this one I will look, To him who is humble and contrite of spirit, and who trembles at My word.

God created all things with the intent, purpose, and goal to glorify His name. This is to say that regardless of what happens God will be glorified because His perfect will cannot possibly be frustrated and it is not possible for what He has decreed should and would happen not to happen. The God who exists in and of Himself and all that ever came into being came into being through Christ has brought all those things into being in a way that manifests His glory to Himself, the angels, spiritual beings, and human beings. All creation is a display of the glory of God and exists at His mere pleasure. When the fall occurred, it was no accident and it was not out of His control. The fall, though a wicked act as indeed all sin is wicked, also had a purpose regarding the glory of God. The fall serves as the awful backdrop for the beauty and glory of the Gospel of God.

Romans 1:1 Paul, a bond-servant of Christ Jesus, called as an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God

II Cor 4:4 in whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. 6 For God, who said, “Light shall shine out of darkness,” is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.

We must make no mistake about it. The Gospel is not primarily about human beings, it is without question primarily about God Himself. The Gospel is the Gospel of God and it magnifies, manifests, and displays His glory in Christ Jesus. Yes, the Gospel is all about God, but it is also for God. While God created the entire universe to display His glory, the Gospel is the primary way that He shines forth His glory. Salvation is the free gift of God to weak and helpless sinners, yet in giving salvation to sinners the glory of the great Giver shines forth. In giving salvation to sinners, He gives sinners who have earned death eternal life. Yet apart from His self-existent life, how could He have eternal life to give? He must exist in and of Himself with no need to have life in Himself and as such share His life with sinners.

The Gospel of God and the Gospel of Jesus Christ depends on He who is Life Himself giving or sharing life with those who have nothing to earn it and nothing in them to move Him to give it. As every human being (and all things as well) exists each moment at His mere pleasure and depends (knowingly or not) upon His self-existence in the physical realm, so the Gospel display the utter dependence sinners have on Him for eternal life. No man can serve God in giving Him something from the physical world, but neither can man do something for God in the spiritual realm either. We receive our all from Him, and that includes our life and breath.

Acts 17:24 “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.

The Gospel should show us our utter dependence upon God for all things, but instead in our day it seems as if the majority makes God depend upon us. We seem to think that God needs our evangelism and that God needs our preaching and our service. He does not. However, God graciously uses fallen sinners that He has redeemed to the glory of His name to be those whom He shines His glory through. The Gospel does not teach us that God is waiting on us to do something so that He can save us, but it teaches us that we are utterly dependent upon Him to save us because of who He is. He exists in and of Himself. Therefore, we are utterly dependent upon Him.

Acts 17:22 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.

Isaiah 66:1 Thus says the LORD, “Heaven is My throne and the earth is My footstool. Where then is a house you could build for Me? And where is a place that I may rest? 2 “For My hand made all these things, Thus all these things came into being,” declares the LORD. “But to this one I will look, To him who is humble and contrite of spirit, and who trembles at My word.

Sin is the desire to be like God and in this context it is a desire to be like Him in His self-existence and perfect independence. On the other hand, the humble desire to be low before God and receive all things from His hands as nothing but gifts and desire nothing but what God desires for them. Pride is a puffing up of self, yet humility is being empty of self. Becoming more proud is to have more of self, while becoming more humble is to have less of self. Pride blinds souls to God and themselves, but the humble have God showing them the truth about themselves and Him. The proud heart thinks it can do something to please God and even do things for God, but the humble know that they can only do something to please God if He works it in and through them. The difference between pride and humility is virtually infinite because pride is the work of the finite devil and humility is the work of the infinite God. The devil can work in a false humility, but true humility is beyond his power. He who is full of self and self-love cannot by that same power cast out self, but out of his great self-love he can work a false humility in his ministers and his people. Only the living God can cast out the power of self-love by giving a soul a new heart and the life of Christ in it.

In light of the nature of what pride is and what true humility is, it should be clear which one the self-existent God works in His people and which one He will use to glorify Himself. He does not need proud men who preach well and He does not need people with big names to do anything for Him, but instead He alone can glorify His name and He uses the humble and the broken to glorify Himself through. The proud may indeed preach orthodoxy and they may have large ministries, but God will only truly use the humble to glorify Himself through. The proud will preach orthodoxy and even things about Christ as a means of exalting self rather than Christ. The proud may indeed put on a show of humility for the sake of self, but indeed it is nothing but a show of humility rather than the real thing. The proud love to be exalted even if it means some suffering for what it thinks is the name of Christ, but again that is only suffering for the sake of self since the real desire is to have self exalted.

The hideous reality behind each sin is that in trying to be like God we are a “god” to ourselves (the self-god). This brings fresh meaning to Psalm 51:4 where David confesses his adultery and murder as sin against God. Yes, it is true that David violated the sixth and the seventh commandment and violating the commandments is against God. But it is also true that David chose to follow his own selfish heart and his sinful passions and that was an effort to be like God as well. The self-existence of God demands that His creatures live in complete dependence upon Him in their hearts which reflects reality, but the sinful heart of man wants to choose his own way and depend upon himself for wisdom and for moral decisions.

True humility is the nothingness a creature has before God its Creator because that is the proper position of a creature before its Creator who upholds each creature and its life-breath as He pleases. Living in the presence of God who is truly God demands us to be nothing in His presence and to bow before Him in utter nothingness and complete helplessness because that is our reality. Yes, proud sinners should seek humility, but in light of who God is we must ask for humility to come by grace (1 Peter 5:5-6). A humility that comes from anything or anyone but the true God and by grace alone is a false humility. A true humility can only exist and be sustained by the one and only self-existent God who supports His people at all times and in all ways. While man longs to help God even a little in man’s own salvation and sanctification, the great need is for man to be broken from his prideful desire to provide part of salvation and sanctification for himself. Only God can do that. The vast majority in our day seems to want to help God just a little in their own salvation, but that is not a desire to be saved in accordance with the truth of God. Instead, it is a desire to be saved in accordance with the fallen heart of man. The Gospel of the self-existent God is a Gospel of grace alone.

Acts 17:22 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.

Isaiah 66:1 Thus says the LORD, “Heaven is My throne and the earth is My footstool. Where then is a house you could build for Me? And where is a place that I may rest? 2 “For My hand made all these things, Thus all these things came into being,” declares the LORD. “But to this one I will look, To him who is humble and contrite of spirit, and who trembles at My word.

When we view sin in light of God and the fact that the temptation that Satan put before the first couple was that they could be like God, sin is then seen as something other than behavior. Perhaps it would be better to say that behavior is seen as symptoms of the real issue which is pride and self in the heart. Sin is man wanting to follow his own reason and wisdom. Sin is man following the desires of his own fallen heart and justifying himself in doing so. Sin is man trying to be a god to himself and as such man wants to be independent and exist by himself and by his own power. Sin is man living in open rebellion against God in open sin, but perhaps even worse is man being very religious and thinking that he can please God by his religion.

This is so pointed in the modern day. Yes, we have a flood of liberalism that seems to cover the earth as the flood in the time of Noah. At the very heart of liberalism is the desire to come up with standards that man’s fallen reason can come up with and the desire to pull God down to the level of man. In conservative circles, however, we have the same motives in many ways. When men have a conservative religion that they use to please God they have done the same thing as the liberals in coming up with standards that fallen reason can be happy with. They also, though conservatives have better creeds and better theology, have a desire to pull God down to the level of man. One can use liberal thinking or conservative thinking to pull God down from His throne (in the minds of men) and for men to assert their own desire to be self-existent.

Fallen man is independent in spirit and desires to be free of all restraints so he can depend on self. Pride wants this freedom, though this freedom is indeed nothing but an appearance of it. Man will hold to liberalism in order to operate according to his own perceived freedom, but man will also hold to severe conservatism in order to convince himself that he is saved or to earn some form of righteousness. In this way the pride of man is able to be free of the sovereign God, though indeed he may even give that lip service, and man can blind himself with the truth so he can hold to his own power and freedom. Oh how pride blinds men to the truth and to the truth of their own hearts. Man wants to stand by his own power and his own freedom and he will deceive himself with either liberalism or conservatism to do so.

There are aspects of the power and insidious nature of pride in the heart of man can only be brought to light in the light of the glory of God. The self-existence of God is an attribute of God that we must hold to and is at the very heart of who God is, the fall of man, and indeed the Gospel. In trying to be like God, man wants the illusion of something like the self-existence of God and yet that can only come from the horrid pride of the heart of man and man cannot see depths of this wickedness of pride apart from viewing the self-existence of God. Men do not know themselves and their own hearts because they make gods for themselves from their pride rather than looking at the true God to see how far they have fallen. This is why it is utterly vital to study and meditate on the true God.

The liberalism and it appears much of the conservatism of today have fallen into forms of humanism and so they judge man by man and God by man rather than looking at God and viewing all things in accordance of Him and His glory. Arminian theology and Pelagian theology are really just ways of man trying to determine his own existence as he pleases rather than bow to the sovereign God. Even in modern “Calvinism” there is the stress on human responsibility to the degree that God’s sovereignty and self-existence disappear into the background. It should be asserted from every Christian pulpit that God exists in and of Himself and has no need of anyone or anything. All things exist as He pleases and all things happen as He has decreed from all eternity. While man has obligations to God, he must seek the Lord for grace to carry those things out, even the tiniest of them.

Acts 17:22 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.

Isaiah 66:1 Thus says the LORD, “Heaven is My throne and the earth is My footstool. Where then is a house you could build for Me? And where is a place that I may rest? 2 “For My hand made all these things, Thus all these things came into being,” declares the LORD. “But to this one I will look, To him who is humble and contrite of spirit, and who trembles at My word.

It is vital to grasp something of the truth that God is self-existent. Can anyone do something for God that He cannot do for Himself or that He must work in the human being first? Is Christianity really about doing good works for God as if He could not do them Himself? Is Christianity really about doing religious activities in a way that seems as if they are for God as if they do something for Him? In reflecting on the self-existence of God the nature of biblical Christianity comes out. Humanity was created for the purposes of God, yet man can do nothing for God and man cannot in an ultimate way serve God. Indeed the Israelites build a tabernacle and temples for religious purposes at the command of God, but God did not need those edifices at all.

In light of who God really is (self-existence) and therefore who man is (totally dependent), an important yet hidden aspect of sin comes to light. When men act as if they were not totally dependent upon God, they are acting like the Devil and buying in to the essence of the fall which is that men will think they are and try to be like God. Men act as if they are not totally dependent upon God for wisdom when they depend upon themselves for wisdom. Men act as if they are not totally dependent upon God when they try to determine right and wrong for themselves. This is to say that the very nature of sin is for man to live in what he thinks is an independent way from God. It is for man to determine his own way and to live in dependence upon self.

Daniel 5:22 “Yet you, his son, Belshazzar, have not humbled your heart, even though you knew all this,
23 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.

In the passage above Daniel indicts Belshazzar for his sin of exalting himself against the Lord of heaven and while he was in the hand of God in terms of his life-breath and his ways, he did not glorify God. Belshazzar lived for his own glory and thought that the kingdom was in his hands and operated by his wisdom. The hand then appeared and wrote on the wall and indeed what it wrote came true. That very night Belshazzar was killed and his kingdom was given over to another. Living by our own wisdom means that a fall will come and it will come soon.

As can be clearly seen the absolute and objective truth is that God alone exists in and of Himself and that all other than God utterly and totally depends on Him. Sin is in this light man trying to be God and this independent spirit of man longs to be free of all restraints put upon him by God and to depend on self and the things of self. This great longing to be free of God and to depend on self is nothing but sheer arrogance and pride as it is a horrible pride to live and exalt self rather than God. It is a horrible sin for man who is upheld by God and given every breath by God to turn from God and live for self in what it thinks is an independent way.

It may be worse in some ways for people to use religion to deceive themselves and others as a way of independence from God rather than as the way of complete dependence upon God. Christ Himself told us that apart from Him we can do nothing (spiritual or truly good), yet man in his religion of self and independence from God (deceived about this) tries to live by his own good works and righteousness. What a horrible affront to the living God for man to live as if he depends on himself for good works and righteousness. What a despicable crime against God to live as if we do not utterly depend upon Him as self-existent for all things.

Acts 17:22 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.

Isaiah 66:1 Thus says the LORD, “Heaven is My throne and the earth is My footstool. Where then is a house you could build for Me? And where is a place that I may rest? 2 “For My hand made all these things, Thus all these things came into being,” declares the LORD. “But to this one I will look, To him who is humble and contrite of spirit, and who trembles at My word.

The beauty and majesty of the self-existence of God shines in and through Christ. God has and does reveal Himself in and through Christ as the pinnacle or zenith of His self-revelation to man. This may not seem obvious on the surface of the matter, but it is Christ Himself who tells us that “For just as the Father has life in Himself, even so He gave to the Son also to have life in Himself” (John 5:26). For one to have life in Himself is to have a self-existent life to which no one can add to or take away. It is the Lord Jesus who spoke directly to the Pharisees and told them that “before Abraham was born, I AM” (John 8:58).

Colossians 1:15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. 16 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. 17 He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.

In light of the text just above, we can see that everything that there is or ever came into being was created through Christ and for Him. This is a profound truth that no finite being can explore the full depths of. God, the triune God, is self-existent within Himself, which is to say that He is self-existent within the Trinity. The one and true God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit and the wonder, beauty, and glory of self-existence is beheld in Christ in an especial way. Self-existence shines in and through Christ both in His Person and in His works. If God is not self-existent and that does not shine forth in Christ, then how can heaven be so for all eternity? If God is not self-existent, then to whom do we look for life? That would also mean that He would have to trust in someone or something out that has the power of life.

Something or Someone holds the universe in existence and holds it in precisely the perfect way so that all things function and operate precisely as God has created it to do. It is in Christ that all things hold together. It is because all things are in Christ that nothing can function or operate outside of His sovereign power. It is in Christ that all things happen are according to the Divine plan and as such hold together in His Divine power and wisdom. It is in Christ that there is not one rogue molecule (quoting R.C Sproul) much less anything else that can possibly operate apart from His sovereign will. The self-existence of God in Christ declares to us that He alone can uphold the universe in Christ and He alone can sustain all things in Christ.

Would heaven be eternal and full of joy if there is no self-existent and self-sufficient One who upholds all things? Where does joy, love and life come from if not from Him? How can we know that we will have eternal life for eternity if Christ who is life does not have self-existent life? How will we know that He will love us for eternity if He does not have the power of life and self-existent life in Himself? Where can true joy and love come from if they are not part of eternal life and are not sustained by Him who has the very power of life in Himself? How can we ever know that we will have those things if Christ Himself does not have life in Himself because it is in Christ and only in Christ that we exist and move and have every breath? How can we ever be sure that we will have Christ forever and have all things from Him forever if He is not self-existent? This is another way of saying that we must know God in Christ and it is only in Christ that we will see and behold the exquisite glory of God.

Acts 17:22 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.

Isaiah 66:1 Thus says the LORD, “Heaven is My throne and the earth is My footstool. Where then is a house you could build for Me? And where is a place that I may rest? 2 “For My hand made all these things, Thus all these things came into being,” declares the LORD. “But to this one I will look, To him who is humble and contrite of spirit, and who trembles at My word.

In beholding the glory of God in the beauty and wonder of His self-existence, there is nothing that can replace the spiritual sight of this with any degree of accuracy. It is helpful to read academic works on the subject, but when the Lord gives a spiritual sight of this or a spiritual understanding of this it is simply beyond description. However, we are to plow ahead and try to point others in ways of looking.

The glory of self-existence, while beautiful and beyond human words in its (shall we say) raw form in creation, is even more beautiful as we behold the glory of it in Christ. In one sense, even a major sense, God has revealed Himself in Christ in a far greater way than in any other way. He has spoken to people in the past in may ways, but in the New Testament and then to those that follow He has spoken to us in Christ (Hebrews 1:1-3). The revelation of God, therefore, as has been said in John 1:14-18, is that God is displayed in the Son and the Son has put the Father on display. In reality, this is what the Gospel of John is all about.

In a very real sense the person of Christ and (as Stephen Charnock wrote) the cross of Christ is like a map in which the glories of God are set out and put on display. We tend to think so much of ourselves when we view doctrines of the Gospel that we miss the real point of God putting Himself on display. The Lord Jesus did not do miracles just to show off, but instead He was showing who He was and then pointing to the living and true God. We must learn to read Scripture and study Scripture humbled and in prayer that God would shine forth Himself in Christ and show us this indescribable beauty. If the Lord Jesus Christ is not self-existent, then He cannot shine forth the true God in this way and I would argue that the Gospel is compromised.

John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.

The very beginning of John sets out the wonderful teaching that the Word already was when the world had a beginning. It then teaches us that this Word is with God and is God. It teaches us that everything that has ever come into being came into being through Him. Can it be that our Lord Jesus Christ needs human beings to serve Him since all things (including ourselves) have been brought into being through Him? Oh, how these verses must not only be intellectually grasped by us, but they must penetrate to the depths of our souls. The God that Isaiah spoke of in Isaiah 66 as bringing all things in being is the same God that Jesus Christ (the Word) is with and yet is also that very God.

We can immediately dismiss most of modern Christendom that seems to have a needy Jesus and seem to want to do things for Him. Oh no, we don’t do things for Christ. In fact, He even tells us that He did not come to be served but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many (Mark 10:45). The Lord Jesus Christ cannot be served in the sense that there is nothing that we can do for Him that is not worked in us first. Apart from Him we can do nothing (John 15:4-6). This is so vital to who God is, who Christ is, and who the Spirit is, which is to say who the one and only triune God is. Let us behold the God who cannot be served by human hands as though He needed anything and bow to Him to receive all through Christ and in the name of Christ. But again, how beautiful it is to behold the glory of self-existence in Christ!