The attributes of God

The Self-Existence of God

An attribute of God · Exodus 3:14

The self-existence, or aseity, of God means that he exists of himself, needing nothing and depending on no one. He is the great I AM, the Being who simply is, the source of all other being. Everything else that exists was given existence and is held in existence by him; he alone is his own life. This is the deepest truth of all about God, and the ground of every other thing we can say of him.

And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.Exodus 3:14 (KJV)

What the self-existence of God means

Aseity is a word from the Latin for from himself. It means God has the ground of his existence in himself alone; he does not derive his being from anything outside him. Nothing made him, nothing sustains him, nothing gives him what he has. He is not a link in a chain of causes but the uncaused source of the whole chain. Everything in the universe is contingent, that is, it might not have existed and could cease to exist. God alone is necessary; he cannot not be.

This is why God needs nothing. He is not served by human hands as though he needed anything, since he gives to all life, and breath, and all things. He was not lonely before he made us, nor incomplete, nor lacking. Out of his own fullness he freely gave existence to a world he did not need, purely out of love and to share his goodness. All things are from him, and through him, and to him. He is the fountain of being, and we are, every moment, drinking from him our very existence.

How the Bible reveals it

At the burning bush Moses asked God his name, and God answered, I AM THAT I AM, and, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you. It is the most profound self-description in Scripture. God does not name himself by any relation or role, but by sheer being: I AM. He simply is, underived, self-sufficient, the source of all. From this name comes the covenant name of the Lord, the One who is.

The whole Bible assumes it. He is the first and the last, before whom no God was formed and after whom none shall be. All things were created by him and for him, and by him all things consist, or hold together. He upholds all things by the word of his power. In him we live, and move, and have our being. He gives to all, and receives from none what he does not first give. The Creator and the creature are never on the same level: he is the source, and everything else is the stream.

Common misunderstandings

Some think of God as simply the biggest thing in the universe, the greatest being among beings, only older and stronger than the rest. But self-existence means God is not one item in the universe at all, however large; he is the reason there is a universe rather than nothing. He is not the first domino in a row of dominoes but the One who is not a domino, on whom the whole row depends.

Others, hearing that God needs nothing, imagine he must be cold and detached, indifferent to a world he does not require. But the opposite is true. Because God needs nothing from us, his love for us is utterly free and pure, not a bargain in which he gets something he lacks. He loves us not to fill a need but out of sheer generosity. And some suppose that if God needs nothing, then we do not matter to him. Yet the God who needed no world chose to make one, and to give his Son for it. We are wanted, not because he is needy, but because he is love.

Why the self-existence of God is good news

A God who depended on something outside himself could fail, could run short, could be undone if his source were removed. But the self-existent God can never fail, never diminish, never be threatened, for nothing upholds him that could be taken away. He is the one utterly secure reality, and to build your life on him is to build on the one thing that cannot collapse. All flesh is grass, but the God who gives us being stands forever.

And because he is the fountain of life, he has life to give, in endless supply. He does not ration a limited store; he is the spring itself. Whoever comes to him comes to the source of living water that never runs dry. Our neediness is met by his all-sufficiency; our emptiness by his fullness. We were made to depend, and here is the One on whom we may depend without fear, for he depends on no one and will never be exhausted. In him we find not only existence but life abundant and everlasting.

How the self-existence of God is seen in Jesus Christ

Jesus took the great name of the self-existent God onto his own lips: Before Abraham was, I am. His hearers understood the claim and took up stones, for he was naming himself with the name of the I AM. In John's Gospel he says it again and again: I am the bread of life, the light of the world, the resurrection and the life, weaving the divine name through his invitations. As the Father hath life in himself, so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself.

So the eternal Word, who was in the beginning with God and was God, entered our dependent world without ceasing to be the source of all being. By him all things were made, and by him all things hold together, even the men who nailed him to a tree. He is the same I AM who spoke to Moses from the fire, now speaking to us with a human voice and a scarred hand held out. To come to Jesus is to come to the fountain of being himself, and to receive from his fullness life that will never end.

A note offered humbly and for all Christians: God is one, simple, and undivided in his being, and these attributes are not parts of him but the one God seen from many sides. His holiness is loving, his love is holy, his justice is merciful, and his mercy is just. He is also greater than all our words, and no page can contain him. What we can say, we say only because he has graciously revealed it, above all in Jesus Christ, who is the image of the invisible God.

Related: The Eternity of God · The Immutability of God · Who is Jesus? · All the attributes of God