Other spirits are invisible, personal, one,
living, and active. How does the divine Spirit differ?
First, God is self-existent. All other spirits are created and so have a beginning. They owe their existence to another. God does not depend upon the world or anyone in it for His existence. The world depends on God for its existence. Contrary to those theologians who say we cannot know anything about God in Himself, Jesus revealed that God has life in Himself (John 5:26). The ground of God’s being is not in others, for there is nothing more ultimate than Himself. God is uncaused, the One who always is (Exodus 3:14). To ask who caused God is to ask a self-contradictory question in terms of Jesus’ view of God. Another term conveying the concept of God’s self-existence is aseity. It comes from the Latin a, meaning “from,” and se, meaning “oneself.” God is underived, necessary, nondependent existence. Understanding that God is noncontingent helps to understand how God is unlimited by anything, or infinite, free, self-determined, and not determined by anything other than Himself contrary to His own sovereign purposes.
God is eternal and omnipresent (ubiquitous). God’s life is from within Himself, not anything that had a beginning in the space-time world. God has no beginning, period of growth, old age, or end. The Lord is enthroned as King forever (Psalm 29:10). This God is our God forever and forever (48:14). Although not limited by space or time, or the succession of events in time, God created the world with space and time. God sustains the changing realm of succeeding events and is conscious of every movement in history. The observable, changing world is not unimportant or unreal to the omnipresent Lord of all. No tribe, nation, city, family, or personal life is valueless, however brief or apparently insignificant. God’s eternal nature is not totally other than time or totally removed from everything in time and space. The space-time world is not foreign or unknown to Him. History is the product of His eternally wise planning, creative purpose, providential preservation, and common grace. God fills space and time with His presence, sustains it, and gives it purpose and value. The omnipresent and ubiquitous One is Lord of time and history, not vice versa. God does not negate time but fulfills it. In it His purposes are accomplished.
In Christianity, then, eternity is not an abstract timelessness; the eternal is a characteristic of the living God who is present at all times and in all places, creating and sustaining the space-time world and accomplishing His redemptive purposes in the fullness of time.
God is unchanging in nature, desire, and purpose. To say that God is immutable is not to contradict the previous truth that God is living and active. It is to say that all the uses of divine power and vitality are consistent with His attributes such as wisdom, justice, and love. God’s acts are never merely arbitrary, although some may be for reasons wholly within Himself rather than conditioned upon human response. Underlying each judgment of the wicked and each pardon of the repentant is His changeless purpose concerning sin and conversion. Unlike the Stoic’s concept of divine immutability, God is not indifferent to human activity and need. Rather, we can always count upon His concern for human righteousness. God changelessly answers prayer in accord with His desires and purposes of holy love. Hence, although speaking in terms of human experience God is sometimes said in Scripture to repent, it is in fact the unrepentant who have changed and become repentant or the faithful who have become unfaithful.
God is the same, though everything else in creation becomes old like a garment (Psalm 102:25-27). Jesus shared that same unchanging nature (Hebrews 1:10-12) and vividly exhibited it consistently throughout His active ministry in a variety of situations.
The immutability of God’s character means that He never loses His own integrity or lets others down. He “does not change like shifting shadows” (James 1:17). God’s unshakable nature and Word provide the strongest ground of faith and bring strong consolation (Hebrews 6P:17-18). God is not a man, that He should lie (Numbers 23:19) or change His mind (1 Samuel 15:29). The counsel of the Lord stands forever (Psalm 33:11). Though heaven and earth pass away God’s words will not fail (Matthew 5:18; 24:35).
By Gordon R. Lewis from The Portable Seminary
Love in Jesus, Mick
