Aseity

Notes

II. God hath all life, glory, goodness, blessedness, in and of himself; and is alone in and unto himself all-sufficient, not standing in need of any creatures which he hath made, nor deriving any glory from them, but only manifesting his own glory in, by, unto, and upon them: he is the alone fountain of all being, of whom, through whom, and to whom are all things; and hath most sovereign dominion over them, to do by them, for them, or upon them whatsoever himself pleaseth.

Westminster Assembly. “The Westminster Confession of Faith,” August 2022. https://thewestminsterstandard.org/the-westminster-confession/., Ch II, Sec II

Life is something that God possesses in and of Himself.

God has all life in and of Himself. … We find reality ultimately in God; without Him there is no plant life, amimal life, or human life, because all power to live comes from Him, who alone has life in and of Himself.

Sproul, R. C. Truths We Confess. Reformation Trust, 2019., Ch 2, Sec 2

To affirm God’s aseity is to say, first and foremost, that he is life in and of himself, and on that basis he must be self-existent and self-sufficient. It is because God is life in and of himself that there can be no sense in which he is caused by another. For that reason, one might just as well refer to God’s “inseity” as his “aseity.”

There is, most fundamentally, a difference in nature between the Creator and the creature, the former having life in and of himself, the latter deriving life from the one who is life. We are born into this world totally dependent, finite in every way. Our existence is derived from our mother and father. If we are to continue living, the God of the universe must sustain us. We are dependent on not only our earthly father but our heavenly Father too. Our nature, our very existence, is contingent in every way.

Not so with God. His nature is not at all like our nature. He is incommensurable, incapable of being measured by the same standards of our human existence. Unlike everything in this world, his existence is not grounded in, derived from, or contingent on something or someone else. No one brought him into being, nor is he dependent on something or someone else to continue being. He is underived from and unconditioned by that which is finite, contingent, limited, and changeable.

Barrett, Matthew. None Greater, The Undomesticated Attributes of God. Baker Books, 2019., Ch 4

Whatever God is, and all that God is, He is in Himself. All life is in and from God, whether it be the lowest form of unconscious life or the highly self-conscious, intelligent life of a seraph. No creature has life in itself; all life is a gift from God.

The life of God, conversely, is not a gift from another. Were there another from whom God could receive the gift of life, or indeed any gift whatever, that other would be God in fact. An elementary but correct way to think of God is as the One who contains all, who gives all that is given, but who Himself can receive nothing that He has not first given.

Tozer, A. W. The Knowledge of the Holy. Grapevine India, 2022., Ch 6

Children sometimes ask, “Who made God?” The clearest answer is that God never needed to be made, because he was always there. He exists in a different way from us: we, his creatures, exist in a dependent, derived, finite, fragile way, but our Maker exists in an eternal, self-sustaining, necessary way—necessary, that is, in the sense that God does not have it in him to go out of existence, just as we do not have it in us to live forever. We necessarily age and die, because it is our present nature to do that; God necessarily continues forever unchanged, because it is his eternal nature to do that. This is one of many contrasts between creature and Creator.

Packer, J. I. Concise Theology: A Guide to Historic Christian Beliefs. Tyndale House Publishers, 2001., Part One, Chapter Self Existence

Bible References

[1] In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. (Genesis 1:1 ESV)

[13] Then Moses said to God, “If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?” [14] God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” And he said, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’” [15] God also said to Moses, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘The LORD, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.’ This is my name forever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations. (Exodus 3:13-15 ESV)

[7] “Can you find out the deep things of God?
    Can you find out the limit of the Almighty? (Job 11:7 ESV)

[2] Before the mountains were brought forth,
    or ever you had formed the earth and the world,
    from everlasting to everlasting you are God. (Psalms 90:2 ESV)

[2] Your throne is established from of old;
    you are from everlasting. (Psalms 93:2 ESV)

[24] “O my God,” I say, “take me not away
    in the midst of my days—
    you whose years endure
    throughout all generations!”
    [25] Of old you laid the foundation of the earth,
    and the heavens are the work of your hands. (Psalms 102:24-25 ESV)

[15] For thus says the One who is high and lifted up,
    who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy:
    “I dwell in the high and holy place,
    and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit,
    to revive the spirit of the lowly,
    and to revive the heart of the contrite. (Isaiah 57:15 ESV)

[12] Are you not from everlasting,
    O LORD my God, my Holy One?
    We shall not die.
    O LORD, you have ordained them as a judgment,
    and you, O Rock, have established them for reproof. (Habakkuk 1:12 ESV)

[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 were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. (John 1:1-3 ESV)

[26] For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself. (John 5:26 ESV)

[58] Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.” (John 8:58 ESV)

[23] For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription: ‘To the unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. [24] The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, [25] nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. (Acts 17:23-25 ESV)

[36] For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen. (Romans 11:36 ESV)

[1] Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, [2] but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. [3] He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, (Hebrews 1:1-3 ESV)

[10] For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering. (Hebrews 2:10 ESV)

[8] “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.” (Revelation 1:8 ESV)

[11] “Worthy are you, our Lord and God,
    to receive glory and honor and power,
    for you created all things,
    and by your will they existed and were created.” (Revelation 4:11 ESV)