Created by a Creator
At what level does Holy Scripture introduce us to this attribute known as aseity? In a way, it by no means does; it doesn’t introduce divine aseity as a result of it’s all the time assuming it. This attribute of God is the imposing context of all his works and self-revelation. Aseity calls consideration to itself within the first phrases of Scripture: “To start with, God created the heavens and the earth” (Gen. 1:1). God created all that was not God “out of nothing”—ex nihilo in Latin. To be a creation is to be created by a Creator. One other manner of claiming that is that to be created is to be depending on God for existence. This will sound unnecessarily apparent, however typically we neglect to be correctly wowed by the plain. If creation’s trademark is to be completely depending on its Creator for its existence, what does that suggest for God and his existence? It implies that he, because the one who triggered creation’s existence, is basically and existentially unbiased of his creation. We’d like him, however he doesn’t want us in any respect.
The independence of God is assumed all through the Scriptures when he contrasts himself to his creatures and their idols. Take into account the instance of Job, who famously questioned God and obtained a direct reply to his problem. From inside the whirlwind of God’s reply—with Job cowering appropriately beneath the superior weight of the sovereign Lord chatting with him—God asks him,
Who has first given to me, that I ought to repay him?
No matter is beneath the entire heaven is mine. (Job 41:11)
In different phrases, “I’m not such as you. I can’t be enriched or diminished. I can’t be owed or indebted—every little thing is mine and testifies to its being mine.”
As a part of the Considering God collection, creator Samuel G. Parkison presents an accessible and interesting exploration of divine aseity—God’s full independence because the everlasting plentitude of life—inviting readers to marvel on the wonders of the residing God.
In fact, Job, if he had paid higher consideration, may need identified this already. God’s glory—his altogether unmatched and incomparable standing because the unbiased Creator— is said not solely within the whirlwind but in addition by means of day and night time:
The heavens declare the glory of God,
and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.
Everyday pours out speech,
and night time to nighttime reveals data.
There is no such thing as a speech,
nor are there phrases,
whose voice will not be heard.
Their voice goes out by means of all of the earth,
and their phrases to the top of the world.
In them he has set a tent for the solar,
which comes out like a bridegroom leaving his chamber,
and, like a robust man, runs its course with pleasure.
Its rising is from the top of the heavens,
and its circuit to the top of them,
and there may be nothing hidden from its warmth. (Ps. 19:1–6)
Commenting on these verses, the fourth-century church father Gregory of Nyssa writes,
The heavens, displaying the Maker’s knowledge, virtually shout with a voice, although silent, they declare the Creator’s craftsmanship. We will hear the heavens train us: “O mortals, in wanting on us and seeing our magnificence and vastness, our incessant orbit with its orderly, harmonious motion, performing in a single methodical route, flip your ideas to our Ruler! Via the wonder you see, envisage the fantastic thing about the unseen Supply!”1
To be a creation is to be created by a Creator.
The place there may be day, the place there may be night time, the place there are heavens and the sky above, this message could be “heard.” All through the earth, God makes himself identified by means of his handiwork. And what his dependent creation demonstrates is that he himself is unbiased. Creation wants him, however he wants not creation. Or once more, take into account the phrases of David in Psalm 24:1–2:
The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof,
the world and those that dwell therein,
for he has based it upon the seas
and established it upon the rivers.
What can we study from these few phrases? We study that the cosmos has a Grasp. The earth doesn’t merely occur to exist, and we don’t merely occur to search out ourselves right here. Nothing that exists in any respect exists independently of the sovereign inventive craftmanship and sustaining grace of God. God alone exists independently of anybody and something. His existence is important; ours is contingent and spinoff. We’re conditioned by him, however he isn’t conditioned by us. Which means that no matter disparity lies between something in the entire realm of creation and us, it doesn’t even remotely approximate the space between God and every little thing else—he alone is proprietor in an final sense. This is the reason the Puritan pastor John Owen says,
What’s an angel greater than a worm? A worm is a creature, and an angel isn’t any extra; he hath made the one to creep within the earth—made additionally the opposite to dwell in heaven. There may be nonetheless a proportion between these, they agree in one thing; however what are all of the nothings of the world to the God infinitely blessed for evermore?2
In different phrases, as lofty a creature as an angel is, it’s nonetheless infinitely nearer to a worm than to God as a result of it’s a creature. In comparison with God, worms and angels are “nothings.” They’re a part of the “fullness” of the earth that belongs to God (Ps. 24:10). Take into consideration this phrase “fullness.” It’s an exhaustive phrase. Each little bit of knowledge ever found in human historical past is the Lord’s. Each little bit of wealth ever accrued is the Lord’s. Each little bit of pleasure ever skilled is the Lord’s. Each little bit of meals consumed, music heard, or equation solved exists inside the parameters of this “fullness” that doesn’t belong to itself—it’s the Lord’s. Does this not whet the urge for food for discovery? Are you not thirsty to hunt and discover the treasures of the earth that belong to the Lord? When “the earth . . . and the fullness thereof ” belong to not the impersonal area of likelihood however, fairly, to Yahweh—the Lord—our seek for fact and sweetness is given a profound justification. We glance out into the world with questions anticipating to search out solutions. We search for cause and discover it. We search for order and, behold, it’s there!
Moreover, this truth must fill us with gratitude. For if the earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof, what do now we have that now we have not obtained? We’re, purely and exhaustively, recipients. All we do is obtain, obtain, obtain, and our nice benefactor offers and provides and provides. It’s all reward! One other option to say that is that creation has its being by participation within the likeness of its Creator. What God has in and of himself (life and being), creation has by gratuitous participation in God.
Notes:
- Gregory of Nyssa, “Solutions to Enomius’ Second E book,” in Dogmatic Treatises, in vol. 5 of Nicene and Put up-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, Collection 2, ed. Philip Schaff and Henry Wace (Eerdmans, 1954), 272–73.
- John Owen, The Works of John Owen (Banner of Reality Belief, 1965), 2:60.
This text is tailored from The Fountain of Life: Considering the Aseity of God by Samuel G. Parkison and edited by Matthew Barrett.
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