Becoming
intimately connected to God is all about knowing and embracing all that He is.
August’s Awakening, Day 24
Today
we will finish our discussion of God’s attributes as He relates to His
creation—immutability/constancy, infinity, and necessity/actuality.
Immutability/Constancy. God is
unchanging and unchangeable in His being. God was and is and will be, and being
perfect in every way, there is no changing in any aspect of His essence. He
does interact with humanity and is a personal God, but nothing about Him
changes. This can be controversial as some Scriptures seem to indicate that God
can or does change His mind. However, we must interpret Scripture appropriately
according to the myriad of figures of speech used in the Bible, as in any
language, and understand the meaning accordingly. We cannot imprint our human
anthropomorphisms upon God and interpret Him as such. It is simply our human
and linguistic way of describing the indescribable.
But
you remain the same, and your years will never end. Psalm
102:27 NIV
“I
the Lord do not change. So you, the descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed. Malachi 3:6
NIV
Every
good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the
heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. James 1:17
NIV
Jesus
Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. Hebrews 13:8 NIV
Infinity.
God is without termination and finitude. He always was, is now, and always
will be, without beginning or end, He simply is and without bounds. “I Am who I
Am” (Exodus 3:14).
“But
will God really dwell on earth? The heavens, even the highest heaven, cannot
contain you. How much less this temple I have built! 1 Kings 8:27 NIV
Great
is the Lord and most worthy of praise; his greatness no one can fathom. Psalm 145:3
NIV
“The
God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and
does not live in temples built by human hands. Acts 17:24
NIV
Necessity/Actuality. God is a necessary
Being whose nonexistence is impossible, and hence His existence is essential.
He is not contingent on anything and hence must exist out of necessity. Pure
actuality means the same—there is no possibility to not exist, nor possibility
to change or be changed.
Through
him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. John 1:3
NIV
For
in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and
invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have
been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all
things hold together. Colossians 1:16–17 NIV
“I
am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is, and who was, and who
is to come, the Almighty.” When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead.
Then he placed his right hand on me and said: “Do not be afraid. I am the First
and the Last. Revelation 1:8, 17 NIV
Tomorrow we will begin looking at
the attributes of God as pertains to time and space itself.
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