THREE DIFFERENCES GOD’S SELF-EXISTENCE MAKES EVERY DAY by Nick Davis for Core Christianity
When someone mentions the attributes of God, some people start licking their theological chops—they love conversations about such high concepts. Others are confused. “What does that mean?” they ask. And, more importantly, “Why does it matter?”
Understanding what God is like is about more than parsing key distinctions; it impacts our everyday life.
God’s self-existence, independence—what is termed aseity—teaches us that God exists of himself. He’s the Creator, rather than creation; he doesn’t need anything, but gives all things. While these truths may sound like they remain in the realm of the abstract rather than the practical, I believe aseity makes three key differences every day for the Christian life.
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Aseity Clarifies the Gospel
God’s self-existence first and foremost demonstrates its importance in our lives by clarifying the gospel. One of the most beloved images in the Bible for the gospel is a free gift, as Paul writes in Romans 3:24: “[We] are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.”
This is very different from our mostly-transactional lives. We work and get paid. We have needs and we buy. Even in relationships, as Rob Base and DJ E-Z Rock rapped, “It takes two to make a thing go right.” Foundationally, a transaction is between two parties who both have needs, which is fine for the grocery store, but not so much with God. With God, things must be different.
Aseity teaches that God doesn’t have any needs. He isn’t lacking in anything. This means that when the gospel is offered to us, it’s a gift with no strings attached. God offers it from a place of lacking nothing but giving everything. It’s in this context that we have a relationship with him—we are children born from grace, as the apostle John writes, “See what kind of love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are” (1 John 3:1).
