THE ASEITY OF GOD

 

  
What is the aseity of God?

I would guess your average run-of-the-mill church attender probably hasn't heard of this phrase before.  I know I hadn't up until maybe five years ago.  And I would imagine the reason we've never heard that term before is because it only refers to one Being, and that is God Himself.

The term "aseity" means "the quality or state of being self-derived or self-originated."  Another definition is "the property by which a being exists of and from itself."

The aseity of God means that He is absolutely self-sufficient, independent, and autonomous.  He is the "uncaused Cause".  No one created God, but God created all things.  From the smallest atom and molecule to the vast universe that reaches far beyond the most powerful telescope that man has ever invented.

Mankind, on the other hand, has no aseity.  We're absolutely dependent upon God for our very existence.  The breath in our bodies was put in by God Himself at creation.  We'd like to think we are self-sufficient, but we're not.  The entire universe is held together by the voice of God and at any point He could cause it to all come crashing down.

God needs no one.  God doesn't need us to teach Him anything because He is the all-knowing, all-powerful creator, so ALL KNOWLEDGE comes from Him.  God's thoughts are higher than our thoughts, and His ways are higher than our ways.  God doesn't depend upon man for anything.  We're the dependent ones.

Pastor Steve Lawson does an excellent job of explaining the aseity of God in this sermon from Ligonier Ministries.  If you have some time, click here to listen to it.  It gets deep but not so much that you cannot understand the concept.