Need is a Creature's Word

The Doctrine of God's Aseity and Self-Suffificenty 

“To admit the existence of a need in God is to admit incompleteness in the divine Being. Need is a creature-word and cannot be spoken of the Creator. God has a voluntary relation to everything He has made, but He has no Necessary relation to anything outside of Himself. His interest in His creatures arises from His sovereign good pleasure, not from any need those creatures can supply nor from any completeness they can bring to Him who is complete in himself.”

― A.W. Tozer, The Knowledge of the Holy

Today we will address two additional attributes of God, His Aseity and His Self-Sufficiency. Because these two are so closely related. I will address them together. Both Aseity and Self-Sufficiency are attributes of God that express is perfection within Himself, and by Himself and even for Himself.

The Un-Caused One

The notion of Aseity is the highest concept of God that can be imagined by man. Aseity is defined as God existing in and of Himself, or we could say aseity is God’s self-existence, or aseity means God is uncaused.

To get a clearer understanding of what uncaused means, consider that everything that comes into existence has a cause. And that cause has something else before it that brought it into existence. And this process goes regressively back into time until we come to a being (since only being can bring anything into existence) that exist eternally without being caused. This is who we call God.  Now, let’s weigh what is being said.  because God is eternal (before all things) he is uncaused or self-existence, and because nothing can bring itself into existence God must be the cause of everything else that exists. This is expressed not just in Genesis 1:1, but throughout the Bible. 

“For by him, all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him” Colossians 1:16

All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made. John 1:3

By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and by the breath of his mouth all their host. Psalm 33:6

And, “You, Lord, laid the foundation of the earth in the beginning, and the heavens are the work of your hands; Hebrews 1:10

In Himself is All Power

To say that God is Self-Sufficient is to say that He does not need anything for the perfection of his existence. When we consider this from the position of His Eternalness, and Aseity we can understand how God existed, The Father, the Son, and Holy Spirit existed perfectly without anything, and after creation exists needing nothing.

To understand the gravity of God’s self-sufficiency, consider this; 

• Because God is Omnipotent, he can do anything within His nature and desire to do. (Isaiah 45:7, Jeremiah 32:17, Luke 1:37)  
• Because God is Omniscience there is no knowledge or events, or calculations past, present or future that He does not already know. No one can teach God anything and He does not learn anything because He already knows everything. (Hebrews 4:13, Jeremiah 1:5, Matthew 10:29-30) 
• Because God is the only Eternal and Un-Caused one, He is necessarily the cause of everything that is. (Hebrews 1:10, Psalm 33:6, Colossians 1:16, John 1:3) and everything that is, is sustained by Him, or has it continued existence in Him (Colossians 1:17) in 2 Corinthians 3:5  the Bible teaches that our sufficient comes from God.

We live in a world whereby we are taught to be prideful, and self-sufficient. I can do it myself” or “I don’t’ need anybody” are commonplace.  The habit many parents have of teaching their children to be proud of their accomplishments are all contrary to what the scripture teaches. In fact, when we think we are self-sufficient or act prideful we are living our lives at enmity with God.
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James 4:6 says “…God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”  while Proverbs 16:5 warns us that “Everyone who is arrogant (prideful) in heart is an abomination to the Lord; be assured, he will not go unpunished.” In John 15:5 Jesus says we can do nothing without Him. And 2Corinthians 3:5 tells us that “our sufficiency is from God”

So, then everything we accomplish in this world is through God enabling and sustaining us to accomplish it. Therefore, when we start to boast and act prideful in our accomplishment, we are taking the glory that belongs to God and is stealing it for ourselves. Therefore it makes sense that stealing from God may have some repercussions. In Isaiah 42:8 God says of Himself “I don’t share my Glory”

I am the Lord; that is my name;
my glory I give to no other,
nor my praise to carved idols.
Isaiah 42:8

It is absolutely wrong to steal God’s glory, and we must know that anything we achieve is from God, and therefore the praises belong to Him. Yet because God is Self-Existence and Self-Sufficient and Omnipotent, we have comfort in knowing that He that is without any need of this world and perfect in Himself is able to meet all our needs, of this world, all by Himself,

Your brother in Christ
Dr. Troy Charves “FireSpeaks” Pearsall

P.S.

I am looking to start a teaching and evangelizing ministry in Philadelphia and seeking others to work alongside me in this calling from God. If you or someone you know may be interested contact me at Making.grace.amazing@gmail.com I will contact you as soon as possible.