The aseity of God
"God said to Moses, 'I AM WHO I AM.' And he said, 'Say this to the people of Israel: "I AM has sent me to you"’” (Exodus 3:14)
June 19, 2025
Dear friends,
Today's theological word is "aseity" (pronounced "ah-SEE-it-ee"). It refers to God's self-existent reality, absoluteness, and independence.
Ever since I walked into my first Sunday school class as a university student -- newly converted to Christ -- I have loved the study of the Bible and its doctrines. The teacher was Paul Ribbe, professor of geology at Virginia Tech, teaching on the "attributes of God." It was like drinking fresh, life-giving water for the first time!
The attributes of God are descriptions of his nature and character. This includes his holiness, love, righteousness, faithfulness, and so on. The attributes of God help to shape not only our understanding of God -- and why we trust and obey him -- but also in how we live out our lives before him. I have learned that we cannot live rightly without knowing God rightly.
Where does one begin that study? Do you start with his love? Or his power? Or his goodness? Or his wisdom? God's aseity moves us to think outside, above, and beyond creation itself. He is self-existent, independent, free, and self-sufficient. He is absolute reality. Aseity denotes the God-ness of God's essential being. He himself said, "...I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me..." (Isaiah 46:9) And, "...from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen." (Romans 11:36) God is not contingent, dependent, or derived from anything else.
Theologian Herman Bavinck wrote that aseity is "the primary attribute of God's being"...
"...what his attributes are can only be known by us from his revelation in nature and Scripture. Yet all these attributes are only divine characteristics because they pertain to God in a unique and absolute sense. Hence, in that respect aseity may be called the primary attribute of God's being. We can even say -- on the basis of God's revelation, not by means of a priori reasoning -- that along with his aseity all those attributes have to be present in God that nature and Scripture make known to us. If God is God, the only, eternal, and absolute Being, this implies that he possesses all the perfections, a faint analogy of which can be discerned in his creatures. If God is the absolutely existing being, he is also absolute in wisdom and goodness, in righteousness and holiness, in power and blessedness. As One who exists of and through and unto himself, he is the fullness of being, the independent and supremely perfect Being." (Reformed Dogmatics II:124)
Wayne Grudem adds, "God does not need us or the rest of creation for anything, yet we and the rest of creation can glorify him and bring him joy." (Systematic Theology, p. 160)(Cf. Acts 17:24-25; Job 41:11.) God's aseity does not mean he is abstract and static, that is, merely a philosophical ground of being. Rather, as an independent and personal Being, he is free to interact with his creation as he wills. He is the living, real, and true God. Uniquely and absolutely.
Why is this truth of God's aseity important?
-- It relates to my faith. My trust in God is grounded in permanence. Not only do I see God's works in creation, in history, in Scripture, and in redemption through his Son Jesus, but all these events have an unchanging application for me throughout eternity because of who God is. God's reality is eternally relevant. I am sufficient now because God is self-sufficient. As a believer in the true and living God I am standing on solid ground: "He... set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure." (Psalm 40:2)
-- It relates to my present and dependent situation. In facing my own life, with its needs and problems, I must begin with the God who has no needs or limitations of his own. I am dependent, but he is truly free and independent. And he does not help us in limited, humanly possible ways -- he is God in all that the word implies. Certainly, he is all-knowing, wise, compassionate, always present, etc., but first I must know that he is all those things absolutely, infinitely, and forever. God's love and faithfulness is a comfort to me because it is rooted in the absolute perfection of God himself.
-- It relates to our view of history, culture, and morality. Though God is at work in history and creation at every point, he is not -- here's the crucial point -- he is not contingent upon it nor changed by it, as if he were umbilically attached to human progress. He is not limited in his divine will and work. As to morality, everything ethical (what is right) is grounded in the metaphysical (that which is real and unchanging). God is not adjusting his morality to our cultural standards. "Your righteousness is righteous forever, and your law is true." (Psalms 119:142)
We must always remember who we are dealing with -- the one (and only), true, absolute, living, independent, and self-existent God. He calls out to us, “Turn to me and be saved, all the ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other." (Isaiah 45:22)
Here are a few more excerpts from Herman Bavinck on the aseity of God.
That's it for this week!
Sandy
Afterwords is an occasional newsletter on topics of interest to me (Sandy Young) since my retirement from full-time pastoral ministry. Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are from The ESV Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version), copyright 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.