God is self-existent

 Where did God come from? This was a question I remember asking as a child. Although this is an innocent and childlike question, the nature of the existence of God puzzles even the greatest minds. After all, everything we see around us had a beginning. We celebrate a birthday because that’s the day we entered into this world. We mark buildings with a date chiselled into the cornerstone to remember when that building was erected. Even the universe had a beginning, though people debate how long ago that took place. But what about God? Where did He come from? 

The Bible describes God as self-existent. He didn’t have a beginning. No one created Him. God is without origin, the uncaused cause. He exists all on His own. We could say that God not only gives life, but that He is life itself.

When God revealed Himself to Moses at the burning bush, He declared His special, personal name. According to Exodus 3.14, God said, “I AM who I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’” God describes Himself as “I AM,” implying that God is living and exists in and of Himself. The name “I AM” has come down to us from Hebrew roughly as the “Jehovah” or “Yahweh.” Moses didn’t need to fear God’s will because God is a living, self-existing being. Since no one else can make such a claim, we know that no one else is more powerful than God. We can trust Him because He exists independently from His creation. He doesn’t depend on us, but we must depend on Him.

It’s interesting to discover that, in the New Testament, Jesus underscored the self-existence of God the Father and claimed equality with God’s self-existent nature. In John 5.26 Jesus said, “For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son to have life in himself.” God the Father is self-existent, and God the Son shares in that divine, self-existent nature. Jesus frequently used the personal name of God to describe Himself. He claimed to be the”I AM” of the burning bush. Jesus described Himself by saying “I am the bread of life, ””I am the light of the world, ””I am the good shepherd,” and “I am the resurrection and the life.” These and similar claims identify Jesus as God in the flesh, the self-existent God.

Since God exists all on His own, doesn’t it make sense that we can trust Him to take care of us? Although God doesn’t depend on us for His existence, we depend on Him. Furthermore, since Jesus is the self-existent God in the flesh, what better step could we take than to entrust our lives to Him? He wants to change our lives and He offers us eternal life. Why not turn to Jesus for life today?