(PM Service) Systematic Theology: The Doctrine of God - God is Eternal (Part 2 of 2)

Preached on February 03, 2008, by Eric Schumacher

Topics: Systematic Theology

(c) Eric M Schumacher -- Preached February 3, 2008 at Northbrook Baptist Church, Cedar Rapids, Iowa

(Part 2 of 2 - Read part 1 here.)

There are two questions that are often raised regarding the topic of eternity. The first question is: What was God doing before he created the heavens and the earth!?

That question is sure to be posed to ever Sunday School teacher and youth leader at some point. John Calvin's answer is the most memorable. He quipped, "[God] was busy creating hell for overly curious people like you!"

St. Augustine was aware of that joke a thousand years before Calvin's day. His answer, though, was a bit more serious. Augustine basically stated that the question would only make sense if God and the world are separate items existing within the same temporal continuum. In other words, that question assumes that time simply exists outside of God, outside of creation. And, God and creation exist within that "time."

Augustine wrote in his book Confessions: "It is not in time that you precede all times, O Lord. You precede all past times in the sublimity of an ever-present reality. You have made all times and are before all times."

Time is not the dimension in which God exists. He, and he alone, exists in the dimension of "eternity." Time was willed and created by God as a reality distinct from himself; time and the world were created together. The heavens and the earth were created "with" time, not "in" time.

As finite creatures, I do not think it is even possible to understand what an eternal existence is like. Comparing time to eternity is not like comparing a drop of water to the ocean. You can figure out the ocean from a drop of water, because the ocean is basically a collection of an extremely large but limited number of drops of water. Eternity, however, is not the collection of an extremely large but limited number of moments. It is something altogether different.

All that said, the Scripture does speak of what God was doing "before" the foundation of the world. I think that "before" in these verses is God condescending to use human language to make a point. God was not only existing "before" he made the heavens and the earth. Before he laid the foundations of the earth, God was loving himself and loving his people not yet made.

In Christ's prayer in John 17, he prays, "And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed....Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world." Before time began, there was an eternal sharing of glory and a relationship of love between the persons of the Trinity.

Likewise, God possessed redeeming love for his people before the heavens and earth were made. Ephesians 1:4 says, that "[the Father] chose us in [Christ] before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him." On a similar note, the Lord says in Jeremiah 31:3 that it is not because of who his people are or what they have done that he loves them. Rather, he say, "I have loved you with an everlasting love." God's covenant love for his people is an "eternal love;" it has no beginning and, therefore, can have no end. That should be a great comfort to us. The greatest proof that God's love for us, his people, will never end is that it did not start. It is eternal, without beginning or end.

Will we ever cease to exist in time?

The other question that is sometimes asked is, "Will we ever cease to exist in time?" You might be familiar with the hymn that begins, "When the trumpet of the Lord shall sound, and time shall be no more..." That verse is based off of the King James Version translation of Revelation 10:6, which ends, "there should be time no longer." In context, however, that passage is referring to the face that God's mystery is soon to be fulfilled. All modern translations render it, "there would be no more delay" or 'no longer be an interval of time," to mean that the waiting period is over and the fulfillment of God's purposes will be soon.

In 1 Timothy 6:16, Paul speaks of God as him "who alone has immortality." Only God is "immortal" in an independent, outside of time sense.

Scripture indicates that our existence will always be within the realm of time, experiencing one succession of events after another. Revelation 21-22 present the New Heaven and the New Earth as a place with time, in which "the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, [yields] its fruit each month."

Applied

What use does this doctrine have in the Christian life? God's eternal existence is a source of...

Worship.

In Revelation 4:8 we read that "the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all around and within, and day and night they never cease to say, "Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!'" They are constantly worshipping God for his holiness and his eternal existence.

That means that this doctrine should never cease to cause us to worship on it. That calls us to spend time meditating on God's eternity often.

Humility.

If we meditate on God's eternal nature, it will produce in us humility. The infinite distinction between "Creator" and "creature" is nowhere as obvious as in the topic of eternity.

Psalm 102:3 says, "my days pass away like smoke." And James 4:14 says, "What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes." Simply put, we had a beginning and will have an end (in an earthly sense); God did not. Louis Berkhof observed, "Our existence is marked off by days and weeks and months and years; not so the existence of God. Our life is divided into a past, present and future, but there is no such division in the life of God. He is the eternal 'I am.'"

This humility should prevent us from questioning the decisions and actions of God. In Job 36 (22-26), when Elihu is rebuking Job and his three friends, he says:

Job 36:22-26 Behold, God is exalted in his power; who is a teacher like him? ²³ Who has prescribed for him his way, or who can say, "You have done wrong"? ²⁴ Remember to extol his work, of which men have sung. ²⁵ All mankind has looked on it; man beholds it from afar. ²⁶ Behold, God is great, and we know him not; the number of his years is unsearchable.

God's greatness, seen in the fact that "the number of his years is unsearchable," is a foundation for trusting him and a reason not to attempt to instruct God or question what he has done. God sees all things. We do not. We should not judge the work of an eternal God until he shows us the "big picture."

Holiness

God's eternity should also produce in us a great concern for holiness. Stephen Charnock, in his book The Existence and Attributes of God, wrote, "What a folly and boldness is there in sin, since an eternal God is offended thereby! All sin is aggravated by God's eternity."

When we sin, when we rebel against, insult and offend God, it is not as if we are insulting the worth of a creature who is little, nothing more that "smoke" and a "vapor of mist," such as the Queen of England or the President of the United States. No, we are offending an infinite, eternal, immortal God, who is infinitely greater than we could ever imagine.

That is what is so wrong with idolatry. Notice what Paul wrote in Romans 1:22-23, "Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things." All idolatry is a diminishing of God, because you take his glory and give it to something that is not immortal, not infinite, not eternal. Meditating on God's eternity highlights how serious sin is.

A Terror and a Comfort

A few weeks ago, in discussing the fact that God does not change, I said that that doctrine was a terror to God's enemies and a comfort to his people. The same can be said of God's eternity.

God's eternity is a source of terror to his enemies. Listen to how God's eternity comes into play in Deuteronomy 32:39-42 when God speaks of his determination to destroy his enemies:

See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no god beside me; I kill and I make alive; I wound and I heal; and there is none that can deliver out of my hand. For I lift up my hand to heaven and swear, As I live forever, if I sharpen my flashing sword and my hand takes hold on judgment, I will take vengeance on my adversaries and will repay those who hate me. I will make my arrows drunk with blood, and my sword shall devour flesh--with the blood of the slain and the captives, from the long-haired heads of the enemy.

The Lord wants to show that it is absolutely certain that evil will be destroyed. The "wicked" are those who are his "adversaries," his "enemies," those who "hate" him. To show that it is certain, he lifts up his hand to heaven and swears an oath. But, what can God swear by, greater than himself, to show that something is absolutely certain?

We saw in Hebrews last week that in order to show the absolute certainty of his promise of salvation, God swears by his unchangeable self. Here, in order to show the absolute certainty of his promise of vengeance on his enemies, God swears by his eternity: "As I live forever..."

This means that you cannot hope to escape God wrath either by him changing his nature or by him ceasing to exist at some point. The fact that God is eternal makes it possible for hell to be eternal. Stephen Charnock put it this way:

His eternity makes the punishment more dreadful than his power; his power makes it sharp, but his eternity renders it perpetual; ever to endure, is the sting at the end of every lash....The miseries of men after this life are not eased, but sharpened, by the life and eternity of God.

Therefore, you should not set your hope of salvation upon some change in God. Rather, you should repent and believe the Gospel, whereby men are saved.

Comfort

As much as God's eternity should cause the wicked to live in terror, God's eternity should cause his redeemed people to have incredible comfort.

God's eternity is a source of comfort to his people because...

...if God is eternal, our salvation is eternal. Hebrews 5:9 says that Jesus Christ is the source of "eternal salvation to all who obey him." If God were not eternal, if he were at some point to cease to exist, then everything that is upheld by the power of his word must also cease to exist, and so must our salvation.

God's eternal nature has been a source of comfort and assurance of salvation to God's people. Habakkuk 1:12 reads, "Are you not from everlasting, O LORD my God, my Holy One? We shall not die." The fact that God is "from everlasting" give Habakkuk the confidence to say, "We shall not die."

The sons of Korah sing in Psalm 48:14, "this is God, our God forever and ever. He will guide us forever." If God is our guide and he is forever, then we can have the confidence that he will guide us forever.

In Jeremiah 31:3, The Lord says to his people, "I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you." The eternal nature of God's love, which is only possible if God is eternal, is the reason and foundation for his faithfulness to his people.

Our salvation is eternal because, as Paul writes in Ephesians 1:4, "he chose us in him before the foundation of the world."

In 2 Timothy 1:8-10 Paul writes of "God, who saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began, and which now has been manifested through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel." The saving purpose and grace of God was made manifest in the appearance of Christ Jesus to die for our sins and rise again, but they were given to us by God in Christ Jesus "before the ages began."

If God's purpose to save us is eternal, then not only does our salvation have no beginning, but it can have no end.

...if God is eternal then so is his reign, and therefore the church needs not fear her enemies.

In the book of Lamentations, Jeremiah laments the destruction of Jerusalem and that the wicked (whom he calls "jackals") prowl over it. But, listen to where Jeremiah finds his comfort:

Lamentations 5:17-19 For this our heart has become sick, for these things our eyes have grown dim, ¹⁸ for Mount Zion which lies desolate; jackals prowl over it. ¹⁹ But you, O LORD, reign forever; your throne endures to all generations.

On this note, Stephen Charnock wrote:

In the greatest confusions, the church's eyes are to be fixed upon the eternity of God's throne, where he sits as governor of the world. No creature can take any comfort in this perfection, but the church; other creatures depend upon God, but the church is united to him.

Jeremiah finds his comfort--and offers comfort to Israel--in the eternal reign of the Lord. If the Lord is eternal and he reigns, then he "reigns forever." If he "reigns forever," then his enemies can never be said to truly reign. If we are in his "kingdom," then we are united with his "reign." If he reigns forever, we shall be delivered.

...God is our eternal home.

Psalm 90:1 says, "Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations." The Lord is the place where God's people dwell. A dwelling place is where people live and find refuge and security from the elements. This means that God is the eternal shelter and hiding place of his people.

When Moses was giving his farewell blessing in Deuteronomy 33, here is how he ended it:

Deuteronomy 33:26-29 There is none like God, O Jeshurun, who rides through the heavens to your help, through the skies in his majesty. ²⁷ The eternal God is your dwelling place, and underneath are the everlasting arms. And he thrust out the enemy before you and said, Destroy. ²⁸ So Israel lived in safety, Jacob lived alone, in a land of grain and wine, whose heavens drop down dew. ²⁹ Happy are you, O Israel! Who is like you, a people saved by the LORD, the shield of your help, and the sword of your triumph! Your enemies shall come fawning to you, and you shall tread upon their backs.

This gives an interesting answer to the question: Where is Israel's proper dwelling place? Where is "home" for the people of the Lord? You might expect that the answer would be "the Promised Land." But here, Moses does not stipulate a geographical home for Israel. Rather he says, "The eternal God is your dwelling place."

Why is that important? What can happen to a geographical home? You can be forced out. Drought, flood, famine, foreign invaders, disease can force you out.

But, if the eternal God is your dwelling place, then you are eternally secure. Nothing can touch you, because he is over, under and around you. And, since he is eternal, that shelter can never end. Revelation 7:15-17 says:

...he who sits on the throne will shelter them with his presence. ¹⁶ They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore; the sun shall not strike them, nor any scorching heat. ¹⁷ For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.

There are many things that can happen to us to make us "homesick." I grew up in what is called a "broken home." My parents divorced when I was about twelve. That does something to your "home." Nothing else is ever "home" again.

Perhaps you were a foster child, who was moved from house to house to house. Or, perhaps your home was a place of abuse--sexual, physical, emotional or otherwise.

And even getting married and having a family of our own does not cure homesickness. You quickly find that marriage and family is not "happily ever after" because you and your spouse and your children are sinners. And while these things are great blessings, they are not capable of satisfying our deepest hunger for "home." Those things can be torn apart and disappear.

That is why it is so wonderful to read, "the eternal God is your dwelling place." If I know God through Jesus Christ, then I have found a home that no one and no thing can separate me from.

If God is our eternal home, then our happiness is secure. I love the way Moses' words end. After stating that "the eternal God is your dwelling place," Moses declares, "Happy are you, O Israel!" The one who has God as is dwelling place is happy!

If we have eternal salvation, a king who is unconquerable by virtue of his nature, and an eternal dwelling place where nothing can touch us, then we have every reason to be happy and no reason to be unhappy in eternity. Nothing can threaten our well-being.

Likewise, if God is our treasure, if he is the great object of our delight, then the source of our happiness may never decrease. The things that make us happy in this world wear out and decrease and die. However, our source of happiness is God who is eternal, and therefore our source of happiness will never decay, but remain fresh and glorious.

Stephen Charnock wrote:

...if he had a beginning, he might have an end, and so all our happiness, hope and being would expire with him...The happiness depends upon the presence of God, with whom believers shall be forever present. Happiness cannot perish as long as God lives; he is the first and the last; the first of all delights, nothing before him; the last of all pleasures, nothing beyond him; a paradise of delights in every point, without a flaming sword.

This should free us from idolatry--from seeking our shelter or our happiness in anything less than God. And, this should fill us with happiness in the darkest of days. No matter how dark, how lonely, how painful life may become, we have a home in God--an eternal dwelling place--where we shall dwell forever.