TEXT: Psalm 90:1-6

SUBJECT: Incommunicable Attributes of God #3: Eternality

Your thoughts of God are too human.

In a lifetime of saying striking things, this may well be the most striking thing Martin
Luther ever said. He said it to Desiderius Erasmus, one of the most learned men of that
time, but what was true of Erasmus is also true of us: Our thoughts of God are too
human. Like the pagans before us, we tend to think of the Lord as something like a Man
on Steroids-super powerful, super smart, super good, and so on-but differing from us
only in degree. He does differ from us in degree, of course, but not only in degree. God
is essentially or ontologically different from us; He belongs to a separate category, one
in which no one else belongs or can belong. The Lord is, in the most exalted and literal
sense of the words, One of a Kind.

To whom will you liken me and make me equal, and compare me, that we may be
alike?

The Lord Himself laid down this challenge, knowing full well that no man or god, angel
devil, or anything else can be compared to Him.

God's wisdom, power, holiness, justice, and goodness are greater than ours, but they're
not what most separates Him from us. What does do that are His Incommunicable
Attributes, the Divine qualities that He does not share with any other-and cannot-for to
possess them is to be God, and as every Jew learned in the nursery-

The Lord our God is One Lord.

Thus far, we've looked at two of His Incommunicable Attributes: Independence and
Infinity. Today, we move on to the third: The Eternality of God.

THE MEANING

'Eternal' comes up fairly often in the Bible and in sermons, and I suppose we all pretty
much know what it means. It means 'without beginning and without end'. Unlike us,
God was never born; unlike the angels, He was never created. Nor can we properly say
that God 'was' or 'will be', as though there is a 'past' in Him or a 'future'.

When the Lord appeared to Moses at the Burning Bush, He did not identify Himself as
'I Was what I Was' or 'I Will Be What I will Be', but rather-

I AM that I AM.

I suspect there's more to this Name than God's Eternality, but I know there's no less
than this.
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Because there is no beginning or end in God, time has no effect on Him. He is no 'older'
today than when He created the world, and He's no 'younger' now than He will be at the
End of the World. Isaiah 57:15 says God-

Inhabits eternity.

That is, He is Above Time. Is He also in time? This is a bit trickier, and not every
Christian scholar agrees on the answer. I think the right answer is 'No, He is not in time,
but that His decrees are worked out in time'. This allows Him to remain above time and
space, while also working out His plan in history.

The Bible teaches that only God is eternal and that no one and nothing else is--or can
be.

THE PROBLEM

I suppose most Christians believe this, but, in reading our Bibles, we come across some
'problem texts'. If only God is Eternal, how can He give the gift of Eternal Life to us? If
we have Eternal Life, how are we less Eternal than God? And, if we share Eternal Life
with Him in what sense is the attribute Incommunicable?

The problem sounds harder than it really is. Yes, we do have eternal life: the Bible
teaches that clearly and often. And, yes, the Greek word is the same for both God's
eternal life and ours.

But, if you go back to the definition of 'Eternal', you'll see that the Eternal Life that God
gives to us is not exactly the same as the Eternal Life that He possesses in Himself.

Why? Because, as I said a few minutes ago, 'Eternal' means 'without beginning or end'.
But our lives-both physical and spiritual had a beginning. There was a day we were
born into this world and a day we were born again into the Kingdom of Heaven. Not
everyone knows the day he was 'born again', but every Christian was born again at
some point in his history. The Eternal Life that we have, therefore, is not 'Eternal' in
precisely the same way that God's Life is Eternal.

In fact, there is a very technical word for this. I couldn't even find it in my dictionary,
but it's a word that will show up in better theological works. The word is-

Aeverternity.

Which means, 'without an end', but 'with a beginning'.

One more thing: When applied to our Spiritual Life, 'eternal' usually says more about
the quality of that life than its quantity. It doesn't end, but, chiefly, it's another way of

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saying a life of perfect happiness and holiness and without the shadow of death hanging
over it.

THE PROOF

I've said 'The Bible teaches God's Eternality' a few times already, but saying it is not the
same as proving it. Like the Bereans, every Christian ought to search the Scriptures
daily to see if these things are true, and the pastor ought to help them do so by giving
them the Scriptures to look up. Many could be cited to this effect; here's a sample, from
various parts of the Bible.

Genesis 21:33: Abraham planted a Tamarisk tree in Beersheeba, and there

He called upon the Lord, the Eternal God.

Psalm 90:2: Before the mountains were born or you brought forth the earth
and the world, from everlasting to everlasting, you are God.

Isaiah 40:28: The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of
the earth.

I Timothy1:17: Now to the King Eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God,
be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen.

The most striking proof of God's Eternality was spoken by our Lord Himself, in what
had to be the most daring and risky words He ever spoke, John 8:58-

Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM.

Jesus isn't suggesting He was born in Bethlehem before Abraham was-of course not-the
people knew He was less than fifty years old. What He meant was, He is God, and as
such, predates Abraham and everything else because He is Eternal-without beginnig or
end.

God is Eternal; this is not what people have reasoned from the Bible or gotten from
philosophy, it's what the Bible teaches, and it's one of the ways in which God is Wholly
Other-not a man that He should lie or repent, be born or die!

ETERNALITY AND HIS OTHER ATTRIBUTES

It's not good enough to say, 'God is eternal'; we have to go on the say, 'All of God is
eternal'; in other words, all of His attributes are eternal.

This speaks great comfort to our souls! Because it means God did not start loving us at
any time, nor will He ever stop loving us, nor will His love for us ever change-not even
when we do bad things!

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Is this what the Bible teaches? It is. In Ephesians 1:4,5, we learn that God both chose us
for and predestined us to salvation. When did He do it? And why? Paul tells us-

Just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world that we

should be holy and without blame, in love He predestined us to the
adoption of children through Jesus Christ according to the good pleasure
of His will.

God chose us before time, that is, in Eternity; and in doing that He also predestined us
to be His children. because of His eternal love for us!

Not after we qualified ourselves for His love, but, like Jacob-

Before we were born or did any good or evil, that the purpose of God
according to election would stand (cf. Romans 9:11).

If His love for us did not wait on us, neither does it depend on us or anyone or anything
outside of God, Romans 8:38-39-

For I am persuaded that neither death nor life nor angels nor
principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor
height nor depth nor any creature, shall be able to separate us from the
love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

THE PSALMIST'S POINT

We started with Psalm 90:1-6 as our text, the second verse plainly teaching God's
eternality. But as clear and compelling as this doctrine is, Moses did not write it to teach
doctrine as such. He wrote it to praise God for His faithfulness and to get us to trust
Him, v.1-

Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations.

This is what he wants us to know and to act upon: Remember God's love for us is
eternal and that we can trust Him yesterday, today, and forever. Amen.

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