Category: Theology 101
Incommunicable Attributes
A. Self-Existence.
"For just as the Father has life in Himself, even so He gave to the Son also to have life in Himself.”
A few years ago my wife and I, along with other pastors from our church and their wives, were excitedly trekking across western Nebraska. At one point, the wife of our Senior Pastor inquired as to what I was concentrating on so intently. I responded that I was pondering a profound statement made by the ancient philosopher Parmenides. She then asked to hear the statement. I granted her request and uttered the quotation—“Whatever is, is.” After the other passengers stopped snickering, she exclaimed, “That is a profound statement?” and turned her attention to her own literature.
I do believe that Parmenides’ declaration is profound. Is is a form of the verb “to be.” Whatever truly is has existence or being within itself. We believe that birds and mountains and humans exist, but their existence comes from without. They do not have existence or being within themselves. If they had not been given being, they would not be. But something must have the power to be within itself, otherwise nothing would or could exist. Its existence is necessary, i.e. it is a necessary condition for the existence of anything. This something is the ground of all being, including its own being. In a word, it is self-existent.
The Scripture affirms that God is the self-existent one, the necessary being. He revealed this in His self-denomination which He gave to Moses--“I Am.” Am is also a form of the verb “to be.” God declares His own name to be “I Exist” or “I Am Being.” Again, our existence is derived and dependent upon something outside ourselves. God’s existence is underived and independent. In fact, some theologians refer to this attribute as independence rather than self-existence, in order to emphasize that God does not require anything outside Himself for existence. God is frequently called “the living God” in the Bible, because “He has life within Himself.”