It has been my observation while reading portions of Deuteronomy, the one true living God defined in scripture is eternal, He has no origin. Origin is a word that we apply to things created. When I think of anything that has an origin I’m not thinking about God. He always has been, is, always will be. The “eternal God is my refuge, and underneath are His everlasting arms” (Deuteronomy 33:27 paraphrased).

The idea of no beginning and no ending leads me to the concept of eternal. When I wrap my mind around the notion of an eternal God, I immediately place God in an entirely different class of being (not human, not handmade, no authority above God, not a figment of my imagination).

Fortunately, even if I get it wrong, the great ‘I am’ does not need me to define Him or to cause him to exist. Jeremiah 10:10 says the “Lord is the true God; he is the living God, the eternal King.”   He exists independent of our thoughts, our actions, our goals, our judgment. The attributes of God painted in scriptures whisper to all of us about the eternal hope. God is. He is. I believe – if the Bible did not teach that God is eternal, we would interpret his other attributes as temporary, present only for a season. Then, our word ‘absolute’ would have no discernible meaning in a world with a temporary God.

The word absolute comes alive when we line it up with the one true living God, and we come to grips with the fact that the one true living God is forever, unchanging, eternal. In Ecclesiastes 3:11 we read that God bound man to time (eternity) and gave man the ability to think about some things outside the limits of time (God awareness), yet he did not give us full access to divine knowledge. We have boundaries, God has none. In Romans 16:25-26 Paul wrote – To him who is able to establish you in accordance with my gospel, the message I proclaim about Jesus Christ, in keeping with the revelation of the mystery hidden for long ages past, but now revealed and made known through the prophetic writings by the command of the eternal God, so that all the Gentiles might come to the obedience that comes from faith (NIV).

We learn in the first chapter of the Gospel of John — At the very beginning of all things was the Word and the “Word was with God, and the Word was God.” All things were made by the Word, all things that we can see, feel, touch, hear, and smell. Even our ability to feel emotions and to create thoughts were made by God. Paul tells us — for by him all things created that are in heaven and that are on earth visible and invisible whether they be thrones, dominions, principalities, or powers — all things were created by him and for him and he is before all things and by him all things exist (Colossians 1:15-20 paraphrased).

Because God is eternal, he is self-existent (implied in 1 Timothy 1:17). God cannot be removed; God cannot be stopped; he cannot be ignored; he cannot be controlled; he cannot be corrected; he cannot be undefined. He is God almighty, maker of heaven and earth. He is forever.

The eternal Father foreknew what we are going to do before the creation, those who he foreknows are predestined to be conformed to the likeness of Jesus. Those who are predestined he calls; the called are justified, and the justified are glorified (paraphrased from Romans 8:29-30). Justified by Jesus, the eternal self-existent God empowers us to move boldly forward. “If we die with him, we will live with him; if we endure, we will also reign with him; if we disown him, he will disown us; if we are faithless, he remains faithful for he cannot disown himself” (2 Timothy 2:11-13).

I choose Jesus.