“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God.” -John 1:1-2
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I mentioned in our last session that the ancient Hebrews didn’t have a word for infinity because the concept as we know it hadn’t been invented yet. And that’s true, especially when you’re talking about QUANTITIES. Their world was a world without microscopes, telescopes, or advanced math, so the concept of an infinite set would have been gibberish to them. Now to be fair, they did understand the concept of something being “uncountable”—the blades of grass in the field, the hairs on our heads. These things are uncountably numerous, and are often used by the writers of sacred Scripture to show God’s ability to quantify what we cannot.
But in terms of TIME, they did have a concept of eternity—that is, of a time that stretches backwards and forwards without end. In Isaiah 57:15, God is called “the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity.” The New Testament speaks of eternal life, eternal salvation, eternal redemption, and even eternal judgment. God’s covenant is described in Hebrews an “eternal covenant;” the gospel is called an “eternal gospel” in Revelation; and God’s glory is called an “eternal glory” in 2 Timothy 2.
To put it another way: God—and everything about Him—is eternal. That is, He has no beginning, and will have no end. His wisdom is eternal wisdom. His righteousness is eternal righteousness. His goodness is eternal goodness. And his love is eternal love. Amen?
You can even see His eternal nature embedded in His own name. If you turn to Exodus 3, verse 13, you see Moses ask God what His name is. He says to God,
“If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?”
And so God answers him directly.
God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.”
Now, if you have a Bible that has any footnotes whatsoever, it probably says that this name, “I AM WHO I AM,” can also be translated “I WILL BE WHO I WILL BE.” Now that’s deep. No one else in the universe could say this, because this is a claim to eternal self-existence. There was never a time when God did not exist, nor will there ever be a time when he does not exist. As John says in the book of Revelation, He is the one “who was and is and who is to come.” Past, present, future—God exceeds ALL of these.
God is also claiming to be eternally the same, forever. Who among us can say that who you are now is who you will always be, forever? No one! Only God is “the same yesterday and today and forever.”
And here’s the weirdest one: only God can be understood by defining Himself BY Himself. If I try to tell you who I am, I’m likely to point to things OUTSIDE of myself to describe myself. But not God! The only way to understand God is to start with the knowledge that God Is Who God Is. This is the most foundational truth in all of reality.
Now let’s go even deeper. What is the first book that appears in the Bible? [Genesis.] Who can recite Genesis 1:1? Good. Now, turn to Genesis 1, and let’s look at just the first four words:
“In the beginning, God.”
Do you see that? Eternal self-existence. Before the creation was established, before even the earth was without form and void or darkness was over the face of the deep, God the Father was there (verse 1). God the Spirit was there, hovering over the face of the waters (verse 2). And Jesus Christ, the Son of God, was there.
Turn with me again to the Gospel of John, chapter 1. As you can see here, John starts his gospel with a re-telling of the same story that Genesis tells—that is, of how the world began. But note how it starts:
“In the beginning was the Word.”
Do you see the connection? Jesus is the Word, and not only was he there in the beginning with God, but it specifically says that “all things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.” (John 1:3) This verse not only proves that Jesus is God, but also shows that all three members of the trinity cooperated in the creation of our world.
Before The Beginning???
But what was it like from all eternity?
Notice that I didn’t say, “What was it like BEFORE time began?” I hear people say that all the time, but it bugs me because that question is a contradiction in terms. If time doesn’t exist, you can’t talk about things that came BEFORE, because that’s a time-bound concept. Like I said in our last talk, we are creatures who can only exist in the flow of time, and we can’t really understand or comprehend an existence outside of time. So the question I want to ask is, what was it like before Genesis 1:1? What was it like from all eternity?
Picture this: There is nothing. No universe. No light. No colors. No sounds. No physical matter. No energy. No space. Just… nothing.
It’s hard to picture, isn’t it? I’ve tried, and I can’t do it. One of our limitations as created beings is that we can’t picture or imagine things that are infinite. We can’t comprehend what it was like before the world began, because it happened all the way back in eternity. But God is gracious to us. Once again he stoops to our level in Genesis 1:2 to explain it this way:
“The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.”
Here we have an example of how God condescends to express otherwise incomprehensible truths using simple terms our feeble minds can understand. God in this passage is speaking to us in baby talk. He’s lisping. He’s communicating with us on our level, because otherwise we wouldn’t be able to understand Him. So keep in mind that everything in God’s word is true, but sometimes it’s been simplified by God Himself so that we can understand it. If you imagine the limits of human understanding as a cup, then the full reality of God is like a bottomless ocean that extends infinitely into the distance. We can stand on the shore and scoop up little bits of truth, but the full picture is beyond searching out.
Anyway, let’s get back to Genesis. God describes the pre-creation in verse 2 in terms of chaotic waters. It says the earth was “formless and void”—like a roiling mass of pre-created matter, wild and untamed. It’s chaotic and random and disorganized. And with just a few words, God transforms these primordial “waters” into the universe we know today.
Now ask yourself: what was it like from all eternity? The answer is God.
There was a time—if you can call it that—where all that existed was God, and nothing else. And if you think that’s mind-blowing, consider this: God never had a beginning. Everything else in all creation had a beginning—a moment when it came into existence. But God has always just been. He is the First Cause from which all other causes (and effects) originate. He is the beginning of beginnings. He is before all things, and there is nothing that is before Him, because there was never a time when He was not.
Daniel describes God as the “Ancient of Days” (Daniel 7:9), meaning that he is unfathomably ancient. And Psalm 90 verse 2, which we read yesterday, says this:
“Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God.”
Note the tense of the verb used here: “From everlasting to everlasting, you are God.” Not you “WERE” God, but you ARE God. It reminds me of how Jesus said in John 8:58
“Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.”
Before the creation existed, God IS. There was never a day before God, because God is and was and will be, forever and ever.
Is your brain hurting yet? Well buckle up, because now we’re diving into the deep end with the real question: what was it like for God before the Creation?
Happy From All Eternity
Picture this: God exists, all by Himself, together with Himself. He has always existed—and always WILL exist—as the Holy Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and these three are one. His relationship with Himself is one of perfect love and perfect joy, lacking nothing. And so, God is supremely happy in Himself. He has always loved Himself, and will always love Himself, with infinite pleasure and limitless joy.
Now, it can be hard for us to imagine that kind of self-centered self-love without concluding that God must be some kind of egomaniac or a selfish, narcissistic jerk. But that’s because we are limited, created beings. We are not eternal like God is. We are not three-in-one like God is. And we are not infinitely worthy of worship like God is. So please, don’t imagine that God is wrong in being self-centered. God is RIGHT to be God-centered—in fact, if He wasn’t self-centered, he’d be guilty of the sin of idolatry! So please, try to re-calibrate your brains and roll with me as we explore who God was, and is, and is to come”.
In 1 Timothy 1:11, Paul describes God as “the blessed God.” Now that word—“blessed,” or in Greek makarios—can also mean “happy.” It means someone who is in a favorable or enviable state. And ever since the beginning, and even before the beginning, God has always been supremely happy. He has all the peace and beauty and glory and SHALOM that He could ever desire. In a word, He is COMPLETE. He has all fullness and satisfaction in Himself, lacking nothing, needing nothing. And even when things on earth displease Him, He is always supremely happy in and of Himself.
That unshakable happiness is what it was like for God throughout all eternity past. That’s what it’s like now, and will be for all eternity future.
This raises an interesting question: If God has always been so happy in and of Himself, why did He create the world?
Have you ever asked yourself that? What was God’s motive in creating the world? In other words, what did God GET out of it? What did He gain that he did not otherwise have? That’s a deep question, and people have been trying to come up with an answer for thousands of years.
Some have made the claim that God created the world to increase His glory. After all, it is true that God is glorified in His works! Psalm 19 says “the heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.” But it is NOT true that the creation adds to God’s glory, or that God is more glorious now than he was before. God was already supremely glorious before creation. His glory has always been perfect, and you can’t get more perfect than perfect. Creation showcases God’s glory and makes it visible to us, but it could never increase it. So that can’t be the reason why God created the world.
Some people have imagined that God created the world because He was lonely. I can’t tell you how many movies I’ve watched or video games I’ve played in which some lowercase “g” god creates a world because He wants or needs worshipers to fill up some lack in himself. Others imagine that God must have gotten tired with relating only to Himself in the Trinity, and needed to create people in His image to expand His social circle. But this is not the case. God is not like a social media influencer who needs peoples’ likes and follows in order to feel special. God has always been in perfect harmony and relationship with Himself, and His joy in his own love has always been infinite and complete. And you can’t get more loved than that! So that can’t be the reason why God created the world.
Others imagine that God created the world because He was bored. They imagine God in eternity, floating around in an empty void with nothing to do, twiddling His thumbs and yawning. But that’s just not a true picture of who our God is! God is everywhere, and knows everything. And everywhere He goes, He is happy. He’s never been bored or unhappy for a single second of His entire existence. From God’s perspective, there’s no such thing as a void, because He fills all things. Believe me, He doesn’t need us to entertain Him or occupy His attention! He has always been and will always be supremely happy in Himself. So that can’t be the reason why God created the world.
The World For You
So if God was and is and will be supremely happy before the beginning, why bother to make a beginning in the first place? If God doesn’t gain anything from creating the world and the Universe, why bother to do it in the first place?
Well, after thinking about it with my very limited brain, I was unable to come up with a single definitive answer that fully answers the question. But I was able to come up with three reasons from Scripture that at least hint at why God created the world.
Reason #1: God is an artist. He is a creator. That’s just who He is by His very nature. Romans 1:20 says “his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made.” And indeed, there is much that we can perceive about God from His creation. His wisdom, His beauty, His power, His divine nature—all of these things and more. But it also reveals His creativity and His imagination. He is the Creator, and creators create. Artists make art—that’s what they do because it’s who they are. And when we make art, we are imaging Him. When we invent things, we are acting like Him. When we bring order to chaos and express truth through what we create, we glorify Him.
Reason #2: God created the world because it pleased Him to do so. Psalm 115:3 says, “Our God is in the heavens; he does all that he pleases.” And He was pleased to create a Universe of order and harmony and beauty and majesty. This does not mean that God was displeased before, or that he became more happy than He had been before. It literally just means that God wanted to do it, so He did. God has never done anything He didn’t want to do. And when He does something, he is always supremely happy with the outcome, because he is perfect, and His plans are perfect.
Reason #3: Because He loves us. You don’t have to know much about the Bible to know that it says that God loves you. And He does! Think about this: if you are a Christian, then the whole reason you were created was so that God could love you. And not just with any old love. No fleeting puppy love or second-rate infatuation here. No, He wants us to share in His own trinitarian love, which is infinite and perfect and eternal! And as it just so happens, we need Him and his love more than anything else in the universe.
In John 17:23, Jesus is praying to the Father. And do you know what He says? He says “Father… [you] loved them even as you loved me.” Did you know that God loves you as much as He loves Himself? That perfect, eternal, infinite, unchanged love—THAT’S how much God loves you. THAT’S why Jesus Christ was sent to die in your place, and why God planned to redeem you even before the world began. He wanted you to be supremely happy, supremely satisfied, and supremely glorious forever and ever with Him.
Brothers and sisters, you are eternal. Your soul is eternal. It had a beginning, but it will never have an end. Whether in heaven or in hell, you will continue to exist for all eternity. So come to Jesus! Give your heart to Jesus! Be satisfied in His infinite, unchanging, steadfast love for you. And worship Him for who He is—the Godhead, Three-In-One, the Blessed and Happy Creator, the God of all things and of all time. Let’s pray to this God right now.
[PRAYER]
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