Beneficiaries of God’s Grace
I love this question for a number of reasons. First of all, this question helpfully reorients our expectations for our relationship with God. It’s easy for us to flatter ourselves when we think about our relationship with God, because we tend to think that our relationship with God works very similarly to our relationship with other people. I am affected by other people, and I affect other people. There is this mutual kind of push-pull thing going on with relationships with other humans.
It can be very easy for us to imagine that my relationship with God works very similarly. I affect him and he affects me in that mutually impactful way. Well, the doctrine of divine aseity contradicts that way of thinking. It says God is not dependent on us in any way whatsoever. We are pure beneficiaries. We simply receive from God. He is a pure benefactor. We are pure beneficiaries.
The Fountain of Life
Samuel G. Parkison, Matthew Barrett
As part of the Contemplating God series, author Samuel G. Parkison offers an accessible and engaging exploration of divine aseity—God’s complete independence as the eternal plentitude of life—inviting readers to marvel at the wonders of the living God.
Sometimes that can rub people the wrong way because it doesn’t pamper our self-flattery. But it’s actually very good because it means that God is not forced to create. He’s not creating because he is enriched in any way whatsoever. God is not benefited by creating, redeeming, and glorifying his people.
The reason why that is good news for us is that it means that God created out of the pure freedom of his own generous love. Pure generosity is on full display in God’s creation, redemption, and glorification of his creation. He didn’t create because he needs us. We need him. He does not need us. He’s not enriched by us, but he enriches us. And that is good news for us.
Samuel G. Parkison is the author of The Fountain of Life: Contemplating the Aseity of God.
Samuel G. Parkison (PhD, Midwestern Seminary) is associate professor of theology at the Gulf Theological Seminary in the United Arab Emirates. He is the author of several books, including Irresistible Beauty: Beholding Triune Glory in the Face of Jesus Christ and To Gaze Upon God: The Beatific Vision in Doctrine, Tradition, and Practice.
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