God’s incommunicable attribute of Eternity

ETERNITY. God’s eternity may be defined as follows: God has no beginning, end, or succession of moments in His own being, and He sees all time equally vividly, yet God sees events in time and acts in time.

Sometimes this attribute is also called God’s infinity. Being infinite God is unaffected by anything, in this case, time. Time does not modify or change God, He is unchangeable. God was perfect before He created time, and He remains perfect and unchanged by time.

God is timeless.

1)      Revelation 1:8 I am the Alpha and the Omega, says the Lord God, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty. (Just a small sidebar for those who continue to insist the Jesus is Michael the archangel. Who is to come but our blessed Lord Jesus?)

2)      Job 36:26 The number of His years are unsearchable.

So, I’m not trying to be exhaustive in this writing. It is just a blog after all. There are many more scriptures that show God is timeless and this timelessness also applies to Jesus. I will offer one verse to prove this, John 8:5-8 Before Abraham was I AM. There is no need to say more about that.

God sees all time equally vividly.

Before we get started, I just want to make it clear, God did not see into the future and decide who He would save based on some decision you made.

1)      Ephesians 2:9 Not by works so that any man may boast.

2)      1 Corinthians 1:26-29 For consider your calling brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.

Never forget you were chosen before time began by the sovereign decree of God, not by anything you have done good or bad, not because you are prettier than others, but by God’s sovereign decree alone.

God’s memory is not affected by time. He remembers ten thousand years ago and all in-between as though it just happened, and the same is true with all eternity past, present, and future.

1)      Psalm 90:4 For a thousand years in your sight are but as yesterday when it is past, or as a watch in the night. (A watch in the night is like a four-hour guard duty.)

2)      2 Peter 3:8 that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.

We see time as the ticking of the clock, each day is new and the farther we get away in years from something the harder it is to remember. For God, this is not true His memory never fades. He has not forgotten the names of His elect even though they were chosen before the foundations of the world were formed. This attribute is why Gods other attributes are everlasting because he is eternal and everlasting.

Having said all of this, God sees events in time and acts in time.

Time has no hold on God, He is outside of time. Just like the laws of physics do not apply to God. The law of time has no hold on God either. God acts both inside and outside of time. God created time; time is a part of creation. It does not matter to me if time is linear or curved, what matters is God is sovereign and in control of all things. Events in time do not happen outside of God’s control, and we see God act in perfect timing within these events because they are in God’s perfect sovereign control.

1)      Galatians 4:4-5 God set forth his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law.

God is in control and will continue in His perfect timing to act in time, again by His sovereign decree.

We will one day be with God for eternity; however, we are still finite, and time will still be measured at least as how it is related to us Revelations measures time in months and events are still happening one after the other. I can only conclude that time for us will be different but still exist. The difference will be that we will not be burdened by time, we will not age, and we will be in the presence of a wonderous God.

May God bless this study of His attributes as imperfect as it is, and as flawed as I am. It is my hope that this is a blessing to you and that God uses this in your life.