God is Eternal. God is Love.

On Wednesdays we celebrate “walking in the Word” through study &  application of Biblical doctrine. Rightly understanding Biblical doctrine fuels doxology, delight in Jesus, &  gospel centered discipleship. This week we dive  into theology proper: Knowing God (2 of 5).

Key verses: John 17:3-4, 24
“And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do…Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.”
 
Eternal Love 
What you really need is a deeper knowledge of God’s eternality and His eternal love for you. 
 
This short series follows Herman Bavinck’s discussion on the “Being of God” in The Wonderful Works of God(p 119-121 free pdf here). Bavinck celebrates abundant the self-sufficiency (or aseity) of God through detailing three Divine distinctives: Immutability (God’s unchanging nature); simplicity (God’s unity of attributes and essence); and eternality. We will work through these attributes in reverse order, beginning with eternity, but towards the same goal. Bavinck directs these Divine attributes to deepen our security in God’s eternal love:
 
“For the love of God is independent, unchangeable, simple, eternal… It does not depend upon us nor is aroused by us, but flows, free and pure, from the depths of Divine being… This love is not subject to time and space, but stands above it and comes down out of eternity into the hearts of the children of God. Such a love is absolutely reliable.”
 
God’s love flows from eternity because God is love- And God is eternal. To know the eternality of God is to deepen your confidence in the covenant love of God. Jesus’ “high priestly” prayer (John 17) is for His disciples to know God for eternal life, for us to see The Father’s eternal plan, that we may glimpse Christ’s eternal glory and through Him experience God’s eternal love.
 
You are created for an eternal God
The longings of our heart reveal we are created for relationship with an eternal God. 
 
In 2014, our family moved to Indonesia. At one of our first lunches in a local restaurant, my son tried to order a hamburger. In very broken English the waitress replied, “You must be American!” Local Indonesian restaurants do not serve burgers. In Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis used the logic of longing to prove we are created for more than this world- specifically for eternity: 
 
“… If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.” Lewis continues, "Probably earthly pleasures were never meant to satisfy it, but only to arouse it, to suggest the real thing." (Mere Christianity, p135-137)
 
God Himself is the “real thing” our hearts hunger for because God alone is “King eternal” (1 Timothy 1:17), the Alpha and the Omega (beginning and the end- Revelation 1:8) and “the ancient of days.” (Daniel 7:9) God’s love and faithfulness are “forever” (Psalm 89:2-3) because God is love and God is faithfulness, and God alone is “from everlasting to everlasting.” (Psalm 90:2) The Lord is the everlasting God (Isaiah 40:28) who “dwells in eternity.” (Isaiah 57:15) 
 
God is “eternal” (Romans 16:26) and He has woven eternity into both the fabric of creation (Romans 1:19-20) and hearts of humanity. (Ecclesiastes 3:11) Sin has given humans “spiritual amnesia” where we forget eternity, replacing forever love with “right here, right now” demands for our desires. But eternity cannot be totally excavated from reality. We are created for God Himself, for more than this world can satisfy, and our longings will lead us to His eternal love.
 
God’s eternal purpose is loving relationship
God’s eternal love awakens believers to eternal realities because God’s love reunites in relationship with our eternal Creator.
 
When Jesus celebrated His completion of the “work the Father sent Me to do,” He was referring to God’s eternal council called “The Covenant of Redemption”- a pre-time, inter-Trinitarian agreement guaranteeing the revelation of and participation with God’s steadfast love through the salvation of God’s people.[1] When Scripture pulls back the curtain for us to peer into eternity past, the Covenant of Redemption is what we see. Paul says it plainly:
 
“He chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world…. In love, He predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of His will, to the praise of His glorious grace, with which He has blessed us in the Beloved.” (Ephesians 1:3-14).
 
J.I Packer says “the full reality of God and God’s work are not adequately grasped until the Covenant of Redemption occupies its proper place in our minds.” This elevated priority is because God’s eternal love is made visible through God’s eternal plans, accomplished through God’s covenant faithfulness in Jesus Christ so that believers may have eternal life through Him! 
 
The Biblical covenants (The Covenant of Works and the Covenant of Grace comprised of the Noahic, Abrahamic, Mosaic, Davidic, and the New Covenant) are beams of light shining from the source, the sun of God’s eternal council established in the Covenant of Redemption. God’s eternal plans are ultimately fulfilled through God sending His Son, revealing God’s love and eternally uniting His people with Himself through Jesus. God’s forever love extends eternally, since before the foundation of the world and beyond the full redemption of the world after Jesus returns! God is love, and He is never-ending, unbreakable, and eternal.
 
God is outside of time, before time, and over time because God is the author of time. God created time so “in the fullness of time” Jesus would come to execute God’s eternal plan and, by the Holy Spirit, seal believers in our adoption as Children of God. (Galatians 4:4-6) We live in a world limited by time and space, but we belong to a limitless God who is infinite- eternal. We live in a world where everything changes, but we are secure in the steadfast love of a God who is “the same yesterday, today, and forever.” (Hebrews 13:8)  
 
Richly Dwelling
-Is your discipleship marked more by limitations or freedom in knowing God in His eternality? This is to ask, do you live with a “right here, right now” attitude OR are you content in knowing God and His eternal love?
 
-Is your heart marked by worldy realities, fueling anxiety and depression, or secure in God’s eternal love? This is to ask- Do you believe a God who has loved you eternally will provide for what you need, planning to make you His child since before the foundation of the world?
 
-How can you, specifically, live from the security we have from the eternal love of God?
 
 
Key verses: John 17:3-4, 24
“And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do…Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.”


[1] Louis Berkoff helpfully defines the Covenant of Redemption as “the agreement between the Father, giving the Son as Head and Redeemer of the elect, and the Son, voluntarily taking the place of those whom the Father had given him.” (Systematic Theology, p 271)

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