Encounter the Truth

Jonathan Griffiths: God is dependent upon no one for his being, for his plans and his purposes, for his blessedness. That's the core of God's independence. And the implications of this truth are huge. They're absolutely immense.

Steve Hiller: Welcome to Encounter the Truth with Jonathan Griffiths. Jonathan, as we begin today's message thinking about the independence of God, you said the implications are immense. Can you give us just one example of that?

Jonathan Griffiths: Well, I think for our self-concept, our understanding of how we fit into the universe and into God's plans and God's purposes and God's interests. So often in our modern society and modern outlook, we do develop a view of ourselves that is rather too grand. We end up feeling that we are doing God a very great favor if we pay him attention and give him interest.

One of the implications of this truth of the independence of God is that he doesn't need us. He loves us and he has sought relationship with us through his Son. He's gone to great cost and to great effort to redeem us, but he doesn't need us. He is not reliant upon us in any way. Understanding the self-sufficiency and the independence of God puts us in our place in a way that is very healthy, but also humbling. I believe it's an important truth for us to grapple with very deeply.

Steve Hiller: Let's continue to look at that today in our broadcast. We're beginning a message called "The Independent God." Here is Jonathan.

Jonathan Griffiths: If you follow local Ontario news, you may have seen that there is an ongoing debate concerning the future of Ontario Place, our very own provincial amusement park. The park has been shuttered for a number of years now, but the province is looking for ideas as to what to do with it and how to revive it. Some of you will have been there for a visit. In its day, it was worth a visit, and many would say that it is still worth preserving now, not simply for its prime lakefront location in downtown Toronto, but also for its distinctive architectural contribution.

You may be able to picture the main structure if you've been there. The big concept, the big idea behind Ontario Place was to build a large set of event spaces which they called pods, floating mid-air above a man-made lagoon. To make this thing work, they had to put up these single support shafts to suspend each of the massive pods floating mid-air as they were. The pods would hang by wires from the top of the pole, and the visual effect was pretty striking. It was a little futuristic city floating in the air.

The idea of buildings floating in the air will always lead to an imperfect product. You can't actually make a building float. That doesn't work because of certain laws of gravity. It needs to rest upon something. It has to depend upon something. The poles were a necessary compromise. What is true in this case in the world of architecture is true actually of everything in the world. In this world, everything depends upon something else. Everything rests upon something else. Everything in this world draws its strength, its integrity, its very existence from something else. Everything, that is, except God himself.

The Creator God is truly and entirely independent of everything else and everyone else. He needs nothing for anything. He depends upon no one and no thing. Our God is entirely self-sufficient. That's the great truth that the prophet celebrates and proclaims in the passage we just read. It's the truth that the Apostle Paul famously proclaimed in the Areopagus at Athens in Acts chapter 17: "The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else."

God is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. He is not dependent upon anyone for anything. That's the idea we're considering this morning. I'd like us to begin our consideration of this idea by looking at God's independence from a few different angles, and then we'll move on to see how it impacts our Christian lives in some very practical ways. To begin with, God is not dependent upon anyone first for his being.

You may have gathered that a few days ago, a tornado touched down on the east side of town in Orleans. Mercifully, I gather, without major incident. I understand that the trusty new disaster warning system issued the warning once the tornado had already arrived, not ahead of time. People staring at the storm out their window or hiding from the storm in their basement received a warning on their phone saying that a tornado was passing through. Thank you very much, I had noticed. By that point, by the point that the warning arrived, the warning system had the dubious value of stating the blindingly obvious. As you see your shed being relocated to your neighbor's yard and you get a message on your phone, it's not a great deal of use to you by that time.

Well, in this first point, I feel I am stating the blindingly obvious. God made the world, but no one made him. He does not depend upon anyone for his existence. It is a simple fact. It is Christianity 101. It is biblical theism 101. It is a truth with which every Christian must agree: that our God is the uncreated one. We thought about it together a few weeks ago when we looked at Psalm 90 and verse 2: "Before the mountains were born or you brought forth the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God."

Yes, it's a simple truth, but it is a profoundly important one. This is the great truth actually that sets the true and living God apart from the idols of the world, the false gods of all other world religions. That's what Isaiah draws out in the passage we read, Isaiah 40 and verse 18: "To whom then will you compare God? What image will you compare him to? As for an idol, a craftsman casts it, and a goldsmith overlays it with gold and fashions silver chains for it," etc., etc.

And now down to verse 28: "Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord, the covenant God of Israel, the Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth." Unlike the false gods, in fact, unlike everything else in the universe, God himself is uncreated. And as the uncreated one, he is instead the Creator, the source of all life. John chapter 1 and verse 3: "Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made."

It's so easy for us to think of ourselves more highly than we ought. Our sinful tendency is always to place ourselves at the center of the universe, to imagine that the rest of the world and the people all around us somehow exist for our purposes and for our pleasure. But how we need to remember this simple truth, this vital truth that we are the creatures and he is the Creator. He is the Great I AM who has always existed. He is the first and the last, the Alpha and the Omega, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.

It's a statement of the obvious, I know that. But in a sense, it is the fundamental truth that we need to reckon with, each one of us. Everything else flows from this. Despite the fact that this is an obvious truth, it's one we manage to quite regularly forget or overlook in our me-centered view of the world. But the Bible would regularly remind us: the world is not here for our sake. God is not here to serve us or to meet our needs. He is the uncreated Creator, and we exist by his power and his will for his good pleasure.

God is dependent upon no one for his being. That's the first aspect of his independence. Next, God is dependent upon no one for his plans and for his purposes. It's an enormous industry in our world, a $250 billion a year industry, helping others make and execute plans. Management consultants charge big fees to help organizations chart the path to success through the choppy seas of change and adversity and disruption. Fortune 500 companies need that, governments need that, but God the Creator needs none of it.

Isaiah 40 again and verse 13: "Who has understood the mind of the Lord, or instructed him as his counselor? Whom did the Lord consult to enlighten him, and who taught him the right way? Who was it that taught him knowledge or showed him the path of understanding?" In making plans for the world and for the universe, for humanity and for salvation, God managed without a single advisor. He managed without me, and he managed without you. That's true in all things in all his plans and purposes, and it's certainly true when it comes to the matter of our salvation.

We know that God's plan of redemption stands at the heart of what he's doing in the world and throughout all of human history. But it is the universal human instinct to believe that we somehow save ourselves, that we somehow contribute to this work of salvation, in making ourselves right before God. That's the natural bent and the inbuilt assumption of every world religion that I can think of. But the gospel of Jesus Christ is so profoundly different.

Some months ago, we spent time working together through Paul's great letter to the Ephesians, and we saw this truth of God's independent action at the opening chapter. Just notice again God's initiative, God's power, God's work in our salvation. Ephesians 1 and verse 3: "Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will—to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding."

Without revisiting the details of that wonderful passage, what it's telling us essentially is this: our salvation is due 100% to God—his planning, his work in Christ, his initiative, his wider purpose for his glory. He does it, and we are the glad and the privileged recipients of his work. But we add nothing to our salvation. We contribute nothing. It is all of grace. It is all for his glory.

Steve Hiller: You're listening to Encounter the Truth with Jonathan Griffiths and a message called "The Independent God," part of our larger series called "Who Is Like Our God?" And we're going to get back to this message in just a moment. I hope that as you've been tuning in and listening to this broadcast, it's been an encouragement to you.

We would love to know how the Lord is using this program in your life. Maybe it's something that you heard recently that you've been able to apply to your walk with God, or just some encouragement to keep going during a tough time. Let us know how Encounter the Truth is strengthening your walk with Christ. You can reach us through our website, encounterthetruth.org, or call us at 833-99-TRUTH. That's 833-998-7884, or go to our website, encounterthetruth.org. Back to the message. Here is Jonathan.

Jonathan Griffiths: God is dependent upon no one for his being, for his plans and for his purposes. And now thirdly, for his blessedness. To be blessed is to have all that you need for a life of contentment and fullness, even a life of happiness. And of course, we all long for that kind of a life. We naturally search for it in the things of this world, in relationships with other people, and in possessions and experiences.

But if the Lord has been gracious to give us faith, we begin to learn, don't we, that blessedness is found in him and through the gospel. But we all seek blessedness, and we long for that life of true blessedness. But here's the thing: God does not need to seek anyone else's blessing. God himself is fully blessed in all eternity. There is no lack in God. There is nothing that God is looking for, nothing that he needs.

Listen to what Jesus says about what it was like for God before the beginning of the world. This is very fascinating. John chapter 17 and verse 4. Jesus says to the Father: "I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began." What an insight that is.

And then down to verse 24, same passage, John 17: "Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world." Before the creation of the world, God was perfectly blessed, enjoying glory and perfect love. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit lived together in harmonious communion in all eternity, having all that was needed to be whole and complete, entirely blessed.

Jonathan Edwards writes that God is infinitely happy in the enjoyment of himself, in perfectly beholding and infinitely loving and rejoicing in his own essence and perfections. William Perkins writes more simply that God is wholly complete within himself. When you and I build something or buy something or take on a great project, we always do those things out of a sense of desire or a sense of need. Maybe it's that legitimate need for shelter, so we build a home. Maybe it's a desire for recreation, a good thing, so we buy some toy. Maybe it's a desire for usefulness or the recognition of some need in the world, so we take on a great project.

Because that is always true for us, we're always responding to want or need. Because that's always true for us and for those around us, we just naturally assume that the same must be true for God. We assume that he made the world because he needed something. Maybe he was lonely. Maybe he was bored. Maybe—and we're more likely to hear this one and repeat this one—maybe he needed an outlet for his love or an opportunity to display his glory, so he made humanity for that purpose. Maybe there was some unfulfilled need or lack in God that caused him to create.

I think we often assume that to be the case on some level, and many Christians will say things along those lines. Well, God has good plans and purposes for humanity and for his creation, but here's the crucial truth: God did not need the world. God did not need us. He did not create in order to plug some gap of insufficiency within himself, to address some lack that he had, to meet some need.

In Job 22, Job's theologically insightful but generally unhelpful friend Eliphaz captures this truth quite well, asking Job: "Can a man be of benefit to God? Can even a wise man benefit him? What pleasure would it give the Almighty if you were righteous? What would he gain if your ways were blameless?" And the answer is perfectly clear: none. God doesn't need anything from you, Job. He doesn't need anything from me. He doesn't need anything from any of us.

We live in a very me-centered world. We live in a consumer culture that panders to our every need. We are the people of the iPhone and the iPad, a world built around me and my wants and my needs. We live in a culture that promotes self-determination and self-expression in every respect, and arguably our modern parenting methods and even our education system, they reinforce our natural me-centeredness in some pretty profound ways. That's our world. That's the culture in which we live.

And so for me to hear the Bible tell me that the creation is not about me, that God didn't make me because he couldn't imagine the universe without me, to hear these things is very offensive to our Western ear. Well, it may be offensive, but I do think it is the soul medicine we desperately need. God is dependent upon no one for his being, for his plans and his purposes, for his blessedness. That's the core, if you like, of God's independence. And the implications of this truth, they are huge. They're absolutely immense. And so with the minutes we have remaining, I'd like to try and apply them to three areas of our life together.

First, I'd like to try and apply this truth to our worship. Properly understood, worship includes the whole of the believer's life. We worship God in all that we do, or at least we should. But here I do want to think about our corporate worship, and that's the way we often use the language of worship. I do want to be thinking about what we do together here as a body on Sunday.

At the Science and Technology Museum here in town, in the kids' room, they have this big light board with lots of LEDs arranged in dials and bars and things like that. If you've been there, you'll know what I'm talking about. And in front of this big board, they have three kids' bikes. And the little kids, they line up to take turns on these little bikes, while the parents stand back dutifully on their smartphones checking if anything urgently important has happened on Facebook in the last three and a half minutes.

The idea is that as the kids are going on this thing, the harder you pedal, the more you're going to see the lights light up, the further the dial will go, the higher the bar will rise. And the kids feel this sense of obligation to generate power for these lights on this board. It becomes quite a kind of quest, even an obsession. And of course, the kids are panting away. And as the kids are refusing to move on to the next room and on to the next thing, I'm tempted to go around to the back of the thing and just plug it into the wall. Plug this display thing into the power socket at the back so that we can get on with our day and move on elsewhere. You see, all this labor on the part of the kids, it isn't needed. It isn't necessary. There is plenty of power in the mains.

Sometimes I think we can come to our corporate worship, and especially our singing, with the view that God's power needs topping up with our efforts. I think we can easily assume that in some way as we block off this time on a Sunday morning when we could be still in bed or out enjoying the sunshine, and then as we listen patiently to the Word of God and we sing energetically the praises of God, I think we easily imagine that we are bringing to God something that he needs. I think we easily imagine that God would be helped in some way by our contribution, impressed that we've taken the trouble, grateful that we've spared him the time.

In the Old Testament, biblical worship had at its heart the sacrifice of animals. You couldn't come before the Lord without an animal sacrifice. That's different for us now, of course. Jesus has made the great sacrifice, and we come to God the Father in worship through the Son, who is our sacrifice and our great high priest. But as we cast our minds back to the Old Testament days of worship, listen to what God says about the worship of his people in Psalm 50, verse 7:

"Hear, O my people, and I will speak, O Israel, and I will testify against you: I am God, your God. I do not rebuke you for your sacrifices or your burnt offerings, which are ever before me. I have no need of a bull from your stall or of goats from your pens, for every animal of the forest is mine, and the cattle on a thousand hills. I know every bird in the mountains, and the creatures of the fields are mine. If I were hungry I would not tell you, for the world is mine, and all that is in it. Do I eat the flesh of bulls or drink the blood of goats? Sacrifice thank offerings to God, fulfill your vows to the Most High, and call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you will honor me."

Does God need something from us? Is there anything that he lacks which by our worship we can provide? Answer: of course not. Don't be absurd. And so the Lord continues. Yes, come and worship me, verse 14, and call upon me, verse 15, and I will deliver you. But don't come and worship me because I need you. Worship me because you need me. Call upon me on the day of trouble. I will deliver you, and you will honor me. As we approach the Lord in worship, we don't come primarily to give him anything. We come primarily to receive.

Steve Hiller: You're listening to Encounter the Truth with Jonathan Griffiths, part of a message called "The Independent God." And while we do have to pause right here, we'll continue on our next broadcast, so I hope you'll be listening. If you ever miss a program, you can always come and listen online. Our website is encounterthetruth.org.

Encounter the Truth is a listener-supported ministry. It is your generosity that sustains this program and this ministry. As you give a gift of any amount this month, we want to send you Jonathan's brand new book. It's called "Wisdom and Knowledge." Jonathan, what is this book about?

Jonathan Griffiths: This book is a study of the life of Solomon from the book of 1 Kings in the Old Testament. But it's more than just a study of a particular life of an Old Testament figure. This is a study of the grace of God shown to someone who trusted him, followed him, received tremendous gifts from him, but stumbled and fell as well. And we learn here huge lessons about faith, about sin, about redemption, about the grace of God, lessons that are very contemporary for you and for me. I found this to be such a rich study personally, and I'm so thrilled we're able to make it available this month.

Steve Hiller: We'd love to send you a copy of this book as our way of saying thank you for your financial support. You can give online at encounterthetruth.org or when you call 1-833-99-TRUTH. That's 1-833-998-7884 or encounterthetruth.org. You can also write us at Encounter the Truth, 2176 Prince of Wales Drive, Ottawa, Ontario, K2E 0B1, or in the US at Encounter the Truth, 215 North Arlington Heights Road, number 102, Arlington Heights, Illinois, 60004. For Jonathan Griffiths and our producer Mark Breathtta, I'm Steve Hiller. Thanks for listening, and I hope you'll join us next time.