Eternity of God
The eternity of God is the sovereignty of divine love in relation to time. God's love is not transient and changing as is everything which belongs to time. The apostolic word is perfectly applicable here: "Love never fails." God cannot be contained within any limits, spatial or temporal. Faith expresses this by saying that God is "he who was, and who is, and who is to come." He is "Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end," and "a thousand years are to him as one day." Eternal life, whether we think of the present or of the future, partakes of this sovereign love. [1]
God’s eternal presences
In accordance with the point of view here presented, the eternity of God does not imply any speculation about his being outside of time, or that time has no significance for God. It is, on the contrary, essential to faith to conceive of God as being present in time and effectively active in whatever happens here; although he nevertheless is "above" time. Eternal rest and blessedness belong to the Christian conception of God, but at the same time it can be said of him, in the words of Luther, that he "never rests" (nimmer ruhet). The "eternal" does not suggest something "before" time, or something that is to come "after" time. Eternity is not quantitatively different from time. As soon as we follow out the consequences of such a thought, we come to the conception of an unending extent of time; but even such a time is not eternity. [2]
The eternal kind of live
"This is eternal life, that they know thee the only true God" (John 17:3). Eternal life is a qualitative expression for a life lived in communion with the living God. [3]
The application of the historical death of Jesus to the now of today by understanding the eternity of God.
This independence of all temporal limits which characterizes the divine life expresses itself also with reference to divine revelation. There is a continuous reciprocal action between what has been done and what is being done. What has happened in history is not only something which is past: it is at the same time present and active. Christ's work of reconciliation has been done once for all, but it is at the same time a reality which is active in the present. The victory of Christ was won once for all, but it is continually realized and "won" anew in the present. [4]
God’s unchangeableness
In connection with what we have said about eternity we may add that God's unchangeableness, from the point of view of the sovereignty of divine love, cannot be understood as stereotyped inertia. This word has often been interpreted along that line under the influence of Greek philosophy, which tended to emphasize the so-called apatheia of God. In that case God is placed outside of history in a way that does not at all correspond to the viewpoint of Christian faith. Faith understands the unchangeableness of God as an expression of the unswerving direction of God's will and an affirmation that this will under all circumstances and in all its activity is characterized by love. [5]
End notes
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[1]. Gustaf Aulen, The Faith of the Christian Church, trans. Eric H. Wahlstrom [book on-line] (Philadelphia: Muhlenberg Press, 1960, accessed 28 January 2009), 127; available from Questia, http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=98594506; Internet.
[2]. Gustaf Aulen, The Faith of the Christian Church, trans. Eric H. Wahlstrom [book on-line] (Philadelphia: Muhlenberg Press, 1960, accessed 28 January 2009), 127; available from Questia, http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=98594506; Internet.
[3]. Gustaf Aulen, The Faith of the Christian Church, trans. Eric H. Wahlstrom [book on-line] (Philadelphia: Muhlenberg Press, 1960, accessed 28 January 2009), 128; available from Questia, http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=98594506; Internet.
[4]. Gustaf Aulen, The Faith of the Christian Church, trans. Eric H. Wahlstrom [book on-line] (Philadelphia: Muhlenberg Press, 1960, accessed 28 January 2009), 128; available from Questia, http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=98594506; Internet.
[5]. Gustaf Aulen, The Faith of the Christian Church, trans. Eric H. Wahlstrom [book on-line] (Philadelphia: Muhlenberg Press, 1960, accessed 28 January 2009), 128; available from Questia, http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=98594506; Internet.
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