The Errors We Might Fall into If We Don’t Affirm the Doctrine of Aseity

We Don’t Enrich God

If we don’t affirm the doctrine of divine aseity, it can be very easy for us to imagine that God is, in some way, enriched by or benefited by us. It can be very easy for us to convince ourselves that we can be a benefit to God or even that we can put God in our personal emotional debt. And sometimes it can be very easy for people to talk about God in this way, even in saying things like, “You should give God the first fruits of your day in quiet time. He’s waiting for you. Don’t keep God waiting.”

The impression that we’re left with is that if I skip my quiet time, if I skip my personal time of prayer and reading God’s word, I should maybe feel bad for him, like I have disappointed him or made him sad in some way.

And the doctrine of divine aseity protects us from these kinds of assumptions about God because it tells us that God doesn’t need us. God is the fullness of life. He’s not enriched by us. He enriches everyone and everything else. So the doctrine is very useful for that purpose.

It’s also helpful for us because it teaches us that theology is not a means to an end. The doctrine affirms that in God, in himself, he has the plenitude of blessedness. And if we hope to be happy, if we hope to strive for our chief end—which is to glorify God and enjoy him forever—that can be fulfilled in no other way than by communing with the God who has life in himself.

And so this doctrine reorients our priorities when we think about God. It reorients the way that we think about our relationship to God in a way that is honoring to him and properly situates us as the receivers of the goodness, love, and grace that he offers.

Samuel G. Parkison is the author of The Fountain of Life: Contemplating the Aseity of God.

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