The Glory Of God In His Being Series

The Glory of God Series

April 13th 2008

The Glory of God: In His Being

Man was made to give glory to God. Of all of the things in this world nothing or no one is more deserving of glory than God. So over the next few weeks we are going to be looking at the glory of God found in His different characteristics. We are going to look at these traits of God and see what they show us about the uniqueness and majesty of the God that we serve. This week we are focusing on the glory of God in His being. God should be glorified not just for what He does, in the world or in lives, or how He acts, but simply for who He is. God is worthy of praise simply because He is God. Let’s pray:

The ontological argument for the existence of God basically states: I can conceive therefore it is. If we can think of it than that is proof that it exists. Thus if this argument is right we know that there is a God because we can conceive of God. If there was no God then it would be impossible for man to conceive of a being or entity that could be God because we cannot conceive of something that does not exist. You are welcome to try, but you will fail. Take a square triangle for example. You cannot conceive of it. You cannot picture it. It is impossible because a square triangle does not exist. You can picture a triangle…you can picture a square. But it is impossible to picture a square triangle. You cannot conceive of something that does not exist. By this logic anything that we can imagine or think of would in turn to some degree have to exist. So let’s try it. I want you to think of some imaginary thing that does not exist and tell me what you come up with. (GIVE TIME).

An opposition to this view would be that this argument does not prove the existence of God, God could just be a unicorn. By its own logic what we picture as God are really just inflated traits of man: love, knowledge, wisdom, power, truth. But there is one exception. That is creation ex nihilo or out of nothing. Man does not have the ability to create something out of nothing but we can conceive of it. So this trait gives some validity to this argument and while it does have its flaws serves as a quality support for the existence of God.

I had a professor in college that I really respected. I really enjoyed his classes. Not everyone did. Some people really didn’t like him. He is not the most social or friendly person and sometimes he can come across as rude. Someone once asked me: “Why do you like him so much? What makes him so great?” I told my friend: “He doesn’t play nice. He challenges you. If you slack off he calls you on it. He does not accept laziness and pushes you to be the best that you can be.” To me this professor was great because of what he did for me: Challenging me, calling me out, never accepting poor work. What he did made me think of him as a great teacher.

But what makes God so great? What makes Him so deserving of glory and honor and praise? Why is God great? The glory of God is found not just in what He does, but in who He is. God is so great that His very existence is the source of His glory. God is great because He is not like us. We are created…God…is not. God is eternal. He is without beginning and without end. Or is He?

Are you sure that God has no beginning? Are we sure that God was not created? Are you sure that God has always existed? 1Ti 1:17 “Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen.” So we know that God is eternal. But His being eternal could just be that He has no end, not that He has no beginning. Just think those who believe in Jesus Christ will inherit eternal life but that life still has a beginning. Each and every one of us who will inherit eternal life was born, we had a beginning. We might have eternal life but that does not mean we always existed. Something can be eternal and still have a beginning. So what makes us so sure that God has no beginning? What makes us so sure He was not created?

Well, God was there in the beginning. Genesis 1:1 and John 1:1 both show that God was there in the beginning. But to say that means He has no beginning is an assumption. Just because God was around at the beginning of time and for the creation of the world does not mean that God has always been around does it? All this proves is that God has existed from the beginning of the world and will continue to exist for eternity.