God's Independence

“Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! “For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?” “Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?” For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.” (Romans 11:33–36, ESV)

Caught Off Guard

God does not need you. 

A number of years ago, I started a teaching session with those words. The room went silent. Nobody moved. Faces looked grim. 

So, I asked, “How does that make you feel?” As people began speaking, I heard many responses revolving around one theme: It makes me feel unimportant and insignificant. Yet, one young girl in the group had a response that caught everyone off guard—and nailed it on the head. But you’ll have to wait till the end of the post to read her response. 

God Is Independent

There are many places in scripture that speak of God’s independence. We’ll look at one in particular. In Romans 11:36 it says, “For from him and through him and to him are all things.” That means everything that exists—everything created—has come from him. Another way to say that is: All existence flows from God. If anything exists, it came from God. 

Since everything that exists came from God, everything that exists is dependent upon God. Makes sense, right? Every created thing depends on its creator. We need him to exist. 

Yet God does not need us to exist. He is uncreated, which means he has no dependence outside of himself. He is independent and self-sufficient. 

Independent In Everything

His independence extends to everything. Louis Berkhof says, “He is independent in His Being, in His virtues and actions, and causes all His creatures to depend on Him” (Summary of Christian Doctrine, 24). God is independent in WHO He is and WHAT He does. His being and character are not dependent upon anything outside of himself. Also, His actions/decisions are not dependent upon anything outside of himself. 

Infinite Glory and Happiness

You may have noticed that I have been repeating the phrase “outside of himself.” That’s an important phrase in this conversation. As we have this conversation about independence, we cannot forget that we serve a Triune God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Our God is three persons in one being. And since these three persons exist in one being, they are interdependent upon each other (Yes, I know this makes your brain hurt a little. But it’s a good hurt, right?). 

Jesus gives a picture of this in John 17 when he says, “And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed…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.” (John 17:5, 24; ESV). In this passage, Jesus tells us about two things that happened before anything was created—when the Triune God was all that existed. There was glory and love flowing between the members of the Triune God—from eternity to eternity—before anything else existed.  

How Does This Make You Feel?

There are two ways to answer this question. You can answer this question the way Wayne Grudem answers it. On the one hand, this truth should put us in our place. We like to think we are more significant than we really are. We like to think God needs us to get things done. That’s just not true. God doesn’t need us. 

However, God chooses to use us to accomplish his plans and purposes in the world. God also tells us we are the pinnacle of his creation—crowned with glory. He tells us we are significant. Then Wayne Grudem says, “To be significant to God is to be significant in the most ultimate sense. No greater personal significance can be imagined.” (Systematic Theology, p.163). 

You can also answer this question the way a teenage girl answered it. After listening to others bristle at their insignificance, she quietly said, “When you said God doesn’t need me, I felt a great amount of comfort. If God needed me, he would be dependent upon me to help me. That’s not very comforting. Instead, God doesn’t need me, and is free to use all of his strength, power, and compassion to meet me wherever I am.”  

I LOVE that answer.