Notes of Faith July 1, 2024

Notes of Faith July 1, 2024

Never Ending

But You are the same, and Your years will have no end.

Psalm 102:27

Stephen Charnock, a seventeenth-century Puritan, gave a series of lectures about the qualities of God. He died before finishing his talks, but afterward his discourses were published as a massive book entitled The Existence and Attributes of God. Speaking of God’s eternity, Charnock said, “God is without end. He always was, always is, and always will be what he is. He remains always the same in being; so far from any change, that no shadow of it can touch him.”1

The title I AM speaks of God’s self-existence and eternal being. There has never been a time when God was not. He’s the same through all the ages. There will never be a time when God ceases to be God. He is Jehovah, Yahweh, I AM. With our mouths we can say those words, but they are beyond our full comprehension—as it should be for an infinite God.

Because He has no ending, He’s able to impart eternal life to His children. Give thanks for His consistent, eternal nature. What would we do without it!

As immensity is the diffusion of his essence, so eternity is the duration of his essence, and when we say God is eternal, we exclude from him all possibility of beginning and ending, all flux and change.

Stephen Charnock

1. Stephen Charnock, The Existence and Attributes of God, Volumes 1 & 2 (Good Press, 2020).

Our God is eternal, having no beginning or end. Though the human mind does not have ability to understand that fully, it does not change the truth of who God is. His calling Himself to Moses, “I Am” is a statement of eternal existence, always was, always will be, no beginning, no end. The attributes of God are extremely important for our understanding of relationship with Him. In His eternal existence, He does not change. His character remains the same. His will remains the same. His working with His creation is perfect throughout what we describe as time and years and He remains the same. Let us give praise and worship the God who does not change!

Pastor Dale