God is Eternal
“Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God.” Psalm 90:2
Infinity and eternity are not synonyms. Infinity means unbounded limitlessness in time, space or mass. Eternity essentially is unmeasurable time. But even the word time cannot express eternity accurately. That’s because as human, we think of time as past, present and future concepts (idea, notions, theory). Like, “Being stuck at home waiting out this state mandated shutdown feels like an eternity! We need a change of scenery. ”
Time has a beginning and an ending, a now and then. Past, present and future are temporal. Temporal came into existence when, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” It is, at its core, inherent for a Creator to exists outside of the temporal. Creator is not creation. Temporal cannot create temporal. As temporal beings we think temporally. God is eternal so He thinks eternally.
“God has no beginning, end, or succession, (synonyms -progression, series, flow, stream or string) of moments in his own being, and he sees all time equally vividly, yet God sees events in time and acts in time.” (Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology p. 768)
God is not a created being and is not subject to the limitations of time. God exists and thinks in the eternal. God’s existence cannot be measured by time past, present, and future. His existence is one indivisible present. Everything to Him is now. God exists endlessly. Don’t try to figure that out it will explode your head.
Roland McCune, Theology professor at DBTS once said, “Gentlemen, these syllabus notes are copywrited. You can copy right out of them.” So here goes, “His existence extends backward and forward (from our viewpoint) without any interruption or limitation caused by succession of events”
So how does Jesus fit in this connection? The Son of God came from the eternal now to our temporal existence and became the Son of Man. Listen to His explanation of eternity. “For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself.” John 5:26
Just as the Father has eternal (self existent) life in Himself (He exists because He exists) so also He, the Father, has granted to His Son eternal existence in Himself. Jesus is as much eternal as the Father. Jesus is self existent in the triune Godhead. Jesus is eternal. Jesus is God. He never changes. Now that is immutable. and that’s another attribute for another day.
“I (Jesus) am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.” Rev. 1:8