Was God always God?

from the old testament

• When Moses asked God who He was, God responded, “I AM WHO I AM,” telling Moses to tell Israel, “I AM has sent me to you” (Exodus 3:14). By using what is grammatically known as a “state of being” verb, God was declaring His eternality. He was revealing his aseity (self-existence), saying that He always was, is, and will be (i.e., Isaiah 44:6).
• Eternity precedes time itself. God has existed eternally, meaning nothing was before God, as there was literally nothing before eternity. So, God existed before everything else (Psalm 90:2), and everything that exists only exists because God created it.
• God’s creative act was about more than making things. He also established time markers, such as light and darkness, by which time is calculated (Genesis 1:1–5). So, God created even time, and He created His creation to be within time. We are bound by time, but God, as the Creator of time, is not, having always existed.
• Finally, God is immutable, i.e., His nature is unchanging. He said, “I the LORD do not change” (Malachi 3:6). God is always the same. He never changed from something to become God, nor will He ever cease being God (Psalm 102:25–27).

from the new testament

• John intentionally echoes the language of Genesis. He reminds readers of God’s eternality, showing that Jesus, as fully God, was also eternal (John 1:1–2) and the source of creation (John 1:3). All creation exists because Jesus created all things (Colossians 1:16–17).
• Because God existed before anything else, He does not require anything else to exist. Paul comments, “The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything” (Acts 17:24–25). God gives life to everything else, but nothing gives life to God. This is the doctrine of aseity, God’s self-existent nature.
• Because God is eternal and a se, He continues to exist without, as James put it, “variation or shadow due to change” (James 1:17). God was always God and will always be God. He never changes. This is why He could declare, “I am the Alpha and the Omega … who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty” (Revelation 1:8).
• Hebrews expresses that God is the eternal, self-existent Creator: “You, Lord, laid the foundation of the earth in the beginning, and the heavens are the work of your hands; they will perish, but you remain; they will all wear out like a garment, like a robe you will roll them up, like a garment they will be changed. But you are the same, and your years will have no end” (Hebrews 1:10–12).

implications for today

The only thing that doesn't change is . . . change itself. We are born, get old, and die. One day moves into the next. Animals and plants grow. Even the atmosphere changes. But God never does.  If God changed, in His being or attributes, He wouldn’t really be God.

But the God of the Bible isn’t just some really big being that has muscled out every competitor for the role. Instead, before He created, there was nothing else. Sometimes, people use the word "nothing" as if it were really "something." There was no heaven, no air, no "vacuum" (lack of air). Maybe you picture God floating alone in outer space. But there was no outer space before creation. There was just God. God has always been, and will always be, self-existent.

That should be a comfort to us. No matter how chaotic the world seems, no matter what threat comes along that we've never experienced before. Nothing surprises our self-existent, omniscient, omnipotent Creator. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8)!