In the eternity past, before anything was created, who existed? See Psalm 90:2. Can we grasp this, that God never had a beginning, that He is eternal from the past, as well as in the future (Job 36:26)? Note the tremendous expression of Isaiah 57:15�?/FONT>
For thus says the high and exalted One
Who lives forever, whose name is Holy,
"I dwell on a high and holy place,
And also with the contrite and lowly of spirit
In order to revive the spirit of the lowly
And to revive the heart of the contrite."
God is said here to inhabit what? Both the past and the future are present to Him. He lives, not as we do, in one moment at a time, but in all eternity, either way, constantly. Study Psalm 90:4�?/FONT>
For a thousand years in Thy sight
Are like yesterday when it passes by,
Or as a watch in the night.
Has our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Second Person of the Glorious, Triune Godhead, existed likewise from all eternity? John 17:5 says; "And now, glorify Thou Me together with Yourself, Father, with the glory which I ever had with Thee before the world was."
In verse 24 the Lord refers to the love the Father had for Him "before the foundation of the world." In John 8:58, the overwhelming present tense is used; "Before Abraham was born, I AM." Compare this to the statement of Exodus 3:12-15�?/FONT>
Then Moses said to God;
"Behold, I am going to the sons of Israel,
And I shall say to them,
‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you.�?/FONT>
Now they may say to me,
‘What is His Name? What shall I say to them?"
And God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM"
"Thus shall you say to the sons of Israel,
‘I AM has sent me to you.�?
John 1:1 also tells us that Christ, the "Word" was in the beginning with God, and that He, the Word, "was God.�?Colossians 1:17 states that; "He is before all things, and by Him all things hold together." John 5:23 equates honoring the Son with honoring the Father as one and the same.
In a wondrous verse in Hebrews (9:14) the Holy Spirit also is called "the Eternal Spirit."
God, then, Three Persons in One, exists from all eternity to all eternity. Do we know what it is to fall down and worship and adore this infinite, eternal One? What creatures of an hour are we all, in His Presence!
Now, did God need to create other beings, that is, did He not have sources of blessedness and joy in Himself? Acts 17:24, 25 gives one answer�?/FONT>
"The God who made the world and all things in it,
since He is Lord of Heaven and earth,
does not dwell in temples made with hands;
neither is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything,
since He Himself gives to all life and breath and all things."
This is the sense of the Psalmist’s view in 36:9, "For with Thee is the fountain of life." As the source of all joy (Psalm 16:11) God is seen as the source of all joy, "You will make know to me the path of life; in your presence is fullness of joy. In your right hand there are pleasures forever." The three Persons of the Blessed Trinity existed in infinite glory, joy, and divine fellowship, before there were any other beings. Proverbs 8:22-31 adds to John 17:5 (see previous)�?/FONT>
"The Lord possessed me at the beginning of His way before His works of old.
From everlasting was I established from the beginning, from the earliest times of the earth,
When there were no depths, I was brought forth,
when there were no springs abounding with water.
Before the mountains were settled, before the hills I was brought forth,
While He had not yet made the earth and the fields, nor the first dust of the world.
When He established the heavens, I was there,
When He inscribed a circle on the face of the deep, when He made firm the skies above,
When the springs of the deep became fixed, when He set for the sea, its boundary,
So that the water should not transgress His command,
When He marked out the foundations of the earth,
Then I was beside Him as a master workman;
And I was daily His delight, rejoicing always before Him,
Rejoicing in the world, His earth, and having my delight in the sons of men.