Eternity does not exist of itself. It is the word we use to refer to the infinite duration that is the result of God existing.
The entire Godhead (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) in His one indivisible essence is equally present in every instant of His eternal duration. He is without beginning and He lives forever and ever.
Because we experience life as a succession of moments (one moment at a time), our awareness of time is past, present, and future. Each present moment quickly becomes a past moment. As a result, when we think of God being eternal, we think of His eternal past (that He has always existed) and of His eternal future (that He will exist forever). We sing of Him “Who was, Who is, and Who is to come.”
But there is more for us to see. God’s eternal existing is not divided into past and future. He never leaves the past and He is already in the future. It is all always present to Him. There has never been a future “then” for which God must wait and nothing will ever become a past “then” to God.
All the past, present, and future, eternal and created, is always immediately “now” to Him. He abides in them all constantly and simultaneously. He is “I Am.”
This was God’s revelation to Moses, when God called him and Moses asked His name:
“I AM WHO I AM; Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, I AM has sent me to you” (Exod 3:14).
Moses’ prayer (Psalm 90) declares the contrast between God’s infinite and constant immediacy and man’s momentary experience of passing time:
“For a thousand years in Your sight
Are like yesterday when it passes by,
Like a watch in the night” (Ps 90:4).
Moses shows that he grasps the implications. The reality of God’s uninterrupted presence establishes Him as the home we never leave.
“Yahweh, a dwelling place You have been to us
In generation and generation,
Before mountains were brought forth
Or ever You had given birth to earth and world.
Even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God” (Ps 90:1-2).
David bases his confidence and courage on a similar conclusion:
“'But as for me, I trust in You, O Lord,'
I say, ‘You are my God.’
My times are in Your hand'” (Ps 31:14-15).
Because God is eternal, He alone is the One Who handles my past, present, and future according to His perfect determinations for me, His creature.
Jesus confronts the Jews with the totality of His eternal presence as God’s Son:
“Before Abraham was born, I AM!” (Jn 8:58)
George Macdonald reflects on this wonder in his Diary of an Old Soul. His March 2nd meditation begins with the way we experience sunsets and builds to the declaration in the last line: how God experiences them!
Gloriously wasteful, O my Lord, art Thou!
Sunset faints after sunset into the night,
Splendourously dying from Thy window-sill —
For ever. Sad our poverty doth bow
Before the riches of Thy making might:
Sweep from Thy space Thy systems at Thy will —
In Thee the sun sets every sunset still.
Questions for reflection:
1. What does the fact that God is and always will be present in every moment of your life tell you about His forgiveness?
2. What does it tell you about God’s presence in Jesus’ life, suffering, crucifixion, and resurrection?
3. What does it tell you about God’s presence, will, power, and authority in answering your prayers?
(Spotlight 1, Lesson 6 in Doctrine 101: Learning about God)