God is the first cause. We find this claim in Genesis 1:1–there was only God and then God created everything that has been created. Paul said, “For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him” (Col. 1:16). We know that an uncaused first cause is a logical necessity. This truth is what substantiates the Kalaam cosmological argument—God is the necessary uncaused Cause. Furthermore, we know there cannot be an infinite series of regress since there must be a beginning of any series (Heb. 3:4).

As we progress through the biblical narrative we discover God has revealed to us his independence or aseity. Here are some verses that teach or imply God’s aseity – his self-existence and self-sufficiency:

• Exodus 3:14 – God refers to Himself as “I AM WHO I AM”, indicating His eternality and self-existence.
• John 5:26 – “For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself.” God has life in Himself.
• Acts 17:24-25 – “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else.” God needs nothing from creation.
• Psalm 90:2 – “Before the mountains were born or you brought forth the whole world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God.” God exists eternally.
• Psalm 50:10-12 – “For every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle on a thousand hills. I know every bird in the mountains, and the insects in the fields are mine. If I were hungry I would not tell you, for the world is mine, and all that is in it.” God has no needs.
• Romans 11:35-36 – “Who has ever given to God, that God should repay them? For from him and through him and for him are all things.” God owes nothing to any being.
• 1 Timothy 6:15 – God is the “blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see.” God alone is immortal and self-sustaining.

So, the Scripture clearly presents God as eternal, self-existent, self-sustaining and owing nothing to any creature. God is independent of cause and is the cause of all things.

We should note three things: 1) there is no cause of God, 2) no caused thing is God, and 2) God is the first cause of every subsequent effect though he does not directly cause all things (sin for example is caused by humans not God but God remains the first cause of all things). Since God is the cause of all and has nothing acting upon him, we can affirm that God is immutable. The Bible says:

• Numbers 23:19 – “God is not human, that he should lie, not a human being, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill?”
• 1 Samuel 15:29 – “He who is the Glory of Israel does not lie or change his mind; for he is not a human being, that he should change his mind.”
• Malachi 3:6 – “I the Lord do not change. So you, the descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed.”
• James 1:17 – “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.”
• Hebrews 13:8 – “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.”
• Psalm 102:25-27 – “In the beginning you laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands. They will perish, but you remain; they will all wear out like a garment. Like clothing you will change them and they will be discarded. But you remain the same, and your years will never end.”
• Isaiah 40:8 – “The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God endures forever.”

The immutability or unchangeableness of God is a theme throughout Scripture and the tradition of Christian thought.[1] Christians have affirmed immutability despite very frequent descriptions of God changing in Scripture. These apparent changes of God have been regarded as anthropomorphisms since they are attempts at conveying a truth about God to us without telling us something literally true of God. Similarly, interpreters understand that God does not have a physical body despite several Scriptural references to the eyes, nose, hands, feet, and bowels of God.

            We can begin to understand why God is described as pure actuality or actus purus. Change is the actualization of a potential. Water can become coffee. Coffee can become hot or cold. Having become hot, coffee can even become cold again. However, God is different. The Psalmist said, “They will perish, but you will remain; they will all wear out like a garment. You will change them like a robe, and they will pass away” (Ps. 102:26). This means there is no potential in God. God cannot grow, learn, or forget. God is eternally perfect and infinite. Therefore, God cannot be other than he is—he is immutable.

            Since God is the first Cause of all things, then all creation is shaped by him and nothing shapes him. God is not literally impacted or changed by human action or inaction. God is not literally grieved or sorrowed by human action. God eternally enjoys the fulness of joy (Ps. 16:11). As the first cause, God shapes everything. There cannot be a cause which was caused by God (the Cause) which retroactively shapes the first Cause. Here are some ways the Bible depicts God as pure actuality, without any potentiality or becoming:

• God’s eternal nature – Psalm 90:2 – “From everlasting to everlasting you are God.” No becoming or changing.
• God’s name as “I Am” (Exodus 3:14) – He is the absolute being, dependent on nothing else.
• God’s perfection – Matthew 5:48 – “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” No room for growth or development in perfection.
• God’s omniscience – Psalm 147:5 – “His understanding has no limit.” All knowing, rather than acquiring knowledge like humans.
• God’s sovereignty – Isaiah 46:10 – “I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say, ‘My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please.’” No contingency in God’s plans.
• God’s immutability – Malachi 3:6 – “I the Lord do not change.” He does not transition between potentiality and actuality.
• God’s transcendence – Isaiah 55:8-9 – “‘For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,’ declares the Lord. ‘As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.’” God infinitely beyond human experience of change.

The term “pure actuality” is philosophical, the concept is biblical. Scripture presents a God without any becoming, growth, change, or contingency. He simply and eternally is.

            This theological foundation is essential to understanding God’s creation. God shaped everything and is shaped by nothing. God is holy (Is. 6:4). Creation, by definition, is common or not God—not holy. God is love (1 Jn. 4:18). Everything God is and does is characterized by love—his holy love. God created because of his holy love. God sustains and provides because of his holy love. Creation reflects God’s power and glory. The vastness, complexity, and beauty of the universe dimly reflect the infinite great plainness of God (Psalm 19:1).

We can see then that in creation God makes himself known (Rom. 1:20). We can see his wisdom, care and love (Proverbs 3:19-20). The universe operates on fixed laws which allow it to be studied and understood, grounded in God’s covenant faithfulness (Jeremiah 33:25). Creativity and beauty emerge from God’s own beauty. God filled creation with color, form, sound, and poetic meaning because He is the ultimate artist designing a masterpiece (Genesis 1-2). We seek and create beautiful things as we seek to reflect God as his image bearers. As God sustains life, it points to God as the essential ground of being, the source of all existence (Acts 17:28). Creation impresses with signs of God’s glory that prompt awe, wonder and worship (Ps. 8). God’s transcendence ensures creation’s limitations. Because the universe is not divine, it has boundaries, is contingent, and is marked by change and finitude. In these creaturely limitations, we are led to seek the God who is limited only by his perfections.

We must go a step further now into seeing God’s continued shaping of all things. Romans 11:36 reminds us, “For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.” The god of deism leaves its creation to its own devices. The God of Scripture creates and sustains. This is the way God describes his continued providence and guidance of the world:

• Nehemiah 9:6 – “You alone are the Lord. You made the heavens, even the highest heavens, and all their starry host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them. You give life to everything, and the multitudes of heaven worship you.”
• Psalm 104:27-30 – “All creatures look to you to give them their food at the proper time. When you give it to them, they gather it up; when you open your hand, they are satisfied with good things. When you hide your face, they are terrified; when you take away their breath, they die and return to the dust. When you send your Spirit, they are created, and you renew the face of the ground.”
• Psalm 145:15-16 – “The eyes of all look to You, and You give them their food in due time. You open Your hand and satisfy the desire of every living thing.”
• Colossians 1:17 – “He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.”
• Hebrews 1:3 – “Sustaining all things by his powerful word.”
• Job 38-41 – God challenges Job by describing His ongoing governance over creation through weather, animals, stars, and all of nature.
• Matthew 5:45 – “He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.”

It is important for us to notice the continuous sustaining work of God. He gives life to everything (Neh. 9:6). He “gives food at the proper time” (Ps. 104:27, 145:15-16). It is “in him” that “all things hold together” (Col. 1:17). He is presently “sustaining all things by his powerful word” (Heb. 1:3). He is active in causing the sun to rise and set and he sends the rain (Matt. 5:45).

            The present reality is no less God’s creation than the original creation in Genesis 1. Human free will remains now as it was then. The presence of sin with all its ramifications is the only difference. Even in the world cursed by sin, Christians remember the eternal God remains and shapes all things “for the purpose of his will” (Eph. 1:5).

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[1] It is only in the 19^th century that the doctrine of immutability is questioned. The impact of Hegel and Kant is deeply felt in the basic theological reasoning of the age after them. The consistent confession of immutability and impassibility throughout the Christian tradition which refused Hegel and Kant should be noted. At minimum, contemporary theologians should be highly critical of replacing a 1800 year old theology with a novel 200 year old one.