God possesses in himself the fullness of life, goodness, love, joy, and glory, and from that fullness he creates, redeems, and brings his people into communion with himself.
1. God is blessed in himself.
- “The gospel of the glory of the blessed God” (1 Tim 1:11).
- He is “the blessed and only Sovereign” (1 Tim 6:15).
- God does not become blessed through creation, worship, or redemption. Blessedness belongs to who God eternally is.
2. God has life in himself.
- “The Father has life in himself” (John 5:26).
- “In him was life” (John 1:4).
- He is “the living God” (Jer 10:10; Acts 14:15; 1 Tim 4:10).
- God does not receive life from another. He is life in its underived fullness.
3. God is the fullness from whom all creaturely good proceeds.
- “From him and through him and to him are all things” (Rom 11:36).
- “He himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything” (Acts 17:25).
- “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above” (Jas 1:17).
- Every created good is received from the God who lacks no good.
4. God needs nothing from creation.
- He is “not served by human hands, as though he needed anything” (Acts 17:25).
- “The world and its fullness are mine” (Ps 50:12).
- Creation does not complete God. God gives to creation from his own abundance.
5. God is perfectly good.
- “You are good and do good” (Ps 119:68).
- “No one is good except God alone” (Mark 10:18).
- “The LORD is good” (Ps 100:5).
- God is not measured by a standard of goodness outside himself. He is the living source and measure of every created good.
6. Fullness of joy belongs to God.
- “In your presence there is fullness of joy” (Ps 16:11).
- “He will rejoice over you with gladness” (Zeph 3:17).
- “The LORD takes pleasure in his people” (Ps 149:4).
- The creature finds fullness of joy in God because joy is not foreign to God’s own life.
7. The Father eternally loves and delights in the Son.
- “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased” (Matt 3:17).
- “The Father loves the Son” (John 3:35; 5:20).
- “You loved me before the foundation of the world” (John 17:24).
- Divine blessedness is not solitary. The life of God is eternally the life of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
8. The Son possesses the Father’s divine fullness.
- “All that the Father has is mine” (John 16:15).
- “In him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell” (Col 1:19).
- “In him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily” (Col 2:9).
- The Son is not a partial or lesser participation in deity. The fullness of the divine life belongs to him as Son.
9. The Spirit belongs to the same divine fullness.
- “The Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God” (1 Cor 2:10).
- “No one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God” (1 Cor 2:11).
- He is “the Spirit of glory and of God” (1 Pet 4:14).
- The blessed life of God is irreducibly triune.
10. God’s fullness is complete before creation.
- “From everlasting to everlasting you are God” (Ps 90:2).
- Christ speaks of “the glory that I had with you before the world existed” (John 17:5).
- The Father loved the Son “before the foundation of the world” (John 17:24).
- The world adds no life, love, glory, or joy that God previously lacked.
11. Creation arises from divine freedom, not divine need.
- “Our God is in the heavens; he does whatever he pleases” (Ps 115:3).
- “By your will they existed and were created” (Rev 4:11).
- God creates because he wills to communicate his goodness, not because creation supplies some deficiency in him.
12. Creation manifests the goodness and glory of God.
- “The heavens declare the glory of God” (Ps 19:1).
- “The earth is full of the steadfast love of the LORD” (Ps 33:5).
- “The earth is full of your creatures” (Ps 104:24).
- Creation displays divine fullness because creatures receive and reflect goods that have their source in God.
13. God’s generosity reveals his fullness.
- “You open your hand; you satisfy the desire of every living thing” (Ps 145:16).
- He “richly provides us with everything to enjoy” (1 Tim 6:17).
- He gives “rains from heaven and fruitful seasons” (Acts 14:17).
- God’s gifts enrich the creature without enriching God.
14. Evil arises from the creature, never from deficiency in God.
- “God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one” (Jas 1:13).
- “God is light, and in him is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:5).
- Sin is not the overflow of conflict within God. It is the creature’s turning from the good.
15. Redemption arises from God’s prior love.
- “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son” (John 3:16).
- “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom 5:8).
- “Not that we have loved God but that he loved us” (1 John 4:10).
- The gospel does not make God loving. It reveals the love by which God freely gives himself to sinners.
16. In Christ, the blessed God gives himself to us.
- “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14:9).
- “In him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily” (Col 2:9).
- “From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace” (John 1:16).
- Christ does not merely deliver gifts from God. In the Son, God gives himself.
17. The Spirit brings us into communion with the triune God.
- “God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit” (Rom 5:5).
- “Through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father” (Eph 2:18).
- “The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God” (Rom 8:16).
- Salvation is life with the Father, through the Son, in the Spirit.
18. Human blessedness consists in knowing and enjoying God.
- “Whom have I in heaven but you?” (Ps 73:25).
- “As for me, it is good to be near God” (Ps 73:28).
- “This is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent” (John 17:3).
- The highest good of the creature is not autonomous happiness, but communion with God.
19. Salvation’s goal (telos) is in the enjoyment of God.
- “We shall see him as he is” (1 John 3:2).
- “They will see his face” (Rev 22:4).
- “So we will always be with the Lord” (1 Thess 4:17).
- “In your presence there is fullness of joy” (Ps 16:11).
- The final blessedness of the saints is God himself, known and enjoyed without sin, death, or distance.
20. All things are finally ordered to the glory of the blessed God.
- “From him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever” (Rom 11:36).
- “That God may be all in all” (1 Cor 15:28).
- “To the only God, our Savior…be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority” (Jude 25).
- Creation and redemption begin in divine fullness and end in the creature’s praise and enjoyment of the blessed God.
God is eternally blessed because he possesses in himself the infinite fullness of life, goodness, love, joy, and glory in the sacred communion of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Creation proceeds from divine fullness. Redemption brings sinners into communion with that fullness in Christ through the Spirit. Human blessedness reaches its telos in the vision and enjoyment of God.
