I was introduced to a worship song not long ago that really ministered to me…except for the first line of the second verse. (It’s the only bad line in the song, and I’ve learned to spit out such bones, so I still listen to it occasionally.) “You didn’t want heaven without us, so Jesus, you brought heaven down.”
Jesus didn’t want heaven without us? This is why He came to the earth? Was the Godhead incomplete without us? No.
My intention with this post is not to throw stones at songwriters, but to make sure that no one at PBF misunderstood me to be making a similar point in the message last Sunday. I said Sunday, “The unity, the joy of fellowship that the Godhead enjoyed in eternity past—Jesus wanted to return to it, but he wanted to bring us into it with Him.”
It is absolutely the case that God is abundantly generous in His desire to give Himself to us. We see the same thing in Jesus, especially in that High Priestly Prayer of John 17. Indeed, His desire to give Himself played a role in His decisions to create the world and to redeem man.
But we ought not think that we have a needy God. Some people understand God's impulse to share Himself and then make this false step: “God needed to share Himself with us. God needed to love us. God needed to express His grace and forgiveness.”
The concept of a needy God is a biblical problem. God very straightforwardly declares He doesn’t need anything. “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).
Need flows one way. All created things are contingent upon God. Speaking of God the Son, Paul wrote, “For by Him all things were created…and in Him all things hold together” (Col 1:16-17). Likewise, “He upholds the universe by the word of his power” (Heb. 1:3). Therefore, “If He should set His heart to it and gather to Himself His spirit and His breath, all flesh would perish together, and man would return to dust” (Job 34:14-15). Man needs God. God does not need man.
The concept of a needy God is also a logical problem. The Bible teaches that God is eternal: “Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God” (Psa 90:2). “The number of His years is unsearchable” (Job 36:26). The Godhead existed in eternity past prior to the creation. Since God is eternal and transcends creation, He cannot need anything in creation. Otherwise, He could not have existed in eternity past without creation.
No, the Trinity enjoyed fullness of joy, inter-Trinitarian fellowship from eternity past. Needed nothing. The Father desired to share Himself. The Son desired to fulfill the Father’s will by coming to the earth. The Spirit desired to apply the work of Christ to the elect that we might participate with them in fellowship.
Desire is different than need. We don’t have a needy God, but an abundantly generous and gracious one.
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