There is only one self-existent being, and that is Jehovah God. The existence of all other beings is arbitrary, or a matter of will. All creation might or might not have existed. Theologians correctly say that God’s existence is “necessary,” that it must be. It is not possible that God could ever not have been. God himself expressed it this way: “I AM.” He gave that as His name, indicating His nature. We exist because God willed us to exist, because He chose to make us. God did not come to being because He willed himself to be, neither did any other being create Him.

“In the beginning God,” Moses tells us of the origin of things. God is the beginning or the origin of all creation, but He was not created. He did not have a beginning. He is “from everlasting to everlasting.” No one made Him to be; He did not make himself to be. God is: that is all we can say about it. “Without him was not anything made that was made,” the Bible teaches us of the Son of God. This is a direct teaching of the self-existence of God. Anything that was made, was made by God, and therefore He could not have been made, because it is an absurdity to say that anything could have made itself.

“Who only hath immortality,” Paul said of our Lord. He was not given immortality: He has it. He had it in the beginning. It is a part of His divine nature. Man is mortal. Mortality is the potential for death. That which was brought to life can have its life taken from it. That which was brought into existence by an infinite power could just as easily be taken out of existence by that same power. Our never-dying souls will not be snuffed out, but our security is in the will and power of God. God gave us life and brought us into existence, and He could just as easily dissolve our existence.

There is a reason for our existence. We were created because God chose to create us for His glory. However, there is no “reason” for God’s existence. No one could ever tell why God exists; we can only state that He does exist. How vast is the gulf between the nature of God and the nature of man! That infinite contrast should make us stand in awe and prostrate ourselves before the great I AM.