“Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honour and glory for ever and ever. Amen.”
(1 Timothy 1:17)
Undoubtedly one of the most profound and meaningful names for God is one He called Himself in a conversation with Moses in Exodus 3:14, and that is simply “I AM.”
We relate to instances of our life through the concepts of where and when. Any story, event, and even expectation of our own is set within the contexts of time and space. Such and such happened… is happening… or is expected to happen relative to a certain place and time. But not so with God, because HE just IS – forever everywhere.
Isaiah depicts this characteristic of God in beautiful imagery in Isaiah 57:15: “… the high and lofty One that inhabits eternity.” On further observation, this phrase seems quite interesting in that, at least in human terms, we commonly use the word “inhabit” in reference to space, or where one lives; and “eternity” commonly implies a time frame, or when. But God is Eternal Spirit, the great I AM, who is infinitely present in every where and every when.
The only living being able to make that claim is the Everlasting Father, “the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God.”
Matthew Mead said,
God is His own eternity. The eternity of God is nothing else but the duration of God. “Thou art the same, and thy years shall have no end,” (Ps. 102:27). If eternity were not in the essence of God, there would be something which was not God…therefore, eternity is essential to His being and life.
As believers, we can take great comfort in the truth that the eternal Son of God, Jesus Christ, is in every where and every when. My everlasting Father, His Son, and the gift of the Holy Spirit, are as near as my next breath. God as triune listens to me (Ps. 116:1), fights for me (Ps. 46), and tenderly cares for me (Ps. 91:4) right now, in this life. He is not disinterested, but very involved in my life.
And in the life to come, Christ grants me the glorious blessing to sit at His feet for all eternity, that I may continue to grow in my adoration and understanding of Him.
Even now, even when we don’t please our Lord Jesus Christ as we ought, He still gives us breath and life. In turn, as blood-bought believers, glorifying and adoring God should be an essential aspect of our daily life, as Christ is our King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God who inhabits eternity!
- Lord, only You are immutable, unchangeable. The Bible tells me that You are free from change of any kind, even so much as a shadow (James 1:17; Mal. 3:6; 1 Tim. 1:17; Rom. 1:23). Change is a characteristic of nature that passes away, but immutability belongs to You alone as Your nature remains forever perfect.
- Lord, You are pure invisible Spirit (John 4:24; 1 Tim. 1:17; Deut. 4:15-16; Luke 24:39). People throughout history have tried to depict You in a visible form. But You, Lord, have no bodily parts, nor can You be represented by any image or physical likeness (Isa: 40:18; Acts 17:29).
- Someone might say, “I do not believe anything I cannot see, so if I cannot see God, I do not believe in Him.” That same person has never seen atoms, a memory, love, hate, and so many other things, and yet he believes in them.
- Both the Old and New Testaments firmly establish that You are invisible. In addition, all visual representations of You are prohibited in the second of the Ten Commandments (Ex. 20:4–5; Deut. 5:8–9). Finally, the book of Isaiah contains one of the most complex condemnations of idolatry against You to be found anywhere in the Bible (Isa. 44:9–20). Help me never fall into idolatry of any kind, including creating an image of You in my mind which is a form of idolatry.
Further References for 1 Timothy 1:17
1 Tim. 6:16; Col. 1:15; Jude 1:25; John 1:18; 1 Tim. 6:15; 1 John 4:12; Job 23:8
