The Eternal God

What we are seeking, as we struggle in (uchi) and out (soto) of all these circles, is a safe and secure place to belong. The Bible is a book that points us to where we can find this place of belonging.

We all long for a relationship where we can be both fully known and fully accepted, a relationship that will never hurt or betray us.

According to the Bible, God first had this ideal relationship in himself. Before time, space and everything else was created, the triune God - Father, Son and Holy Spirit - had a perfectly loving relationship within himself.

In the depths of our hearts, we’re aware of this “inner (uchi) fellowship” that God has always enjoyed. Because we know it, the Bible tells us we long for it. Is this true? Did we humans have this kind of relationship with God a long time ago?

The Eternal God

Opening Questions

1. What has been the best human relationship you know?
2. Was it perfect, or will it be perfect forever? If not, why not?
3. How do you feel about the kind of relationship described in the booklet as one that we all long for?

To understand what the Bible says about God, we need to know that God is “eternal”. This is how the Old Testament of the Bible begins:

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

Genesis 1:1

The expression “the heavens and the earth” means “everything there is”.

• When was this “beginning”?
• What or who was there before the “beginning”?

The Bible tells us that the eternal God himself is (and always has been) the perfect relationship of uchi inner fellowship. And yet there is only one God. Check out these two verses from the New Testament of the Bible.

There is one God.

1 Timothy 2:5

God is love.

1 John 4:16

• How can God be both “one” and also “love”? 
• What do you think uchi inner fellowship in this God might be like?

The Bible says that God desires to share his love, not because he has to, but of his own free, overflowing goodness. In a letter in the New Testament of the Bible written to Christians by a man named Paul, it says:

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.

2 Corinthians 13:14

• In this Bible verse, three “Persons” are named. Who are they?
• What is said to be the particular property of each Person here?
• When the author (Paul) says, “be with you all”, what do you think he means?

It’s impossible for us really to get our heads around an “eternal” God! But that doesn’t mean it’s impossible to know God at all. According to the Bible, we human beings are made with an attunement to eternity.

He [God] has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.

Ecclesiastes 3:11

• What can a human heart know about God? 
• And what can we not know?

Concluding Questions

1. Do you feel drawn towards eternity? Why, or why not?
2. How do you feel about experiencing the grace, love, and fellowship of the eternal God’s uchi inner relationship?

View the Lesson 2 Manga

The ESV Bible. Crossway, 2001, www.esv.org/.

The Eternal God

Human beings were created to live in relationship. This is because God himself is a relational being, and humanity was created by him in his image. This video explores page 2 of the booklet, considering the eternal, triune nature of God.