Maintaining a proper perspective on time is essential during both seasons of ease and periods of trial. Because time is finite, we must treasure our joys and endure our hardships with patience. Ultimately, to view the seasons of life correctly, we require the perspective of eternity. Without understanding eternity—an attribute of God Himself—we risk becoming over-immersed in fleeting joys or overburdened by time-bound trials.
Psalm 90 opens with a resounding affirmation that the God of Israel is eternal. As the psalmist Moses writes, “Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God” (v. 2). God’s eternal nature stands above creation, providing a necessary lens through which to view the brevity of life and the suffering it brings. Moses acknowledges that while our years may be seventy or eighty, they are often filled with toil (v. 10). Consequently, he prays for a heart of wisdom to number our days (v. 12), offering a vital eternal perspective on suffering.
At its core, God’s eternity means He is unbound by time. While humans are time-bound creatures living between an unchangeable past and an unknowable future, God exists as the Maker of all things, including time itself. Genesis 1:1-5 describes the beginning of days, nights, and the rotation of the earth, suggesting that time as we understand it began at creation. If time is a created element, then the Creator must exist timelessly above it. This theological truth points us toward the hope of heaven as a core teaching of eternity.
The idea of time is something we struggle to grasp. By that, I do not mean that some people are bad at timekeeping or poor at punctuality, but rather that all of us struggle to understand the notion of time and to articulate what it means. But as time-bound creatures, we struggle all the more with the notion of eternity. We cannot imagine any kind of experience or reality that is not defined by time. The very concept almost overwhelms our rational capacity. Yet that is exactly who God is: He is eternal. This is why God’s eternity is central to our understanding of Him and why it is at the heart of His revelation of Himself. When Moses asked God how he should refer to Him before Pharaoh, the Lord said to him, “I AM WHO I AM” (Ex. 3:14). God is the Great I AM. There is nothing to add, nothing to take away. He is the absolute existence—no development, no change, no growth, no reduction. There is nothing relative about God. He is in no sense constrained. He simply is. Therefore, when God came to earth and entered human history through the incarnation, Jesus the Son of God declared this same identity for Himself. John recorded it clearly in his gospel, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am” (John 8:58). Abraham had a beginning, but before him, says Jesus, “I am.” Absolute existence unbound by time.
Part of the reality of being time-bound creatures is that we experience everything in a progression. We move from one moment to another, encountering new things and new experiences all the time, and changing all the while as we pass through time. But it is not like that for the unchanging, eternal God. He, at once, holds time in its totality and sees history as a whole. God stands above time as the eternal One and as its Creator, but it is also true that He interacts with us in time. He is present and involved in the world, engaging with us as time-bound creatures. More than that, in the person of His Son, has entered into human history. God speaks in history; reveals Himself in history; makes promises, gives warnings, and responds to the sin and repentance of His people. He is patient in the unfolding of His will. All that is true, but at the very same time, He remains the eternal One.
C.S. Lewis writes of the “surprise” of the passing of time, “Notice how we are perpetually surprised at Time. (‘How time flies! Fancy John being grown-up and married? I can hardly believe it!’) In heaven’s name, why? Unless, indeed, there is something in us which is not temporal.” Most of us have experienced surprise at the passing of time. Something within us even mourns it. It means getting older, it means change, and it often means loss. The Scriptures tell us why we feel this way. We find the passing of time hard because “he has put eternity into man’s heart” (Eccl. 3:11). We feel we were not made to die and we long for eternity. We long for a life that lasts and for a reality that will endure beyond this passing world and its variation, loss, and decay. And the answer to this longing is not found in the sports car or plastic surgery of the midlife crisis. It is not found in success or wealth or fame. It is not found anywhere in this world. It is found only in the eternal God who holds time in His hand. You and I had a beginning, and we are bound by time. But here is what we can do in the face of our temporality: we can know and relate to the eternal God who has the power to give us life that will not end. Jesus tells us that eternal life is tied to knowing the eternal God. “And this is eternal life,” he says, “that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent” (John 17:3).
Adapted from God Alone by Jonathan Griffiths (© 2023). Published by Moody Publishers. Used by permission.
