Don Stewart :: How Is God Greater than Angels or Humans?

How Is God Greater than Angels or Humans? (The Immensity of God)

The Attributes of God That Belong to Him Alone – Question 7

One of the attributes of God is known as His “immensity.” This concerns the fact that He is greater than the other personal beings that exist, whether they may be angels and humans. This can be seen in a number of ways.

1. He Is The Creator, Everything Else Is Created

God is the Creator, while humankind and angels are part of His creation. We are His creative work but no one created God. The Bible speaks of God creating in the beginning.

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. (Genesis 1:1 KJV)

The heavens and the earth is a way of saying the entire universe.

We also find that humanity is the result of the direct creation of the God of Scripture. It also says in Genesis,

So God created people in his own image; God patterned them after himself; male and female he created them. (Genesis 1:27 NLT)

God made the first humans, Adam and Eve. The same holds true for angels, they too are created beings.

2. He Is Infinite, Everything Else Is Finite

Another contrast to humans is God’s infinity. God had no beginning, and will have no end. The psalmist wrote,

Before the mountains were born or you brought forth the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God. (Psalm 90:2 NIV)

There has never been a time when God did not exist.

Humanity, on the other hand, is finite. There was a point in time when humanity and angels did not exist. The Bible explains it in this manner.

...then the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and the man became a living being. (Genesis 2:7 NRSV)

Before the creation of the first human, there was no existence.

There is a great gap between the Creator and the created in this instance.

3. He Is Totally Self-Sustaining While Everything Else Is Dependent

God alone is self-existent. That is He needs nothing apart from Himself to exist. The Apostle Paul spoke of God’s self-existence.

“Nor is He worshiped with men’s hands, as though He needed anything, since He gives to all life, breath, and all things.” (Acts 17:25 NKJV)

God is complete in Himself.

Paul wrote to the Galatians about God being God “by nature.”

Formerly, when you did not know God, you were enslaved to beings that by nature are not gods. (Galatians 4:8 NRSV)

He alone is self-existent. He is by nature God. He said,

Human beings have to depend upon many things to exist. The prophet Daniel told King Belshazzar that God held the king’s very life in His hands.

“Instead, you have set yourself up against the Lord of heaven...But you did not honor the God who holds in his hand your life and all your ways.” (Daniel 5:23 NIV)

These examples testify to the differences between the Creator and the creation. We are limited, He is unlimited. Thus, there is no real comparison between God and ourselves.

Summary – Question 7
How Is God Greater than Angels or Humans? (The Immensity of God)

The doctrine of God’s immensity stresses God’s greatness above angels and humans. This can be seen in a number of ways.

God is the Creator, while humanity and angels are part of the creation. He made us but nobody made Him. There was a time when we did not exist but there has never been a time when God has not existed.

God is infinite while everything else is finite. In other words, He is without any limits when it comes to both space and time. However, as we are all aware, we humans are limited to both space and time. We can be only in one place at one time. God has no such limits.

God needs nothing to exist. He is completely self-sufficient. Everything else in the created universe has to depend upon something else to exist. Again, the difference is huge.

Consequently there is a great gulf between the Creator and His personal creation, human beings and angels. This is what is meant by the “immensity of God.”