What does it really mean for God to be eternal? If God created the heavens and the earth, did He also create time itself—or has He always existed within it? Scripture describes God as unchanging and eternal, yet also declares that all things were made through the Word. What does it mean for the Word to be the beginning and the end, and to enter time as flesh? And if the Spirit is the source of life and the giver of eternal life, what does this mystery of the Father, the Son, and the Spirit reveal about the identity of Jesus Christ and our relationship with God?
God is Eternal and Unchanging
And God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM”; and He said, “This is what you shall say to the sons of Israel: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’” (Exodus 3:14)
I am the first and I am the last, And there is no God besides Me. (Isaiah 44:6)
“For I, the LORD, do not change (Malachi 3:6)
God describes Himself as unchanging and eternal. But Scripture does not explain exactly what eternity means. There are two major possibilities. If God is eternal, does this mean that He has always existed and will always exist, and that there is genuinely a “before” and “after” in His experience? Or did God create time itself, meaning that He is not bound by it and that there is no genuine “before” or “after” in His experience? Both possibilities raise their own difficulties and impossibilities. Before we address the difficulties, we must first address what “time” itself is and how God experiences it
God and Time Paradox
There is an appointed time for everything. And there is a time for every matter under heaven– (Ecclesiastes 3:1)
Then God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night, and they shall serve as signs and for seasons, and for days and years; (Genesis 1:14)
The closest definition of Time in Scriptures is too simplistic and mostly explain how we experience time.
Time is not an entirely independent dimension separate from space. Based on our modern understanding, space and time are unified into a four-dimensional structure called spacetime. Consequently, measurements of space and time are interconnected and can depend upon an observer’s environment.
God did not create time and is subject to it
For a thousand years in Your sight Are like yesterday when it passes by, Or like a watch in the night. (Psalms 90:4)
But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day. (II Peter 3:8)
If we take these verses at face value and interpret them according to our ordinary understanding of time, they describe God in relation to temporal duration. God is not being described as completely unrelated to temporal duration. The verses use temporal intervals—days, years, yesterday, and a watch in the night—to describe God’s perspective. If God experiences or perceives temporal succession, then, He is related to time rather than being entirely outside it. Therefore, if “God experiences time” means that God experiences temporal succession, then He would necessarily be subject to time and didn’t create it.
This creates a much greater problem that He is, was and always will be within this spacetime. Because He is subject to spacetime, this could imply that He cannot create the space He is subject to. Hence, the above passage should be understood as how ancients understood time and not at face value.
God created time and is outside of it
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. (Genesis 1:1)
Scripture is clear that God created space and everything in it, and that the “beginning” refers to the start of time. Since space is not independent of time, God created spacetime.
Remember the former things long past, For I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is no one like Me, Declaring the end from the beginning, And from ancient times things which have not been done, Saying, ‘My plan will be established, And I will accomplish all My good pleasure’; (Isaiah 46:9-10)
Scripture clearly tells us God has foreknowledge of everything. No one can declare the end from the beginning unless they are outside of time. Therefore, these verses strongly suggest that God is outside of time and is not bound by temporal succession.
This creates a much greater problem: the statement that “God is, was, and always will be” doesn’t make sense if God is outside of time, because eternity itself cannot simply be understood as an infinite measure of time. If God created space and time, then He must exist independently of both space and time. For God, being outside of time means there is no “when” from His perspective and no temporal succession. Yet this creates a philosophical problem concerning creation itself. How can a timeless God create something if creating appears to involve an action occurring at a particular point in time? Without time, there is no “before” or “after,” and no “when” in which the act of creation takes place. Any act of creation from the realm where time doesn’t exist would also be eternal because there is no temporal succession. To put it more bluntly, God never existed before His act of creation because there is no “before” where time did not yet exist.
The Father and the Son
Did God create time or not? The true answer to this question is both fascinating and deeply connected to the very nature of how we understand God Himself.
God the Father
God is eternal, and Scripture repeatedly affirms this. If God created the universe, then space, time, and everything within the physical universe ultimately depend upon Him rather than existing independently of Him.
If God is timeless and do not change, a profound difficulty arises: creation appears to involve an act or transition—something does not exist, and then it exists.
“For I, the LORD, do not change; .. (Malachi 3:6)
A genuinely timeless God i.e., who is not bound by time, cannot undergo temporal succession or change. God Himself declares He do not change. How, then, can a timeless God create a temporal universe? God cannot simply “create time” at some point in the past, because the concepts of “at some point” and “in the past” already assumes time exists. Thus, if creation requires temporal succession in the Creator, a timeless God cannot create.
.. I am He, I am the first, I am also the last. (Isaiah 48:12)
If something exists outside or independently of God i.e., His creation, then it must also be eternal, because God cannot create or destroy anything if both creation and destruction require time. But we know only God is Eternal and His creation is not. Hence, there was, is, and will always be only God—and creation cannot exist outside of Him. We call Him, God the Father.
God the Son
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him not even one thing came into being that has come into being. (John 1:1-3)
As we saw earlier, God cannot create anything that is temporal or changing because time doesn’t exist for Him. But, Scripture also tell us, there was “Word” and this “Word” was with God and also was “God”. The verse is attributing “Word” not only as something which was with God but also mention it as God Himself. Hence, the Word is Eternal and also outside of “Time”.
I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.” (Revelation of John 22:13)
Jesus Christ, who is the Word, is not only the first and the last, but also the “beginning and the end” which is a measure of time. This reinforces the idea that He does not merely encompass all of time but the “beginning” and “end” of time itself—the very fabric of “time”. In other words, time is an attribute of the Word, just like wisdom is mentioned as an attribute of God.
in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom He also made the world. And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power. When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, (Hebrews 1:2-3)
Since the Word is the beginning and the end, which encompass all of time, all things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.
And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us; and we saw His glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John 1:14)
The Word, who is the beginning and the end, the entire “timeline” became Flesh and dwelt among us — is Jesus Christ, God the Son.
Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away. (Matthew 24:35)
There is a true reason why His words will never pass away. It is because He is the timeline of everything that exists. Without Him, there is no “time.”
God the Spirit
God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” (John 4:24)
Scripture clearly teaches us that God is Spirit, distinct from the Word.
Then the LORD God formed the man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and the man became a living person. (Genesis 2:7)
Then the LORD said, “My Spirit will not remain with man forever, because he is also flesh; nevertheless his days shall be 120 years.” (Genesis 6:3)
It is the Spirit who gives life; … (John 6:63)
God the Father is beyond time. God the Son is the one through whom all things came into being; therefore, creation itself—including time—exists through Him. If God had simply stopped at the point of bringing the created world into existence, it would remain like a world without form and void: barren, lifeless, and without the fullness of life. But God did not leave His creation as something merely mechanical, like robots imitating life. He breathed His own breath into us and gave us His Spirit so that we might truly live, just as God Himself is living. We live because God has given us His Spirit. Our life is not merely the result of being created; it is sustained by the life-giving Spirit that comes from God.
then the dust will return to the earth as it was, and the spirit will return to God who gave it. (Ecclesiastes 12:7)
God’s Spirit is the source of life. God gives us the breath and spirit by which we live, and when we die, our spirit returns to God who gave it.
but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never be thirsty; but the water that I will give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up to eternal life.” (John 4:14)
.. Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink.
The one who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.’” But this He said in reference to the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive; for the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified. (John 7:37-39)
Jesus Christ reveals an important role of the Spirit in eternal life. It is so important that it reshapes our understanding of what eternal life even means. We live because of God’s Spirit, and it returns to God after we die. However, God sends the Holy Spirit to those who believe in Christ, and the Spirit springs up within them like rivers of living water, leading to eternal life. Hence, even after our flesh return to dust, we will still have the Spirit in our innermost being, giving us eternal life.
Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life; the one who believes in Me will live, even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?”
(John 11:25-26)
This is why Jesus said that those who believe in Him will never truly die, even though they may die physically, because God’s Spirit dwells within them and springs up to eternal life.
Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless someone is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. (John 3:5)
As an interesting note, Jesus speaks of being “born of water and the Spirit” in order to enter the kingdom of God. The imagery of being born of “water” is used to refer natural birth and the imagery of “living water” to describe the Spirit, who is given to believers and becomes in them a source of eternal life.
Conclusion
Lord, You have been our dwelling place in all generations. Before the mountains were born Or You gave birth to the earth and the world, Even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God. (Psalms 90:1-2)
Moses presents God as the dwelling place of all generations and uses the imagery of birth to describe God bringing forth the earth and the world. At the same time, he presents God as existing from everlasting to everlasting.
God is eternal and unchanging, while time belongs to the created order. Scripture presents the Word as being with God in the beginning and as God Himself, through whom all things came into being. The Word is also described as the beginning and the end, revealing a relationship with time that goes beyond ordinary human experience. In Jesus Christ, the eternal Word became Flesh and entered our temporal world. The Spirit, who gives life and dwells within believers, connects us to the eternal life of God. The mystery of time therefore ultimately points us toward the identity of Christ as the eternal Word through whom all things exist, while the Spirit reveals how God gives His life-giving Spirit to His creation, sustaining our life and leading believers into eternal life.