God Has No Potential

You and I live in a constant state of change. People, circumstances, and our physical environment are all we know through our five senses and by observing the natural sciences. These are always in a constant flux, an ebb and flow of change, things appear to settle into being constant only to turn and change again.

Here’s what I mean:

* Printed newspaper circulation has decreased by 7,000,000 readers over the last 25 years. They are losing to online newspapers which have increased in readership by 30,000,000 in the last 5 years.

* Google has 31 billion searches conducted every month. That is an increase from 2.7 billion in 2006.

* 12 years ago, YouTube, Facebook, and MySpace did not exist: now they collectively receive 250,000,000 unique visitors. Compare that to the 6,000,000 unique visitors who watch CNN, NBC, and ABC every month (NBC began almost 60 years ago).

* The number of internet devices in 1984 was 1,000. The number of internet devices in 2008 was 1,000,000,000.

* “The computer in your cell phone today is 1,000,000 times cheaper and 1,000 times more powerful and about 100,000 times smaller than the one computer at MIT in 1965. So what used to fit in a building now fits in your pocket, what fits in your pocket now will fit inside a blood cell in 25 years”

* The top 10 high-paying jobs in 2010 did not exist in 2004.

* The amount of technical information doubles every two years. What does this mean for students aspiring for a four-year technical diploma? Half of what they learned in their first year of study will be outdated by their third year of study.

*Each hour, 67 babies are born in the U.S, 274 in China, 395 in India, and 694,000 songs were downloaded illegally. – Ray Kurvweil

And then we have in Malachi (and many other places in Scripture) this statement by God: “For I the Lord do not change” (Malachi 3:6). So there is one thing, one reality, one Person in the universe who actually does not change? That’s something that causes our brains to stutter a bit because we don’t have very clear categories of relating to someone or something that doesn’t change.

ACTUS PURUS

However, here is how Christians think: Thomas Aquinas, the 12th-century Italian priest and philosopher who is arguably the most influential thinker to engage the Western world said that God is actus purus—he is a “pure act.”

This means that God has no potential.

God does not aspire to anything.

God has no “goals.”

God is totally and completely perfect in himself from eternity past to eternity future.

Another way to say it is that God has no potential that is not already fully realized. Or as Michael Horton tells us, “God cannot be more infinite, loving, or holy tomorrow than he already is today.” 

AMAZING, UNCHANGING GRACE

However, having a God who cannot and will not change can be a very haunting or a very comforting thing depending on your view of him.

It might seem haunting in a sense to think that God will never compromise his standards for entry into his kingdom. That’s a scary thought for most of the world. This means that he’ll never change and make the narrow mountainside path, the person and work of Jesus, into an eight-lane freeway into heaven. This will not change.

However, it’s also far more comforting to know that he won’t change his standards—it will always be “grace alone” and no other means. If you are a Christian, Abba will never change the way he relates to you, calling you sons and daughters, forgiven, clean and beloved.

He is Actus Purus.

He is Abba. 

 

This post originally appeared here.