Walking Through Westminster, WCF 2.2

Westminster Confession of Faith 2.2

"God has all life, glory, goodness, blessedness, in and of Himself; and is alone in and unto Himself all-sufficient, not standing in need of any creatures which He has made, nor deriving any glory from them, but only manifesting His own glory in, by, unto, and upon them. He is the alone fountain of all being, of whom, through whom, and to whom are all things; and has most sovereign dominion over them, to do by them, for them, or upon them whatsoever Himself pleases. In His sight all things are open and manifest, His knowledge is infinite, infallible, and independent upon the creature, so as nothing is to Him contingent, or uncertain. He is most holy in all His counsels, in all His works, and in all His commands. To Him is due from angels and men, and every other creature, whatsoever worship, service, or obedience He is pleased to require of them."

Summary

      God is totally self-sufficient in every way. He has no need to get life, glory, goodness, or blessedness from anything else. Everything that is meant by those words and realities God has in and of Himself. God does not derive glory from any of His creatures; the word “derive” there meaning take from something as a source. God does receive glory from His creatures, but He is the source of all the glory which they then give back to Him. He is the sole source and foundation of all being, the Supreme Being not in the sense that He has more of a grasp on being than anything else, but because He is being Himself. In short, God depends on nothing else for His own existence, life, fellowship, glory, blessedness, etc. Every creature derives all of these things from Him in such a way that He loses nothing.

Because of His nature, He is sovereign over all things. He does everything that He pleases to do with His creation and He is right and good in everything that He does. He is all-knowing, nothing being hidden from Him, but all things being open and manifest. He knows all things, He knows them all perfectly, and He is dependent on nothing else for this knowledge. He is all-knowing, not merely in the sense that all knowledge is available to Him at His own leisure, but in the sense that all things are immediately known to Him always. He is not a librarian in a library filled with all knowledge, all things being merely available to Him for knowing, but rather He knows all things at all times. Nothing for Him is uncertain or contingent.

The overarching characteristic of God, as discussed in a prior section, is His holiness. He is holy, holy, holy in everything He does, everything He ordains, and everything He commands. Because of who He is, what He does, and how He does it, He is supremely worthy of worship, service, and obedience, in whatever way He chooses. Because of His supreme holiness, all the worship, service, and obedience that He requires is, by definition, holy. 

+ Blessings in Christ +