How Do We Know God Is Real? Part 1
Part 1 - The Self Existent God
No One Has Seen God
John 1:18 (NKJV)
“No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him.”
Explanation
God, in His divine essence, is invisible. Human eyes cannot see God as He is. Jesus came to reveal the Father to humanity. If we want to know what God is like, we look at Jesus Christ.
2. God Dwells in Unapproachable Light
1 Timothy 6:15–16 (NKJV)
”…He who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see, to whom be honor and everlasting power. Amen.”
Explanation
God is so holy, glorious, and eternal that sinful humanity cannot approach Him in His full divine essence. This doesn’t mean God is hiding from us; it means His infinite holiness is beyond our natural ability to behold. God must reveal Himself if we are to know Him.
3. Before Abraham Was, I AM
John 8:58 (NKJV)
“Jesus said to them, ‘Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM.’”
Explanation
Jesus did not say, “Before Abraham was, I was.” He said, “I AM,” deliberately identifying Himself with the divine name revealed to Moses in Exodus 3:14. Jesus was claiming eternal existence. Abraham had a beginning, but Jesus is eternal. He exists outside of time and shares in the eternal nature of God.
Bringing Them Together
These three verses present a powerful progression:
• John 1:18 — God’s divine essence is invisible; no one has seen Him.
• 1 Timothy 6:15–16 — God dwells in unapproachable light and cannot be seen in His full glory.
• John 8:58 — Jesus identifies Himself with the eternal “I AM,” revealing that the eternal God has made Himself known through Christ.
Together, they emphasize both God’s transcendence (He is beyond creation and unseen in His essence) and God’s self-revelation (He has made Himself known through Jesus Christ).
How Do We Know God Is Real?
Part 1 — The Self-Existent God
Opening Question
One of the oldest questions in history is:
“Does God really exist?”
Another question usually follows:
“If God created everything…who created God?”
That sounds like a fair question.
The Bible answers it with one of the deepest truths about God.
God Is Self-Existent
The theological word is Aseity.
Aseity simply means God exists by His own nature.
He doesn’t need oxygen.
He doesn’t need food.
He doesn’t need energy.
He doesn’t need another god to create Him.
Everything in creation depends on something else.
Only God depends on nothing.
God doesn’t merely have life…
God is life.
Jesus said,
John 5:26 (NKJV)
“For as the Father has life in Himself, so He has granted the Son to have life in Himself.”
Notice those words:
Life in Himself.
Not borrowed life.
Not created life.
Life that has always existed.
Story #1 — The Chain
Imagine a chain hanging from your ceiling.
You ask,
“What is holding the chain up?”
Someone says,
“The first link.”
You ask,
“What holds the first link?”
“The second link.”
“What holds the second?”
“The third.”
If every link depends on another link…
Eventually…
You must arrive at something outside the chain that’s holding the entire thing together.
Otherwise the chain falls.
The universe is exactly the same.
If everything has a cause…
Eventually there must be an uncaused Cause.
That is what Christians call God.
God Has No Beginning
The Bible never attempts to prove God exists.
It simply begins with Him.
Genesis 1:1 (NKJV)
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”
Before there was time…
God was.
Before there were stars…
God was.
Before there was matter…
God was.
Psalm 90:2 (NKJV)
“Before the mountains were brought forth, Or ever You had formed the earth and the world, Even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God.”
Notice…
From everlasting…
to everlasting.
No beginning.
No ending.
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Isaiah 40:28 (NKJV)
“Have you not known? Have you not heard? The everlasting God, the Lord, The Creator of the ends of the earth, Neither faints nor is weary. His understanding is unsearchable.”
Everything in creation becomes tired.
God never does.
Moses Asked God’s Name
Moses asked one of the greatest questions ever recorded.
“If the people ask who sent me…
what should I tell them?”
Listen carefully to God’s answer.
Exodus 3:13–14 (NKJV)
“Then Moses said to God, ‘Indeed, when I come to the children of Israel and say to them, “The God of your fathers has sent me to you,” and they say to me, “What is His name?” what shall I say to them?’
And God said to Moses, ‘I AM WHO I AM.’
And He said, ‘Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, “I AM has sent me to you.”’”
God did not answer the question the way humans answer.
He revealed His nature.
“I AM.”
Meaning…
I exist.
I always have.
I always will.
No one made Me.
God Is Spirit
Many people reject God because they cannot see Him.
But God never claimed to be material.
Jesus said,
John 4:24 (NKJV)
“God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”
Spirit is invisible.
Immaterial.
Not confined to space.
Story #2 — The Wind
Have you ever seen the wind?
No.
You’ve never actually seen wind.
You’ve only seen what it moves.
Trees bend.
Leaves blow.
Flags wave.
The wind is invisible.
But no reasonable person concludes…
“There is no wind.”
The evidence is everywhere.
The same is true of God.
You may not see Him with your eyes.
But His fingerprints are everywhere.
God’s Invisible Attributes
Paul wrote,
Romans 1:20 (NKJV)
“For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse.”
Creation points beyond itself.
A painting points to a painter.
A building points to a builder.
A book points to an author.
Creation points to a Creator.
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Image and Likeness
The Bible says,
Genesis 1:26–27 (NKJV)
“Then God said, ‘Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness…’
So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.”
The image of God speaks of what is invisible.
• Spirit
• Mind
• Conscience
• Morality
• Reason
• Love
• Creativity
The likeness is the outward expression of that invisible reality.
• Eyes
• Hands
• Mouth
• Voice
• Facial expressions
• Actions
The invisible person expresses himself through the visible body.
Jesus Reveals the Invisible God
Paul writes,
Colossians 1:15 (NKJV)
“He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.”
And Hebrews says,
Hebrews 1:3 (NKJV)
“Who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power…”
Jesus is the visible revelation of the invisible God.
Three More Powerful Verses
Acts 17:24–25 (NKJV)
“God, who made the world and everything in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands. Nor is He worshiped with men’s hands, as though He needed anything, since He gives to all life, breath, and all things.”
God is not sustained by creation.
Creation is sustained by Him.
Revelation 1:8 (NKJV)
“‘I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End,’ says the Lord, ‘who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.’”
Everything has a first and last.
God encompasses both.
John 1:1–3 (NKJV)
“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 were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.”
Notice the contrast.
Everything that was made had a beginning.
The Word was not made
He already was.
Closing Challenge
Every worldview must answer one question:
What has always existed?
The atheist says matter.
The naturalist says energy.
The Christian says the self-existent Creator.
The evidence of creation, morality, reason, consciousness, and the testimony of Scripture all point to the same conclusion:
There is an eternal, self-existent God who created all things, sustains all things, and has revealed Himself most fully in Jesus Christ.
Next Session: Why did God create humanity with free will, and why does evil exist if God is good?