The Eternity of God

I. The eternity of God is His infinite tenure of life. His life is nothing else but Himself; it is entirely beyond our understanding and cannot be described in human words, any more than the essence of God could be painted with brushes. As creatures bound to time, we naturally think of existence as unfolding in moments—with beginnings and endings—and so we speak of life in temporal terms. But God’s eternity stands apart from all that. Time and eternity are not just different—they are opposed in every way. While time is the unfolding of life in successive instants, eternity is the simultaneous possession of life in its completeness. God’s eternity is not made of past, present, or future. As St. Denis tells us, there is no “was” in God, for He never had a past. He never “will be,” for there is no unrealized future before Him. Nor can we say that He simply “is,” for our present is passing and incomplete, but His existence is full and without change.

Because we are unable to grasp eternity as it truly is, we often imagine God’s life as if it were stretched out over an infinite timeline—“He always was,” we say, and “He always will be,” with a present moment in between, “He is.” We picture eternity by stacking countless moments upon each other, as if adding more and more time could eventually amount to eternity. But this is not the way to understand God. In fact, such imagining misleads us, because it tries to use the very element—time—that eternity denies. So we must mortify our curiosity. Scripture warns us: “Seek not the things that are too high for thee, and search not into things above thy ability: for it is not necessary for thee to see with thy eyes the things that are hid.” We must humbly adore what we cannot explain.

II. Eternity is the possession of a life without any limits. This boundlessness includes the complete absence of beginning and end, which belong only to time and to the creatures that exist in time. We cannot measure backward through the vast stretches of created existence, nor can we calculate its duration. But we do know that everything we see was once nothing, and every created thing—whether a force, a planet, or a human soul—is gradually using up its strength and will one day fall silent in death. All things in time fade and pass. Yet beyond all this stands God, the all-pervading and unchanging Existence. “The heavens are the works of Thy hands. They shall perish, but Thou remainest. Thou art always the same, and Thy years shall not fail.” Therefore, as Scripture proclaims: “To the King of ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory for ever and ever.”

III. God’s eternity is also said to be complete and perfect because it is entirely free from all the limitations and deficiencies that mark life lived in time. Our life, by contrast, is always unfolding. It is never whole in a single moment, and there is always something just beyond us—something we hope for or something we regret. While each phase of life brings its own work and joys, each also comes with struggles and losses. We do not possess our life in fullness. We live it in dependence on others and alongside countless other souls. Though we are immortal, and though we may one day pass through an endless series of moments, we still do not live as God lives. His life is absolute, ours is not. Even the life of glory that we will receive in heaven will not be equal to His in independence, completeness, or perfection.

And yet, God in His mercy promises us some measure of participation in that eternal life—so far above our comprehension. We shall be raised one day into the glory and beauty and happiness of His own life, a joy we cannot now imagine or fully understand. Let us give thanks to God for this promise, and desire that happy day with all our hearts.