Aseity of God in John

I am reading through the Gospel of John and Christian Theology edited by Richard Bauckham and Carl Mosser. This week I am reading the article by D. Jeffrey Bingham called Christianizing Divine Aseity: Irenaus Reads John.

The article points to Irenaus conviction of the Aseity of God and the reason for his focus was to combat Gnostic teachings of the time. Aseity or adversus haereses reveals Irenaeus's deep conviction of God's self-sufficiency.

"The Creator, he believes, stands in need of nothing and no one. The Father, with his Son (Word) and Spirit, needs no instruments to create. Through the agency and means of his Son and Spirit, the Father willingly and intentionally creates, governs and provides; creation and providence are mediated neither by angles nor any other creatures. As the Origionator of life, God does not need what he originates, for he is uncreated, without beginning or end, and separate from the creature. He does not need our possessions, our communion, our fruits, our offerings, our gifts, our oblations, our allengiance, our love, our obedience, our sacrifices, our service, our good works. Even the incarnation satiffies no need in God; God has no need.

The creature, however, stands in great need. Humans, for example, need many instruments to produce their intentions. But far more fundamentally, they need the Creator and to be related properly to him. They need revelation from the Father's Word and Spirit. They need for their own glorification, to be in communion with God, to be befriended by him, in fellowship with him. They need to offer something to God, to give gifts, to serve for their own benefit, fruitfulness, and glory, to provide oblations from the creations for their own education in gratitude and holy service which brings forth God's blessing. They need to obey for their own profit, to do good works so that God might recompense them with good things; to embrace righteousness and contrition that they might be justified, to bathe in the laver of regeneration that they might be cleansed."1

Irenaeus see this principle in John 1:3 All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. Or in John 15:16 You did not choose me, but I chose you.. . Or 19:11 Jesus answered. "You could have no power at all against Me unless it had been given you from above. Therefore the one who delivered Me to you has the greater sin."

One of the Gnostic myths of the times was that their were angelic creators.

I see why Irenaeus would establish this principle especially in light of the common teachings of the time and the popularity of some Gnostic teachings. It brings up some questions for me. How can a relationship work with one person having no need ? Can God want our love yet not need our love ? Why would that be true ? Does God just want our worship or is their any need in Him for his creation to worship the Creator. Is there any need in God for His created to become whole and fulfill what He created them to be ? These are some questions for me to chew on.


1 the Gospel of John and Christian Theology edited by Richard Bauckham and Carl Mosser p.55