"performance" or action by faith

What is the difference between

·        action by faith and

·        performance based action 

First, how they are alike. 

They both require

·        choice 

·        effort/action

·        giving to get

So in the above ways they are exactly the same. And this is also why they are so easily confused with each other. Why? Because understanding the difference is a matter of the heart, not simply the head i.e. knowing the movement/ motives of our heart is key but usually very hard to discern. 

However, they are totally different in other vital ways for the same reason; in ways not easily identified because they deal with the ways of the heart; hearts that are often hidden from our full awareness. 

Defining terms

Performance is acting to obtain something missing...a sense of "being right," being forgiven, accepted and valued by and through our efforts/actions. It's about proving ones goodness/worth/value by and through self/flesh driven (vs Spirit/love driven) effort/action. 

Action by faith, is acting out of fullness because of what you already have...you already know you are forgiven, accepted and of great value in the eyes of God. Your dependence/trust in God and his assessment of you is what you base your value/worth on. In other words, action by faith is based on knowing that someone of infinite wisdom, judgment and value sees you as good, right and of infinite value/loved (even though practically we often are not good and certainly never good enough). 

When you believe and fully embrace this (i.e. by faith), you respond accordingly i.e. you love Him back in response to his perfect love for you. The more you believe his assessment to be true the greater your action...actions that are an overflow of love, not an attempt to win love i.e. not performing ("jumping through hoops") to gain love.

To operate by faith is possible only because your value to God was already totally proven by actions someone else ¹took on your behalf i.e. God doesn't just declare you valuable, he treats you as valuable i.e. he took action in and through Christ to prove how much he values you. 

Christ took these actions so you might enter into and participate in the same love of the Father the Son has and fully participates in (and has always had from all eternity past). 

Christ wanted you to have what he has; the unlimited, unobstructed love of his Father. So much so he willingly gave up something of that love, that you might fully have it (2 Corinthians 8:9). 

This is evidence of how great he values you and has nothing but infinite love for you. He finds great joy and satisfaction in knowing he makes this happen for you. 

What kind of actions did Christ take that prove his love?

He set aside the fullness of his glory and took on human form so he could die in order to settle the debt of your unfulfilled obligation to love and honor God as ¹he deserves and you were designed to do (as well as loving your neighbor). This was necessary because your refusal to live according to his design alienates you from the Father and his love. We turned our back on God, he never turned his back on us  As evidenced by sending Christ to us - Emmanuel - God with us.

He did this for two key reasons. 

1. Because you could not  
2. So you would no longer have to in order to be fully in union with God again.

Christ also lived to fulfill your obligations to live as you were designed i.e. he lived exclusively to show forth to others the great honor and worth of his Father that you were meant and designed to do yourself. 

Why would he do all this? He didn't act out of obligation, guilt, need or any other reason. He created you and therefore values (loves) you. You are in his image. 

What do we get, how do we get it? 

So if we, because of Christ, already have God's full, unlimited and complete love, what are we getting when we act by faith?

We are "getting" (entering into or participating in) what we already have. 

To fully experience and benefit from his love already fixed upon us and fully ours in Christ, we must participate in it. 

This is like having the most renown gourmet of all time prepare, cook and set out for you the most delicious and healthy meal possible, with all their experience, resources, skill, thought and effort required to prepare it. A meal that would cost far more then usual (at no cost to you btw) or more than you have. A meal specifically and exclusively prepared for you. A meal that looks and smells exquisite. Clearly an act of care and love. 

Yet, one you won't fully appreciate and enjoy until you sit down and actually eat it. When you do, only then will you completely experience and enjoy the thoughtfulness and care (love) intended for and directed at you by this highly regarded gourmet chef who prepared it. 

So how do we eat/participate in the infinite love of the Father?

Christ himself tells us how he did when he said the following…

"As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. 

If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love.

These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full." Joh 15:9-11  

First, we must understand, we are talking about the perfect, infinite and infinitely loved Son of the eternal Father. Nothing Christ did ever caused His Father to love him. The Father loves the Son because of who Christ is, not because of what he did (though what Christ did certainly confirmed why the Father loves the Son with infinite affection). Christ and the Father have a love relationship that is constant and has always existed from all eternity past. There has never been a time when the Father and Son did not love each other, nor will there ever be. There was and is ²nothing Christ could do, add to it, or take away from this infinite love.

Nevertheless, Christ still went out early in the morning seeking his Father in prayer. Why? In doing so, was he trying to earn, through his efforts (performance), what was already fully his? NO!!! He did so to participate in the love that was already there, waiting for him to partake of. 

To fully abide in/experience his Fathers love he pursued the Fathers will i.e. followed his directions/commands. And because he loved and fully trusted his Father he found joy in doing so. This wasn't a performance to impress his Father. It was a demonstration and display of love and honor for the love (Father) of his heart. And there is something about acting on our affections for another that makes them more real. 

How does anyone experience a love relationship? Do they experience it best when they are miles apart and never interact or speak to the one they love? No, the experience occurs best and most when they are fully present, engaged and participating in that relationship - e.g. when apart from the one they most cherish, they travel to be with the other so they can be together or they get on the phone to talk to each other and see how the other is doing and how they can best show their care/love for each other etc. The greater the participation in the relationship the greater the experience of the love that is already there. 

Who has not been in a relationship with someone near and dear, such as a spouse, only to experience the affection of that relationship wane when time is not spent together. Is it not that way with any love relationship? 

If so, why would it not also be the same with us in our relationship with God? Wouldn't it be exactly the same (i.e. we desire and find love through relationship [time spent together] with God just like with others)? Isn't God a relational being as well, just like any person? We are no less relational beings when it comes to God simply because that relationship is with God instead of another fellow image bearer. In fact, all "personhood" is an expression of the very image of God himself. 

It all starts with and comes from God.

When we consider personhood comes from God as well as relationship; that God is a person in relationship via the Father, Son and Spirit, this makes a relationship with God even more significant and powerful. A relationship not with just any person but the very person who is the source of love and relationship and has always and only existed in relationship. 

The key difference is God does not need us, we need him. But he enjoys relationship with us no less. In fact He delights in relationship. He created us for it and is the source of it. It is who he is and it (i.e. love) drives all he does. 

So how do we participate in this love relationship with God? How do you with any relationship. You cherish the other person in that relationship. Some of the ways you do is find out what they like and then you do all you can to do that for them or give it to them i.e. you seek to discover everything you can about them and how you can best carry out their wishes and show them how much you value and love them by doing so. In so doing you are saying (by action, not just words) they are important to you. You value them. The greater your effort (faithfulness) to do this the greater the evidence of your value/love of them and the relationship you have together. 

This is just as true (maybe more so) with God as with any relationship. 

Joh 14:15  "If you love me, you will keep my commandments. 

For a further discussion on love being something other then just feelings click here. 
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¹Because we fail to carry out this primary design of loving and honoring God according to the greatness of his worth, we also fail to carry out our secondary design to love our neighbor as we love ourselves.

²not to suggest Christ's obedience was robotic, automatic or without real challenge as demonstrated in his wilderness temptation, the garden of Gethsemane and cry to his Father on the cross of feeling abandoned.

God's love...conditional or unconditional?

What does it mean - and not mean - when were are told God loves us unconditionally? 

* For those who are in Christ, Gods love is totally unconditional. Nothing they do, good or bad, can add to or take away from his infinite never-ending love. 

Rom 5:8  but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Eph 2:5  even when we were dead in our trespasses, (God) made us alive together with Christ—by grace, you have been saved—

Rom 8:35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? (NOTHING!) 39 ... will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

* However the most stringent conditions required to be in harmony with God and partake in his beauty, love, and joy are still fully in effect. 

Mat 5:17  “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.

Mat 5:18  For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished. 

But they were also perfectly met/satisfied, just not by us. We were not able to meet them. So Jesus met them for us and then assigned/credited his track record of perfect obedience to us as if we lived it. In Christ God now see's us and loves us as if we are perfectly righteous.

*However, once we have received his free offer/gift of righteousness through Christ, our fully taking part in and experiencing this perfectly secured unconditional love is conditional. It is conditioned upon our faith and faithfulness to God. 

We are not talking about securing God's love and acceptance of us (objectively). Christ already accomplished this for us. We are talking about experiencing and participating in this fully secured love. 

There is nothing for us to do to make God's love more certain/secure and us more acceptable i.e nothing we do will add to or take away from that love in and through Christ.

Because of Christ's faithfulness/efforts we are free to pursue God with his perfect love fully set upon us even if we do not pursue him perfectly. Nothing stops God's love; not even our unfaithfulness.

Our being perfectly loved in Christ regardless of our faithfulness frees and empowers us to become perfect in devotion and faithfulness to Christ. 

In summary here are the two contrasting ways we relate to God's love: 

• his love is unconditional -- or rather conditioned upon Christ's efforts 
• our experiencing and fully participating in it is conditional - based on our faith/faithfulness.

This is possibly one of the hardest distinctions to grasp and causes great confusion for many. We mix these up all the time. I did and on occasion have to remind myself of this. 

We must keep these separate while at the same time see how they are vitally connected. The latter -  participating in God's love - is grounded in and flows out of the former - we are perfectly and fully loved in Christ. We must constantly remind ourselves that we are fully accepted and loved no matter what and yet at the same time know that to fully participate in that love, requires our complete trust/obedience. 

Without the former, the latter would not be possible and without the latter, we will never fully participate in the former. In other words, to fully benefit from the former, we must do the latter.

The following verses support the latter i.e. the conditional nature of experiencing/ participating in God's love.  

John 14:21  Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest  myself to him.”...

This verse tells us obedience is:

 *evidence of our love for God, not the cause of it 

"Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me..." 

*it is also the means by which we experience the Fathers love 

"... he who loves me will be loved by my Father...," 

*and Christ's love 

"...and I (Christ) will love him and manifest myself to him.”  

John 14:23  Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.

Again  

*evidence of our love 

"...if anyone loves me, he will keep my word..."

*means by which we experience God's love 

"...my Father will love him..." 

*and Christs...

"we will come to him and make our home with him..."

Heb 4:16  Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

Jas 4:8  draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

The following shows how the latter is only possible because of the former. 

Heb 7:19  (for the law made nothing perfect); but on the other hand, a better hope is introduced, through which we draw near to God.

Heb 10:22  let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

Heb 11:6  And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.

The following verse shows how we can never experience the former by our efforts/obedience to the law.

Heb 10:1  For since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year, make perfect those who draw near.

The following passage shows how we are free to do the latter because the former has been fully taken care of. 

Romans 8:1-4 ¹There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. ²For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. ³For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, ⁴in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

For a more succinct explanation click here

Having vs participating in God's love

Having and participating in God's love are two separate things (though not unrelated). 

The tension between these is throughout scripture.

Having God's love is based solely on (secured by) the faithfulness/work of another i.e. on Christ's faithful obedience and sacrifice. 

*Nothing we do can add to or take away from this. 

This is complete/finished.

Participating in God's love is based on our faithfulness/work. 

**Only what we do determines this. 

This is ongoing and never finished.

Having his love is like owning a bank account with unlimited funds, available to you at any and all times.

Participating in his love is making a withdrawal and using it to honor/love someone (whether that be God, someone else or ourselves).

We can have the former and never experience the latter but we can never have (participate in) the latter without the former.

And

We will never truly and fully know (experience) the former until we ***fully participate in the latter.

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*how can it since it's not based on our efforts to begin with.

**this is not to say we do this in our own power but only in the power of the Spirit. For several posts addressing the Spirit see the following:

Spirit driven

The empowering of Spirit

Operating in Spirit...mystical or practical?

Defining terms-flesh-spirit 

For a post discussing our "work" click here.

***we will not fully participate in this in this life but only begin to. The degree to which we do now, determines the degree to which we experience him in eternity.

What does God value in us?

Why is humility so important? 

What best brings it about? 

Is there any connection between our value, as bearers of God's image, and humility?

We will start by looking at humility and then how this is connected to being like God - Jesus i.e. in His image.

There are at least three foundational truths to grasp for humility to increase in us...

1. We must know - in our heart not just our head - that all that we are and have comes from God - especially our being in His image with the capacity to enter into the union of Father, Son, and Spirit.

2. We must know God values us regardless of our failures (or struggles). In fact He actually uses struggles to advance us and strengthen our relationship with Him.

3. We must know God values us regardless of what anyone else thinks or says about us - i.e. we don't need to ¹promote ourselves and derive our sense of value through the praise of others. 

We are already fully and eternally valued and cherished by God. If God is for us who can ultimately be against us? Hint...nothing and no one...including ourselves! 

What is the basis of God's value of us? It is threefold.

1. God made us like Himself. It is His image in us that He values. Or it may be more accurate to say he values us because we are in his image.

But why does God value his image in us? What is it about His image He finds so attractive and appealing even though we are so broken, often ugly, full of doubts and distrust of Him? (...or maybe in part indirectly because of these - i.e. because of the humility our failures and struggles help develop in us). 

Christ also being in the image of God may be an important first clue to our value and humility. Let's take a closer look.

God knows our capacity and sees fully what we are becoming and will be that day we are finally and fully glorified and perfectly united with Him in ²eternity (because we are in his image we will be more ³like God on that day than we can even imagine or now see).

2. God no longer holds our failures against us - Christ already fully addressed them ⁴legally. 

In Christ, there is now no barrier between God and us on his side of the relationship (though we wander back and forth in our trust of Him i.e. our side of the relationship always fluctuates, but never His side). 

Therefore He fully and perfectly receives and embraces us in His love. He will never love us anymore (now or in eternity) than He already does because of Christ. To use a description by Paul, we are seated in heavenly places in Christ, at this very moment and every moment since we first trusted Christ! 

 

3. He knows where our struggles and failures are ultimately taking us. Since, in Christ, our rebellious distrust of God is no longer a legal issue, He now focuses on how to maximize the use of our failures and struggles ⁴practically i.e. how they are used to humble us - if we let them - and how they advance our increased participation in Him in all His infinite glory both now but particularly in eternity. 

Our eternal reward is God Himself. The more we humble ourselves the more we see and experience Him in the fullness of His glory and the greater our joy.

God is thrilled and delighted in us - because He is thrilled and delighted in Himself and His Son first and how we are becoming more like His Son through our struggles - and how we will finally be like Him when we are fully in union with Him and fully glorified alongside Him the moment we step into eternity. Because, at that time, our union with Him will be complete and perfect in the same way His Son's is - and was from eternity past and is again since his resurrection - the Son who is already and fully in the perfect image of the Father.

We will be like the prodigal son that his father lost, ⁵who returned. For now, God eagerly watches our progress as we grow in greater trust. He awaits our perfect restoration and union with him (in the same way the prodigal son's father did). At that time God will throw His arms around us, kiss our neck and throw a feast for us, ⁹celebrating our complete union and exaltation with Him forevermore. We will fully experience our glory by fully partaking of His. 

Like Christ, His only begotten Son, we too are his sons and daughters (even though Christ is the only eternally begotten Son; like Christ, we are the sons and daughters of the all-glorious Creator God). 

Because of what Christ did for us, He earned the status of being the first born of many "brothers" i.e. of additional sons and daughters. 

He was also the first (first fruits) to go through death and come out the other side fully glorified and victorious. This suggests there are others like Him to follow i.e. others who put their complete trust in Christ (as Christ did in the Father) and what He did to restore us to the Father. As God's sons and daughters in Christ we are next for we too have died in Christ and therefore will also be resurrected in glory. 

Imagine the delight the Father had in His Son from all eternity past and the excitement he felt upon His return to Heaven and being restored to His full glory and by His side again. The Father has this same ⁶eager anticipation and excitement for being with us and our being united with Him. He values us as His sons and daughters in the same way He values Jesus, His eternal, only begotten Son.

And what a day of joy and celebration that will be for God and us! The greatness of our capacity to be like God (Christ) and enjoy and reflect him throughout eternity will only be 2nd to Christ Himself! 

And the greater our ⁷humbling in this life - whether self imposed (through self denial and sacrificial love of others) or through painful circumstances - the more fully we will participate and engage in, experience, and enjoy the Father and Son in, by, and through the Spirit - both now, but more importantly throughout eternity. At that time we will fully join in the celebration and divine dance of glory and love between the Father and Son in, through, and by the Spirit. The greater our humility and trust now the more we enter into and partake of the only true God now but especially in eternity.

So never shy away from discipline, obedience to the Father, struggle, disappointment, set backs, suffering but embrace them - in the same way Christ did. The more we do the more we become like Christ and the more fully we will partake of glory (God's and our own) the same way Christ does.

God Himself is our reward and struggle is often the primary means by which we draw nearer to Him. The ⁸more you partake of challenges of any kind - either self imposed or externally imposed - and let them humble you, the more fully you will be able to engage and participate in God in all His wonder, majesty, beauty and glory both now but especially throughout eternity.

So count it all joy when you go through various struggles. Fix your eyes on Jesus the author and finisher of our faith who for the joy set before Him endured the greatest pain. Get ready for His celebration of you and your joining Him in the greatest party you will ever have or experience. A celebration that never ends! This is the essence and glory of heaven.

For a discussion on what makes Christ unique as the only begotten son click here. 

For a discussion on the humility of God click here

For a discussion on why evil exists click here.

For a discussion on if we are accountable for Adams rebellion click here.

For a discussion on who we are but who we are not yet but will be click here.

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¹Self promotion - exaltation - is at the heart of pride and pride is the opposite of humility. We seek to promote ourselves to fill the void caused by God's absence, brought about by our rejecting and distrusting God in all His care, love, value, support, advancement and promotion of us. To lay down attempts to advance ourselves and receive the love, care and support of another requires humility and trust (and not just any "other" but the all wise, loving and powerful Creator God). It is acknowledging our dependence on another versus being our own god i.e. vs being independent. It is the reversal of the spirit of distrust and rebellion displayed by Adam in the Eden.

²We have the short view. God has the long view which happens to also be the most important and true view.  

"So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient (temporary, fleeting), but the things that are unseen are eternal (permanent, unshakable)" 2 Cor 4:16‭-‬18

³The potential of our being like God and fully experiencing Him lies dormant in us as bearers of His image. This capacity was not lost in our rebellion but lethally suppressed i.e. we died spiritually the day we rebelled and chose to be our own god. When we rebelled and broke trust with God, our spiritual light went out (though the capacity for that light to be turned back on remained). When we turned away from God, our full brilliance - glory - went dormant. What was left was a spiritual void - hunger - that we now seek to fill. But due to our rebellious distrust of the only One who can fill it, we seek glory outside of and apart from God through creation, instead of in and through Him who is the Creator.

Now we treat God as our enemy and the one that blocks (prevents) us from obtaining fullness of life - or so we think - through created things instead of the Creator of them. 

 

But is this true? Do we really think he's our enemy? How do we know? How can we tell?

If we get angry, when our plans to gain life outside of God are thwarted, we are ultimately shaking our fist at God. We believe He's the cause of our pain when it is His absence - due to our distrust of Him - that is the actual cause.

Physical death is evidence and the outward manifestation of our internal spiritual death that occurred at the rebellion of our original parents, Adam and Eve. In order for our true spiritual brilliance to be completely manifested in and through us again, we have to abandon our pursuit of being our own god and be fully united with - plugged into - the source of life and love - the all glorious, brilliant, majestic, and beautiful God who is our Creator and the Source of us and all things. God alone is our true life source - the source of all glory and brilliance...and of our glory and our brilliance - we are not. 

Being reunited with God - the source of life, love and all things - only occurs in and through placing our trust in Christs efforts on our behalf, not our own.

⁴Our rebellious unbelief (sin) is addressed in 2 ways:

Legally - objectively. Our rebellion is no longer held against us because of Christ and His bearing the full legal consequences of that rebellion i.e. God's condemnation and judgment for our rebellion are gone, removed forever and never revisited again by God. Christ bore all of it when He died and came back to life, putting these away from us forever.

Practically - subjectively. As we become more aware of the depth of our rebellious distrust we are humbled and increasingly understand the significance of Christ fully removing the legal consequences of our rebellion and our desperate need for Him.

⁵Due to his son humbling himself because of his failure to make it on his own.

⁶And not the Father only but the Son also eagerly anticipated His return as well.

⁷Challenges will either make us distrusting and bitter or better. It is our choice. We must choose to believe He is working for our good or not i.e. we are tested on whether we believe he is for us and not against us, just as Christ was tested in the wilderness, in the Garden of Gethsemane and on the cross.

⁸Do not question God's love and the good intentions He has toward you when allowing you to enter into and go through struggles or fiery trails. He is working in you things you do not yet fully see or understand, to humble you and enable you to be more like his Son so that you can better feast with Him in eternity as the Son does.

So "count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing..." - Jas 1:2‭-‬5

 

⁹If this is the response of a finite and flawed human father, imagine the response of a perfect, infinitely wise, loving, and all powerful heavenly Father. I would say we can't and won't be able to fully grasp this until that day we are looking face to face into His eyes.


A personal note regarding this post...

I used to dread dying and have always hoped I would die quietly in my sleep some day but after understanding the truths above I am inclined to accept the most challenging death, and now recognize going through such a death might humble me further so I might be exalted even more when I finally step into eternity with God. 

The closeness of our union with God and extent of our partaking of God in eternity is in proportion to our humility in this present life. 

Don't shy away from the things that humble you, embrace them. Doing so increases your capacity to experience more of God's embrace of you. Not His actual embrace (i.e. He already perfectly receives us now in Christ) - but our more fully receiving and experiencing His embrace of us now emotionally. This is already perfectly ours in Christ because of His efforts (not yours) on your behalf.

 

Immutability vs Aseity...Does God change

This post may raise more questions than it answers. If so, I think they are worth raising. Anyone who wishes to add to this discussion, I invite you to in the comment section below. 

Is the community of Father, Son, and Spirit, static or dynamic? (The operative word being "community" vs God's essence).

What do I mean?

We are told God never changes (he is immutable). We see this along with His ¹aseity when he describes Himself as "I AM" i.e. Who God is, He always has been and always will be. He is the same, yesterday, today, and forever. He is the only never-changing, ever-present, self-sustained (aseity) being among all beings. 

We might even say he is never changing (immutable) because he is self-sustaining (aseity). He needs nothing or no one - outside of himself - to be fully and perfectly God. 

But in what sense is he never changing? Is he unchanging in every aspect of His being? Does he ever change in the way he expresses or experiences Himself - within the community of Father, Son, and Spirit - or without toward others, i.e. in the "economic" expression of His unchanging essence? 

Does the way - or manner in which - He displays the fullness of His majesty and glory ever change? But this is a different question, right? Or is it?

Is it possible that God can enter into and experience a fuller participation of himself - of His essence? Does God's immutability require that God can never engage in a new or fuller expression of his love within the relationship of Father, Son, and Spirit by extending it out to others and doing whatever is necessary to do so? This certainly appears to have occurred during and since the incarnation of Christ. 

Everything is present to God, yet somehow Christ entered and took part in time in a way he had not before the incarnation. Possibly Christ's stepping into time via his physicality was the primary expression of His incarnation i.e. taking on human form was necessary for him to participate in time since everything is present to God. We could say this was a change in how God addressed things outside Himself (vs within Himself, which never changes). A paradox we might not be able to fully grasp and make sense of logically since God is three persons while only one God, yet, in some real way, it is true. 

Some try to address this paradox by saying Christ experienced time as a man but not as God. The problem is Christ was both God and man in one person (he may have emptied himself of certain divine attributes while on earth but he never stopped being God). The best we can determine, he is both God and man to this day and will be ²throughout eternity. Only logic - certainly not scripture - seeks to separate what God appears to have joined. 

Where we finite creatures get into trouble is trying to force things to be logical when God doesn't. There is and always will be mystery within God because of God being infinite and we, in our understanding, power, and presence, are finite i.e. we are limited, God is not. There are no actual contradictions within God but that doesn't mean we are able to fully understand everything about Him. Though we are in His image, God's ways are not our ways and ours are not his. The infinite God trying to explain to finite man all there is to know about Him is like a calculus teacher trying to explain calculus to an ant. The only way that would be possible is if the teacher somehow imparted special knowledge to the ant to just get the basics - and in this case, since the teacher is Almighty God himself, this is not only possible but necessary. But if God chose to do so, it would only be because God did this supernaturally and not because of us i.e. not because of any natural, innate ability we have to grasp the infinite God unaided. Nor would God do so out of something lacking within Him. Remember he is the "I AM" - self-sustaining God - who needs nothing or no one other them himself. 

If God chose to go about things in such a way as to enter a fuller and deeper experience of himself, this is not something God has to do i.e. there is nothing missing or lacking within God. He does not need to and is no less or more God in doing or not doing so. It is simply a fuller engagement and participation in who He already is. If anything drives God it is a desire to more fully participate in the fellowship of love between the Father, Son, and Spirit.

To say it another way, there is nothing outside of God forcing him to act in any particular

way. But that is different from something within God moving Him to carry out a particular action. All God's actions are determined by who God IS, within Himself, and not by any outside influence. Any and all things done by God come from within Him i.e. are driven internally, not externally. For nothing is greater than God or more worth knowing than God, even for Him.

One thing we can be sure of, scripture must always be the acid test of defining who God is, not logic. I say this because efforts to understand God often look to logic more than scripture. 

I'm not suggesting scripture is illogical, but there are truths in scripture that go beyond our ability to reason and understand (i.e. we are finite - limited). They do not always appear logical but appear to contradict each other. Yet we see this in scripture often. Examples would be how man is fully accountable for choosing or not choosing God but God is the author and "finisher" of salvation or that God is 3 persons yet one God or Christ is fully God yet fully man. As a result, we have different conclusions among great minds on these as well as other theological points. Whereas if we allow scripture to say what it says and not force it to say something else in order for it to work for us logically i.e. in order to believe it's true whether we can make logical sense of seemingly contradictory qualities about God in scripture - we would have less disagreement and get much closer to an accurate understanding of who God is, even though we might not have a full understanding and "closure" about who he is to the degree we would like to ³logically.  

The bottom line is God called us to live by faith, and that is not always simple or easy. We like control over faith and can use logic as a form of control e.g. if we can understand how God operates, we might be able to predict (i.e. "control") how he will work in our lives. Use reason, but when reason comes up short, we simply must trust God, and accept His ways are not ours or ours are His.

What makes God "tick"

The love of God poured out to others is love flowing out from the fullness of God's being, i.e. it is not done out of a need or void within Him, but out of the fullness of who He is. God acts out of fullness, not out of need or something lacking within Himself. God's desire to pour himself forth and the giving of Himself comes from a desire that others benefit by the fullness of who He is. Does God also benefit? Yes, in the sense that he finds joy in seeing other's experience and know him to a greater degree, but not in the sense that this adds anything to God's being or essence i.e. makes Him more God. He already is fully God. He is not becoming God.

Why? Because God needs nothing or no one. He already has everything in the fullness of community within the Father, Son, and Spirit. If God had never created, he would be just as much God as he has been from all eternity past.

However, because God has the greatest worth above all things, and is Father, Son, and Spirit, and desires for us to take part in this Trinitarian community to the greatest extent possible it is only reasonable that God would desire, if possible, to partake of this community to the greatest extent and experience more of who he is in fuller and deeper ways. You could say God "needs" himself i.e. He desires to participate more fully into His love, among and between Father and Son, in by and through the Spirit. And if there is a way for God to increase or expand participation in the love between Father, Son, and Spirit by creating others like Himself as His image-bearers and giving them a will to choose or not choose him, then rescue them from the consequences of not choosing him, this would certainly not involve God needing anyone or thing outside himself.

For a further discussion on how God stepped into time for us click here. 

For a further discussion on why Christ is the only begotten of the Father click here. 

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¹The Aseity (Self-Existence) of God | Monergism

 https://www.monergism.com/topics/god’s-attributes/aseity-self-existence-god

The Aseity (Self-Existence) of God "The Father has life in himself." - John 5:26 

"The God who made the world and all things in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands; neither is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all life and breath and all things." Acts 17:24-25

²Is Christ less God because he is fully man or less of a man because he is fully God? No, not according to scripture which takes precedence over logic which may appear to suggest otherwise. However scripture is the final authority, not reason.  This does not mean scripture is unreasonable or illogical but when it appears God's words are in conflict with logic, the God inspired words recorded - i.e. the Bible - must be the final authority by virtue of being God's words i.e. God is the final and only arbitrator of truth.

³For a fuller discussion on the limits of logic and the value of paradox and biblical truths in tension, click here.