God Needs Nothing

The infinite and omnipotent God has no lack and no need. Today, R.C. Sproul teaches that knowing God’s all-sufficient power helps us better understand creation, redemption, and the Christian life.

What does God need to live? Absolutely nothing. He doesn’t need air. He doesn’t need sunshine. He doesn’t need water. He doesn’t need Medicare. He doesn’t need fellowship. He needs absolutely nothing. What could you possibly do to add to the fullness of God’s being and sufficiency? God doesn’t need you. He doesn’t need anything from you or anything about you. And He doesn’t need me. Sometimes we actually like to think that if it weren’t for us, God’s kingdom would perish and God Himself would be deprived if somehow we did not do our thing.

Jonathan Edwards made a statement that the ministry that we give to those in need—to the hungry, to the naked, to the lonely—that God is pleased that we do those things because the only appropriate way for us to show our gratitude to God who needs nothing, who is all-sufficient, is to take from our sufficiency and minister to those who do need something—in His name. See, it’s the whole impetus for ministry. Not because we’re giving it to God; He doesn’t need it. But He has been pleased that we give it to those who do.

Now, consider the power of a being who needs nothing. That’s what God is like. And it is that power that is the energizing power for all created life. And one of the titles of the Holy Spirit is the word dunamis—“the power of God,” “the dynamite of God.” It is the Holy Spirit who has the power of being itself within Him. And we think that for the Holy Spirit to work in our lives to help us overcome a besetting sin would take a miracle of miracles. Do you have any idea of the power that is latent in the presence of God the Holy Spirit?

It’s the power by which the worlds were made. It’s the power by which that tree continues to exist. It’s the power by which the rock holds itself together rather than whirling away. It’s all the power of atomic energy, the power of electricity, the power of gravity, the power of the sea, the power of the wind, the power of the earthquake. All of that together doesn’t add up to a thumbnail’s worth of the power of God the Holy Spirit, because God the Holy Spirit has the very power of being, without which nothing exists at all. That’s the power of creation, and it’s that very power of creation that God unleashes in redemption in your life.