God bless you in the exalted name of Jesus Christ, through whom we have life eternal, that we might know the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom He sent. (John 17:3).
We live in a physical world with its four known space-time dimensions of length, width, height & depth and time. However, God dwells outside those dimensions in the spirit realm which is beyond the confines and perception of our physical senses. God isn’t limited by the physical laws and dimensions that govern our world. (We’ll see this when we read Isaiah 57:15 later.)
In Psalms 90:4, Moses used a simple yet profound analogy in describing the timelessness of God: He said, “For a thousand years in thy sight are like a day that has just gone by, or like a watch in the night.” In a sense, the marking of time is irrelevant to God because He transcends it. II Peter 3:8 (which quotes Psalms 90:4) cautions us not to be ignorant of one critical fact — that God’s perspective on time is far different from ours.
Psalms 102:25-27:
Of old hast thou laid the foundation of the earth: and the heavens are the work of thy hands. 26 They shall perish, but thou shalt endure: yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment; as a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be changed: 27 But thou art the same, and thy years shall have no end.
God’s years have no end but this world’s will. We live in a disposable universe. God is going to get rid of this one and give us a new one. The first one is past; we live in the second heaven and earth; and there is a third one coming.
The Lord does not count time as we do; He transcends it. He is above and beyond and outside of the sphere of time. God sees all of eternity’s past and eternity’s future. He sees the beginning and the end at the same time. The time that passes on earth is of no consequence from God’s timeless perspective. A second is no different from an eon; a billion years pass like seconds to the eternal God. God is unaffected and unrestricted by all succession of time. Now this may be difficult to get our heads around for time is a current reality we cannot avoid and a dimension we cannot control. It is relentlessly pressing onward.
Time is what makes change and motion possible. Indeed, we mark time with motion. What’s one revolution of the earth on its axis? [A day] What’s one revolution of the earth around the sun? [A year] Ravi Zacharias, a preeminent Christian apologist in a teaching entitled Raised to Run said that, “We live in time which is a punctuated calibration of change for us, but God is unchanging. He lives in the eternal now. God works at appointed times and in the fulfilment of those times God does His marvelous bidding.”
God is not subject to the rules of time and space like His creation. He does not experience that succession of moments, that continuous onslaught of seconds and minutes and hours like we do. He is outside of time, able to view all of the reality of time and space as one succinct and timeless reality. God’s existence is truly timeless, and we describe Him as a God without a beginning or end, eternal, infinite, everlasting. Psalms 90:2 declares, “From everlasting to everlasting You are God.” He always was and always will be. There is no measure or limit to His wisdom, strength or understanding. God does not weaken, fail or change in anyway with the passage of time. In the midst of an ever-changing world that seems to be getting worse and worse, let’s find hope, rest, and assurance in the God who not only is Himself not subject to time, but uses time most wonderfully to the good of His people and the purposes of His glory.