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God...independent because he's interdependent?

Can we say that the reason God is independent is that he is interdependent? In the ultimate sense we cannot say that God needs himself since he already has himself i.e. you cannot need what you already fully possess.

However, when God embraced the creation through his incarnation and personally participated in its pain, suffering and loss as the flesh and blood Son of man, in some sense, he experienced some kind of loss/separation within the triune being of God i.e. what Christ formally fully had *he set aside for a time, experiencing **"loss" of what he ***possessed throughout eternity past? 

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Joh 17:5  And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.

(AMP)  And now, Father, glorify Me along with Yourself and restore Me to such majesty and honor in Your presence as I had with You before the world existed.

The above passage indicates during the incarnation, Christ was not participating in the full glory he had experienced from all eternity past - though this was restored. 

For a discussion on whether God "needs" usclick here. 

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Footnotes:

*Philippians 2 speaks of Christ setting aside something of his eternal attributes. Even today it appears Christ still exists in a localized physical (but glorified) body. This is a change from his previous experience of total omnipresence.

This raises the question of whether "God ever changes." God never changes in the essence of his being but is it possible he can change in the economy of his actions? The incarnation, life, death, and resurrection seem to indicate so. Though we may not be dogmatic on this or fully comprehend it - or should we - this passage indicates something along this line occurred.

**I put "loss" in quotes because ultimately this may have been gain and not loss in a similar way we gain a greater and fuller appreciation of God's unfettered presence through our loss of it i.e. as the saying goes, absence makes the heart grow fonder. Is this what it means for God to have the knowledge of good and evil, i.e. good in contrast to evil? Though Christ's suffering of evil occurred at a point in history, the knowledge of this was ever present with God since God is not bound to time. We are told at the outset this was a quality of God before man's rebellion and allure of gaining this quality was how humanity was enticed away from God.  

***i.e. omnipresence at a minimum? Though he initially set aside far more than this - e.g. he also set aside total omnipotence and omniscience, to name two of His major attributes - during the incarnation.

Christ's participation in the incarnation was not only for us but for himself - and the Godhead through him. By experiencing a self-imposed emptying (loss) he became experientially (more fully?) aware of aspects of himself he had not before, gaining first-hand experience and a greater appreciation of what he had in the fellowship/communion/union of the Father and Spirit.

Did God participate in and experience the evil of suffering for the same reason he allows us to; to create a greater appreciation for the presence of the Father by experiencing his absence?

In the truest and most important sense there is no "before" in God i.e. God IS, so there is no past, present, or future for Him; everything is present to God. This may explain why it says God knows good and evil. The experience of the incarnation, along with all its suffering, was in one sense present tense for Godwhile in some real sense also carried/acted out in time by the incarnate Christ. But not by necessity but choice, i.e. there was nothing lacking in God that required God to act in time, i.e. to create.

Why explore things that are only inferred in scripture and not


This post first appeared on Thoughts About God, please read the originial post: here

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God...independent because he's interdependent?

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