As mortals, as much as we may admire independence as a social ideal, mankind is inherently dependent. To prove this point, a person needs only to peer into a cradle. From the moment of conception, infants depend entirely upon their parents for food, shelter, and protection. In the same manner, each one of us is ultimately dependent upon God, our Creator and Sustainer, for the very breath of life.

However much mankind might idealize the idea of independence, no one is truly independent in the ultimate sense of the word. Even the most rugged pioneers, such as Daniel Boone or Jim Bridger, were dependent upon rifle makers, blacksmiths, and ammunition suppliers back East; otherwise, their hunting and trapping would have been much more difficult, or even fruitless.

If we are honest and humble, none of us are truly independent in the sense that we do not need counsel, support, help, or advice from friends and family. There is no shame in this human dependence. In the Scriptures, we are taught that as God’s children, we are wise to seek Godly counsel in all decisions.

Even the most powerful men in the world have large staffs and assistants that make their work possible. Prime ministers and presidents, although they must make final decisions, are deciding for the good of millions of people. They have counselors and experts in economics, military science, diplomacy, and trade who give them advice and intelligence briefings on a daily basis. Indeed, even the most powerful earthly rulers cannot function apart from the assistance and counsel of others.

There is only One Being in all the universe Who is truly independent, and that is God Himself. He asks for advice from none. He is dependent upon no one, nor is He accountable to anyone. God owes His existence to none, and He acts according to His Own wisdom and design. God does not depend upon man for anything. According to Psalm 50:12, He says, “If I were hungry, I would not tell thee: for the world is mine, and the fulness thereof.”

The prophet Isaiah, in looking back to the dawn of Creation and the very beginning of time, gave an eloquent and all-encompassing description of the independence of our God.

Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and meted out heaven with the span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance? Who hath directed the Spirit of the LORD, or being his counsellor hath taught him? With whom took he counsel, and who instructed him, and taught him in the path of judgment, and taught him knowledge, and shewed to him the way of understanding? Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the balance.

—Isaiah 40:12–15

When God created mankind, He consulted none but Himself. “And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth” (Genesis 1:26).

God established on earth a clear relationship between Himself and man. Our God is independent, sovereign, and ultimately the Ruler of all life. He takes counsel only of Himself. God is subject to no human veto, answerable to no human parliament, and bound by no human judiciary. He is consistent with all His other attributes and cannot deny Himself. God and God alone is truly and eternally independent.

By contrast, man is dependent, yet responsible. Made in the image of God, man is granted the privilege of serving in a position of dominion over the rest of creation. Man’s independence is limited, structured, and described by a higher Power.

Man has liberty, but it is not absolute liberty. Man’s liberty is regulated and defined by God Himself. In Genesis 2, man was given the freedom to eat of any tree of the Garden, but God specifically set bounds upon that liberty. According to Genesis 2:15–17, “And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.”

May God help us to live within the bounds that He has wisely set. By God’s grace may we not live as the rebels described in Psalm 2:3. They took counsel against the LORD, and against His Anointed, and sought to “break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us.”

Rather, let us rejoice that an independent God has made us dependent upon Him. In this trusting dependence upon Him can we find true and perfect liberty. David testified of this freedom: “And I will walk at liberty: for I seek thy precepts” (Psalm 119:45). We can only be truly free when we realize that we are living in subjection to an independent, sovereign Lord.