‘Behold, the Lamb of God’s
ide o amnos tou
theou
College Study
32nd teaching
4.8.2013
“God’s Immanence”
God’s Infinity is a great subject and certainly worthy of
much more study. Someone write a book on it! But tonight, we must leave
Infinity behind. And with Infinity, we also leave behind the Negative
attributes of God, those attributes which say “God is not” such and such a way.
So to summarize (and you thought the review was over), what
were the Negative attributes we covered:
1. Impassibility, 2. Immateriality, 3. Incomprehensibility
(partial), 4. Impeccability, 5. Immortality, 6. Immutability, 7. Infinity.
And there happens to be seven. Look at that.
So tonight, in leaving behind the Negative attributes,
we’re going to move on to the remainder of God’s metaphysical attributes. Once
we finish up His metaphysical attributes, we’ll start on His moral and
relational attributes (His love, grace, justice, mercy, etc.). It feels like
we’ll soon be at the half-way point for Theology Proper. Incredible that we’ve
been studying one Being for all these weeks and there is still so much more to
study, so much more to meditate on and so much more depth to God than just what
we’ve covered thus far.
Turn to Matthew
1:18-23
This is a passage with which we’re familiar. It’s the
Christmas story. But neatly tucked in here is the name Immanuel, meaning “God
with us”. This is a prophetic and symbolic name for Jesus Christ. It comes from
the prophecy of Isaiah 7. It
symbolizes the truth that Jesus is Divine. It says that God became flesh, born
of a virgin, that He came to be with
His people, that He might save them. The Savior has come: Immanuel.
This name for Jesus illustrates our topic tonight. Immanuel
means “God with us”, God nearby, God near at hand, God being present with us.
Our study tonight is entitled “God’s Immanence”.
In reflecting on this topic over the past week, I think
that the subject of God’s Immanence is one of the most important truths we can
come to understand in a practical way. I think that the knowledge of God’s
Immanence, and acting upon that
knowledge, will have a dramatic effect upon our Christian experience and the
way that we live our lives.
It’s interesting that before the birth of Jesus, before
Immanuel came, the world was mucking about without hearing from God, without
being near to God, just wandering around, stumbling around in the dark for
hundreds of years since the last prophetic voice of the Old Testament era had
ceased.
Does that somehow describe your own Christian experience?
Do you feel as if your life is aimless, that you’re just mucking about in the
dark, not hearing from God or feeling near to God, just wandering around in the
dark? I believe, if we’re honest, we may be experiencing a Christianity just
like that, if not now then we probably have in the past.
The subject of God’s Immanence speaks to you and I in our
wandering, in our aimlessness, in our feeling distant from God.
But in all things we need clarity and understanding. In researching
for this study, I came across a forum wherein they were discussing Immanence.
One post began “…my own take on this is…” and I stopped reading right there.
God forbid I give you my own take on
this. We must know simply and solitarily what God’s own take is on this.
Therefore, with such a great subject in need of great
clarity, we will cover four points tonight, that we may know and understand how
we ought to live as Christians:
1.
The Definition of Immanence
2.
The Kindred-doctrines of
Immanence
3.
The Biblical Basis for
Immanence
4.
A Survey of God’s Presence
1.
The Definition of Immanence
Immanence is not to be confused with Imminence,
which refers to the timing of the rapture. Immanence, rather, has nothing to do
with the rapture. It’s a different word. So if you were thinking that, stop.
Immanence is a word like pretty much all these fancy
theological words: it comes from the Latin language. It comes from the Latin
words im- meaning in and manere which means “to dwell”. Thus immanere means “to dwell in or remain in, to stay in or live in”.
To give us a good picture of what immanere means, let me tell you that we get our English word manor (as in a mansion, a big ol’
dwelling place) from the same Latin word manere.
It means to dwell in.
Now running with this idea of dwelling in a house we find
that there is another idea associated with Immanence. Immanence implies
activity and has been associated with God’s activity in the universe.
So for our example of a house, take my apartment: I live
here. I dwell in this place. I am immanere
here. But I don’t simply exist. It’s not just that my body spatially takes
up room in here. When you say you live somewhere, that implies that you live there, not just that you exist
there. I don’t lie on the floor in a total catatonic state. No, I am active in
my home, in the place in which I am present, where I dwell. I do all kinds of
things in here.
Now when this is applied to God as an attribute, what are
we saying? We are saying that God metaphysically pervades and permeates the
material universe, that He, in one sense, “indwells” it. We are also saying
that God is active in the universe. And of course, the biblical record is full
of accounts in which God stepped into history and acted. God takes part in the
world, in the past and in the present, and even in the future.
So… what does Immanence mean? Immanence means to dwell in
and it implies activity. God is present in the universe and active in the
universe.
Now, earlier I mentioned that we need clarity with this
subject. We must be careful. This all-present presence of God immediately
presents us with a danger! This danger was one that the pagan religions fell
into: that is, worshiping nature. While nature as a general and broad
revelation of God was designed to point to its Creator, humanity has mistaken
it and worshiped the creation itself in place of the Creator.
Romans 1:20-23,
“For since the creation of the world His
invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are
made, even His eternal power and [divine nature], so that they are without excuse, because, although they knew God,
they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their
thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise, they
became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made
like corruptible man—and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things.”
And there you have an explanation of why there are so many
religions in the world: they all got it confused. They were mistaken. They
turned to worshiping the creature rather than the Creator. And that is why the
Romans worshiped thunder and lightning. And that is why the Egyptians worshiped
the sun. And that is why the Greeks worshiped the abstract concepts of love and
war. And that is why in India cows are considered to be sacred. And that is why
all these peoples throughout history have revered monkeys and snakes and birds
and men themselves.
But while God is present in the world, He is not the world
itself. Though He pervades and permeates the universe, He is not the universe.
Though He is active on the Earth, He is not any part of the Earth. Therefore,
we should not worship the sun. The sun is not God. God’s presence penetrates and
permeates the sun. But He is not the sun. And God is also not a mountain or a
river or a star or any other created thing in the universe, although He is
present throughout it all.
Therefore, Immanence means literally the quality of
indwelling or being inherent. And it implies activity within the place of
dwelling. God is in the world but not of it. Sound familiar. He’s not of this
world. But He is present and active in it. Immanence refers to God’s indwelling
and active Presence.
First danger cleared. On to the second point.
2.
The Kindred-Doctrines of
Immanence
We’re going to compare and contrast three doctrines with
each other.
There are two other doctrines related to Immanence, which
we call kindred-doctrines. They are Omnipresence and Transcendence. We already
covered Omnipresence. Look up the notes on the Facebook page for further study.
And next week we’ll cover Transcendence.
So to break it down: Omnipresence means all-present
everywhere. Immanence means indwelling and active in the universe. Transcendence
means above and beyond the universe.
*Question: what’s the difference between Omnipresence and
Immanence? I was wondering this earlier.
I found this helpful quote online: “Transcendence and
immanence are relational, not spatial terms. They define the way persons relate
to each other. Transcendence has to do with otherness,
the fact that one person is not another person, nor an extension of another
person. Immanence has to do with closeness of relationship; with the aspects of
relationship which produce unity or a point of identity. The former carries the
idea of being outside, the latter of being inside some relationship
category.”
So to put it into other words, Omnipresence is a strictly
spatial description of God’s presence, while Immanence is a relational
description of God’s presence. Omnipresence says God is everywhere in the
universe. Immanence says God dwells in and acts in the universe. They describe
nearly the same thing, but Omnipresence is spatial and Immanence is relational.
*Next question: are immanence and transcendence opposites?
Yes. Clearly, Immanence and Transcendence are opposites. One means nearby, the
other means far away. They are opposite but not opposing. They aren’t
contradictions. Both are taught in Scripture. God is both in the universe and
beyond the universe. Jeremiah 23:23,
“’Am I a God near at hand’, says the
LORD, ‘and not a God afar off?’”
Note that Immanence and Transcendence are
necessarily true of God at the same time. The God of the Bible is both and must be both. Immanence by itself is
heresy.
Immanence by itself, a God that is only in the universe and
would thereby not be a creator of the universe, would merely be a part of the
universe. That’s Pantheism and Panentheism, that everything is God and God is
in everything. Why, in this respect, you and I are God or a part of God at
least. No, no, remember Immanuel. He is a Person, not merely a part or parts of
the universe.
On the other hand, Transcendence by itself would mean that
God is beyond the universe, unreachable and distant, a God that does not act
within the universe, that is never present in it, that never sent His Son
Immanuel and that never dwells with man. That’s Deism, the false belief that God
transcends the universe and takes no part in it. That smacks of the Muslim god
Allah, aloof and unconcerned with humanity. Again, remember Immanuel. God is
not so Transcendent that He is not with us.
Clearly, the Bible teaches both Immanence and Transcendence
in a blend of perfect harmony. It does not teach Pantheism or Deism.
More on God’s Transcendence next week.
One more thought. Earlier I realized something. We’ve been
studying God’s attributes and it seems to me that God has the best possible attributes
and combination of attributes. For example here, if He were only immanent, He
could not be a Person worthy of worship. He would simply be a byproduct of the
functions of the universe. Moreover, if God were only transcendent, then you
could hardly know anything about Him and He could hardly be called loving,
since He would never have acted on our behalf to save us, certainly He never
would have come in the flesh! But He has the perfect harmony of both Immanence and Trascendence, the best possible combination,
the best of both worlds.
3.
The Biblical Basis for
Immanence
I just told you that the Bible teaches God’s Immanence, the
question is: where? Let us now have our Project Scriptura verses. Hopefully,
you each found at least one verse on God’s Immanence.
While the Bible does not use the word Immanence, it does
use the word Presence. Presence, then, is a specific keyword in reference to
this attribute of God. Immanence, then, is a clear teaching of Scripture.
4.
A Survey of God’s Presence
Since we have the Word opened before us, what I’d like to
do now is take us through a brief survey or overview of God’s Presence through
history as recorded in the Bible. Omnipresence and Immanence speak of God’s
Presence, but God’s Presence is not uniform. Obviously, He is present in heaven
in a different way than He is present on earth. Similarly, He was present in
Solomon’s temple in a different way than He will be present in the future
Millennial Kingdom.
So briefly then, we shall outline 6 different ways in which
God’s Immanent Presence existed throughout history up to the modern day. The 7th
manifestation of God’s Presence lies in the future, so we won’t concern
ourselves with that for tonight’s study. We will end our survey in modern times.
Hopefully, this will shed light on how God is present today and help to place
our lives in the grand scheme of things:
Firstly, the
Presence of God in the Garden of Eden. Turn
to Genesis 3. The 16th Bishop of Salisbury, John Jewel, said: “Adam was placed in Paradise in a perfect
estate, and in the company of God’s angels; God walked and did talk with him.
He heard the voice, and beheld the presence of God.” The great tragedy of
human history was the Fall of Man, when Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden. The
tremendous resource and privilege that the human race then lost was being able
to fully experience the Presence of God. Now that man had sinned, he could no
longer dwell with God plainly and simply, since God is holy and pure. Genesis 3:8-9. What Adam and Eve knew
in their pure innocence was the unspeakable pleasure of experiencing God’s
Presence, until they lost it. They could hear the LORD walking in the Garden.
They could speak with Him audibly. We won’t know what that’s like until we get
to heaven. So in the Garden of Eden, God’s Presence was clear and plain, but
when Adam sinned, this experience was lost by the human race. So in the Garden
of Eden, God’s Presence was visible, clear and plain.
Secondly, the
Presence of God before the Law. The time from Adam’s sin to the Law of Moses was
marked by a scarcity of God’s Presence. Sinful man had been divorced from a
close relationship with the Holy One. This time was a time of judgment. There
was no measure for relationship with the LORD, since that came in the Law. The
people of God knew only the building of altars and the offerings of sacrifices.
In reading through this portion of the book of Genesis, you get the idea that
God sees and hears and speaks from heaven to earth. There is an emphasis on His
transcendence, not really His immanence. After all, the world had become
infested with sin. God dealt remotely with the nations and then dealt
specifically with a lineage of men through Abraham. God appeared only rarely
(see for example Genesis 18, in
which God appears to Abraham before the judgment of Sodom and Gomorrah). So before the law, God’s Presence was
scarce and distant and marked by judgment.
Thirdly, the
Presence of God in the Tabernacle. At Mount Sinai, after the reception of the
Ten Commandments, the children of Israel receive instructions from the LORD on
the construction of the Tabernacle in Exodus
26. The Tabernacle was basically a tent designed for mobility. Think a
miniature version of a temple. But it was the first place since the Garden of
Eden in which God’s Presence was localized. Don’t underestimate that. That’s
huge. The Tabernacle was comprised of an outer court, a rectangular tent, known
as the tent of meeting or the sanctuary, and inside and at the back of that
rectangular tent was the most unique space on all of planet Earth: the Holy of
Holies. The Holy of Holies, also known as the Holiest Place, was a cubical
space sectioned off by a veil. In it sat the Ark of the Covenant. Above that
Ark, between the wings of the cherubim, God said “…there I will meet with you, and I will speak with you from above the
mercy seat, from between the two cherubim which are on the ark of the
Testimony…” (Exodus 25:22). When
all the work of building the Tabernacle was completed, God inhabited it. The
word Tabernacle in Hebrew is mishkan,
it means a “residence or dwelling place”. God considered the Tabernacle His
home away from home. Look at Exodus
40:33-38. The shekinah was there, the dwelling glory,
that cloud that rested upon and within the Tabernacle. Thus God could say to
Moses and the children of Israel in Exodus
33:14, “My Presence will go with you…”
It even says in Exodus 33:11, “So the LORD spoke to Moses face to face, as
a man speaks to his friend”, a privilege no one had enjoyed for a very,
very long time. So in the
Tabernacle, God’s Presence was renewed and localized.
Fourthly, the
Presence of God in the Temple. Turn to I
Kings 8:1-13. The house of God, the Temple was the glorified Tabernacle, a
huge palace for God’s Presence and glory to reside in. But like the Garden of
Eden, men and women sinned causing a separation of God’s Presence from His
people. History repeats itself for all its tragedy. In Ezekiel 10, the prophet sees the Glory of the LORD and His Presence
departing from His Temple, from His own residence. Ezekiel 10:18, “Then the
glory of the LORD departed from the threshold of the temple…” The sin of
God’s own people evicted Him from His own home. Eventually, Nebuchadnezzar of
Babylon came in and laid Siege to Jerusalem and destroyed the Temple. Even when
they rebuilt the Temple later on, we’re never told again that the cloud and the
glory came to inhabit it. God was done with the Temple. So in the time of the
Temple, God’s Presence was exalted until He departed.
Fifthly, the
Presence of God in Jesus Christ. No more localized and centralized buildings
would represent the Presence of God. Now the time had come for God Himself to
be present with man in the form of man. Jesus is the true embodiment of the
Presence of God on Earth. And what’s more: Jesus Christ is the true Tabernacle.
Turn to John 1:14. The Word became
flesh and dwelt, same word as tabernacle, He tabernacle among us. He made His
dwelling place, His tabernacle, in the form of a body of flesh and dwelt among
us. And Jesus Christ is also the
true Temple. Flip over to John 2:19-22.
Jesus referred to His incarnated body as a temple. He was the Temple, in which
the glory of God and the Presence of God was contained. Though a temple existed
in Israel during the time of Christ, God did not inhabit it as He had in the
past. And so that Second Temple, too, was destroyed. In 70AD, the Roman Emperor
Titus Flavius Caesar Vespasianus Augustus led the Roman legions to demolish
Jerusalem and the Second Temple. Ironically, even the Temple of Jesus’ body was
destroyed by Romans and forsaken by Jews. Jesus is the epitome of the Temple. “Nearer,
my God, to Thee. Nearer to Thee. Even though it be a cross that raiseth me.” So
in Jesus Christ, God’s Presence was incarnated and embodied.
Sixthly, the
Presence of God in modern times. Where is God’s Presence now? Is He in a
building? Is the church building the literal house of God, as we often call it?
No. It’s you. You are the temple of God. The Spirit of His Presence lives
within you as a Christian. Look at I
Corinthians 3:16-17. A few chapters later, it says in I Corinthians 6:19, “Or do
you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom
you have from God, and you are not your own?” You no longer have to go to a
building to meet with God. There is no centralized locale for His Presence. His
Presence, rather, is wherever the Christian goes. Consider this comparison from
Christian writer Andrew Murray: the Tabernacle and the Temple had three parts:
the outer court, the inner court and the Holy of Holies. Our bodies are like
the outer court, our minds and emotions are like the inner court, and somewhere
inside of all that, inside our persons, is the Holiest Place, the Holy of
Holies, wherein the Spirit of God dwells, just as He did in cloud and glory in
the temples and the tabernacle of the past.
In closing, we are in desperate need of two things:
How we need purity, then! That is the cry of the apostle
there in I Corinthians. Would you
dare to defile the Temple of God in which the glory and the presence resides?
In the Old Testament, the kings of Judah and the kings of Egypt and Assyria and
Babylon came and plundered and stripped and ruined the temple. False idols were
set up there. They trashed it until God forsook it. We need to keep our temples
pure.
Also, we need a constant awareness of God’s Presence with
us and in us. Remember the song “oh be careful little eyes what you see?” Be
careful little feet where you go. Be careful little hands what you touch. Be
careful little mouth what you speak. For there’s a Father up above, and He’s
looking down with love, so be careful. But the truth is our Father is not only
looking up from above as much as He is looking out from within. God is a lot
closer than we make Him out to be. And that is both frightening and comforting.
It is also incredibly challenging.
Case in point: Panera Bread, where I work. When the boss
comes around, man, all of a sudden employees are cheerful and friendly and
efficient. There’s a sense of urgency in the air. There’s no more moping around
and mucking about. It’s not like when the boss ain’t around.
Now the truth is the Boss of bosses is always around. His
Spirit and Presence dwell in you. We should practice the realization that God
is always with us. We should practice His Presence. As we go through our days,
we should remember that God is right there, right here. As we are about to
share that thought or speak that word, or as we are about to travel here or
there, we must remember that God is immanent. He is present with you always.
I believe that such recognition of His Presence could
revolutionize in so many ways the methodology of our Christianity, the methods
in which we live our lives, the way we do things, the way we talk with others
and so on and on. Do we muck about in our Christian lives? The answer is in His
Immanence. He will go before you. He will be with you. He is the source of your
power and your fuel. He is the ever-present guide. He is the ward against sin
and selfishness.
I close with a quote by Martyn Lloyd-Jones on preaching.
Though it’s a quote on preaching, I think it relates with what we’re talking
about in focusing on God’s presence. He says “Be natural; forget yourself; be
so absorbed in what you are doing and in the realisation of the presence of
god, and in the glory and the greatness of the Truth that you are preaching,
and the occasion that brings you together...that you forget yourself completely.
That is the right condition; that is the only place of safety; that is the only
way in which you can honor God. Self is the greatest enemy of the preacher,
more so than in the case of any other man in society. And the only way to deal
with self is to be so taken up with, and so enraptured by, the glory of what
you are doing, that you forget yourself altogether.”
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