God's Transcendent Immanence

Over many centuries and cultures, there have been various understandings of how God relates and interacts with creation. Some treat nature and creation as divine while others see God totally different from creation and having no interaction with creation. These understandings have also impacted people’s interaction with creation; you can think of nature worshippers on one end and nature abusers on the other end. 

Before we look at how the Bible reveals God’s interaction with us, let’s briefly survey some of these other understandings.

Pantheism

The first idea is that creation is divine, that is, there is no distinction between the natural and the supernatural. This is the concept of Pantheism – Pan meaning all and theos meaning God. Everything is God and God is everything. One of the popular religions in the world that holds to this is Hinduism. This is why you will see Hindus worshiping the sun, the moon, various animals, trees, etc. 

Panentheism

The next idea holds that all creation is part of the divine. Creation can be understood as a subset of God. This is the concept of Panentheism – all is in (en) God. While all creation is in the divine, the divine is bigger than creation. There is a mutual dependence between the divine and all creation.  Some forms of Buddhism hold to this understanding. 

Deism

The idea that God is wholly separate from creation and does not interact with it is the concept of Deism. Here God is seen as the one who has set creation in motion and does not intervene in any way. A famous analogy is that of the divine clockmaker who has wound up the clock and sits back watching events unfold. 

Atheism

Finally, atheism does not hold to the idea of the divine and hence, there is no entity to interact with creation other than creation itself. Nature is all there ever was, all there is, and all there ever will be. 

It is important to stop and think if our understanding falls within one of these above categories. Or if we hold to the biblical understanding that God is both transcendent and immanent, that is, God is both above or distinct from creation, and at the same time, dwells among and is actively involved in creation. 

God is Transcendent

Transcendent simply means far above. When the bible talks about God, we see that God is described as being outside/above this creation. In Ps 113:5-6, the psalmist says that God is enthroned on high and stoops down to look at creation. We read that there is nothing in all of creation that can be compared to Him (Is 40:18). He created everything by the power of His word (Heb 11:3). Creation is constrained by space, time, and matter; but God is not constrained by these because He created these things. In this way, He transcends these things.

God is different from us in His very nature. As the angels cry out in Isaiah 6, God is holy, holy, holy. The literal definition of holy is set apart; that is, God is set apart from everything in this universe. That is what Paul tells us in 1 Tim 6:15-16 that God is immortal and lives in unapproachable light.  

The Lord is not only transcendent in His nature but He is also transcendent in His attributes. He is the only One who knows all things (Prov 15:3; Is 46:10), the only One who never changes (Mal 3:6), and is completely righteous (Ps 71:19; Rev 15:3). Nothing in creation can claim these attributes. 

Creation does not have the ability to transcend itself in order to reach or know God. However, God descends into creation to reveal Himself and to interact with creation. Consequently, God is immanent or near to us.

God is Immanent

Immanence can be understood as “near” or “part of.” Scripture tells us that God fills the heavens and the earth (Jer. 23:24). David writes in Ps 139:7-12 that there is no place in creation where we can escape God’s presence. In fact, all creation is held together in Jesus (Col 1:17). God is active and greatly involved in all of creation. 

Moreover, He is always close to His people and wants to dwell in their midst. That is why God visited Adam in the garden, and He told Moses to build a tabernacle so He could dwell in the midst of the Israelites, and He was present with them in the temple in Jerusalem. 

The ultimate expression of God’s immanence is seen in His sending His own Son to reconcile us to Himself. In the incarnation of Jesus, God became one of us and dwelt among us (John 1:14). He became like us in every way, except sin (Heb 4:15). The separation and punishment we inherited because of Adam’s sin and our own sin had to be dealt with, and only God could deal with it. And He dealt with it in the life, death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus. And now, because of the finished work of Jesus, we can have an everlasting union with God. Nothing can separate us from His love (Rom 8:38-39). 

Implications 

It is important that we hold these truths, that is, God’s transcendence and His immanence, together. If we lean too much towards God’s transcendence, then we might become Deistic; and emphasizing God’s immanence more might take us down the path of Pantheism or Panentheism. Eventually, we will not be worshiping the God of the Bible but a god of our own making. 

Knowing that God is transcendent should evoke a deep awe in us. Like Isaiah, when we come face-to-face with God’s transcendence, we should be undone (Is 6) and realize our lowliness. We should recognize God’s glory and majesty, and worship Him and love Him with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength. 

On the other hand, God’s immanence is the sweetest thing we can ever experience. The psalmist tells us to taste and see that the Lord is good (Ps 34:8). The Lord is a very present help in trouble (Ps 46:1); He is near to the brokenhearted (Ps 34:18). He is our refuge and He is always with us. He lives in us through the Holy Spirit, our Comforter (John 14:16). 

Conclusion

God tells us that He is near to all who call upon Him (Ps 145:18), and that He will answer us when we call upon Him (Jer 33:3). He can do that because He sees everything and is above everything. 

Finally, let’s remember and be comforted by God’s words in Is 57:15,

For thus says the high and exalted One 
Who lives forever, whose name is Holy,
“I dwell on a high and holy place, 
And also with the contrite and lowly of spirit
In order to revive the spirit of the lowly 
And to revive the heart of the contrite.