God is TRANSCENDENT. and IMMANENT

God is TRANSCENDENT and IMMANENT

The Lord reigns; let the peoples tremble! He sits enthroned upon the cherubim; let the earth quake! The Lord is great in Zion; he is exalted over all the peoples. Let them praise your great and awesome name! Holy is he! Psalm 99:1-3

God s Transcendence means He is superior to His creation and independent of it.

But for me it is good to be near to God; I have made the Lord God my refuge, that I may tell of all your works. Psalm 73:28

God s Transcendence means He is superior to His creation and independent of it. God s Immanence means He draws near to us that we may draw near to Him.

God s Transcendence means He is superior to His creation and independent of it (Psa.99:1-3) This truth means: He is worthy of worship, and He does not need us (Acts 17:23-25). This truth applied:

People have sometimes thought that God created human beings because he was lonely and needed fellowship with other persons. If this were true, it would certainly mean that God is not completely independent of creation. It would mean that God would need to create persons in order to be completely happy or completely fulfilled in his personal existence yet Jesus words show this idea to be inaccurate. Dr. Wayne Grudem, theologian

And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed... Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. John 17:5, 24

...we and the rest of creation can glorify God and bring him joy. This must be stated in order to guard against any idea that God s independence makes us meaningless. Someone might wonder, if God does not need us for anything, then are we important at all? Is there any significance to our existence we are in fact very meaningful because God has created us and he has determined that we would be meaningful to him. That is the final definition of genuine significance. Dr. Wayne Grudem, theologian

God s Transcendence means He is superior to His creation and independent of it (Psa.99:1-3) This truth means: He is worthy of worship, and He does not need us (Acts 17:23-25). This truth applied: We worship Him with reverence and awe (Heb. 12:28; Rev. 4:11).

Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire. Hebrews 12:28-29

God s Immanence: He draws near to us that we may draw near to Him (John 1:14). This truth means: He made the first move because we were not able (Eph. 4:17-20) This truth applied:

you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind, having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart; who, being past feeling, (NKJV) have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. But that is not the way you learned Christ! (ESV) Ephesians 4:17-20

God s Immanence: He draws near to us that we may draw near to Him (John 1:14). This truth means: He made the first move because we were not able (Eph. 4:17-20) This truth applied: We worship Him with exuberance and joy (Psalm 118:24-29).

A biblically balanced view of worship must take into account both God s transcendence and his immanence, his exultation and his nearness, his majestic holiness and his immeasurable love churches that focus on divine transcendence are in danger of making God appear distant, aloof, devoid of grace. Churches that focus on God s immanence sometimes lose sight of His majesty and purity, his hatred of sin We must go back to the Scriptures rather than merely acting on our own intuition. Dr. John Frame