Word of the Week

Word of the Week: Immanence

Immanence is the “counterpart” to the transcendence of God. In last week’s post, we explored how God transcends his creation and transcends us. He is other.

The immanence of God means that God is connected to his creation. He is near us and relates to us.

Immanence: The idea that God is present in, close to and involved with creation. Unlike pantheism, which teaches that God and the world are one or that God is the “soul” (animating principle) of the world, Christian theology teaches that God is constantly involved with creation without actually becoming exhausted by creation or ceasing to be divine in any way.

Pocket Dictionary of Theological Terms

Immanence is applied incorrectly in worldviews like pantheism, where God and nature are one. If you want a pop culture definition of pantheism, think of the force in Star Wars. In Star Wars mythology the force is a part of every living thing, binding and connecting nature and beings. This is a false view of immanence where God and nature are one because God is neither personal nor all-powerful.

Immanence from a biblical worldview does not mean that God is in creation as if it is an extension of himself. Immanence means that God can “come down” to his creation. While we will explore God as Creator in a future post, we should keep in mind here what we noted last week: God is other. He created all things. He transcends his creation. So we cannot say that God and nature (creation) are one. Rather, a biblical view of immanence says that God comes down to creation and interacts with his creatures.

Here are some biblical references to God’s immanence:

And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.

Genesis 3:8

And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of man had built.

Genesis 11:5

In the New Testament, Paul addressed the Corinthian believers regarding idolatry. He quoted two Old Testament verses (Leviticus 26:12 and Isaiah 52:11) to reflect on God’s immanence with his people and the privilege of his people to worship him alone.

“I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them,
    and I will be their God,
    and they shall be my people.
Therefore go out from their midst,
    and be separate from them, says the Lord,
and touch no unclean thing;
    then I will welcome you,
and I will be a father to you,
    and you shall be sons and daughters to me,
says the Lord Almighty.”

2 Corinthians 6:16-18

In a stunning sermon to the Athenian philosophers, Paul affirmed the transcendence and immanence of God as Creator and Redeemer.

24 The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man,25 nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. 26 And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, 27 that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, 28 for

“‘In him we live and move and have our being’;

as even some of your own poets have said,

“‘For we are indeed his offspring.’

29 Being then God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man. 30 The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, 31 because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.”

Acts 17:24-31

In this sermon Paul quoted secular writers Epimenedes of Crete and Aratus’ poem Phainomena (vs. 28). Paul’s use of secular sources indicates his understanding of the transcendence/immanence worldview tensions plaguing Greek religion and Greek philosophy. Greek religion offered immanent deities who could relate to humans. See for example Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey where the Greek gods played with and plagued human actors in the world. These deities were immanent, but not supreme or in any real sense transcendent. Greek philosophy had taken root in Athens by the time Paul arrived and had rejected the Greek religious system in part because of its failure to enmesh Greek deities with the real world.

What is powerful about Paul’s sermon in Athens is how he used the gospel to display the solution to the dilemma facing Greek philosophy and religion. Furthermore, Paul’s gospel here is a clear depiction of the transcendence/immanence beauty found in the gospel.

God does not only reveal himself as an out there, other, above us Deity. The God of the Bible does transcend us. He transcends us more than we might imagine. But he is also immanent with his creation. He came down to walk with Adam and Eve, to see the Tower of Babel, to call and befriend Abraham, to give the Law to Moses, and to speak to his prophets, among other examples. Ultimately, God came down in the person of his Son Jesus Christ to take on human flesh and “dwell among us” (John 1:14). This is God immanent in Jesus Christ.

At the final point in Paul’s sermon in Athens, Paul introduced Jesus Christ as the resurrected man appointed by God to judge the world. Jesus is God enfleshed. Jesus is God immanent. He is both the transcendent God of Creation (John 1:1-5; Colossians 1:15-20) and the immanent God who can know us and be known by us (1 John 1:1-3).

The God of the Bible is Trinity (God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit). God’s immanence through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit is anther glorious aspect of God’s relationship with his creatures (Mt. 28:20; Ephesians 1:13-14).

There are an abundance of truths that flow out of the immanence of God. Here are just a few that should encourage our relationship with God today.

  • God’s immanence means that God is knowable. It does not stretch our minds to think that God knows us. We affirm consistently that God knows everything. But when we think that God knows us in all our flaws, concerns, worries, and dreams, then God’s knowing us becomes a testimony of love and compassion toward us. Even more amazing, God made us to know him. We can know the God who transcends through Jesus Christ who is immanent in his creation by the indwelling Holy Spirit who is with us always. That very thought should humble us and drive us to adoration and appreciation.
  • God’s immanence means that God is personal. God is not some impersonal force that connects and binds all things. God is Trinity. God exists in three persons: Father, Son, and Spirit who have existed in a perfect loving relationship from eternity past and through eternity future. The personal nature of their relationship means that we can enter into a personal relationship with the God of the universe. God made us in his image (the imago Dei) as persons that we may relate to the God who is personal.
  • The biblical affirmation of God’s transcendence and immanence make Christianity unique. One would be hard pressed to find another religious system or worldview where the ultimate reality is altogether supreme and powerful, yet knowable and relational. Christianity uniquely details the God who is ultimate, yet who enfleshed himself to know and be known by his creation. If you do not yet know this God, then have a read in the Gospel of John. John describes Jesus as both God and man, transcendent and immanent. If you know God through Jesus, then take time today to thank him for the privilege of the personal relationship you have. And don’t stop praying for those who have yet to meet Jesus. Believe me, Jesus wants to save them more than you want them saved.

Glory to God for the privilege of knowing him through Jesus Christ!

Word of the Week: Hermeneutics

Today’s post is a transitional post. Recent word of the week posts have concentrated on various aspects of the doctrine of Revelation (Scripture). In the coming weeks, our posts will focus on the Doctrine of God and terms that further reveal the glory and wonder of God to us.

Hermeneutics is the scholarly term for interpretation. Hermeneutics is the science and art of biblical interpretation. Because we believe the Bible is inerrant and authoritative for our Christian faith and practice, it is important that we interpret the Bible accurately.

“For the classic Protestant, though the individual believer has the right to the private interpretation of Scripture, he is capable of misinterpreting the Bible. But while he has the ability to misinterpret Scripture, he does not have the right to do it. That is, with the right of private interpretation comes the responsibility of making an accurate interpretation.”

R. C. Sproul, “The Establishment of Scripture” in Sola Scriptura, 42.

One of the most important aspects of my ministry as a pastor is interpreting Scripture accurately. It is not my job to share my opinions or even primarily my convictions from the pulpit. Rather, I am tasked to proclaim “thus says the Lord.” Preaching authoritatively requires that I interpret Scripture accurately.

Following are some principles that will help us interpret Scripture as accurately as possible.

  1. Interpret Scripture in context. Often, interpretive errors happen because we pull a Scripture out of its immediate, book, or literary context. For example, we could be inaccurate interpreters if quoted a verse as true from one of Job’s three friends. Asserting one of their affirmations without considering that the book of Job understands their affirmations to be in error could lead us to be inaccurate in our interpretations.
  2. Interpret Scripture with Scripture. The clear teaching of Scripture should inform and illuminate the more difficult passages. See for example the question of eternal security raised in Hebrews 6 with a counterpart in John 10 (John 10:27-30 vs. Hebrews 6:4-6)
  3. Interpret Scripture in light of its literary genre. Narrative, Didactic, Law, Poetry, Prophetic, Apocalyptic, and Epistolary each have unique interpretive principles for determining meaning. For an example of this in an upcoming sermon, I will be preaching on Proverbs 22:6 “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.” Many have taken that proverb as a promise. But the book of Proverbs is not a book of promises, but rather general observations about life.
  4. Right interpretation derives from a recognition of biblical authority. The author, not the reader determines the meaning. Meaning then is discovered by the interpreter, not determined. In contrast, when we interpret Scripture through an interpretive lens (whether theological as in dispensationalism or personal as in our own experiences), we can read our own preconceived notions or ourselves into the text. This is a reader-response interpretive strategy that may have benefit for some kinds of literature, but has no bearing on the meaning of the biblical text. The text means today what it has always meant (what it meant to its original readers).
  5. Remember the two guardrails for correct interpretation: the Holy Spirit (John 16:13) and the church (historical orthodoxy). In order to interpret Scripture well, we need the Holy Spirit and church history. Depending on the Holy Spirit and leaning on orthodoxy will keep us from interpreting texts (difficult or clear) inaccurately. Robert Letham reminds us, “Moreover, it is impossible to come to the Bible with a blank mind, unaffected by philosophical or cultural presuppositions, or previously received teaching” (Systematic Theology, 228).
  6. Scriptural application is built upon good interpretation. Certainly, the applications we can derive from Scripture are culturally conditioned. For example, when Moses tells us to number our days (Psalm 90:12) or Paul tells us to make the best use of our time (Eph. 5:16), we can apply those admonitions to scrolling through social media apps or binge-watching tv shows. But the application must flow out of the clear meaning of Scripture. Scripture means today what it meant when it was written. To misunderstand what the Scripture originally meant can lead to serious misapplications. 

When I interpret passages of Scripture for preaching, I find word studies, commentaries, and theologies to be helpful. When I compare my own study and insights with those of commentaries and theologians, I am more likely to interpret Scripture accurately.

So, in your reading and study of the Bible, trust that it’s God’s Word, study the Bible deeply, and trust the Holy Spirit to guide your interpretations.

Photo by Jonny Swales on Unsplash