A few weeks ago we began discussing how God is different from us. Here again are the previous 3 attributes:
The first attribute was God’s independence. This was defined as: God does not need us or the rest of creation for anything, yet we and the rest of creation can glory him and bring him joy.
The second attribute is God’s unchangeableness. We can define the unchangeableness of God as follows: God is unchanging in his being, perfections, purposes and promises, yet God does act and feel emotions, and he acts and feels differently in response to different situations.
The third attribute is God’s eternity. God’s eternity may be defined as follows: God has no beginning, end, or succession of moments in his own being, and he sees all time equally vividly, yet God sees events in time and acts in time.
This week we will discuss the attribute of omnipresence. Just as God is unlimited with respect to time, so God is unlimited with respect to space. God’s omnipresence may be defined as follows: God does not have a size or spatial dimensions and is present at every point of space with his whole being, yet God acts differently in different places.
The fact that God is Lord of space and cannot be limited by space is evident first from the fact that he created it, for the creation of the material world (Genesis 1:1) implies the creation of space as well. Moses reminded the people of God’s lordship over space: “Behold, to the Lord your God belong heaven and the heaven of heavens, the earth with all that is in it” (Deut 10:14).
There are specific passages that speak of God’s presence in every part of space. In Jeremiah 23:23-24. We read, “Am I a God at hand, says the LORD, and not a God afar off? Can a man hide himself in secret places so that I cannot see him? Say the LORD. Do I not fill heaven and earth? Says the LORD. Here God is rebuking the prophets who think their words or thoughts are hidden from God. He is everywhere and fills heaven and earth. There is nowhere in the entire universe, on land or sea, in heaven or in hell, where one can flee from God’s presence.
It also needs to be noted that there is no indication a part of God is in on place and a part of him in another. We cannot say that some of God or just a part of God is present, for that would be to think of his being in spatial terms, as if he were limited somehow to space. It seems more appropriate to say that God is present with his whole being in every part of space.
While it seems necessary for us to say that God’s whole being is present in every part of space, or at every point in space, it is also necessary to say that God cannot be contained by any space, no matter how large. While the thought that God is everywhere present with his whole being ought to encourage us greatly in prayer no matter where we are, the fact that no one place can be said to contain God should also discourage us from thinking that there is some special place of worship that gives people special access to God: he cannot be contained in any one place.
We should guard against thinking that God extends infinitely far in all directions so that he himself exists in a sort of infinite, unending space. Nor should we think that God is somehow a “bigger space” or bigger area surrounding the space of the universe as we know it. All of these ideas continue to think of God’s being in spatial terms, as if he were simply an extremely large being. Instead, we should try to avoid thinking of God in terms of size or spatial dimensions. God is a being who exists without size or dimensions in space. In fact, before God created the universe, there was no matter or material so there was no space either. Yet God still existed. Where was God? He was not in a place that we could call a “where” for there was no “where” or space. But God still was! This fact makes us realize that God relates to space in a far different way than we do or than any created thing does. He exists as a kind of being that is far different and far greater that we can imagine.
The Biblical perspective is that God is present everywhere in his creation, but that he is also distinct from his creation. How can this be? The analogy of a sponge filled with water is not perfect, but is helpful. Water is present everywhere in the sponge, but the water is still completely distinct from the sponge. Now this analogy breaks down at very small points within the sponge, where we could say that there is a sponge at one point and not water, or water and not sponge. Yet this is because the analogy is dealing with two materials that have spatial characteristics and dimensions, while God does not.
The idea of God’s omnipresence has sometimes troubled people to wonder how God can be present, for example, in hell. In fact, isn’t hell the opposite of God’s presence, or the absence of God? This difficulty can be resolved by realizing the God is present in different ways in different places, or that God acts differently in different places in his creation. Sometimes God is present to punish. A terrifying passage in Amos vividly portrays this presence of God in judgement:
I saw the Lord standing beside the altar, and He said,
“Smite the capitals so that the thresholds will shake, And break them on the heads of them all! Then I will slay the rest of them with the sword; They will not have a fugitive who will flee, Or a refugee who will escape. 2 “Though they dig into Sheol, From there will My hand take them; And though they ascend to heaven, From there will I bring them down. 3 “Though they hide on the summit of Carmel, I will search them out and take them from there; And though they conceal themselves from My sight on the floor of the sea, From there I will command the serpent and it will bite them. 4 “And though they go into captivity before their enemies, From there I will command the sword that it slay them, And I will set My eyes against them for evil and not for good.”
Amos 9:1-4 NASB
At other time God is present neither to punish nor to bless, but merely present to sustain or to keep the universe existing and functioning in the way he intended it to function. In this sense the divine nature of Christ is everywhere present: “He is before all things, and in him all things hold together” (Colossians 1:17). The author of Hebrews of God the Son that he is continually “upholding the universe by his word of power” (Hebrews 1:3).
Yet at other times or in other places God is present to bless. David says, “in your presence there is fullness of joy, in your right hand are pleasures for evermore” (Psalms 16:11). Here David is speaking not of God’s presence to punish or merely to sustain, but of God’s presence to bless.
In the new covenant, there is no one place on earth that God has chosen as his particular dwelling place, for we can worship him anywhere. But now and for all eternity God has chosen the place the Bible calls “heaven” to be the focus of the manifestation of his character and the presence of his blessing and glory. So when the new Jerusalem comes down out of heaven from God, John in his vision hears a loud voice from God’s throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling of God is with men. He will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself will be with them” (Revelation 21:3). We might find it misleading to say that God is “more present” in heaven than anywhere else, but it would not be misleading to say God in present in a special way in heaven, present especially there to bless and to show forth his glory. We could also say that God manifests his presence more fully in heaven than elsewhere.
In this way also Paul’s statement about Christ can be understood: “In him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily (Colossians 2:9). In one sense of course we could say that God’s whole being is present at every point in space and therefore at every point in every person, not only in Christ. There are two difficulties with this: (1) The Bible never speaks about God’s presence in unbelievers in a direct way, probably to avoid any connection between God and the responsibility or blame for evil deeds, and probably also to avoid any suggestion of God’s presence to bless, since it is only a presence to sustain. (2) This sense of “present to sustain” in not the sense Paul has in mind in Colossians 2:9. In fact, there Paul does not even seem to mean simply “present to bless” in the same sense in which God is present to bless in the lives of all believers. Instead, Paul seems to mean that in Christ God’s own nature is present to bless and to manifest his character in the fullest and most complete way possible.
Herman Bavinck, in The Doctrine of God, quotes a beautiful paragraph illustrating the practical application of the doctrine of God’s omnipresence:
When you wish to do something evil, you retire from the public into your house where no enemy may see you; from those places of your house which are open and visible to the eyes of men you remove yourself into your room; even in your room you fear some witness from another quarter; you retire into your heart, there you meditate: he is more inward than your heart. Whatever, therefore, you shall have fled, there he is. From yourself, whither will you flee? Will you not follow yourself wherever you shall flee? But since there is One more inward even than yourself, there is no place where you may flee from God angry but to God reconciles. There is no place at all whither you may flee. Will you flee from him? Flee unto him.