What is the immanence of God?

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True Bible Answers · Accepted Answer

The immanence of God — His nearness to and presence within His creation — is a theme that must be handled with care, because Scripture teaches it in two distinct senses. The Hebrew Root: "Shekinah" and God's Dwelling T. Davison provides a helpful linguistic foundation. When asked about the "Shekinah glory," he relays the explanation of a Hebrew scholar: "Shekina" (or "Sheckinah" or "Shekhinah" according to modes of transliteration) is the Hebrew word which means "Dwelling," and used for the theological conception usually termed "Immanence." Now Exodus 25. 8 has, "And shall dwell" (or that may dwell) in the midst. The word for "Shall dwell" is from the Hebrew root "Shakan" (a shaken) and the noun from the root "Shekinah" was used to express the idea of "Immanence" of God and His nearness to men. T. Davison At its root, then, the immanence of God points to His dwelling presence — the God who is not distant and remote, but near. God's Immanence in Creation F. B. Hole, commenting on Paul's address at Athens in Acts 17, holds both sides of the truth together: His immanence is recognized in the words that "In Him we live, and move, and have our being;" yet Paul preached Him as the transcendent One, who is Lord of heaven and earth. F. B. Hole Paul acknowledged a general immanence in creation — all men are God's offspring, and in Him all creatures have their being. But this creaturely dependence on God is not the same as God dwelling in a person by His Spirit. The Danger of the Phrase: A False Universalism Several writers warn that "the immanence of God" has been misused to teach that God indwells all humanity indiscriminately. J. T. Mawson addresses this directly: "The immanence of God in humanity," is a favourite phrase in the mouths of some, and by it is meant that God dwells in, and manifests Himself through all men. But Scripture teaches the very opposite. Notice the Lord's own words in John 14:17. "The Spirit of Truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it sees Him not, neither knows Him; but ye know Him, for He dwells with you, and shall be in you." How clearly the distinction is here made between the world of men and the believing "YOU." J. T. Mawson A. J. Pollock likewise warns that "the immanence of God" has been invoked alongside "the larger hope" and "universal redemption" as teachings that undermine the gospel: The honoured names of John and Charles Wesley are here invoked to give weight to the "inner light," that is, the doctrine of the immanence of God; "the larger hope," "universal redemption," and "the higher criticism," which reduces the Bible below the level of an ordinary book. A. J. Pollock True Immanence: God Dwelling in Redeemed Man J. Wilson Smith draws a sharp line. Commenting on 1 John 4:16 ("he that dwells in love dwells in God, and God in him"), he writes: There is no immanence, either way, but on the ground of redemption. Man cannot dwell in God nor God in man apart from that work of His Spirit which takes man clean off the ground of nature, and places him, by faith in the blood of Christ, in new relations with God. It is only His children who can dwell in God and God in them. J. Wilson Smith And on the condition for this mutual indwelling: The condition for this mutual immanence is that we dwell in love. There can be no such intimacy apart from the fulfilment of this condition. Dwelling in God is no absorption, by and by, into some imaginary Nirvana, or the loss of all individual consciousness in a dreamy, unknown future. It is for us, here and now, in sorrow and trial, and weakness, and need, and opposition by the world and Satan, to dwell in God and God in us, and to find in Him all that heart could wish — that God is, indeed, "my exceeding joy." The Spirit's Immanence in the Believer W. H. Crain, in his exposition of 1 John, speaks of the Spirit's immanence in relation to God's self-revealing nature: God the Spirit is able to make men sensible of His unseen immanence — that He is near even if invisible; but the Son not only manifests His nearness, but makes Himself visible — puts Himself in the light. W. H. Crain R. McBroom connects the Spirit's indwelling with the thought of immanence in a careful, specific way: The Holy Spirit dwells in our souls and, in this we have the thought of immanence; He sheds abroad the love of God in our hearts. To be filled with the Spirit means that every part of our moral being is pervaded by that blessed Person. R. McBroom Scripture teaches two distinct truths about God's nearness. First, there is a general immanence in creation: God sustains all things, and "in Him we live, and move, and have our being" (Acts 17:28). No creature exists independently of Him. Second, there is a personal, indwelling immanence: God the Holy Spirit takes up His dwelling in those who have believed the gospel and been redeemed by the blood of Christ — something the world "cannot receive" (John 14:17). The popular use of "the immanence of God" to mean that a divine spark resides in every person is a denial of the necessity of redemption and the new birth. True mutual indwelling — "he that dwells in love dwells in God, and God in him" — rests entirely on the finished work of Christ and the sealing of the Holy Spirit.

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