THE TRANSCENDENCE AND IMMANENCE OF GOD: AVOIDING HERESY

God is both transcendent and immanent. In His transcendence, He is above and beyond His creation, and He knows and controls all things. “Remember the former things long past, for I am God, and there is no other, and there is no one like Me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things that have not been done, saying, My purpose will be established, and I will accomplish all my good pleasure.” (Isaiah 46:9-10; see also Daniel 4:35)

            In God’s immanence, on the other hand, He interacts with His creation in time and space, and to some degree experiences events emotionally and intellectually in sequence, yet always with infinite wisdom and complete control. The phenomenon of God’s immanence helps explain the anthropomorphic language we find in the Bible, particularly in the Old Testament. When Scripture quotes God as saying, “I said, surely you will revere Me, and accept instruction” (Zephaniah 3:7), or records that God “repented” or “changed His mind” (Exodus32:14; Jeremiah 26:19; Amos 7:3, 6), it is highlighting and illustrating God’s immanence, His active, emotional interaction with His people.

            The ultimate manifestation of God’s immanence is the incarnation of the Son of God. As God, Jesus owned the attributes of omniscience, omnipotence, and omnipresence. Yet during his earthly life, he willingly limited the independent exercise of those attributes in order to fulfill his mission as Messiah and Savior. So while Jesus could declare that he “saw” Nathaniel sitting under a fig tree far away (John 1:48-50), he was also genuinely surprised when he did not find early figs on another tree (Mark 11:13). Jesus also prayed sincerely in the Garden of Gethsemane: “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me; yet not as I will but as You will.” (Matthew 26:39).

            While it is comforting to know that God experiences our life and feels for our infirmities, it is even more comforting to know that our transcendent God knows before hand all that will occur in our lives and is in complete control of all things.

            Failure to understand both the transcendence and the immanence of God has led to serious errors regarding God’s nature. Error in regard to God’s transcendence led to Deism, the dominant philosophy during the so-called Enlightenment. Deism is the notion that God created the universe and then withdrew to let it run according to natural laws.

            Error in regard to God’s immanence has led in recent decades to the heresy of Open Theism, the idea that God’s  creation includes such contingencies, particularly man’s free will, that even God does not know precisely what will happen next! Therefore, according to the Open Theists, God could not prevent a bad thing from happening to His people because he could not foresee it. This is a foul error and is of no comfort to God’s people. It is hardly comforting to know that God feels our pain if He is not in control of all that happens to us.

EXPOSITORY PREACHING: LETTING THE BIBLE SPEAK

Expository preaching has declined nearly to the point of extinction. Yet I have found that the few expository preachers who remain, are greatly appreciated by their Bible-loving audiences.

What is expository preaching?  Very simply, it is letting God’s Word speak for itself. The expository preacher (1) reads aloud a passage of Scripture, (2) explains its meaning in its original context, (3) discerns the basic spiritual principle revealed and (4) applies that principle to himself and his hearers. The expository preacher follows the Scriptural pattern of Ezra and his fellow Levites:

They read from the book, from the Law of God, clearly, and they gave the sense, so that the people understood the reading. (Nehemiah 8:8)

The word translated “read” is a Hebrew word that suggests an energetic proclamation, not a dry recitation. That dramatic reading was followed by interpretation and application. That is the essence of expository preaching.

Some have limited the term “expository preaching” to preaching through a book of the Bible, but there is no reason to impose such a limit. Charles H. Spurgeon preached on different texts from week to week as he felt the Lord’s leading, but he was always faithful to the biblical context and the applied a valid principle from each text. Spurgeon was an admirer of the Puritans, and he studied their commentaries diligently. Yet the Puritans favored preaching through a book of the Bible systematically. Either approach may be, and should be, preached in an expository manner.

As I have already mentioned, expository preaching let’s God’s Word speak for itself. It is not the preacher’s agenda that is being expounded – it is God’s. When a preacher chooses a topical approach, the temptation is great to impose the preacher’s own agenda, to make the preacher’s point. In expository preaching, the biblical text dictates the agenda and makes God’s point. It should, by the way, bring conviction and edification to the preacher, as well as to his congregation!

May God raise up more expository preachers in these last days!