Transcendance and Immanence

It seems as if we, those who are the followers of God, often fall off the track on one side or another in our thinking about God. Either He is too far away or far too close.

Transcendance is the word we use to convey the distance between us and God. Here is how God put it.

"For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways," declares the LORD. "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways And My thoughts than your thoughts" (Isa 55:8-9).

The sheer weight of transcendance was placed in a single verse in Isaiah 6, but we might miss it, not being from ancient Israel. There we hear the seraphim crying, "Holy, Holy, Holy, is the LORD of hosts, The whole earth is full of His glory" (Isa 6:3). You see, that word, "holy" means most literally "other". The word, qâdôsh, refers to the sacred, but more at that which is set apart. Did you get that? Set apart. And the repetition -- thrice -- is a Hebraism. It is like our underline and exclamation marks or italics and bold print. "Holy, holy, holy!" God is so utterly "other" that His ways are not our ways and His thoughts are not our thoughts. So when we start to think that God is our best buddy, we start to miss this point. When we think that He is just like us, we stray from the truth (Psa 50:21). He is "other".

So we head toward the distance between God and us. He's "out there". He's not paying attention. He's "other", right? This skips right over the immanence of God. Immanence¹ refers to His closeness. The Bible speaks of "Christ in you" (Col 1:27; Rom 8:10). The Bible says that all things consist in Him (Col 1:17). Paul said, "In Him we live and move and have our being" (Acts 17:28). He is more "here" than we are.

Error on one side gives you deism, the idea that God is so far removed that He isn't involved. Error on the other side gives you pantheism, the idea that God is in in everything. Ours is a middle ground. Never forget that He is above all, high and lifted up, not a man like us. Never forget that He is right here, every day, intimately involved. Remember both; both are true. Both are vital.
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¹ Not to be confused with "imminence", referring to the soon return of Christ.