Where is God?
some thoughts on transcendence and imminence
Pantheism is the belief that the universe and God are identical. That is, there is no personal divine being but that everything is God. Then there’s the idea of transcendence, that God is wholly other and distinct from creation.
One of these depersonalizes God; the other, used alone, denies the reality of the Word made Flesh.
Instead, the word I find most helpful affirms both God’s unity with creation while maintaining God’s distinct personal existence. This word is “panentheism.”
That is, everything that exits is contained within God, but God is distinct from and greater than everything that exists. In other words, God is infinitely transcendent, but God is also infinitely imminent.
John 1, Colossians 1, Ephesians 4, Hebrews 1, and similar passages teach that all things came into being in, for, and through the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Colossians 1:16, for example, says that all things came into being in (Gk: en), through, and for Christ, and Paul goes on to say that all things are held together in (Gk: en) him.
In John 1, the Word is said to be both God and with (or “facing,” Gk: pros) God. It is out of this eternal union that the universe is born.
All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. John 1:3
Nothing that has come into being has come into being separated from Christ. Everything that has being has being through Christ. You have never met a person who was born separated from God.
This is the truth with which the Gospel of John is engaged.
When we come to Jesus’ farewell address in John 14, Jesus says, “In my Father’s house are many mansions” (KJV).
The idea of a mansion conveys a place that is rich beyond belief, spotless, and uninhabited by commoners. In other words, this seems to teach the idea of transcendence without the immanence. And this view is definitely confirmed by the apostles’ questions.
Thomas said to Him, “Lord, we do not know where You are going, how do we know the way?” John 14:5
Philip said to Him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.” John 14:8
Judas (not Iscariot) said to Him, “Lord, what then has happened that You are going to disclose Yourself to us and not to the world?” John 14:22
Yet, as Jesus answers these disciples, we learn of a God who is much closer than we may have assumed.
“If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; from now on you know Him, and have seen Him.” John 14:7
Jesus said to him, “Have I been so long with you, and yet you have not come to know Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? John 14:9
“In that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.” John 14:20
Where is God?
To see Jesus is to see the Father. To know Jesus is to know the Father.
The Father is in Christ, and Christ is in God.
And, as we see in the last text, since Jesus is in us and we are in Jesus, then the Father is in us and we are in the Father.
What happened to this view of a recluse God sitting in a mansion beyond the sky who holds a bottle of Raid to keep away pests like ourselves?
It turns out that God is as close to us as Jesus is.
What would God do when confronted with a wine-less wedding?
What would the Father do if he happened upon a foreigner who had five husbands?
What would God do if someone needed healing on the Sabbath?
What would the Father do if asked to judge a woman caught in the very act of adultery?
What would God do if threatened, mocked, and hung on a tree?
Look no further than Jesus.
And so Jesus says,
“If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him.” John 14:23
Our abode?
The word “abode” is the Greek word monē, and it is only used one other time in the Greek New Testament.
“In my Father’s house are many mansions.”
What place was Jesus going to prepare?
Was he changing the wallpaper in heaven?
Or, through defeating death and sin in the flesh, was he preparing a place for God to dwell? Was he showing us that God is closer than our breath? More intimate than our own heartbeat? Closer to us than our own skin?
“We will make our abode with him.”
Our heart is a room in the mansion of God.
Where is God?
Look no further than your own breath.
The infinitely transcendent God is not an absent Father; God is in you, and you are in God. This is Good News.