Dogma Wednesday: God's Transcendence

As children of God, believers should seek to know more about the One with whom they have a relationship, the creation He has made, and the Book which He has written. My hope is to showcase areas of theology which have been discussed and debated since the beginning of the Church. And I hope to start doing so every Wednesday. Doctrine is important. It is like the skeletal structure of the human body. If one aspect is out of joint, broken, or missing, then the whole system is prone to collapse. Or, like in most cases, a major and irreversible deformity occurs.

The first doctrine I wish to focus on is God's transcendence: what it is, its affect on believers, and how we should respond to it. In his Institutes on the Christion Religion, John Calvin writes, “no man can survey himself without forthwith turning his thoughts toward the God in whom he lives and moves” (Calvin 1.1.1.). I recently referred to Calvin in a sermon on Psalm 19, in which I stated that "Calvin's understanding of total depravity did not begin with what he understood of man but with what he understood of God." As we see God as God, in His transcendence and majesty, we cannot help but weep over our own depravity and littleness.

What Is Transcendence?

Transcendence is a measurement. It is a multiplication of greatness. If you take greatness and multiply it by infinity, you get transcendence. At least, that is the best I can describe it. When the Scriptures and biblical scholars refer to the greatness of God, they refer to His "majesty," which is so far above anything we can ever think or imagine. Before the children of Israel, David praised God and exulted Him because of His greatness: "Yours, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty, for all that is in the heavens and in the earth is yours. Yours is the kingdom, O Lord, and you are exalted as head above all" (1 Chronicles 29:11).

God's being God necessitates that He should be transcendent. If He is not above everything, and there is something greater or more majestic than He is, He is not God but is a creature. God's transcendence, His infinite degree in majesty, means that he cannot be limited by anything. Neither space, time, rulers, nor anything else can stop Him because He created all of it. All things lie in subjection to Him under His feet (see Hebrews 2:8). Because God is transcendent, He has no rival. In his prophecy, Isaiah writes of God in His infinite majesty: "it is He Who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers; Who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them like a tent to dwell in; Who brings princes to nothing, and makes the rulers of the earth as emptiness" (Isaiah 40:23-22).

How Should God's Transcendence Affect Believers?

God's transcendence should affect us twofold: rebuke and comfort. We should be rebuked as finite creatures, realizing how we are small and frail. We echo the psalmist in wonder of God's care for us: "what is man that You are mindful of him?" (Psalm 8:4). In reflecting on God's transcendence, we should also be rebuked as we so often trade the truth of God for a lie, worshipping and serving "the creature rather than the Creator" (Rom. 1:25). We put God in a box, declaring Him to be what we think He should be and not who He said He is in His Word. An atheist who denies that God can be both completely good and completely sovereign breaks the first and second commandments. He commits idolatry and makes for himself an image of a god that is not the God of the Bible, but a god of his own imagination. A believer who denies either God's goodness or His sovereignty as a theodicy commits the same sin as the atheist. God's greatness surpasses our imaginations and all we can do is simply believe and insist on it.

Not only does the transcendence of God rebuke us, but it also brings us great comfort. The Scriptures reveal that the same God who spoke all things into existence stooped down to personally shape man after His own image, displaying that He is not only transcendent, but also immanent. He is there and He is not silent. He dwelt with man in the garden and, after the Fall, promised a way of rescue and escape through one of Eve's descendants (Genesis 3:15). Throughout history, God has worked to bring salvation to humanity. In the form of man, Jesus stooped down so that He could bring redemption to His people and shape them after His own image. The God who spoke light into existence has shown as the Light into the darkness.

Dogma to Pragma: How Should We as Believers Respond?

Doctrine is important. As Christians study the great dogmas of Christianity, they must also put them into practice. The doctrine of God's transcendence demands worship and praise from all believers. So often, in stressing how God is personal, we miss how He is also infinitely great. We put limits on Him, making Him small in our eyes. J.I. Packer, in writing on God's majesty, states that we must "remove from our thoughts of God limits that would make him small" (Packer 85). Realize, dear reader, that the God of the Bible is far beyond anything you could ever think or imagine. Do not limit Him to something only you perceive to be possible.

As we serve a King who reigns over everything in insurmountable majesty, we must realize that we are ambassadors for His majesty. Christians have been made "to be a kingdom and priests to our God" (Revelation 1:6; 5:10). As we wait for the consummation of all things and for the majesty of God to be revealed, we serve as representatives of that majesty. We must obey our Kings edict to "go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirt" (Matthew 28:19). In parishes, in politics, in schools, and in workplaces, our duty is to serve as ambassadors of another country as we await the return of our King.

Bibliography/Recommended Reading

Calvin, John. Institutes of the Christian Religion. Translated by Henry Beveridge. Peabody: Hendrickson, 2008.

ISBN: 978-1598561685

Jones, Mark. God Is: A Devotional Guide to the Attributes of God. Wheaton: Crossway, 2017.

ISBN: 978-1433574238

Packer, J.I. Knowing God. Downers Grove: IVP, 1973.

ISBN: 978-0830816507