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it means God is without a body. Not only is it true that he is a God without parts (simplicity),
Here is the fundamental difference between the one true God and the gods of the surrounding nations, nations tempting Israel with gods they can see.
“infinite essence,” so must he also have an “infinite presence.”
First, by omnipresence we do not mean that God simply stretches himself out.
“God’s presence in a place does not exclude the presence there of other things. Rather, God fills all places by giving existence to everything occupying them.”11
Second, by omnipresence we do not mean there is any mixture between God and his creation.
Actually, by mixing God with the creation,
they lose God altogether, for he is no different than the creation. Ironically, divine presence is lost whenever the Creator has been swallowed by his creation.
Yes, he is everywhere present, but we should not go so far as to think that he becomes everything in the process. Such a process would spell disaster, dividing God’s being as if he were to be meshed with the creation, absorbed by the creature, dissolving the Creator-creature distinction.
our infinite God is omnipresent, then his power is extensive, his kingdom rule pervasive, and his sovereignty comprehensive.
And it’s a good thing it is, because an omnipotent omnipresence would mean little (and could be scary) if it were susceptible to change.
if God moved—something we do as physical, finite beings—then he would be a God who changes, one who is mutable.
While he is present with all people, he is present with his people covenantally,
To clarify, while God’s essence is everywhere present, the effects of his actions in relation to humankind are felt differently.
“He departs from us when he leaves us to the frowns of his justice; he comes to us when he encircles us in the arms of his mercy; but he was equally present with us in both dispensations, in regard of his essence.”
“God’s drawing near to us is not so much his coming to us, but his drawing us to him.”
omnipresence has much to do with divine providence.
Authority: “He is present with all things by his authority, because all things are subject to him.” Power: He is present “by his power, because all things are sustained by him.” Knowledge: He is present “by his knowledge, because all things are naked before him.”
but we say that he is in some things in a more intimate way by grace.”
God’s essential presence and his gracious presence. His “essential presence maintains our beings,” observes Charnock, “but his gracious presence confers and continues a happiness.”
but his gracious presence regenerates, justifies, and sanctifies his chosen people.
The garden is a temple for God’s presence, and Adam is entrusted as its keeper, a priest exercising dominion as God’s representative.
the Spirit of God is said to come upon certain leaders for special occasions, not necessarily upon all Israel at all times.
Moses longs for a day, a day he does not see, when the Spirit of the Lord will rest upon every covenant member permanently.
eternal, divine Word “became flesh and dwelt among us,
full of grace and truth”
Moses gave us law, but Jesus, the Christ, the Messiah, “became flesh and dwelt among us” in order to give us “grace and truth”
And it has everything to do with the presence of God. Our sins will be taken away once and forever only if the Son of God himself becomes incarnate, dwells among us, and—as Matthew’s narrative will reveal—is put to death by us. The Day of Atonement has finally found its fulfillment.
he will “ask the Father,” and the Father will give them “another Helper,
the Spirit comes not only to make us alive (regeneration / new birth) but to cause us to walk in newness of life (Rom. 6:4).
As those who are indwelt by the Holy Spirit (Rom. 8:9), we are being transformed by the Spirit into the image of Christ.
Rome that Christians were predestined by God for this very purpose (Rom. 8:26–29). Writing to the Corinthians, he similarly describes believers as those who are “being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another.” Who does this transforming work? “This comes from the Lord who is the Spirit” (2 Cor. 3:18).
Not only does the Spirit indwell us, but he is renewing us more and more into the image of our Savior, who is the true image of God (2 Cor. 4:4).
One day the Spirit’s work of renewal will be complete, and “we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is” (1 John 3:2).
“personal fellowship with Jesus,” as well as “personal transformation of character into Jesus’s likeness,” but it also results in the “Spirit-given certainty of being loved, redeemed, and adopted through Christ into the Father’s family” (cf. Rom. 8:17).
Step-by-step, with the Spirit’s help and by the Spirit’s sanctifying grace, we put sin to death (mortification) and put on the fruit of the Spirit (vivification;
“To draw near to him is to become like him; to move away from him is to become unlike him.”46
Only then will God’s omnipresent omniscience be a great comfort, for he will be present, no longer to judge and condemn, but to justify and sanctify, to bless and bring us into union with his Son.
pebble in the hand of the Almighty. When the nations rage against him, “He who sits in the heavens laughs” (Ps. 2:4).
and none can stay his hand or say to him, “What have you done?” (Dan.
The lot may be “cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the LORD”
God’s power, on the other hand, is dependent on no one.
omnipotence and aseity meet up. Since God is self-sufficient, his power must be self-sufficient.
but it is independent because he ...
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His power may work through others, but it is intrinsic to God himself, depending on no one.
Absolute power refers to God’s ability to do all things, including those things that are possible for God but that God, for any variety of reasons, chooses not to do.
God’s will cannot be divorced from his moral nature (a
Since God is simple, his will and nature are one, and since his nature is identical with all his perfections (holiness included), in no way can his will be set over against any attribute.
God’s ordinate power, on the other hand, refers to those things that God has ordained, decreed, and willed to do.
God’s ordinate power is not another power in God but is part of his absolute power.6 It is only because he has the power to do anything and everything that he has the power to do those specific things he has ordained and willed to do.
