Defensive Coordinators and Divine Character
We can make a mess of the truth of God by rejecting the reality of God’s simultaneous transcendence and immanence.
When you distill down the ways people go wonky in their beliefs about God, a few key categories show up consistently. For one, it’s common to confuse the chasm between the Creator and the creation. In fact, idolatry is simply this error: ascribing “godness” to any created thing, whether that thing is wine, women, or water (or whatever else). Folks can get pretty sophisticated and sneaky about such idolatry, but at the bottom it’s the same irrational behavior the Lord himself mocks: A man chops down a tree, burns half of the wood to fuel a fire and builds the other half of the wood into a statue that he asks to save him (Isaiah 44:9-20, summarized). It’s silly when you think about it rationally, but sin and idolatry are at heart irrational.
Related to muddying up the Creator-creature distinction, we can also make a mess of the truth of God by rejecting the reality of God’s simultaneous transcendence and immanence. Transcendence means that God “transcends” the world as the holy high King, far above and beyond all other things. Immanence means that God is near to the world and its people, closer than our own thoughts. The mystery of the God who is there is that he is both transcendent and immanent: “I live in a high and holy place [transcendence] and with the oppressed and lowly of spirit [immanence]” (Isaiah 57:15). We must hold both things simultaneously, even if they seem to pull against one another, creating a tension in our minds. We must remember that this isn’t a tension for God, even if it blows one of our brain-fuses now and then.
Missing either transcendence or immanence misunderstands the true nature of God, leading to Deism on the one hand and Pantheism on the other. Deism was trendy a few hundred years ago, and it still lurks as a present threat to truth. It pushes the distinction between Creator and creature beyond the bounds of reality and the Bible. Deism might believe that God made the world, but that he’s not involved in the world. He is transcendent but not immanent. In contrast, Pantheism rejects the transcendence of God and sings the song from Disney’s Pocahontas, “Every rock and tree and creature has a life and a spirit.” It teaches that God is near, because everything is God. More sophisticated thinking riffs on pantheism and teaches that God isn’t everything but he is in everything, to the point that it’s hard to tell the difference. Theologians call this panentheism (everything-in-God).
We find the dual reality of God’s transcendence and God’s immanence difficult because it’s so far from our experience. For example, recently I’ve been enjoying following the San Francisco 49ers in the NFL playoffs. The Niners defensive coordinator, DeMeco Ryans, has led the team to become the best defense in football. He’s in high demand as a future head coach for another team. DeMeco coaches his defense from the sidelines, in the fray with the players. Many other defensive coordinators, though, coach from a booth high in the stands, where they can see the field. While either approach has benefits and drawbacks, a coordinator has to choose one or the other. He can choose the big picture strategy (think transcendence) or he can choose the ground-level fray (think immanence). But he can’t be in two places at once.
God is different, because God can be both and God is both. The beautiful truth of the true God teaches us that God is both high and holy and near to the lowly. He rules and sees all things, and he’s with us in the trenches of the fray. We see this truth in the Incarnation: “The Word was God” and “The Word became flesh and dwelled among us” (John 1:1, 14). The holy God humbled himself. The infinite took on the nature of an infant.
Depending on your background and your own personality, you probably tend to focus more on either God’s transcendence or God’s immanence. Maybe you have found a universe of significance in the high and holy God, who is a consuming fire. Maybe you have found a world of comfort in the near and tender God, who won’t quench a smoldering wick. Of both we sing, “Yes, and amen!” Just take care, and learn your own leanings. Lest you become a functional Deist, remember that your high and holy God became an infant. Lest you become a functional Pantheist, remember that your near and tender God is infinite.
He’s everything you need, and much more.