“He sees you when you’re sleeping,
He knows if you’re awake,
He knows if you’ve been bad or good…”
Quick, who are we singing about? Santa Claus?! No. Santa Claus is not omnipresent, silly.
A fun jab but an even more important distinction. No one possesses the attribute of omniscience but God. Not Satan, not an angel, and certainly no man. Similarly no one possesses the attribute of omnipresence but God. What is omnipresence but the presence of God everywhere?
Ah, yes, but there are some very important distinctions to make clear as we consider this that will help us, comfort us, and move us to worship.
- God is not contained by time or space.
This is terribly important. If God were contained by time and space he would be contained by creation. If he were contained by creation he could not be its creator as he would be subject to creation. God cannot be referred to by time and located in space the way we can locate planets or stars or trees or rocks. A map will not be produced with an X marking the spot of God where we could travel to and approach him. - God’s presence is not substance.
God’s presence is not “accomplished” by his being all things. He is not a rock or a tree or you. That is pantheism. We are not a single divine reality. We are not God. Neither is the universe God, which is popular right now with many new age folk. “The Universe has been good to me” etc. That is panentheism where the Universe is equated with the divine. Yet God is not tied to a time or place because he utterly transcends it. We are tied to time and place because we live in creation and our existence depends upon it. God does not live in it, but instead he created it and utterly transcends any concept of time and space which are too small to contain the immensity of God. To be clear, there is nothing that can contain him. We are limited by human language to discuss and describe He who so completely transcends humanity. You can sooner hug a cloud than sufficiently describe God. Yet, that is theology, the study of God. And so we press on. -
God dwells in all his creatures, but not in all alike.
“God dwells in all creatures through his being, but in no one other than Christ does the whole fullness of deity dwell bodily (Col. 2:9). In Christ he dwells uniquely: by personal union. In created beings God dwells according to the measure of their being: in some in terms of nature, in others in terms of justice, in still others in terms of grace or of glory. There is endless diversity in order that all of them together might reveal the glory of God.” (Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, Vol 2, pg 169) - Our distance from God is not locally, but spiritually.
Do we feel distant from God? Most assuredly our feeling of closeness to God changes. Prior to our conversion the distance is immense. When we repent and believe the distance seems non-existent. Yet in both instances God is not closer or farther away from us in location. The distance we feel is spiritual. “but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear.” (Isaiah 59:2) Our fleeing from God is not because we can abandon his presence but because we are incompatible with him. Augustine said, “It is not by location but by incongruity that a person is far from God.”
So What?
““Am I a God at hand, declares the Lord, and not a God far away? Can a man hide himself in secret places so that I cannot see him? declares the Lord. Do I not fill heaven and earth? declares the Lord.” (Jeremiah 23:23–24, ESV)
God in his word tells us that he is at hand and far away. That he fills heaven and earth. This is terrifying and comforting. Terrifying because there is truly no place to which we can run, or be, or sin that God is not. His omniscience and omnipresence are inseparable. He both is everywhere and knows everything. Yet it is comforting because when God made atonement for your sins, believer, he is fully aware of everything you have ever done. Not only that, God is not confined to space and time and has full knowledge of all that you will do. His atonement for your sin was not general or speculative. He didn’t rely on angel spy reports to keep tabs on you nor is he wringing his hands about what you will do. He definitely atoned for your sins because he knows all of them. Past, present, future. His knowledge is “omnipresent” as well; it is not confined by space or time.
God is with you. In Christ, God is for you. We ought to live our lives with the knowledge that he is there. Ligonier ministries is fond of Coram Deo. “Living Coram Deo is to live one’s entire life in the presence of God, under the authority of God, to the glory of God.” We live in his presence, whether we admit it or not. Let us not be spiritually distant from him by living under his authority and for his glory.
“Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there! If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me.” (Psalm 139:7–10, ESV)
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I highly recommend you read more on this. I have not even scratched the surface of the subject and its implications. Augustine, Herman Bavinck, and others would be great places to start.
