{"id":1479,"date":"2011-09-08T03:50:54","date_gmt":"2011-09-08T10:50:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.blueletterbible.org\/blb\/?p=1479"},"modified":"2024-03-26T12:36:09","modified_gmt":"2024-03-26T19:36:09","slug":"the-attributes-of-god-immanent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.blueletterbible.org\/blb\/2011\/09\/08\/the-attributes-of-god-immanent\/","title":{"rendered":"The Attributes of God: Immanent"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1487 aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.blueletterbible.org\/blb\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2011\/09\/attribute_immanent_2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"545\" height=\"379\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.blueletterbible.org\/blb\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2011\/09\/attribute_immanent_2.jpg 545w, https:\/\/blogs.blueletterbible.org\/blb\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2011\/09\/attribute_immanent_2-300x208.jpg 300w, https:\/\/blogs.blueletterbible.org\/blb\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2011\/09\/attribute_immanent_2-431x300.jpg 431w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 545px) 100vw, 545px\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><span style=\"font-size: small\">&#8220;Am I a God at hand, declares the <span class=\"sc\">Lord<\/span>, and not a God far away? Can a man hide himself in secret places so that I cannot see him? declares the <span class=\"sc\">Lord<\/span>. Do I not fill heaven and earth? declares the <span class=\"sc\">Lord<\/span>.&#8221;<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-size: small\">(Jeremiah 23:23-24)<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><span style=\"font-size: small\">&#8230;Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, for<br \/>\n\u201c\u2018In him we live and move and have our being\u2019&#8230;&#8221;<br \/>\n(Acts 17:27-28)<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\">\u00a0<span style=\"font-size: small\">Be strong, all you people of the land, declares the <span class=\"sc\">Lord<\/span>. Work, for I am with you, declares the <span class=\"sc\">Lord<\/span>\u00a0of hosts,\u00a0according to the covenant that I made with you when you came out of Egypt. My Spirit remains in your midst. Fear not.<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-size: small\">(Haggai 2:4-5)<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1363\" style=\"border: 0pt none\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.blueletterbible.org\/blb\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2011\/08\/slash_line.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"395\" height=\"15\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.blueletterbible.org\/blb\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2011\/08\/slash_line.png 525w, https:\/\/blogs.blueletterbible.org\/blb\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2011\/08\/slash_line-300x11.png 300w, https:\/\/blogs.blueletterbible.org\/blb\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2011\/08\/slash_line-500x19.png 500w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 395px) 100vw, 395px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Not only is our God <a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.blueletterbible.org\/blb\/2011\/08\/12\/the-attributes-of-god-transcendence\/\">transcendent<\/a>, above us in every way, but He is also immanent. In other words, He has an indwelling presence in the universe and is personally involved in its in-workings and out-workings.<\/p>\n<p>Immanence describes a God who is at hand, working through the minutiae of the lives of His creation to produce a love for and enjoyment of His Word, His Gospel, and Himself. God does not sit back and merely observe a creation which he set in motion millennia ago; he is present and actively participating in His world. This gives the believer rest in the knowledge that there is no place or situation that is too far to be under God&#8217;s protecting hand.<\/p>\n<p>Wayne Grudem (research professor, Phoenix Seminary) explains the uniqueness of this attribute in his <a href=\"http:\/\/www.blb-christian-books.org\/prodDetails.cfm?prodID=2096\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em>Systematic Theology<\/em><\/a> (parenthetical notes added):<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px\">In the teaching of the Bible, God is both infinite and personal: he is infinite (transcendent) and personal (immanent): he is infinite in that he is not subject to any of the limitations of humanity, or of creation in general. He is far greater than everything he has made, far greater than anything else that exists. But he is also personal: he interacts with us as a person, and we can relate to him as persons. We can pray to him, worship him, obey him, and love him, and he can speak to us, rejoice in us, and love us.<br \/>\nApart from the true religion found in the Bible, no system of religion has a God who is both infinite and personal.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #666699\"><em><strong>Other attributes we&#8217;ve discussed so far:<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.blueletterbible.org\/blb\/2011\/06\/29\/the-attributes-of-god-eternality\/\">Eternality<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.blueletterbible.org\/blb\/2011\/07\/07\/the-attributes-of-god-good\/\">Goodness<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.blueletterbible.org\/blb\/2011\/07\/14\/the-attributes-of-god-immutable\/\">Immutability<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.blueletterbible.org\/blb\/2011\/08\/12\/the-attributes-of-god-transcendence\/\">Transcendence<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.blueletterbible.org\/blb\/2011\/08\/18\/the-attributes-of-god-self-existent\/\">Self-existence<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.blueletterbible.org\/blb\/2011\/08\/25\/the-attributes-of-god-holy\/\">Holiness<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.blueletterbible.org\/blb\/2011\/08\/31\/the-attributes-of-god-omnipotent\/\">Omnipotence<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"text-align: right\"><span style=\"color: #808080\"><em>[This post is adapted from Blue Letter Bible\u2019s\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.blueletterbible.org\/help.cfm#2\"><span style=\"color: #808080\">Theological FAQs page<\/span><\/a>.<\/em>]<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;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.&#8221; (Jeremiah 23:23-24) &#8230;Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":1487,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1479","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-misc","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.blueletterbible.org\/blb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1479","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.blueletterbible.org\/blb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.blueletterbible.org\/blb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.blueletterbible.org\/blb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.blueletterbible.org\/blb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1479"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.blueletterbible.org\/blb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1479\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9403,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.blueletterbible.org\/blb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1479\/revisions\/9403"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.blueletterbible.org\/blb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1487"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.blueletterbible.org\/blb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1479"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.blueletterbible.org\/blb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1479"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.blueletterbible.org\/blb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1479"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}