As a child I had a distinct impression of God as a friendly, yet sometimes cross-looking elderly gentleman sitting on his throne in heaven. He, of course, had a long white beard and a golden staff. By God's grace, as I grew up and began to study the Word of God, and to read books like A.W. Tozer's The Knowledge of the Holy that forced me to seriously consider who God is, I gradually came to the exciting and unsettling realization that my thoughts about God were far too small. Since he began lifting the veil to provide a glimpse of who he is, the view has been breathtaking.
What does it mean that God is transcendent?
Little confronts our small ideas of God quite like pondering his transcendence. Ligonier Ministries, the teaching fellowship of R.C. Sproul, has an article that gives us a great explanation of what God's transcendence means:
When we say God is transcendent, we mean that He is separate from His creation and not dependent on the created order in any way. The Almighty made the universe and He is therefore its sovereign ruler (Gen. 1:1). A biblical view of transcendence does not mean that God is unable to enter into His creation or communicate with it. He is also immanent, present within the universe that He has made (Ps. 139:7). Nevertheless, creation is not God (pantheism), nor does God depend upon it. Creation, instead, depends upon our Creator for its continual existence (Eph. 4:4–6).1
One of the ways Scripture speaks of God's transcendence is in testifying that God is far above his creation (See 1 Chronicles 29:11, Psalm 8:1, and Psalm 113). In doing so, it isn't saying that God is distant, since we know that God's presence is everywhere (more on that next week!) but is stating the fact that his "quality of being"2 is infinitely greater than anything in the created order. It also means that the universe cannot contain him. He is above and beyond it because he created it, and he is not limited by it in any way.
Our transcendent Savior
The fact that God is transcendent is good news for us! Only a transcendent God can save. A drowning man cannot save another drowning man. When Adam and Eve sinned, the devastating consequence was that all of creation became corrupted (Romans 8:20-22). If God was one with creation, and not above it, then he too would have been subject to the corrupting effects of sin, in which case he would have also needed saving. Praise God that our great God and Savior Jesus Christ is transcendent! It is one of the reasons why he was uniquely able to rescue us from our sins. Hebrews 7:26–27 gives us great insight into this truth:
26 For it was indeed fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens. 27 He has no need, like those high priests, to offer sacrifices daily, first for his own sins and then for those of the people, since he did this once for all when he offered up himself.
Holy. Innocent. Unstained. Separated from sinners. Exalted above the heavens! Through his life, death on the cross, and resurrection, he defeated Satan, sin and death, and we who trust in him can look forward with expectant hope to the day that victory will be fully realized with his return.
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