God is transcendent of time and space. He lives in heaven, where we are not. This daily devotional looks at what that means for our redo for godliness.
Nuggets
- God transcends time and space, yet He chooses to live in us when we imitate His character.
- God’s thoughts and ways are transcendent to ours, but we must try to imitate Him.
- Our focus should remain on God.
To read devotions in the Redo for Godliness series, click the appropriate button below.
Devotions in the Finding Our Center series
We’ve already looked at God being beyond the limits of time — eternal. We’ve also looked at God being beyond the limits of space — omnipresent. This is also impacted by God’s being immutable — unchanging. We also need to add in that God is self-sufficient.
So, why are we looking at it again in the form of being transcendent?
I think this gives us another snapshot of Who God is. He is unlike anyone we’ve ever met.
I also feel that, sometimes, we tend to try to bring God down to our level. Worldview people do it even more when they try to say they are God’s equal.
We have to give God the honor that He deserves. God is above us.
Let’s take a look at some different verses and see what we can add to the our base of knowledge.
Let's Put It into Context #1
Here is a running list of what we’ve discussed previously.
Let's Put It into Context #2
Transcendent means “extending or lying beyond the limits of ordinary experience,” according to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary. This is especially true when it is in relation to space and time.
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God the High and Exalted One
“For the High and Exalted One, who lives forever, whose name is holy, says this: ‘I live in a high and holy place, and with the oppressed and lowly of spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and revive the heart of the oppressed’” (Isa. 57: 15 CSB)
God transcends time and space, yet He chooses to live in us when we imitate His character.
High and Exalted
We have to put this into perspective. When Isaiah wrote this, the Israelites were experiencing the Babylonian captivity.
Here comes their God, saying, “You may be being punished right now, but I am still holy. I am still Sovereign.”
Macduff noted that many of the Israelites during that time were atheists. God’s Sovereignty is not based on our worship of Him. He is Sovereign without us.
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God is holy. Holiness is more than a character trait; it is purity, dedication, and commitment that lead to being set apart. We are not pure. Purity means we are without the stain of sin.
Sins are actions by humans that disobey God and break one of His reasonable, holy, and righteous laws and commandments, goes against a purpose He has for us, or follows Satan’s promptings.
Yeah, we are the opposite of God in many ways. Still think we are His equal?
High and Holy Place
The King James Version has an interesting translation of this verse. “For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place …” (Isa. 57: 15 KJV).
It says God inhabits eternity. He occupies eternity, not just lives eternally.
That makes it more of a space than a time.
Then add that to “… I dwell in the high and holy place …” (Isa. 57: 15 KJV). Even where God lives is pure and set apart.
God dwells in Heaven. Rees reminded us that “He tells us that He ‘dwells in the high and holy place;’ that is, in the heaven of heavens, the peculiar residence of the Deity, where His glory is chiefly manifested, and His favour is chiefly enjoyed. Heaven is not only high, but the highest place in the whole creation. There is no other place that can for a moment be compared with it, either in glory or felicity. Nor is there any other place so holy.”
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That is some description!
Oppressed and Lowly
But look where else God lives. “… with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones” (Isa. 57: 15 KJV). He lives in our hearts.
No, God doesn’t dwell with us because of we do the do’s and don’t do the don’ts. He doesn’t pick us because we are the smartest people in the room. He doesn’t pick us because we are the most caring people in the room.
God picks us because we have chosen to submit to Him. We acknowledge that He is eternal and unchangeable.
We may not be God’s equal, but we are beloved of Him. He lives with His children now. Thomas noted that is a permanent condition. When we are “… changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet” (I Cor. 15: 51-52 CSB), we will be able to spend eternity with Him.
Glossary
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But only those who have ABCDed will get to live with Him forever. Harris wrote that the only way God will condescend to live with us is if we hold the same character traits and values as He does.
The ABCDs of Salvation
If you have not become a believer in Christ, please read through the
Plan of Salvation and prayerfully consider what God is asking you to do.
A – admit our sins
B – believe His Son Jesus is our Redeemer
C – confess God as Sovereign Lord
D – demonstrate that commitment by making any changes needed in our lives to
live the way in which God has called us
The Disciple’s Job Description
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What does that take? “… a contrite and humble spirit …” (Isa. 57: 15 KJV). It takes true repentance. Repentance is acknowledging our separation from God and expressing sorrow for breaking God’s laws and commandments by making the commitment to changing ourselves through obedience so that we no longer do the wrong things.
God’s whole Plan of Salvation was “… to revive the spirit of the lowly and revive the heart of the oppressed” (Isa. 57: 15 CSB). He wanted to fix us.
Part of our problem is that we see oppressed only through a worldview lens. We see it as poverty stricken, being marginalized, and various other ways we see us as being held down.
We have to see things God’s way. Remember, He lives in us when we exhibit His character.
Can We Think Like God?
“‘For my thoughts are not your thoughts, and your ways are not my ways.’ This is the Lord’s declaration. ‘For as heaven is higher than earth, so my ways are higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts’” (Isa. 55: 8-9 CSB)
God’s thoughts and ways are transcendent to ours, but we must try to imitate Him.
I know. These are two of my go-to verses. I pull these out a lot.
We know God is a thinker and a planner. He doesn’t just spontaneously do something.
It is part of God’s omniscience. He knows all — past, present, and future.
We are made in God’s image, so we are thinkers and planners, too. But we can be spontaneous, as well.
No matter how much we are like God, the verses in Isaiah make it clear that we will never be able to think as God does. “For as heaven is higher than earth, so my ways are higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts’” (Isa. 55: 9 CSB).
Spurgeon rocked that boat. He wrote, “… if ever man is to dwell with God, he must think as God thinks.”
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Whoa, hold the phones!
God is so much more knowledgeable than we are. He is more loving, and caring, and merciful. He is so much more … everything than we are.
How can we think like God?
But look what Wadsworth said. He said it was talking more about a result, not a process.
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We are in a redo for godliness this year. We are trying to change to be like God.
That means we have to try to think like God. Spurgeon argued we have to walk with God and agree with Him to do that.
If we tie in what Wadsworth said, thought is not about the process on the Sanctification Road. It is about a result – perfection when we get called home.
Glossary
The way I read what Spurgeon said was that, if we think after God, He will meet us more than halfway. He will come to meet us. Add Wadsworth’s we have to be sincere in navigating the Sanctification Road.
Never, ever must we forget about the greatness of God. We don’t have that – even if we are thinking like Him. I love what Spurgeon said in another sermon. He wrote that theology “… is not the revelation of God’s greatness, but of man’s littleness …”
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We will never have God’s total knowledge and wisdom in this life and may not in the next.
But we have to have His mindset. We have to have His attitude and character.
That is what godliness is all about.
I think we are going to have to revisit this sometime and look at the rest of the sermons. That is getting too big of a topic for this discussion.
We Are to Strive to be Like God
“Who is like the Lord our God — the one enthroned on high, who stoops down to look on the heavens and the earth?” (Ps. 113: 5-6 CSB)
Our focus should remain on God.
Remember, when we were talking about God being omnipresent, we cited I Kings 8: 27. “But will God indeed live on earth? Even heaven, the highest heaven, cannot contain you, much less this temple I have built” (I Kgs. 8: 27 CSB).
Heaven and earth together cannot contain God. Still, the psalmist said that God was “… enthroned on high” (Ps. 113: 5 CSB).
When we were walking through Ephesians, we talked about the heavenly places.
To read a related devotion, click the button below.
God transcends whatever corner we try to stick Him in. He is superior to whatever being we put Him in a line up with – angel, Satan, demon, human.
We’ve talked before that God made us even though He knew we would disobey Him. He chose to make us anyway.
Glossary
We just said God meets us halfway – if not more. In fact, we can’t search for Him until He calls us. Orton wrote, “They cannot by searching find out God, nor have they minds capacious enough to receive Him.”
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It is all about God. We are not the focus here.
Oh, we like to think we are the focus. If nothing else, we like to think God just can’t get along without us.
He can.
He doesn’t want to.
We were created to worship God. He wants us to get back to His original plan.
Making the Connections
Trapp described God perfectly. He wrote, “He is a God, saith one, whose nature is majesty, whose place is immensity, whose time is eternity, whose life is sanctity, whose power is omnipotency, whose work is mercy, whose wrath is justice, whose throne is sublimity, whose seat is humility.”
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God defies whatever description we try to use to identify Him. He is always so much more.
How Do We Apply This?
Our greatness is dependent on God living within us. Robertson put it this way. When talking about the two things of which the nature of greatness in man consists, he wrote, “One is to have God so dwelling in us as to impart His character to us; and the other is to have God so dwelling in us that we recognize His presence, and know that we are His and He is ours.”
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Oh, wow.
- That we are godly.
- That we recognize Him.
How many times do we say we don’t feel His presence? We don’t see Him working in our lives????
Yeah, it is more than just ABC. We have to nail the D part, too.
Think of it this way. Thomas wrote, “During our existence here, He [God] is working out a plan that, like Himself, never had a beginning and will never have an end.”
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During our existence here. The plan is for us — individually and corporately. The plan that He had from before the foundation of the world. He will use us individually to expand His kingdom corporately.
We can’t rely on religious ceremony to secure God living within us. It has to be a redo for godliness — changing our character to be like Him.
That means:
- Fixing our minds to acknowledge we are not great.
- Learning to truly worship God.
- Getting God to our heart level.
- Kicking out the doubts through prayer.
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Orton said one of the things we should imitate was God’s condescension. We do that by treating others with grace.
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Bottom line, God is over all. We are to strive to become godly. We will sometimes fail, but it is about where we are at in the end.
Father God. We praise You for being the Sovereign God of all. We pray that You are God of every part of us. Amen.
What do you think?
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