God’s attribute: The Omnipresence of God Part 3

This is a series on the attributes of God.

The Omnipresence of God Part 3: New Testament

Selected Scriptures

Purpose: In this session we shall look to the New Testament and what it teaches concerning God’s omnipresence so that we would draw implications for our lives.

1. General affirmation on God’s omnipresence
2. The omnipresence of the members of the Trinity
3. The omnipresence of God and the Great Commission
4. Distinction between general and moral presence

 

Reminder of the definition of the omniscience of God:

1. Wayne Grudem: “God does not have size or spatial dimension and is present at every point of space with his whole being, yet God acts differently in different places.”[1]
2. John Feinberg: “God’s omnipresence, on the other hand, signifies that God is present in the totality of his being at each point in space.”[2]
3. John Frame: “Spatial omnipresence cannot mean that God is a physical substance spread through the material universe. What it means, rather is that God’s power, knowledge and ability to act in the finite world are universal.”[3]

What does the Bible in the New Testament have to say in further clarifying God’s presence and omnipresence?

 

General affirmation on God’s omnipresence

“that they would seek God, if perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; 28 for in Him we live and move and exist, as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we also are His children.’” (Acts 17:27-28)

1. In the context this is Paul preaching and explaining Christianity to Greek philosophers at Athens, see verses 18-20.
2. Here Paul affirms that there is a sense in which God is “not far from each one of us.”
3. There is a sense in which God is close enough that people might “might grope for Him and find Him.” ( 27)
4. Of course people do not seek God naturally (Romans 3:10) but that inability is due to immoral reasons rather than God being totally unsearchable and infinite since God has revealed Himself (Psalm 19).
5. So if God is not far from each of us that means God has His presence surrounding all of us in some sense (specifically, His ontological presence).
6. Paul also tells us that “in Him we live and move and exist” (28) and that means He is the all present conditioner for our very being. He is thus omnipresent.

 

The omnipresence of the members of the Trinity

1. The Father
   1. “Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him.” (John 14:23)
      1. Jesus here is speaking on the last night before His arrest.
      2. Here Jesus tells His disciples that both God the Father (“My Father”) and Jesus Himself would “make Our abode” with His followers.
      3. In order for Jesus and the Father to “live” with His believers all over the world this shows that both are omnipresent.
      4. Notice this verse shows not only the omnipresence of the Father but the Son Jesus as well.
   2. “what we have seen and heard we proclaim to you also, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ” (1 John 1:3)
      1. This verse is written by John to believers to have assurance of their salvation according to 1 John 5:14.
      2. In John’s opening of his epistles he mentioned that he and his readers (“our”) can have fellowship “with the Father.”
      3. But this fellowship is not only true with the believers with one another and God the Father, but it is also true with “with His Son Jesus Christ.”
      4. In order for there to be the possibility of fellowship with believers everywhere God the Father and the Son has to have the attribute of omnipresence.

2. The Son
   1. Note: If Jesus is God we shouldn’t be surprised that He is all present.
   2. All the verses we have seen above demonstrating the Father’s omnipresence equally applies to the Son since they all mentions the Son’s omnipresence.
   3. How exactly does the Father and Son abide in a believer? “I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me.” (John 17:23)
      1. We see here that Jesus said “I in them,” that is “Jesus –>believers.”
      2. Also we see “You in Me,” meaning “Father–>Jesus.”
      3. Thus we have: Father–>Jesus–>believers.
      4. This is why when Jesus is important; someone does not have Jesus in them, they do not have God the Father.
   4. “God is faithful, through whom you were called into fellowship with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.” (1 Corinthians 1:9)
      1. Here Paul is writing to a church in Corinth.
      2. As messed up as the church is, they are still believers and Paul tells us God’s purpose and faithfulness towards means they are to have “fellowship with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.”
      3. In order for there to be the possibility of fellowship between believers and Jesus this means Jesus has to have the attribute of omnipresence.
   5. “He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together” (Colossians 1:17)
      1. Here we see Christ is the one who holds all things together.
      2. In order for Jesus to hold all things together He has to be present everywhere.
      3. Thus we see this passage demonstrate Jesus’ omnipresence.
3. The Holy Spirit
   1. “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever;” (John 14:16)
      1. Jesus here is speaking on the last night before His arrest.
      2. Here Jesus tells His disciples that both God the Father will give another Helper to the believers.
      3. This Helper is the Holy Spirit
      4. In order for the Holy Spirit to be of help to the believers all over the world the Holy Spirit must be omnipresent.
   2. “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with you all” (2 Corinthians 13:14)
      1. Here we see Paul mentions that believers have “fellowship of the Holy Spirit.”
      2. In order to have fellowship between believers all over and the Holy Spirit, the Spirit must be omnipresent.

The omnipresence of God and the Great Commission

1. Two important verses on the Great commission are Matthew 28:19-20, Acts 1:8.
2. Notice both have the encouragement of God being with them, specifically the following members of the Trinity: the Son and the Spirit respectively.
3. We see the omnipresence of the Son and the Spirit being presupposed but it is meant as a motivation and empowerment of the disciples to fulfill the Great Commission.

Distinction between general and moral presence

1. There’s a Holy/Moral presence of God: “Therefore repent and return, so that your sins may be wiped away, in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord” (Acts 3:19)
   1. Here in order to be before the Lord’s presence it requires on the individual part that they “repent and return, so that your sins may be wiped away.” Thus there’s a moral presence that’s mentioned.
   2. Notice though that being before God’s moral and Holy presence is a blessing since it brings with it “that times of refreshing.”
2. In order to be before God’s moral and holy presence we need Christ and His works: “For Christ did not enter a holy place made with hands, a mere copy of the true one, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us;” (Hebrews 9:24)
3. Christ and His works ensures that we can be before God’s glorious and Holy presence: “Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy,” (Jude 24)

Implications

1. Do you believe being before God’s Holy presence is a time of refreshing (Acts 3:19)? Do you seek for it?  Have you experienced it?
2. Have you treasured God the Son and His work in making access for us to be before God the Father?
3. If God the Father, God the Son and God the Spirit resides in you, have you meditated upon this truth to stir you to greater holiness knowing that you are a living temple of God?

 

[1] Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology (Grand Rapids: Zondervan), 173.

[2] John Feinberg, No One Like Him (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2001), 249.

[3] John Frame, The Doctrine of God (Phillipsburg, NJ: Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing, 2002), 580.