back to indexWhat Does It Mean to Live in God’s Presence?
00:00:02.000 |
Podcast listener Derek from Toronto, Canada writes in to ask, "Pastor John, 00:00:09.160 |
what does it mean to be in the presence of God? Not eternally in heaven, but living in his presence right now? 00:00:16.560 |
I'm struck by Psalm 21 verse 6, which says, "You make glad with the joy of your presence." 00:00:23.520 |
So if God is omnipresent, what does this mean to be in God's presence now? 00:00:29.920 |
I think the first thing I should say is that the biblical writers were not naive 00:00:37.040 |
in the sense that they thought God had a body with spatial dimensions so that he could have a locality 00:00:47.600 |
in the universe. Stephen said in Acts 7, "The Most High does not dwell in houses made by hands." 00:00:59.440 |
The point being, he's not that kind of being. Therefore, I think all the biblical imagery 00:01:07.840 |
about drawing near to God or departing from God or being before the face of God, which is, by the way, 00:01:20.160 |
the literal translation of presence. The word presence is almost always translating the 00:01:27.040 |
Hebrew "pane" or "paneem" and means face. I think all of those images are metaphors or pictures, 00:01:37.120 |
and I'll mention what they're metaphors of in just a minute, but let me stick in a qualifier 00:01:44.160 |
perhaps first. To be sure, God ordained in the Old Testament that his "presence" be directly 00:01:52.800 |
associated with the tabernacle in the wilderness or the temple in Jerusalem so that people could 00:01:59.280 |
speak of entering into God's presence in the sense that they came near to the place where 00:02:07.040 |
he had appointed his name especially to dwell or to be identified with. And in the New Testament, 00:02:13.760 |
with the coming of Jesus into the world, we now have God in human flesh, which does have spatial 00:02:21.760 |
dimension, and we can go right up to him and touch him or we can walk right away from him like Judas 00:02:29.040 |
did. Jesus could be touched here. He could be kissed here. Indeed, even today, I think we could 00:02:41.600 |
think that way about Jesus in our dying. 2 Corinthians 5, 6, we're always of good courage. 00:02:48.400 |
We know that while we're at home in the body, we are away from the Lord, we walk by faith, 00:02:55.760 |
not by sight. Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home 00:03:03.040 |
with the Lord. And what he means, I think, is literally the incarnate God-man, Jesus Christ, 00:03:13.680 |
exists in dimensions that we don't fully understand in a human body that is different from 00:03:20.480 |
ours and yet like ours, and that when we die, we will be at home with that Christ, that God-man 00:03:28.480 |
incarnate Christ in a way that relates to his body in ways we don't fully comprehend. 00:03:35.440 |
But with those exceptions, namely the localized presence of God in the temple in the Old Testament 00:03:42.000 |
and the localized presence of God in the incarnate Christ, with those exceptions, 00:03:46.000 |
the ordinary way of speaking about the presence of the nearness of God in the Bible 00:03:52.160 |
is not connected with spatial orientation. And here's my answer to the question, "Well, 00:03:58.320 |
then what does it refer to?" My summary answer would go like this. The presence of God or the 00:04:06.320 |
nearness of God is a metaphor from two sides. One, our experience of it, and the other, 00:04:14.240 |
God's expression of it. Our experience of it means that we taste or feel or realize 00:04:22.400 |
the reality of God more directly, more authentically, more intimately, more effectively, 00:04:29.600 |
that is, producing more effects in our lives more certainly, more satisfyingly, or more terrifyingly, 00:04:37.600 |
and so on. In other words, his presence as we experience him is the heightening of his reality 00:04:48.480 |
in our lives, either for good if we're in his grace or for ill if we're under his wrath, which 00:04:54.960 |
is why Jesus makes all the difference here to shield us and make God a welcoming reality or 00:05:03.200 |
presence for us. So, for example, we read, Psalm 100, "Serve the Lord with gladness, come into his 00:05:10.960 |
presence with singing," or James 4, 8, "Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you." These are 00:05:21.120 |
invitations into the fuller, more intense, more certain, more joyful, more satisfying, 00:05:30.480 |
more transforming experience of the reality of God. That's my first half of the metaphor. The 00:05:39.840 |
other half is that it refers to God's manifest influence from his side, not thinking now about 00:05:48.880 |
our experience of it, but his more manifest influence. And I'm thinking of a text like Psalm 00:05:56.000 |
114, verse 7, "Tremble, O earth, at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob, 00:06:05.280 |
who turns the rock into a pool of water, the flint into a spring of water." In other words, 00:06:13.120 |
when God manifests himself or his presence in a fresh, new way, stunning things just objectively 00:06:22.800 |
happen in the world, whether or not anybody experiences them or not. So, in summary, God is, 00:06:32.480 |
yes, to be sure, omnipresent in some of his influences, like his sustaining all things 00:06:41.840 |
at all times, holding every electron and every sub-nuclear particle in its place. But he makes 00:06:53.440 |
his influence more manifestly felt and experienced in particular ways, in particular times, and this 00:07:02.080 |
is what we are referring to when we say with a psalmist, "For me, it is good to be near God. I 00:07:10.000 |
have made the Lord my refuge, that I may tell of his works," or that's Psalm 73, 28. Here's 145, 00:07:18.000 |
18. The Lord is near to all who call upon him, to all who call upon him in truth. That doesn't 00:07:25.280 |
mean that God traveled some distance. It means he's near in the sense that he exerts his influence 00:07:33.920 |
for our good in special ways and causes us to experience the sweetness of his reality 00:07:42.080 |
in special ways. Yeah, amen. Thank you, Pastor John. Well, you can keep up with the daily Ask 00:07:48.080 |
Pastor John podcast online or through our free apps. And for more, go to our online home at 00:07:53.120 |
DesiringGod.org/AskPastorJohn, and there you can send us a question, just like Derek did today. 00:08:00.800 |
Please know that we get between 1,500 and 2,000 emails every month now, so we cannot respond to 00:08:07.280 |
any of them, but we do read them, so keep them coming to us. Keep those questions brief and to 00:08:11.600 |
the point. That would be very helpful for us. Thank you. Well, we have a lawyer in heaven. 00:08:18.320 |
We have an advocate who is pleading on our behalf right now and always, and this glorious truth is 00:08:24.800 |
one we often forget. And tomorrow, John Piper will help us remember. I'm your host, Tony Ranke. We'll