How can god be transcendent and immanent

In response to the mis conception of the transcendence and immanence of God in traditional African worldview, it is important to acknowledge that Evangelical theology is grounded in the Christian doctrine of the Trinity Nkansah-Obrempong The doctrine of Trinity affirms that God is one being yet three distinctive persons, namely Father, Son and Holy Spirit cf. The word 'persons' in reference to the triune God does not necessarily mean that there are three 'personalities in God' Barth This aforementioned understanding would result in the notion of a God who is tritheistic in nature Barth In guarding ourselves against this potential challenge of tritheism, we argue that God is one incorporeal being Jn , comprised of three distinctive persons without being separated or divided Torrance We affirm the distinction between the Father, Son and Holy Spirit but always in inseparable relationship with one another , which is determined by the indivisible oneness or unity in being consubstantial among the persons of the Godhead Torrance Torrance It is important to note that all things were created by God the eternal Father, in and through his eternal Son; and that both the continual existence and sustenance of the entire creation is dependent on the transcendent, self-existing and infinite God cf.

In other words, Jesus Christ is the creator of all the invisible and visible things out of nothing; who lives and acts in 'lordly freedom' over his creation Torrance His lordly freedom over creation as its creator, sustainer and saviour cf. Heb is evident in his amplified immanence within humankind in the incarnational mystery as he became flesh and dwelt among us Jn Here, the incarnation:.

Thus, in contrast to the traditional African worldview of God as the creator, whose immanence within humankind is mediated through multiple spiritual power, it is maintained that in and through Jesus Christ, God the originator of everything stepped down from his eternal transcendent and infinite existence into the space and time of human existence in order to save humanity.

In other words, in the incarnation, God in Christ emptied himself of his honour and glory Phlp in order to have his personal presence among humanity, so that he could suffer for the sake of humanity's redemption.

Therefore, the incarnation:. This is the one and only God who is omnipresent, omniscient and omnipotent. This implies that the transcendent and all powerful God sees all that humankind are doing, as well as knowing all that we are thinking because there is no part of his creation outside of his reach and presence.

Stated differently, the incarnation of God in Christ confronts the mis conception of God's transcendence and immanence in traditional African worldview with the fundamental reality that even though God is transcendent as the sole creator of everything, he is not too remote and inaccessible to play a role in the practical life of African people.

This is because in Christ's incarnation, the transcendent God has once and for all moved into the bounds of space and time in order to have his personal presence among humankind as the New or Second Adam for the sake of humanity's redemption Torrance This indicates that:. More than this, even enters must be understood analogically, since God is already present in every moment and permeates every place.

Horton That is, even prior to God's special immanence within his creation in and through Jesus Christ's incarnation, he God was both transcendent and immanent within his creation Horton ; Zemek In Zemek's view, 'Psalm provides a natural theological entrance into two corollary truths about God, His transcendence and His immanence'.

Here, the Psalmist commands:. Zemek However, even though God has been always present within his creation as its sustainer before the incarnational mystery of Jesus Christ cf. Ps , it is apparent that in Jesus Christ, God's special personal presence within humanity is amplified by his assumption of our human mode of existence as the New Adam cf. Rm ; 1 Cor Barth ; Torrance Indeed, if the human nature of Christ does not have its own independent expression, and that this lies instead in eternal Word, this makes room for the reality that the Word, the Creator, assumed a common Adamic human nature, not merely a discrete one.

In other words, the couplet significance of anhypostasia and enhypostasia brings to the forefront the reality that in the incarnation, God in Christ was immanent within all humankind as the New Adam, because his human nature embraces all humankind, regardless of their tribal, national or genealogical categories Bavinck Given this, 'the salvation of the world lies in the fact, that Transcendent God became Man, became near to me and like me, and that we are now "grafted" on Him' Arseniev The above understanding can be summarised as the Adamic incarnational Christological framework, which is substantiated by the view that salvation in Jesus Christ is the 'reversal of Adam's fall' Dunn ; cf.

Jewett ; Schreiner Scripture presents an Adamic Christology by drawing comparisons between Adam and Christ, either explicitly cf. Rm ; 1 Cor , or implicitly cf. Lk ; Heb In the comparisons between Adam and Christ, there is an ontological inclusivity of all mankind in their vicarious humanity.

Here, Adam stands as the head of the fallen humanity, while Christ stands as the head of the redeemed humanity. Also, Adam is a type of Christ who is the real thing the anti-type which the type symbolises cf. Rm Barth , cf. Hultgren That is, even though there are continuities between Adam and Christ on the basis of the corporate solidarity of humankind in their vicarious humanity; the God-man, Jesus Christ transcends Adam in all respects as the one who 'undoes' Adam's sin and death for all humankind who believe in his saving person and work Rm Therefore, in the incarnational mystery, the transcendent God is personally immanent within humankind as the New Adam Jesus Christ for the sake of our redemption.

That is to say:. However, this does not mean that the Evangelical doctrine of the incarnation has never been contested in Christian history. Hick challenged the orthodox doctrine of incarnation. He challenged Barth as the representative voice of Evangelical theology in their claim of Christianity as the only true means of salvation, because of the uniqueness of the incarnation of Christ, the eternal Son of God Barth For this reason, Hick ix de-constructed the Orthodox Christian doctrine of Christ's incarnation.

In order to parallel Christianity with non-Christian religions, Hick ix argues that the incarnation of the Divine Logos should be understood in a metaphorical sense. That is, 'Jesus embodied, the ideal of a human life lived in faithful response to God … and he accordingly embodied a love which is a human reflection of the divine love' Hick He argues that these words were put in Jesus' mouth 60 or 70 years after Jesus' death by the Scriptural authors, who expressed their ideas which were developed during the expansion of the early Church Hick However, Hick's serious weakness is his presumptuous claim to know Jesus better than the disciples, who knew him directly and were closer to him.

In conclusion, the traditional African worldview is continually confronted by the fact that God does not engage with humankind through various spiritual intermediaries.

Instead, in his special-personal presence, God in the incarnation dwelt among us as the New Adam and saved us from sin and all its consequences so that we can live godly lives which brings honour and glory to him cf. This is the godly life which resembles God's behaviour and character amplified in his immanence in Christ.

The underlying reality is that:. Calvin This is because the incarnation of the Son of God:. The paradoxical transcendence and immanence of God in our New Adam's ascension. In Barth's view, 'the resurrection and the ascension of Christ is the main stay of everything' in the New Testament. However, the ascension of Christ confronts Christians with the paradoxical notion of the transcendence and immanence of God.

This paradox is captured in Farrow's notion of the continuity and discontinuity between the present world and the world to come Farrow In the wider argument of his book, Farrow contends that through Jesus' ascension, world history and covenant history are now separated to our view, although world history is still ultimately determined by the covenant history.

Concerning the covenant history, Torrance and Walker is in line with Farrow by the contention that the ascension of Christ 'is the ultimate end of creation and redemption revealed in the covenant of grace and fulfilled in Jesus Christ'.

In other words, covenant history has 'already reached its goal' in Christ's ascension, and yet it is now out of our sight in heaven where Christ is seated at the right hand of God the Father Farrow However, world history continues in this present era of Christianity, and believers are to continue to live in this world history without conforming to its observable sinful patterns Farrow Nevertheless, the ascension of Christ does not necessarily mean that God is distant from us because he has ascended into heaven where he is seated at the right hand of God the Father.

Instead, as African believers continue to live in this interim period of Christianity, we affirm that God continues to have his complete presence or immanence within all Christians through the dynamic presence of the Holy Spirit in their lives. In arguing for God's real and ongoing presence within African believers through the dynamic presence of the Holy Spirit, we are closing a gap between the transcendence and immanence of God after Christ's ascension.

That is, even though God in our New Adam Jesus Christ is absent from believers in the sense of his physical appearance, nonetheless, through the dynamic presence of the Holy Spirit, he continues to have real presence with them.

In saying this, we have the same conviction as Torrance and Walker state that:. It is through the Spirit that things infinitely disconnected - disconnected by the 'distance' of the ascension - are nevertheless infinitely closely related. Through the Spirit, Christ is nearer to us than we are to ourselves, and we who live and dwell on earth are yet made to sit with Christ in heavenly places, partaking of the divine nature in him.

This is why Luke and John emphasise that the man Jesus Christ our New Adam , the very God himself, is the one who gives the Spirit to those who are so deeply related to him as brothers cf. Heb and friends given to him by the Father cf. Jn In John, it is the resurrected man Jesus who breathes into his disciples his Spirit Jn The truth is that when Christians have Jesus by faith, they have full assurance and full security that they have the Holy Spirit.

This is against certain neo-Pentecostal claims that the gift and possession of the Holy Spirit is to be doubted without further experiences. That is, we ought to agree with Torrance that in the early Church of the New Testament:. Given this, in view of the transcendence and immanence of God after Christ's ascension, one should maintain that the triune God does not plant African believers in eternal union and participation with himself in the Son and through the Holy Spirit and abandon them Fee ; Murray Instead, the eternal Son of God came into our fallen world and adorned flesh as the New Adam in order to vicariously overcome the corruption that came through the first Adam and have a direct victory over evil.

Victorious, he now indwells African Christians by the Spirit cf. Towards an ethical reflection of the transcendence and immanence of God for African Christians. He reported that the growth of the African Church in particular is jaw-dropping. In there were fewer than 9 million Christians in Africa.

Now there are more than million. On the other hand, while the dawn of democracy across the African continent brought hope and promise to many people, this hope is increasingly being eroded by corruption, oppression and much unethical behaviour of public office bearers. Transparency International Perception Index , an index that measures the perceived levels of public sector corruption worldwide - being very clean and 0 - being highly corrupt indicate that all African countries have a less than 50 points except Botswana with 63, and ranked 31 in the world.

This is followed by Namibia and Rwanda with 49 points and ranked 55 in the world. Global average score is 43 whereas sub-Saharan Africa is Nussbaum observed that African political leaders have betrayed their fundamental humanness. Macheka added his voice that African leaders have embraced corruption and departed from the cherished values and ideals aspired for post-colonial Africa. Masango echoed the same concerns as Macheka that the world views African leaders as plagued by corruption, dictatorship and many other bad governance practices.

Jones describes the effects of corruption and unethical behaviour. He explained that corruption undermines democracy and good governance, it violates human rights, it distorts markets and it erodes quality of life. Corruption and unethical behaviour destroys people and abandons moral principles as well as norms of social justice.

Juxtaposing the above depressing African situation and the growth of Christianity prompts one to ask the question: why is there no positive relationship between growth of Christianity and resultant values with the level of corruption and unethical behaviour? Transcendent - God is also 'outside the world'. God is not active in human affairs. It is up to humans to act in the world on God's behalf. Personal - individuals can have a personal relationship with God. The Bible often talks of God in human terms, eg as friend, king, parent, and judge.

Isaiah An Immanent God But God is not a solitary, remote principle, so high above us that we have no way of knowing him. Deuteronomy For your Maker is your husband, the Lord of hosts is his name; and the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer, the God of the whole earth he is called. Ezekiel , 15 God lets us know who he is in several ways: By revealing some of his characteristics in the created world. Isaiah For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them.

For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.

Romans By coming to us in the form of a real, historical man, Jesus, who took on himself the judgment of the Holy Father and died to bring us into a relationship of love with him. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.

John And by communicating who he is to us in a trustworthy message, written in the Bible. But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for everygood work.

God also lets us know that he loves us in several ways: By telling us so in language that he created especially for us. Who makes him mute, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? Apply market research to generate audience insights. Measure content performance. Develop and improve products.

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