Summary
Omnipresence
Through the prophet Jeremiah, God Himself asks a question that defines one of His essential attributes: "Am I a God nearby, says the LORD, and not a God far off?... Do I not fill heaven and earth?" Jeremiah 23:23-24. In a single breath, God declares both His transcendence—He is far off, beyond and above all creation—and His immanence—He is near, present within His creation. Omnipresence is the confession that the living God is everywhere at once.
David sings the same confession in Psalm 139:7-10: "Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!" There is no corner of creation, no secret place, no height or depth where God is absent. He fills heaven and earth.
A common picture compares God's omnipresence to oxygen filling a room. The image helps, but it falls short. Oxygen is spread out—more molecules here, fewer there, never the whole quantity in one spot. God is not divided or diluted that way. The full presence of God is at every point at every moment. There is never more of God in one place and less of Him in another. He is wholly present everywhere, all at once. This is what the “Omnipresence” 8-7-22 study draws out from Jeremiah's text: God is fully present, never spread thin.
Because we are finite, we are tempted to project our limits onto God. We can only be in one place at a time, so we begin to suspect God must be the same—perhaps drifting away when we feel forsaken, perhaps distracted by larger matters. Even believers can echo David's lament: "How long, O LORD? Will you forget me forever?" Psalm 13:1. But to remake God in our image is the very exchange Romans 1:22-23 warns against. God's promise stands above our feelings: "I will never leave you nor forsake you" Hebrews 13:5.
Omnipresence also carries pastoral weight. Because God is fully with you—not partially, not occasionally—whatever He allows in your life is governed by His nearness, ordered for His glory and your good. He is not a God whose attention wanders. He sees the full extent of human sin, and rather than turning away in horror, He drew near in the flesh to redeem it.
The cross is the clearest revelation of this nearness. Two thousand years ago, the second person of the Trinity, the God-man Jesus Christ, was fully present at Calvary, bearing the sin of the world. The God who fills heaven and earth could not be contained by a tomb, and on the third day He rose. The omnipresent God who sees you in every place is the same God who came near to save you—and who remains fully present with you now.
Video citations
- “Omnipresence” 8-7-22 — Would you open your Bibles please with me this morning for our study to the Old Testament to the book of Jeremiah. If you're using a Pew edition of Holy Scripture this morning, you're going to find…