Isaiah 55:1-13
Our Suffering Servant and Savior
1 “Come, all you who are thirsty,
come to the waters;
and you who have no money,
come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk
without money and without cost.
2 Why spend money on what is not bread,
and your labor on what does not satisfy?
Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good,
and you will delight in the richest of fare.
3 Give ear and come to me;
listen, that you may live.
I will make an everlasting covenant with you,
my faithful love promised to David.
4 See, I have made him a witness to the peoples,
a ruler and commander of the peoples.
5 Surely you will summon nations you know not,
and nations you do not know will come running to you,
because of the Lord your God,
the Holy One of Israel,
for he has endowed you with splendor.”
6 Seek the Lord while he may be found;
call on him while he is near.
7 Let the wicked forsake their ways
and the unrighteous their thoughts.
Let them turn to the Lord, and he will have mercy on them,
and to our God, for he will freely pardon.
8 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways,”
declares the Lord.
9 “As the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.
10 As the rain and the snow
come down from heaven,
and do not return to it
without watering the earth
and making it bud and flourish,
so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater,
11 so is my word that goes out from my mouth:
It will not return to me empty,
but will accomplish what I desire
and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.
12 You will go out in joy
and be led forth in peace;
the mountains and hills
will burst into song before you,
and all the trees of the field
will clap their hands.
13 Instead of the thornbush will grow the juniper,
and instead of briers the myrtle will grow.
This will be for the Lord’s renown,
for an everlasting sign,
that will endure forever.”
God is Spirit, and this makes it hard, at least for me to understand Him like I would from one I would meet and get to know on the street...God is very complex and is immanent...The definition of immanent is something that is existing within...
The belief that God exists and is permanently pervading and sustaining the universe...A belief in God is an example of something that is immanent in the texts of Christianity...God of the Bible is believed to be Eternal, Almighty Being who created and preserves all things...Christians believe in a monotheistic conception of God, which is both transcendent (wholly independent of, and removed from, the material universe) and immanent (involved in the material universe)...The transcendence of God means that God is outside of humanity's full experience, perception or grasp...The immanence of God means that he is knowable, perceivable or graspable...
Amanda Jenkins writes about God's immanent and transcendent attributes...Jenkins writes, “God is both transcendent over and immanent in, His world...These nineteenth-century words express the thought that on the one hand God is distinct from His world and does not need it...While on the other hand, He permeates the world in sustaining creative power, shaping and steering it in a way that keeps it on its planned course.”...The words transcendent and immanent often are seen together in theological language...The transcendence of God means that God is outside of humanity’s full experience, perception or grasp...The immanence of God means that He is knowable, perceivable or graspable...For example, Jesus Christ is God incarnate (in the flesh) and therefore He was immanent in the first century among those who knew Him, perceived of Him or experienced Him with one or more of their five senses...In the Christian Worldview God is goodness in its full form...God is Truth...God is Beauty...When we experience these immanent qualities of God in our lives we are experiencing God, but not all of who God is−only a reflection or echo of Him...God’s goodness, Truth and beauty is outside of His creation and cannot be fully grasped by His creation...
Isaiah says, “’For your thoughts are not my thoughts, nor are your ways My ways," declares the LORD."...For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts.”...This verse is consistent with the biblical theme of the transcendence of God...He is higher, greater, and more than what humanity can know...Humanity has limitations and boundaries, God transcends the boundaries of human limitations...God’s thoughts are higher than humanity's thoughts and his ways are higher than humanity's ways because He is outside of the confines that humanity experiences as part of the creation order−He stands distinct as a Creator...God’s immanence and his transcendence are both reasons for humanity to worship Him...Humanity worships the immanence of God because the creator God of the universe has made Himself knowable to humanity...Humanity worships God the transcendent God because they understand that He is the Creator and Sustainer of the universe- the Originator of Life and ever good gift−and that He is bigger and greater than anything they will ever have the ability to comprehend...Although Jesus dwelt among humanity, the Triune God is bigger, greater and more wonderful than anything that human beings can fully wrap their minds around...An example of this can be seen in three qualities that have been called transcendentals throughout philosophical history: goodness, truth and beauty...These qualities are immanently perceivable, but they also cannot be fully perceived, possessed or known- therefore making them transcendent...When I experience goodness, for example, a good meal or a good conversation, I can recognize that it is good but goodness itself is not fully known in those things and did not originate in a good meal or a good conversation...Goodness must come from Something Else and a good meal or conversation echoes or reflects goodness, but never in its full form...
So Jesus Christ was immanent during his earthly life, the Christian Worldview believes that God is transcendent...God's transcendence means that He is other and outside of human comprehension, yet we can get to know Him...We can only know Him by His actions, said another way, if God did not want us to know that He does not exist, He could hide and exist and we would have no knowledge of what He has done or can do...According to Christian theology, the transcendent God, who cannot be approached or seen in essence or being, becomes immanent primarily in the God-man Jesus the Christ, who is the incarnate Second Person of the Trinity...God is Spirit, so He is Spiritual...God exists, but does not exist at any specific location...Rather than holding that God is everlastingly eternal, and, therefore, He exists at each time, this position is that God exists but He does not exist at any time at all...God is beyond time altogether...And even though God is Spirit He can be contacted through prayer and be known...God, as one reads the Bible, certainly is knowable and that His different powers can be experienced and reached by each of us through prayer and talking to Him...Although Jesus Christ was immanent during his earthly life, the Christian Worldview believes that God is transcendent...God’s transcendence means that He is Spirit and outside of human comprehension...We should give praise and worship His Great Power and Him Being All-Knowing...He is Complete Understanding and Complete Understanding is LOVE...