Who Is God? Understanding His Attributes and Why They Matter Part 4

Part 4: God Is Transcendent and Immanent

When we speak about God, we must be careful. He is not like anything else. He is not part of the universe, nor is He contained by space or time. But He is not absent either. He is near—closer than anything we can imagine.

Christian theology holds two truths about God that may seem opposite, but are both essential: God is transcendent, meaning He is above and beyond the created world, and God is immanent, meaning He is present to all things.

Let’s explore both.

God Is Transcendent

To be transcendent means to go beyond. God transcends the universe in every way. He is not part of the world. He is not found within nature as one more element among others. He is outside of space and time, unbounded, infinite, and entirely self-sufficient.

We can understand this by thinking again about what it means for God to be necessary. Created things depend on something else to exist. The universe as a whole is composed of limited, contingent things. That means it must also depend on something beyond itself.

God is not within this chain of created things. He is the cause of the whole system. If He were part of it, He would be limited by it. Instead, He must exist above and prior to all that is. His being does not come from the world. The world comes from Him.

Why It Matters

If God were simply a part of the universe, He could not explain its existence. He would be limited by it. He might be powerful or wise, but not ultimate.

God’s transcendence reminds us that He is holy, infinite, and uncontainable. We cannot reduce Him to a force of nature, a psychological projection, or a cosmic machine. He is utterly beyond us. And that inspires awe, reverence, and humility.

God Is Not a Distant Watchmaker

There is a view of God known as Deism. It claims that God created the world, set it in motion, and then stepped back. In this view, God is like a watchmaker who builds a clock, winds it up, and walks away. He does not intervene. He does not guide or sustain creation. He is distant, silent, and uninvolved.

Even in ancient philosophy, we see hints of this tendency. Plato, in his dialogue Timaeus, described a divine craftsman—or Demiurge—who shaped the world using eternal Forms. While this Demiurge is rational and good, he is also distant. He does not sustain or act within creation once it is ordered. There is no providence, no relationship, no worship. This early view lacks the personal closeness that Christian theology proclaims.

Many people today hold a similar belief, whether they call it Deism or not. They believe God exists, but assume He is not active or present in the world.

This is not the Christian understanding.

God Is Immanent

At the same time, Scripture teaches that God is not far from us. He is not a distant creator who winds up the universe and walks away. He is immanent, meaning He is present to all things.

This does not mean God is part of creation. He is not in the tree as if He were the tree, or in your soul as if He were a piece of it. That would be pantheism, the belief that the world and God are the same. Christian belief is different.

God is present to all things in a deeper way—as the cause of their being. Everything that exists depends on Him. If God stopped holding you in existence, even for an instant, you would cease to be. As St. Paul says, “In Him we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28).

Why It Matters

God’s immanence tells us that He is close. He is not watching from a distance. He is not uninvolved. He is the reason you draw your next breath. He is active in sustaining, guiding, and calling all creation.

This also means you are never alone. In joy and in sorrow, in strength and in weakness, God is with you. Not just emotionally, but existentially. His presence is not like that of a friend in the room—it is deeper, more interior, more real.

Holding Both Together

It may seem impossible that God could be both transcendent and immanent—completely beyond the world, and yet present to it. But both are necessary.

If He were only transcendent, He would be unknowable and unreachable. If He were only immanent, He would be limited and bound to the world.

But because God is both, He is the one who creates and the one who sustains. He is above all things, and within all things. He is beyond all that we can imagine, and yet nearer than our own thoughts.

Next Time: God Is Intelligent, Omniscient, and Omnipotent

We will see how God’s wisdom and power are made visible in creation, and why His perfect knowledge and strength are not just facts about Him, but reasons for our trust and hope.