God’s Omnipresence
Knowing God is life eternal (John 17:3). It is also the great difference between a life of holiness and a life of sin; between a life filled with spiritual peace and a life like the troubled waves of the sea that cannot rest (Isa. 57:20-21).
Think of God’s omnipresence. As the omnipresent one He transcends all limitations of place and space. Distance and place have no meaning for Him. He is everywhere, the God who fills all things and yet is not contained by them. He speaks of this in Jeremiah 23:23-24: “Am I a God at hand, saith the Lord and not a God afar off? Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him? saith the Lord. Do not I fill heaven and earth? saith the Lord.”
What a truth for our lives. What could have greater power for holiness, humility and godly fear than the knowledge that God is present wherever we go and whatever we do?
Many think that they can hide their wicked deeds—and indeed they do hide them from other men behind closed doors, under darkness and by secrecy. But God knows what they do. He is there even as they do their wickedness: “The eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good” (Prov. 15:3).
How foolish, then, for anyone to think they have escaped detection in sin because there were no witnesses. How foolish we are when we, like Israel at Mount Sinai, sin in the very presence of God. He is always present, a witness to every deed, word and thought. He is the omnipresent Judge.
Yet it is a comfort, too, for those who repent and believe to know that God is everywhere. He is present for them in a very special sense. He is nigh unto those who are of a broken heart and a contrite spirit, to those who call upon Him in truth (Ps. 34:18, 145:18). That means He is present as their Father and Saviour. He hears their cries, sees their broken hearts, heals and saves.
He is near His people, too, in their trials and temptations: “In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them: in his love and in his pity he redeemed them; and he bare them and carried them all the days of old” (Isa. 63:9). It is no different today. He is near us in Christ. Christ is the Immanuel, God with us, a revelation of God’s omnipresence for grace and salvation.
Do you know the everywhere-present God in Christ? Does the knowledge of His presence turn you from sin and produce sanctification of heart and life in you? Can you say, “No matter where my way leads”, “even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me” (Ps. 139:10)?
May God make Himself known to many as the everywhere-present God for their salvation, sanctification and peace. Rev. Hanko
Salvation Conditional? (1)
“If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land” (II Chron. 7:14).
Before I begin a discussion of this verse I want to make a few comments. The request that went out for suggested texts to treat in the News brought an unexpected flood of response, with around forty different texts suggested for treatment. I want to thank our readers for responding in this way. It is always difficult to know what to write about. This gives us enough material for many weeks.
At the same time the abundance of texts also means that some of you are going to have to wait for a while before the text you suggested is treated. I hope you will have patience if you discover, as the weeks go by and the issues of the News continue to come, that your text is not treated.
I have no idea who wrote in suggesting which text, and so, from my point of view, the choice of text to be treated is somewhat arbitrary, although I admit that some texts are harder than others and require some extra study.
The text that now comes under discussion is an example of a passage that seems to teach that salvation is conditional. This is probably why the reader who sent in this text for discussion added that he or she wanted an explanation that was “not Arminian, not Pelagian and not conditional.” I appreciate that. Many have appealed to this passage, or similar passages, in proof that God’s salvation is conditional and such conditional interpretations always wind up being Arminian and Pelagian.
It is always best to look at the context first and consider the text in the light of the context.
The broad context is the prayer of Solomon at the dedication of the temple. This dedication is recorded in chapters 5 and 6.
At the dedication Solomon offered a beautiful prayer. It is important to understand that this prayer was a strongly mediatorial prayer, based on Solomon’s trust that God would fulfil His promise in the coming of Christ.
This is evident from the prayer itself, a prayer that you would do well to read. It is found in chapter 6:14–42. The mediatorial aspect of the prayer is seen in this, that Solomon, after speaking of the sins he knew the children of Israel would commit in the future, asked God to forgive their sins. He knew that when Israel sinned, God’s heavy hand of chastisement would be upon them: “If thy people Israel be put to the worse before the enemy, because they have sinned against thee …” (24; cf. 26, 28, 36, etc.).
His prayer was that when they “pray toward their land, which thou gavest unto their fathers and toward the city which thou hast chosen, and toward the house which I have built for thy name” (38), God would “hear … from the heavens … and forgive thy people which have sinned against thee” (39).
That temple was the dwelling place of God who, in grace, came to dwell in the midst of His people. Thus the temple was a type of Christ Himself, in whom God comes to dwell with His people in reality, for Christ is Immanuel, God with us (cf. John 2:13–22, esp. 21).
In the text we are considering God is responding to Solomon’s prayer. In other words God is telling Solomon that He has heard Solomon’s prayer and that He will do as Solomon has asked (II Chron. 7:12–22).
In New Testament language, Solomon is praying: “If thy people sin against thee, repent and turn from their sin and flee with their sin to the cross of Jesus Christ, wilt Thou who dwellest in heaven hear and forgive their sins?” And the Lord is responding with that gloriously beautiful promise: “Yes, for the sake of my own Son Jesus Christ and His perfect sacrifice, I will always pardon the sins of my people when they confess them and turn from their evil way.”
That part of the meaning of this text is not hard to understand. We are all acquainted with this solemn and yet glorious truth of Scripture. It was true in the Old Testament and it is true now. God forgives, graciously and in mercy, the sins of His people when they turn to Him.
Having said all that, we must still answer the question: Why is this answer of God put in the form of a condition? “If my people, which are called by my name …” To this we will turn in our next issue. Prof. Hanko
Taking God’s Name in Vain?
The question, submitted by a reader, which we wish to answer this time is: “What does it mean to take the name of God in vain?”
The reference here is to the third commandment: “Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain” (Ex. 20:7). What does this commandment mean?
To answer that question we must remember that God’s names are more than words by which we identify Him, like our names. God’s names are His own revelation of Himself and of His glory. That is why His name is our defence (Ps. 20:1), our trust (Ps. 33:21), our joy (Ps. 89:16) and our help (Ps. 124:8).
When we use His names, therefore, we are dealing with HIM. That is why the third commandment speaks of His name, not His names. Taken together, they are one revelation of the one true God. The singular “name” reminds us that we are dealing with His revelation of Himself and with Him.
For this reason His name may never be used in vain. The word “vain” means “empty.” We may never use the names of God as though they are mere words, empty of any real significance or value. They may not be used as mere exclamations or expressions of frustration and anger, as so many use them, without any thought of His glory. To use them in that way is to “empty” them of their glory, to make them vain.
We take God’s name in vain, therefore, when we abuse it in an ignorant, irreverent, profane, superstitious or wicked way or when we use it carelessly or lightly (Westminster Larger Catechism, 113). It is to use His name without thought of His glory and without trembling before Him.
But because His name is His revelation there is much more to it than the “titles” by which we know Him. His attributes of goodness and mercy, indeed all His attributes, are part of His name and they too may not be spoken of lightly (vainly). Even heaven, the place where He dwells, and hell, the place where He reveals His wrath, because they are so closely connected with the glory of His name, are not to be spoken of lightly (Matt. 5:34-35, 23:22).
Most important of all is His word. There especially He reveals His name. Psalm 138:2 confesses, “Thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name.” He has set His word as the chief part of His revelation, and reverence for His name requires reverence for His word.
Any misuse of any part of His revelation, then, is taking God’s name in vain. The Westminster Larger Catechism mentions such things as “misinterpreting, misapplying, or in any way perverting the word,” “maintaining of false doctrines,” “murmuring and quarrelling at … God’s decrees and providences,” “profane jests” and “making profession of religion in hypocrisy” as violations of the third commandment.
Let us remember, however, that we can also make vain the name of God by not using it, by treating it as though it does not even exist. We must use His name in worship, in prayer and in the study of the Scriptures but always with reverence and awe, never lightly.
No wonder, then, that God says concerning those who fear the Lord and who think upon His name, “They shall be mine … in that day when I make up my jewels; and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him” (Mal. 3:16-17). They shall have His name as their own for ever (Rev. 3:12). Rev. Hanko
