374. Our Transcendent God (Attributes of God)

Walk into a massive cathedral and you feel it instantly: you are small, and the world is bigger than your mind can conceive. We define transcendence in plain language, then let Scripture give it weight, especially Isaiah 55:8–9 where God reminds us His thoughts and ways are higher than ours. Along the way, we also lean on trusted Christian theology: we can know God truly because He reveals Himself in the Bible, yet we can never master Him or shrink Him down to a concept we control.

From there, we trace how God’s attributes display His “wholly other” greatness: God is eternal (Psalm 90:2), God is holy (Isaiah 6:1–3), and God is sovereign over all things. We close with a rich benediction from Jude 24–25 that turns reverence into steady hope, because the transcendent God is also able to keep us from stumbling and to present us with great joy.

If this encouraged you, subscribe on your favorite podcast app, share it with someone who needs a bigger view of God, and leave a review so more listeners can find Moments of Worship.

Transcript

Cathedrals That Spark Awe

Defining God’s Transcendence

Eternal And Holy Beyond Creation

Sovereign Rule And Benediction

Share Subscribe And Closing Prayer

SPEAKER_00 0:08

Welcome to Moments of Worship. I'm Keith McMahon, worship pastor at Bethel Baptist Church in Yorktown, Virginia. This podcast seeks to encourage you in the worship of Almighty God each weekday. I don't know about you, but I love seeing big cathedrals in Europe. To see the high ceilings, the beautiful artwork, the stone columns, marble floor, stained glass windows depicting the Lord's Supper, and listening to the grand pipe organs play. I really enjoy all those aspects very much. But you know what I appreciate most is how it reminds me that God is majestic and his greatness is unsearchable. That he is transcendent. Our God is so magnificent that he is beyond our understanding. So today we're going to talk about the transcendence of God. Transcendence refers to the concept of God being above, beyond, and independent of the physical universe and its limitations. It describes God's existence in nature as being wholly other than and infinitely greater than his creation. Well God is above his creation, as we read in Isaiah fifty five, eight through nine, for my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. What a great God He is. The theologian Wayne Grudem states in his book Bible Doctrine, it is not only true that we can never fully understand God, it is also true that we can never fully understand any single thing about God. God's ways, friend, are so far beyond our understanding. We can know a lot about him as revealed in the scripture, but God is so vast, so great that our finite minds cannot fully understand who He is. We read in the Scripture that God is eternal. Psalm ninety verse two reminds us before the mountains were born, or you brought forth the whole world from everlasting to everlasting, you are God. Well his existence is eternal, emphasizing that he transcends time itself. Isaiah reminds us that God is holy. Isaiah six verses one through three in the year that King Uziah died I saw the Lord high and exalted, seated on a throne, and the train of his robe filled the temple, and above him were Seraphim, and they were calling to one another, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty. The whole earth is full of his glory. The description of God's holiness reflects his otherness and transcendence, being wholly different and exalted beyond creation. God is sovereign. John Calvin, the reformer, states in his Institutes of Christian Religion, We teach that God is the sovereign disposer and ruler of all things, that from the remotest eternity, according to his own wisdom, he decreed what he was to do, and now by his power executes what he decreed. The beneficion today is from Jude twenty-four through twenty five. Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority before all time and now and forever. Amen. Thank you so much, friend, for joining me today on moments of worship. Very grateful for your trust in me as I seek to be an encouragement to you. If you know somebody that could benefit from this podcast, I would ask you to please share it with them to spur others on to know the God of the Bible. You can like or subscribe to the podcast on your favorite app or send me an email at doxology at bbcorktown.org. I would love to hear from you. Hope you have a great day in Jesus Christ. And until we meet again on moments of worship, may we worship our transcendent God. Thanks for listening.