God is Transcendent

God is Transcendent: We must not think of God as highest in an order of beings. This would be to grant Him eminence, even pre-eminence, but this is not enough. He is transcendent—existing beyond the created universe.

 “Transcendence means literally, "to climb across." It is defined as "exceeding the usual limits." When we speak of the transcendence of God we are talking about that sense in which God is above and beyond us. He is higher than the world. He has absolute power over the world. The world has no power over Him. Transcendence describes God in His consuming majesty, His exalted loftiness. He is an infinite cut above everything else. (R. C. Sproul in The Holiness of God p. 55)

The prophet Isaiah wrote:  

To whom, then, will you compare God? What image will you compare him to? Do you not know? Have you not heard? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood since the earth was founded? He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth, and its people are like grasshoppers. He stretches out the heavens like a canopy, and spreads them out like a tent to live in. He brings princes to naught and reduces the rulers of this world to nothing. “To whom will you compare me? Or who is my equal?” says the Holy One. Lift your eyes and look to the heavens: Who created all these? He who brings out the starry host one by one, and calls them each by name. Because of his great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing. Do you not know? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom. He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. [Isaiah 40:18-29]

““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.” (Isaiah 55:8,9)

The Message states it this way:

"I don't think the way you think.
   The way you work isn't the way I work."
         God's Decree.
"For as the sky soars high above earth,
   so the way I work surpasses the way you work,
   and the way I think is beyond the way you think.
Just as rain and snow descend from the skies
   and don't go back until they've watered the earth,
Doing their work of making things grow and blossom,
   producing seed for farmers and food for the hungry,
So will the words that come out of my mouth
   not come back empty-handed.
They'll do the work I sent them to do,
   they'll complete the assignment I gave them. (Isaiah 55:8-9)

The Lord is high above all nations,
His glory above the heavens.
⁵ Who is like the Lord our God,
Who dwells on high,  (Psalm 113:4,5)

 “But who is able to build a temple for him, since the heavens, even the highest heavens, cannot contain him? Who then am I to build a temple for him, except as a place to burn sacrifices before him?” (2 Chronicles 2:6)

Can anyone hide in secret places
   so that I cannot see him?”
            declares the LORD.
   “Do not I fill heaven and earth?”
            declares the LORD. (Jeremiah 23:24)

Where can I go from your Spirit?
   Where can I flee from your presence?
⁸ If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
   if I make my bed in the depths,^[a] you are there.
⁹ If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
   if I settle on the far side of the sea,
¹⁰ even there your hand will guide me,
   your right hand will hold me fast.
 ¹¹ If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me
   and the light become night around me,”
¹² even the darkness will not be dark to you;
   the night will shine like the day,
   for darkness is as light to you.
 ¹³ For you created my inmost being;
   you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
¹⁴ I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
   your works are wonderful,
   I know that full well.
¹⁵ My frame was not hidden from you
   when I was made in the secret place.
When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,
 ¹⁶ your eyes saw my unformed body.
All the days ordained for me
   were written in your book
   before one of them came to be. (Psalm 139:7-16)

“Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.” (Hebrews 4:13)

“When Jesus saw Nathanael approaching, he said of him, “Here is a true Israelite, in whom there is nothing false.”

 ⁴⁸ “How do you know me?” Nathanael asked.

   Jesus answered, “I saw you while you were still under the fig tree before Philip called you.” (John 1:47-48)

How does an understanding of a transcendent God impact our worship?

Throughout Church history, the Church has revealed and responded to God’ s transcendence in a variety a ways. Robert Webber writes “the architecture of our church is shaped by our concept of worship, which in turn shapes our experience of worship.” (Webber, Worship is a verb, 196).  Observe the architecture of the churches in the Middle Ages and you see a transcendent view of God.  The buildings were meant to “awe” the worshipper.  Worship in the Middle Ages also portrayed the transcendence of God through services that were “impressive, mysterious, and at times breathtaking” (Webber 104). Services portrayed God as holy, other, and beyond our understanding.

Many churches today focus on the immanence of God, His closeness to us.  Yes, this is a very important aspect of worship.  We will discuss immanence tomorrow.

In an interview Robert Webber discussed the worship approach of many young people today.  “Their approach to worship is an embodied reality. My sense is that they’re still pretty much all over the map in terms of worship. But one of the things that they’re really trying to do in worship is create a sense of transcendence. If you look at worship over the last 30 years, the movement has been primarily the nearness of God, the immanence of God, the friendship of Jesus, the relationship and even a lot of romantic terminology in contemporary music about a relationship with God. The Younger Evangelicals are sick of that stuff. They just think it’s shallow, not really real — all this romantic stuff about their relationship with Jesus. And they’re beginning to see God more on the side of God’s holiness, God’s otherness, God’s transcendence. They’re trying to create an atmosphere that allows for that.” 

 http://www.homileticsonline.com/subscriber/interviews/webber.asp

“True worship takes place, personally and corporately, when there is recognition of God’s transcendence (his having a continuous existence outside the created world) and response to his immanence (closeness, within the world). It truly is a rhythm of revelation and response…Yet the rhythm is possible only because God has always taken the initiative and always will.” (From New Frontier - Volume 26, Number 10 - May 19, 2008)

There must be times in our lives when we should look up to the sky and realize that God is bigger the universe we can see.  

O Lord, our Lord,
How excellent is Your name in all the earth,
Who have set Your glory above the heavens! (Ps. 8:1)