Something that Christians stress is that God is something completely different than us. But if that’s true, how do we relate to him… And how does he relate to us if at all? Let’s find the answer by discussing a doctrine called the immanence of God.

“Immanence” is really just a fancy way of saying “near” or “close.” So when we say that God is immanent, that’s what we mean. He is near to us; He is close to us.  

But what we’re not talking about is His physical presence. We use this word to describe His ability to relate to humanity, His image bearers, while being distinct from all that He has made. 

It’s hard to understand how God can be both relatable to us, and yet, be completely distinct from us. And because it’s hard for us to understand, we tend to default to easier to understand ideas about God, even if they’re not true.

It’s easier for us to treat Him as a distant deity, entirely uninterested in humanity whatsoever. To say that there is a Creator, but He doesn’t involve Himself in the world. But what does that mean for us? It means for us is that it really doesn’t matter whether or not God exists or not. But that’s not Christianity. That’s the opposite of Christianity!

God really is engaged with this world. He spoke the world into being.He creates and forms each of us personally. He speaks to us in His word. He hears our prayers. And He stepped into the world in the most intimate way possible, sending Jesus to as one of us, to save us from sin and allow all who trust Him to be in relationship with Him forever.