“Does God care about me?” Almost everyone has asked that question at some point in their lives. As human beings created in God’s image, we long for God. We long for a higher power that cares about us. Ecclesiastes 3:11 says that God has put eternity into man’s heart. We long for the eternal. This means we have an intrinsic desire for meaning and love. Ultimately, God put this in our hearts to lead us to Him. Because nothing can satisfy this longing except God. Last week, we looked at God’s transcendence. We learned that God is distinct from His creation and depends on nobody for anything. But Scripture also reveals that God is simultaneously immanent. That means God is involved with and cares deeply about His creation.
From cover to cover, we see God’s immanence in the Bible. He created the Earth to be ruled by mankind. He cared for Adam and Eve despite their sin (Gen. 3:21-24). He made a promise to crush Satan and sin through the seed of the woman (Gen. 3:15). He called Noah to build an Ark to preserve the human race through the Flood (Gen. 6-9). He called Abraham from the land of Ur to make him the Father of His people (Gen. 12). He offers us eternal life through His Son Jesus Christ (Jn. 3:16). The Bible is full of stories and people that God cared for. God is involved with His creation because He is immanent.
Paul’s sermon in Acts 17 takes this attribute of God even further. God isn’t just involved in His creation; He determines everything in His creation. We also call this sovereignty. God sovereignly directs everything in the universe. Acts 17:24-28 says,
24 The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, 25 nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. 26 And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, 27 that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, 28 for “‘In him we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your own poets have said, “‘For we are indeed his offspring.’”
God is deeply involved with mankind. He determines where we live and how long we live. He sovereignly controls all of His creation. Nothing happens to His surprise. God is not far from His creation. He desires for us to repent and seek His grace. This truth about God refutes Deism. This view holds that God is a distant being who only interacts with the Earth when necessary. Deists reject special revelation because they believe knowledge of God is attained through reason and natural observation. Deism was a widespread belief in the early centuries of the United States. Many of the Founding Fathers were actually Deists. But Scripture teaches that God is actively and personally involved with His creation. He didn’t create the world, then let it be. He created the world for a purpose and is moving everything toward that purpose because God is immanent.
Throughout Scripture, we see God’s involvement with mankind. He created mankind to bear His image on the Earth. He cursed mankind for our disobedience in the Garden of Eden. He punishes the wicked and brings them to nothing. He blesses His people and continually provides for them. Ultimately, He sent His Son to die for us on the cross so that we could be with Him forever. God has always been involved with His creation. Thankfully, He loves us and cares about us. Our souls long for Him because He is immanent.