I once heard a sermon titled “God needs you.” This may sound nice, but is it true? Unfortunately, this kind of theology dominates Christian thinking today. Christian bookstores are filled with books about you. Preachers can pack pews by preaching all about you. This is because we like to think that God needs us. We might not say it, but the thought lingers in the back of our minds. But Scripture reveals that God is transcendent. Which means God doesn’t need us. But as we’ll see, this makes His love and grace even more amazing.

God is absolutely distinct from His creation. That means God is above, separate from, and outside all created things. We often refer to this as the Creator-creature distinction. The universe and everything in it were created by God, but God Himself is Uncreated. So on a fundamental level, He is not a part of His creation. God is completely other. He is unlike everything else because nothing else can compare to His size, knowledge, power, or majesty. Isaiah 57:15 says that God is high and lifted up and inhabits eternity. This distinction has many implications.

First, because God made all things, He is the Divine Owner, Operator, and Sovereign King of all things. He is exalted above all with infinite glory and majesty. Psalm 113 expresses this truth in verses 4-6, “The Lord is high above all nations, and his glory above the heavens! Who is like the Lord our God, who is seated on high,who looks far down on the heavens and the earth?” The obvious answer to all these questions is no one. No one is like God. He is completely unique.

Because God is transcendent, He doesn’t need us. In Acts 17, we read Paul’s address at the Areopagus to the Men of Athens. As Paul described the One True God, he made this key statement, “The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man,nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.” Unlike the ancient gods of Greece, the True God does not need mankind’s service. He is not dependent on man for anything.

Because God is transcendent, He is beyond our full comprehension. Romans 11:33-36 summarizes this point by saying, “Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! “For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?” “Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?”For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.” God has revealed Himself to us in His Word, but mankind cannot fully understand the depth, riches, wisdom, and knowledge of God.

Because God is transcendent, His love for us is amazing! Although God is far beyond anything we can even imagine, He still loves us. God isn’t just beyond us in being and wisdom, He’s beyond us in love, compassion, and grace. Isaiah 55:6-9 reveals this priceless truth by saying,

Seek the Lord while he may be found; call upon him while he is near; let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the Lord, that he may have compassion on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

God doesn’t need anything or depend on anyone, because He is transcendent. He is above and distinct from His creation. He is the ruler of all. And He’s beyond our comprehension. But God still chooses to love us and pursue us! He doesn’t act like us or do what we think because He is so much greater than we think. Praise God because He is transcendent.