Pursuing an understanding of the glory of God is not limited to listing and unpacking sundry attributes. He is not an isolated thing, but is the God who relates. But this is not accidental. Our God, the living God, the triune God is not just a God who relates, but that He relates is essential to what He is. It is not an add-on, any more than being triune is incidental to His being.
Our failure along these lines is, in my judgment, just one more proof that we who are given to thinking through evangelical theology have quite a few Enlightenment snares still besetting us. We think that what defines us is what we are capable of, that we are a string of abilities. And so we think of God in the same way. Even the Westminster Shorter Catechism shows its Enlightenment chains when asking, “What is God?” What? Seriously? Wouldn’t you think the better question, the more biblical question would be, “Who is God?”
We do this whichever person of the Trinity we’re talking about. We describe the Father in terms of His power, His knowledge and His presence. We describe the Son in terms of His ontology, jumping quickly to the vexing mysteries of the incarnation. And when it comes to the Holy Spirit it seems we can’t get through ten minutes of talking about Him before we’re arguing about sign gifts. All of which makes us miss the truly shocking reality of the Spirit- that He indwells us.
It is a right application of the omnipresence of God to remember that wherever we go, God is already there. David himself said so in Psalm 139. God’s presence, however, isn’t merely a function of His ubiquity, His transcendence over all things, but of His indwelling, His immanence. To put it another way, God is not just with us universally, but is with us, believers, personally. Can you believe that? I don’t need to fear that my prayers never get past the ceiling. God is with me on my knees. I don’t need to look to the hills hoping He will come to me. He has never and will never leave me. The folly that thinks, like Adam and Eve in the garden, I can hide from God, is defeated because wherever I go, there He is.
It is good to remember that the Holy Spirit is not just a force. It is better to remember that He is a full-fledged person of the godhead. It is best, however, to remember that He is God not just with us, but in us. But wait, there’s more. He is not just in us, but there He cleanses us, guides us, instructs us, comforts us, strengthens us and fully, and immutably loves us. He is not just in us, but for us. All from within. Praise His name. He is the Spirit of the Living God.