Wherever God’s Word is, God is There

by | Jan 22, 2019 | Theology | 0 comments

Last night I shared this quote from theologian John Frame:

Wherever God is, the word is, and wherever the word is, God is. Whenever God speaks, he himself is there with us.”

Here is the passage the quote is from, from his book, The Doctrine of the Word of God (p.63)

Because God is Lord, he lives in and with his creation. Indeed, he chooses people to encounter his presence in a special measure. So Israel is his special people, and he is their God. In the tabernacle and temple, he is literally “God with them.” His Son is named Immanuel, “God with us” as he takes on human form and takes the place of sinners before God’s judgment. And his Spirit dwells with us and in us as his temple.

…In his word, God speaks as Lord. His word is his controlling power and his meaningful authority. Should we see the word also as God’s personal presence? I believe so.

From a general theological perspective, this conclusion is unavoidable. God’s speech is, as we have seen, a necessary divine attribute, so that wherever God is, his word is. We have also seen that Word is a title of the second person of the Trinity, and whenever one divine person acts in the world, the other two persons act together with him. God is the word, and the word is God.

So we conclude that wherever God is, the word is, and wherever the word is, God is. Whenever God speaks, he himself is there with us.

The same conclusion follows from God’s attribute of omnipresence.

Since God is everywhere, God and his word are always near to us.