God is transcendent. This is not a term that you will find in your Bible. It is a term that we use to describe God’s exaltation above His creation. God is not the top tier of ascending levels of beings. He is as high above an amoeba as He is above an archangel. He is the Creator, and everything else is His creation. 1 Timothy 6:16 says of God, “Who alone has immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see, to whom be honor and everlasting power.” Psalm 97:9 refers to God as “most high” and “exalted.” In Isaiah 6, when Isaiah had a vision of the Lord, He was “high and lifted up.” Contrary to false teaching, humanity is not seeking to attain deity. God is “wholly other” from all creation, and this all of eternity does not alter this reality.
But transcendence does not mean that God cannot be known. Though His greatness is higher than human words or wisdom can attain unto, in His grace He has made Himself known. 1 Corinthians 1:21 says, “The world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe.” Romans 1:20 says that God has revealed that which may be known about Himself to us. John 1:18 says that God’s ultimate self-revelation was in the incarnation of Jesus Christ. “No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him.”
His transcendence does not mean that He is unknowable; it refers to His unique authority, dominion, righteousness and sovereignty. When Isaiah saw the vision of the Lord, high and lifted up in Isaiah 6, the angels cried out before Him, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of His glory!” (Isaiah 6:3) When the apostle John was given a vision of heaven, the angels around the throne of God were still heralding the same cry (Revelation 4:8). Holiness is distinct from righteousness. It means that God is altogether unique, distinct- transcendent.
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