On the one hand, Acts 17:28 says, “In him [God] we live and move and have our being” (Colossians 1:17).
Since it is also true the furthest reaches of the cosmos cannot contain God (1 Kings 8:27, 2 Chronicles 6:18), the clear implication is that there is nowhere we, or anything else, can be but in God.
Another obvious implication, as Acts 17:29-30 goes on to say, is “we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man.” Even though we can speak of God anthropomorphically, we can in no way or degree literally reduce God to earthly and creaturely terms and categories for God is wholly other.
Rather, such “times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent” and return to the truth – that, in God we live, move, and have our existence.
When the implication of God’s infinite and all-encompassing nature is rightly understood it keeps us from blurring the lines between Creator and creation as in pantheism. When the clear Creator-creature distinction is maintained we can begin to meditate on this grand truth in a way that is truly beneficial.
On the other hand, speaking to the benefits, the glorious truth about God does not end at his ultimately incomprehensible, transcendent, all-encompassing nature.
The verse, "in him we live and move and have or being," like a hen gathers her chicks under the warmth and protection of her wing (Matthew 23:37), begs for something more.
John 14:23 records Jesus’ promise: “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.”
The Father and the Son make their home “in” us (1 Corinthians 3:16)!
God, who is near to everyone of us, is waiting upon our repentance toward him and faith in Christ (Acts 17:27-31, 20:21) to close the remaining arms-length gap between him and us in the most intimate way (James 4:8).
And here is the prime benefit: “Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him” (1John 4:15-16).
That the infinite God who transcends all things, who cannot be contained by the heaven of heavens, desires, is pleased, to dwell in us in the fullness of his love and holiness, to make us his home, is a most marvellous and life transforming gospel truth!
This glorious paradox is what truly brings life to life!
Robin Martens is the pastor of Kinnaird Park Community Church.
