Whenever we turn our thoughts to consider the qualities (or ‘attributes’, as they are known theologically) of divine Persons, we soon find that we become lost in the immensity and infinity of the subject. Nothing will enlarge the intellect, and increase the believer’s appreciation of the greatness of divine Persons in the holy trinity, more than a devout contemplation of the many-sided attributes of Godhead deity.
The attributes of the triune God are shared by each Person within the Godhead. To say that the Father is omnipotent is to say that the Son and the Holy Spirit are also omnipotent; likewise, the same is true in respect of omniscience and omnipresence. These attributes are an essential part of true deity. Because the Son and the Holy Spirit are equal in their essential being with the Father, we can expect to find these attributes also ascribed to them in Scripture.
The Omnipresence of God
The Psalmist had no doubt in his mind concerning the truth of the ever-present God (Ps 139.7-12). God’s omnipresence was such that He was in the heights and in the depths; there was no height nor depth to which David could go, and no distance he could travel, to hide from, or flee from, the presence of God. Jonah found this to be true when he left the village of Gathhepher to go to Tarshish (2 Kgs 14.25). He wanted to put as much distance as he could between himself and God, and he had determined not to go to Nineveh as God had commanded. However, he found, like the Psalmist, that he could not escape the presence of the Lord. Even the vastness of the universe offers no hiding place from God’s presence, since He is everywhere. Adam thought he could hide from God in Eden’s garden, but he could not. Similarly, it will again be so in the end times, when men from every stratum of society will call on the mountains and rocks to fall on them, to hide them from God that sits upon the throne, but to no avail (Rev 6.16). Guilty men down through the ages have thought they could evade the presence of God but, like Jonah, they found that there was no hiding place, since He is omnipresent.
The other side of the coin is, of course, that God’s all-prevailing presence becomes both a comfort and a consolation to believers in unexpected circumstances of trouble. The fact of His constant presence ought to stimulate in Christians a fuller and more complete trust in God throughout their lives, and the ever-abiding presence of God should quicken our desires for that holiness and purity of life which will please Him who has called us with a holy calling (2 Tim 1.9).
The Omnipresence of the Son
Since the Lord Jesus is God, all that is true of God is also true of Him, the Son. When “the Word became flesh” (Jn 1.14, RV1), He relinquished none of the qualities or attributes of His essential deity. The Gospel of John provides ample evidence of the omnipotence and omniscience of the Lord Jesus. As the only begotten Son, He is, and always has been, in the bosom of the Father, therefore the New Testament confirms that the Son of God is not only omnipotent, but also omnipresent.
A difficulty arises in the mind of some when it is thought that sonship implies inferiority, but that is not so. Submission does not mean subordination. The claim of the Lord Jesus to be Son of God does not refer to a generation from God. He is very God, and bears the essential essence, nature and character of God. When the apostle Paul wrote “Who, being in the form of God …” (Phil 2.6), he was stating a fundamental truth of Christianity. Eternally, and essentially, He was in the form of God and, as such, possessed all the attributes of deity. He did not relinquish those attributes when He was found in fashion as a man. In incarnation, He became what He had never been before, without ceasing to be what He had been eternally. Likewise, what He became at Bethlehem He will never cease to be. “Without controversy great is the mystery of godliness” (1 Tim 3.16). The Son, in His Person, is both God and man, possessing all the attributes of deity, including omnipresence. While on earth, the Lord gave indications of the reality of His omnipresence when He said “no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven” (Jn 3.13). It may also have been a reference to His omnipresence when He said “If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him” (Jn 14.23). Matthew records the promise of the Lord that “where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them” (Mt 18.20). In making this promise, the Lord Jesus was emphasising His omnipresence. Where this truth becomes an inward conviction, the presence of such a holy Person will inspire a sense of awe and reverence. Moreover, the abiding presence of the Lord is assured to His servants in their service for Him. The disciples were sent out into the world to make disciples by preaching, to mark them by baptising them in the name of the holy trinity, and to mould their lives by teaching them to “observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world” (Mt 28.20; see also Mk 16.20).
The Omnipresence of the Holy Spirit
We think of God the Father as personal, and manifested by the Son, who became incarnate and walked among men in lowly grace. The Holy Spirit, who is invisible, and whose work is in secret and silent, is reasoned by some not to be a personality but, rather, an influence or a power. Writing to the Christians at Rome, Paul spoke of the Holy Spirit in a way that may seem to contradict the truth of the personality of the Spirit of God: “the Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God”, and “the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us” (Rom 8.16, 26). The word “Spirit” in the Greek language is neuter and, accordingly, the strict rule of grammar demands reference to the Spirit as ‘it’. However, the Lord Jesus, in His teaching on the subject of the Spirit, broke all the rules of grammar when He said “when he, the Spirit of truth, is come” (Jn 16.13). He used the masculine, not the neuter. Also, when the Lord began teaching His disciples concerning the Spirit in John 14, He said “I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter” (v 16). The word “another” used by the Lord means ‘one of the same kind’ as Himself, and so the Lord Jesus established in the minds of His disciples the personality of the Holy Spirit, as distinguishable from His own. Further, when the Holy Spirit would come, Jesus said “he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you” (v 17).
The eternal qualities or attributes of the Godhead are absolute and, when used in reference to the Spirit, we recognise that the Holy Spirit is equal in His personality and deity with both the Father and the Son. His divine perfection is seen in that He possesses all the attributes of deity equal with the Father and the Son, omnipresence being one of them. Omnipresence is attributed to the Holy Spirit in the Psalmist’s question, “Whither shall I go from thy spirit?” (Ps 139.7). The apostle Paul, writing to the church at Corinth, said “For in one Spirit were we all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, bond or free” (1 Cor 12.13, RV). This ministry of the Holy Spirit, in every locality, necessitated omnipresence. Again, omnipresence is required for the Spirit to be the Seal and Earnest in every individual upon believing (Eph 1.13-14). Furthermore, the apostle commands all believers to “be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit” (5.18), once more emphasising His omnipresence. Paul, in his closing benediction to the Christians at Corinth, wrote “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all” (2 Cor 13.14). The practical importance of the doctrine of omnipresence in respect of the Spirit of God is stated by Paul: “Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you …?” (1 Cor 6.19). This important truth must, therefore, have a serious bearing on the lives of believers today. The Persons within the triune Godhead are co-equal in all the qualities and attributes of deity and, therefore, each (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) is omnipresent.
¹ Revised Version
(To be continued …)
