A.W. Tozer Chapter Thirteen: The Divine Transcendence

Excerpts from Chapter 13:

Opening Prayer

“O Lord our Lord, there is none like Thee in heaven above or in the earth beneath. Thine is the greatness and the dignity and the majesty. All that is in the heaven and the earth is Thine; Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever, O God, and Thou art exalted as head over all. Amen.”

“When we speak of God as transcendent we mean of course that He is exalted far above the created universe, so far above that human thought cannot imagine it.”

“Thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity,” – Isaiah 57:15.

“Forever God stands apart, in light unapproachable. He is as high above an archangel as above a caterpillar, for the gulf that separates the archangel from the caterpillar is but finite, while the gulf between God and the archangel is infinite. The caterpillar and the archangel, though far removed from each other in the scale of created things, are nevertheless one in that they are alike created. They both belong in the category of that which- is-not-God and are separated from God by infinitude itself.”

“If some watcher or holy one who has spent his glad centuries by the sea of fire were to come to earth, how meaningless to him would be the ceaseless chatter of the busy tribes of men. How strange to him and how empty would sound the, flat, stale and profitless words heard in the average pulpit from week to week. And were such a one to speak on earth would he not speak of God? Would he not charm and fascinate his hearers with rapturous descriptions of the Godhead? And after hearing him could we ever again consent to listen to anything less than theology, the doctrine of God? Would we not thereafter demand of those who would presume to teach us that they speak to us from the mount of divine vision or remain silent altogether?”

“Wherever God appeared to men in Bible times the results were the same – an overwhelming sense of terror and dismay, a wrenching sensation of sinfulness and guilt.

… Abram stretched himself upon the ground to listen. Moses hid his face in fear to look upon God. Isaiah’s vision of God wrung from him the cry, “Woe is me!” “I am undone”

Daniel’s encounter with God was probably the most dreadful and wonderful of them all.

The prophet lifted up his eyes and “saw this great vision, and there remained no strength in me: for my comeliness was turned in me into corruption, and I retained no strength. Yet heard I the voice of his words: and when I heard the voice of his words, then was I in a deep sleep on my face, and my face toward the ground.” These experiences show that a vision of the divine transcendence soon ends all controversy between the man and his God. The fight goes out of the man and he is ready with the conquered Saul to ask meekly, ”Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?” Conversely, the self-assurance of modern Christians, the basic levity present in so many of our religious gatherings, the shocking disrespect shown for the Person of God, are evidence enough of deep blindness of heart."

"Many call themselves by the name of Christ, talk much about God, and pray to Him sometimes, but evidently do not know who He is. “The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life,” but this healing fear is today hardly found among Christian men.”

"Lord of all being, throned afar,

They glory flames from sun and star; Center and soul of every sphere,

Yet to each loving heart how near!

Lord of all life, below, above,

Whose light is truth, whose warmth is love, Before Thy ever-blazing throne

We ask no luster of our own."

- Oliver Wendell Holmes.