The Questions People Ask: 4

QUESTION 4: When the Lord Jesus Christ dwelt among men in human bodily form, was He not limited in His capacity to function as an Omnipresent God? Since He was in a human body, He could only be in one place at a time. So if Jesus is indeed God come in flesh, how does one reconcile His human limitations with His divine attribute of Omnipresence? –Dr. M. Marshall

ANSWER: To say that the Lord Jesus Christ in the flesh could not be Omnipresent is to fail to understand who Jesus really is as God come in the flesh. His physical body is only a mere fraction of His Being. If it can be proven that the Lord Jesus possesses the divine attributes of Omniscience and Omnipotence, then it can also be shown from Scripture that Christ possesses the attribute of Omnipresence as well. Let us consider this little study  together and see what God’s Word has to say on the subject at hand.

 

To begin with, Isaiah prophesied of the coming Messiah in Isaiah 7: 14; 9: 6, which was later fulfilled in Matthew 1: 18-25 in the miraculous virgin birth of Christ. Keep in mind, when Christ came into the world in human bodily form, He made Himself a little lower than angels (see Heb. 2: 7, 9). Since He “made Himself [ref. emptied Himself of His privileges] of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and [came] in the likeness of men”[1](Phil. 2: 7). The Lord Jesus in His incarnation, voluntarily chose to take on Himself for the first time a human form in order to dwell among men and experience what they experience. For example, He grew up and experienced the same things that everyone else did, yet without sin (see Luke 2: 40, 52).

 

As already mentioned, Jesus is both God and Man. As Man, He chose to limit His knowledge (see Matt. 24: 36; Phil. 2: 8; Heb. 5: 8). As God, He is Omniscient (He knows all things). He knows our very thoughts! (see Psalm 94: 11; Matt. 9: 3-4; John 1: 47-49; 2: 24-25). Next, we see Christ’s divine attribute of Omnipotence (He is all powerful). As God, this can be seen in the miracles He performed. Such as His creation of all things (see John 1: 3; Col. 1: 16-17); His ability to heal the sick, diseased, and the demon possessed (see Luke 4: 38-41); His power to control a storm (see Mark 4: 35-41); and His power to raise the dead (see John 11: 38-44). Yet, as a Man, He was subject to hunger, fatigue, and bodily suffering (see Matt. 4: 1-11; Luke 22: 39-46; John 19: 1-30; Heb. 5: 8). Now that it has been proven that Christ possessed both divine attributes of Omniscience and Omnipotence during His brief earthly life here, then it is safe to assume He had the divine attribute of Omnipresence as well. The devotional Commentator, William MacDonald in his comments on Philippians 2: 7 gives this helpful insight on how the divine attribute of Omnipresence relates to the nature of Jesus Christ.

“The Lord Jesus did not lay aside any of the attributes of God when He came into the world. He was still omniscient (all knowing). He was still omnipresent (present in all places at one and the same time). He was still omnipotent (all powerful). What He did was to empty Himself of His positional equality with God and to veil the glory of Deity in a body of human flesh.”[2]

 

Now what of Christ’s dual nature as God and Man? How can He be both Omnipresent as God, yet, still be confined to a human body of limitations? The difficulty comes from our lack of understanding the nature of God. The 19^th Century author William Kelly explains our difficulty this way, “The problem with man’s understanding of the nature of God is that he tries to reason from man up to God, when he should be reasoning from God down to man.” We would do well to heed Mr. Kelly’s wise advice in our approach to understand the divine nature of God.

 

The nature of the problem with answering the question at hand will never be truly reconciled, when we keep trying to limit who the Person of Christ is as the Omnipresent God by our natural understanding. Such people think the very nature of Christ is contingent on our concept of who He is. Hence, we try to box the Omnipresent nature of Christ into our own image that we can accept about His Person. Since the Lord Jesus is God, we need to understand that the Omnipresent nature of the Almighty God of the universe cannot be measured or limited to a single place. This means we cannot define the Omnipresent nature of God in the humanity of Christ on our terms. We need to let God interpret to us the meaning of Christ’s Omnipresent nature in His humanity on His terms. For our Lord God’s divine attribute of His Omnipresence transcends the natural laws of time that we are restricted to; such as the past, present, and future. Yet He simultaneously dwells in the past, present, and future at the same time. For God is outside the confines of time, for He created time as we know it, though for a time He restricted Himself to a body of flesh within the boundaries of time. For “with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day” (2 Peter 3: 8).

 

Now Solomon in his prayer of dedication says this about the Omnipresent nature of God the Father, “But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain You. How much less this temple which I have built!” (1 Kings 8: 27). This divine attribute of Omnipresence also belongs to Christ as well. For the Lord Jesus Christ declares His Oness with the Father in John 10: 30, “I and My Father are one.” Therefore He possesses the divine attribute of Omnipresence. However, it is safe to assume that our Lord Jesus’ “earthly tabernacle” [His human body] cannot wholly contain His Omnipresent Being. So only in relation to His earthly body was He limited to a degree in His Omnipresence. This in no way undermines the divine perfection of His Person. Since Christ is wholly God manifested in the flesh (1 Tim. 3: 16). He can do anything. To say otherwise is to make Him less than God. For the physical body of Christ is only a fraction of His Omnipresent nature! His body of flesh does not define or rule out His attribute of Omnipresence. For example, the Spirit of Christ was fully active in His Omnipresence (see John 1: 47-49).

 

Since Christ has a dual nature, being fully God and fully Man, it is important to be able to distinguish between the personal and positional equality Christ has with the Father. Again, author, William MacDonald beautifully explains the difference in his commentary notes on Philippians 2: 6:

 

“When we read that Christ Jesus was in the form of God, we learn that He existed from all eternity as God. It does not mean that He merely resembled God, but that He actually is God in the truest sense of the word. Yet He did not consider it robbery to be equal with God. Here it is of utmost importance to distinguish between personal and positional equality with God. As to His Person, Christ always was, is, and will be equal with God. It would be impossible for Him to give that up. But positional equality is different. From all eternity Christ shared positional equality with His Father, enjoying the glories of heaven. But He did not consider this position something that He had to hold on to at all costs. When a world of lost mankind needed to be redeemed, He was willing to relinquish His positional equality with God—the comforts and joys of heaven. He did not consider them something that He had to grasp forever and under all circumstances.”[3]

 

The whole problem with understanding the Omnipresent nature of Christ in His humanity is that we ignore the fact that He is God. “For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily” (Col. 2: 9); He is “God…manifested in the flesh” (1 Tim. 3: 16). To say that the Lord Jesus Christ could not be Omnipresent in His human bodily form is to deny that He is God. He cannot cease to be who He is—God. It is only in relation to His earthly body that His Omnipresence was limited in that He couldn’t be in two places at once in the flesh, and that only for a brief time. Never do we read in the Scriptures that Christ was limited in His Spirit. To deny this is to depart from the teaching of God’s Word.

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[1] It is important to note though Christ became Man, He considered it not robbery to be equal with God (see Phil. 2: 6). He is both God and Man (see John 1: 1, 14; 1 John 1: 1-3); when He took on Himself a human body in His incarnation, He voluntarily “emptied, or laid aside His divine privileges” (see Phil. 2: 7). What were these privileges? The privileges were His place in heaven, and that only temporarily. Also, He emptied Himself in the sense that He took upon Himself something He never had before –humanity.  

[2] William MacDonald, Believer’s Bible Commentary: N. T., (Thomas Nelson Publishers, Ed. 1990), pg. 782.

[3] William MacDonald, Ibid, pg. 781.