The Real Presence - What Is It? # 1

The Real Presence - What Is It? # 1

"If Your presence does not go with us - do not send us up from here!" (Exodus 33:15).

There is a word in the text which heads this page which demands the attention of all Christians today. That word is "presence." There is a religious subject bound up with that word, on which it is most important to have clear, distinct, and scriptural views. That subject is the "presence of God," and specially the "presence of our Lord Jesus Christ" with Christian people. What is that presence? Where is that presence? What is the nature of that presence? To these questions I propose to supply answers.

1. I shall consider the general doctrine of God's presence in the world.

2. I shall consider the special doctrine of Christ's real spiritual presence.

3. I shall consider the special doctrine of Christ's real bodily  presence.

The whole subject deserves serious thoughts. If we suppose that this is a mere question of controversy, which only concerns theological partisans, we have yet much to learn. It is a subject which lies at the very roots of saving religion. It is a subject which is inseparably tied up with one of the most precious articles of the Christian faith. It is a subject about which it is most dangerous to be wrong. An error here may first lead a man to the Church of Rome, and then land him finally in the gulf of infidelity. Surely it is worth while to examine carefully the doctrine of the "presence" of God and of His Christ.

1. The first subject we have to consider is the general doctrine of GOD'S presence in the world. The teaching of the Bible on this point is clear, plain, and unmistakable. God is everywhere! There is no place in heaven or earth, where He is not. There is no place in air or land or sea, no place in Europe, Asia, Africa, or America - where God is not always present. Enter into your closet and lock the door - God is there. Climb to the top of the highest mountain, where not even an insect moves - God is there. Sail to the most remote island in the Pacific Ocean, where the foot of man never trod - God is there. He is always near us - seeing, hearing, observing;  knowing every action, and deed, and word, and whisper, and look, and thought, and motive, and secret of everyone of us - wherever we are.

What says the Scripture? It is written in Job, "His eyes watch over a man's ways, and He observes all his steps. There is no darkness, no deep darkness, where evildoers can hid themselves!" (Job 34:21, 22). It is written in Proverbs, "The eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good!" (Proverbs 15:3). It is written in Jeremiah, "Great are your purposes and mighty are your deeds. Your eyes are open to all the ways of men; you reward everyone according to his conduct and as his deeds deserve!" (Jeremiah 32:19).

It is written in the Psalms, "O Lord, you have searched me and You know me. You know when I sit down and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O Lord. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain! Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from Your presence? If I go from Your Spirit? Where can I flee from Your presence? If I go up to the heavens - You are there; if I make my bed in the depths - you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea - even there Your hand will guide me, Your right hand will hold me fast. If I say, "Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me," even the darkness will not be dark to You; the night will shine like the day,for darkness is as light to You!" (Psalm 139:1-12).

Such language as this, confounds and overwhelms us. The doctrine before us is one which we cannot fully understand. Precisely so. David said the same thing about it almost three thousand years ago. "Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain!" (Psalm 139:6). But it does not follow that the doctrine is not true - because we cannot understand it. It is the weakness of our poor minds and intellects which we must blame - and not the doctrine. There are scores of things in the world around us, which few can understand or explain - yet not sensible man refuses to believe. How this earth is ever rolling round the sun with enormous swiftness, while we feel no motion - how the moon affects the tides, and makes them rise and fall twice every twenty-four hours - how millions of perfectly organized living creatures exist in every drop of pond-water, which our naked eye cannot see - all these are things well known to men of science, while most of us could not explain them for our lives. And shall we, in the face of such facts, presume to doubt that God is everywhere present, for no better reason than this - that we cannot understand it? Let us never dare to say so again.

~J. C. Ryle~

(continued with # 2)