Exodus 19

Exo 19:16 On the morning of the third day there was thunder and lightning, a thick cloud appeared on the mountain, and a very loud trumpet blast was heard. All the people in the camp trembled with fear.
Exo 19:17 Moses led them out of the camp to meet God, and they stood at the foot of the mountain.

I was preparing my Sunday school lesson about the doctrine of God when I encountered the word “transcendence.” I was a little apprehensive to use the term “transcendence” in the class because it’s not an everyday word—too fancy. But once in a while I had this feeling that in talking about God, we can’t help but use fancy words because God is too much for ordinary words.

The Israelites went out of their camp to meet God. Of course, they can’t stand the holiness of God; they wouldn’t survive if they caught even just a glimpse of God’s glory. God is communing with the Israelites but there’s a natural divide that the Israelites cannot bridge--the perfection, holiness, spirituality and glory of God.

Exo 19:21 and the LORD said to him, "Go down and warn the people not to cross the boundary to come and look at me; if they do, many of them will die.

Christ bridged that gap.

Gal 4:4 But when the right time finally came, God sent his own Son. He came as the son of a human mother and lived under the Jewish Law,
Gal 4:5 to redeem those who were under the Law, so that we might become God's children.
Gal 4:6 To show that you are his children, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who cries out, "Father, my Father."
Gal 4:7 So then, you are no longer a slave but a child. And since you are his child, God will give you all that he has for his children.

But still God is God and as long as I am here in this world my understanding of God will still be limited by what I can understand about Him but through Christ I can now come into God’s presence without fear for I am justified in God’s presence, declared holy by the blood of Christ.