Scripture is replete with statements such as the Spirit of God dwells in you (Rom. 8:9), I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you (John 14:20); Christ in you (Col. 1:27); Christ is in you (Rom. 8:10); the Spirit of God dwells in you (1 Cor. 3:16); God abides in us and his love is perfected in us (1 John 4:12); Christ may make His home in your hearts (Eph. 3:17); and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him (1 John 4:16). But many Christians want to know what “God being in us” or “we being in God” really means.
The first thing to understand is that when the preposition “in” is used in regards to a person of the Trinity, it is not talking about a location but refers to a relationship indicating a means or instrumentality of action. The word “in” is used as a noun, an adjective, and an adverb and means different things. “In” is used in the above verses as a word of function to indicate a means or instrumentality; other words that mean “in” are found also such as WITHIN. (e.g., walk in Christ; union in Christ; the Holy Spirit in the believer; And I will put my Spirit within you.)
Since we are dealing with the three persons of the godhead, let’s see who God is.
God is an uncaused, self-existent being who is one essence in three persons (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit). He is the one and only infinite and unlimited God who is absolutely and perfectly autonomous. God is spirit (John 4:24) and has no physical form but is everywhere in the natural and the supernatural realms in full personality and essence; God is not “spread out through the entire universe, one part being here and another there, for God has no body and therefore no extension.”[i] In relation to space, God’s immensity is said to be “that perfection of the Divine Being by which He transcends all spatial limitations, and yet is present in every point of space with His whole Being.”[ii] This single divine being is eternal and not limited by time and space and His eternal aspect transcends all temporal limitations.
God is not a physical being but He is spirit who cannot be isolated in one location or geographical place. He is present everywhere at once. So, God or Jesus Christ or the Holy Spirit is “in” us in the sense of an instrumental relationship of action in our spirit. The relationship between God and the believer is one in which the personality and essence of the spiritual God produces a presence or an effect in the believer’s spirit, which the believer benefits from.
Let’s look at an example that may be helpful in understanding “God in us.” When we write a letter using a pencil, we say that the letter is “written in pencil.” Now, we don’t mean to say that the wooden pencil is actually physically located in pages of our letter. What we mean is that the essence of the pencil produces an effect on the pages of our letter but the wooden pencil does not physically exist on the paper. The pencil leaves the color of graphite[iii] on the page so that our thoughts are revealed in action on the paper. So, how is this example applicable to our scriptural phrase “God in us?” When we become a believer, we are blessed with an intimate relation with the triune God, that is, the indwelling Holy Spirit, the mystical union with Christ, and access to God Father through Christ. This does not mean that God is physically existing in our spirit. God is spiritually present in our souls by producing an effect (i.e., pencil marks on page) from His person and essence (i.e., the wooden pencil). God’s spiritual presence in our spirit produces effects that become manifested in an obedient walk with God. We read and study the Bible more, pray, attend church regularly, have a Christlike demeanor, etc. as a result of the presence of God in us. So, these actions, thoughts, and behaviors, etc. are the pencil marks on our spirit written by God. We cannot see God in us but we do experience the presence of God in us and His presence produces effects that we and others can see in our lives (i.e., on the sheet of paper).
[i] Louis Berkhof, Systematic Theology (The Banner of Truth Trust, 2012), 48.
[ii] Louis Berkhof, Systematic Theology (The Banner of Truth Trust, 2012), 49.
[iii] Graphite is a crystalline form of the element carbon. It occurs naturally in nature, though there is a synthetic form also. It is used in pencils as pencil “lead,” though there is no actual lead in pencil lead and there never has been.
