Sometimes a book is so ambitious you wonder if the author has bitten off more than he can chew. Questions like “Why did God create the earth, and why is mankind on it?” have been asked for thousands of years. Surely a 300-page paperback could hardly make a dent in the conversation.
Yet in The Presence of God: Its Place in the Storyline of Scripture and the Story of Our Lives, Ryan Lister sets forth a thesis equal to these monumental questions. And his answers might surprise you.
Begin at the End
To answer these questions, Lister begins at the end of Scripture. Starting with Revelation 21–22 and then covering the whole narrative from Genesis to Revelation, the associate professor of theology at Western Seminary in Portland, Oregon, highlights the presence of God as central to the message of the Bible. The divine presence is “not a mystical feeling or emotional charge,” but a “theme on which the story of Scripture hinges.”
This theme gets worked out in two ways, as God’s presence is both a goal and a means of accomplishing his purposes. God creates and redeems in order to reside in a place with a people enjoying his presence forever. However, sin entered the world with cosmic implications as Adam and Eve chose to cast their lot with the serpent. God cursed the ground he’d created and then separated himself from sinful humans. How God accomplishes his purposes in creating and saving by means of his presence then becomes the storyline of Scripture—and of Lister’s book.
Door for Ministry
As I pastor I’m thankful and excited for the possibilities The Presence of God opens for ministry. Several reasons deserve mention. First, I learned how to do biblical theology as I read. Lister is a seasoned guide who moves through covenants and narratives with the confidence of one who’s spent much time in the pages of Scripture. While biblical theology in its current form has been around for decades, it seems to have gained more mass appeal in publishing and as a distinct discipline in recent years. The church must deftly wield biblical theology as one way to answer the ultimate concerns of the world in our time. Lister equips us to do just that.
The Presence of God: Its Place in the Storyline of Scripture and the Story of Our Lives
J. Ryan Lister
The Presence of God: Its Place in the Storyline of Scripture and the Story of Our Lives
J. Ryan Lister
Second, healthy theological reflection on the theme of God’s presence both helps us to define worship and leads us to do it in a more faithful manner. You may have heard the phrase, “He died for me, so I’ll live for him.” Without wanting to take away any truth from that phrase or criticize the gratitude it reflects, it may be more in line with God’s purposes in redemption to say, “He died for me, so I’ll live with him.”
Along with the ultimate concerns of the world, Lister addresses the ultimate concerns of the church and the gospel. He argues that God announces the completion of his redemptive mission in Revelation 21:3: “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man.” The purpose of God in creating, then, was to share his presence with men and women, dwelling with them as their God and they as his people. Lister argues rightly that salvation isn’t just about its eschatological ends but about how God means to be present with his people both now and forever.
Church ministry can often become trying to figure out what we should do next, how we can further proclaim the gospel, and how we can better engage our neighbors and the nations. But Lister reminds us that what the world needs above all is our communion with the living God. When we give his presence the central place it deserves, our lives and ministries align with God’s purposes for redeeming and sending a people defined by the presence and power of his Spirit.
Third, I’m tempted to say the last chapter is worth the price of the book, but you need to do the heavy lifting of working through the previous ones for the payoff. Here Lister works out the implications for living with God’s presence in its rightful place. The church isn’t simply entrusted with proclaiming the gospel but is itself an instrument through which he accomplishes his mission. If that’s true, then sanctification, worship, evangelism, and missions are not as individualistic in nature as many of our churches seem to functionally assume. The whole body of Christ mediates his presence in the world by proclaiming the gospel and experiencing its blessings. So as the gospel goes to all nations, with churches being established in those areas where there were once no churches, the presence of God becomes manifest in ways that accomplish what he originally set out to do in creating us. As I contemplated these lofty ideas, I realized the implications for life and ministry are endless.
Small Warning
If you’re like me, you’ll be tempted to move so slowly through Lister’s book that keeping focused on the arguments may be a challenge. Each chapter is replete with hefty footnotes—with one topping out at 87 and most with more than 60. While I much prefer footnotes to endnotes, I wanted to run down the trails rather than stick with the main content. Lister employs quotations from his vast knowledge of secondary sources and, while many are helpful (and I now have copious excerpts for sermons, studies, and Twitter), others were cumbersome and redundant. So if you’re like me, you won’t miss much if you save most of the footnotes and block quotations for later.
Throughout the pages of The Presence Of God, you’ll consistently think, learn, and worship as you contemplate life’s most important questions. Since there’s no end to the making of many books, it’s rare to find one that can do all these in a biblically faithful way. Lister enters the conversation and makes more than a dent. Here is a book that has the potential for remarkable influence through recovering a forgotten storyline.
