George H. Warnock — Doctrine of God
b4 — The Hyssop that Springeth Out of the Wall
Transcendence and Immanence — God Dwells with the Contrite
Passage 1 — God’s dual dwelling place (hyssop1b.html, section “He Spake of the Cedar and the Hyssop”):
“He tells us that He ‘dwells in the high and holy place,’ and then He is quick to remind us, ‘I dwell also with him that is of a contrite and humble spirit,’ (Isaiah 57:15).”
Source: Warnock, The Hyssop that Springeth Out of the Wall, hyssop1b.html, section “He Spake of the Cedar and the Hyssop”.
Interpretation: Warnock presents God’s transcendence (‘high and holy place’) and immanence (‘with the contrite’) not as a tension but as two aspects of the same greatness: precisely because God is great, He stoops to the lowly.
Passage 2 — The temple was never God’s true dwelling place (hyssop1b.html):
“The ‘house’ that Solomon built Him was really just intended to be a ‘house of prayer for all nations.’ It was never intended to be a dwelling place for God; nor did Solomon recognize it as such.”
Source: Warnock, The Hyssop that Springeth Out of the Wall, hyssop1b.html.
Interpretation: Warnock sets Isa. 57:15 and Isa. 66:1-2 against temple-building in cedar: God’s true dwelling is not the stately palace but the broken heart.
Passage 3 — Isa. 66:1-2 as programmatic text for God’s dwelling (hyssop1b.html):
“Where is the place that ye build unto me? And where is the place of my rest? For all those things hath mine hand made, And all those things have been, saith the Lord: But to this man will I look, Even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, And trembleth at my Word.” (Isa. 66:1-2)
Source: Warnock, The Hyssop that Springeth Out of the Wall, hyssop1b.html, section “He Spake of the Cedar and the Hyssop”.
Passage 4 — Isa. 57:15 as opening text (hyssop2b.html, section “Where Dwellest Thou?“):
“For thus saith the high and lofty One That inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, With him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, To revive the spirit of the humble, And to revive the heart of the contrite ones.” (Isa. 57:15)
Source: Warnock, The Hyssop that Springeth Out of the Wall, hyssop2b.html, opening citation.
Holiness and Eternity of God
Passage 5 — God’s eternal holiness as His name (hyssop2b.html):
“the high and lofty One That inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy” (Isa. 57:15a)
Source: Warnock, The Hyssop that Springeth Out of the Wall, hyssop2b.html.
Interpretation: Warnock uses ‘Holy’ as God’s essential name, linked to His transcendence (‘inhabiteth eternity’) and simultaneously to His immanence with the lowly person.
Divine Passibility — The Father Suffered on the Cross
Passage 6 — The Father suffering in the crucifixion of the Son (hyssop2.html, section “Incarnation — The Humiliation of God”):
“And when He hung on the Cross… it was not a case of God the Father being indifferent to the cries of His Son as He suffered this unspeakable anguish… but in the truest sense of the word, God the Father was Himself suffering the pain of every nail that went into His hand, and every thorn that pierced His brow.”
Source: Warnock, The Hyssop that Springeth Out of the Wall, hyssop2.html, section “Incarnation — The Humiliation of God”.
Interpretation: Warnock explicitly rejects divine impassibility (the view that the Father remained unmoved by the Son’s suffering) and presents a God who genuinely co-suffers.
Passage 7 — The Father voluntarily subjects Himself to suffering (hyssop2.html):
“Yes, it was God the Father who willingly subjected Himself to the full measure of weakness, and poverty, and humiliation and suffering — in order to remove the ‘curse’ which He Himself had laid upon man because of his transgression!”
Source: Warnock, The Hyssop that Springeth Out of the Wall, hyssop2.html.
Interpretation: Warnock links passibility to God’s own accountability: God subjects Himself voluntarily to suffering because He Himself had pronounced the curse.
Incarnation as Humiliation of God
Passage 8 — God could not remain distant forever (hyssop2.html):
“that great and mighty God of the universe who created all things could not for ever remain high and lifted up in the heavens… with a reputation of being mighty and powerful, but unconcerned about the needs of the people whom He created. He must come down and show Himself as He really is.”
Source: Warnock, The Hyssop that Springeth Out of the Wall, hyssop2.html.
Passage 9 — True greatness as condescension (hyssop2.html):
“True greatness does not stand apart, above and beyond the ordinary. True greatness is always identified with humility and weakness and insignificance and lowliness.”
Source: Warnock, The Hyssop that Springeth Out of the Wall, hyssop2.html, section “Incarnation”.
Interpretation: Warnock formulates here an attribute of God: God’s greatness is revealed precisely in His willingness to descend to the insignificant.
Trinity — The Father Dwelt in the Son
Passage 10 — Critique of a sharp Father-Son separation (hyssop2.html):
“I do not mean to start a theological argument, for I feel I have gone beyond that; but it bothers me that so many Christians should think of God the Father as One Person… and God the Son another.”
Source: Warnock, The Hyssop that Springeth Out of the Wall, hyssop2.html.
Passage 11 — God the Father dwelt and acted in the Son (hyssop2.html):
“when His Son walked this earth, God the Father was in that Man, walking in His sandals. And when Jesus mingled amongst men as the sinless and spotless One, showing mercy and compassion to the multitudes, it was God the Father living in His Son and walking in His Son and showing mercy through His Son.”
Source: Warnock, The Hyssop that Springeth Out of the Wall, hyssop2.html.
Interpretation: Warnock employs a strong economic-unity doctrine in which the Father was fully present in the Son’s actions — comparable to John 14:10. He avoids formal Trinitarian terminology and works from the experiential unity of Father and Son.
Being of God — God’s Greatness Revealed in Care for the Small
Passage 12 — God notices the forgotten sparrow (hyssop2.html):
“God has been greatly maligned by the peoples of the earth who worship careless, cruel, indifferent, and dictatorial gods who have brought them nothing but bondage and oppression. And so in answer to the prayer of the prophet, God rent the heavens and came down, and showed men what He was really like.”
And directly thereafter:
“God takes note of it because He is so great. Jesus said that two of them were sold for a farthing, and five of them for two farthings. And so one was just thrown in for good measure… just forgotten. But not even this forgotten sparrow was forgotten by God.”
Source: Warnock, The Hyssop that Springeth Out of the Wall, hyssop2.html.
Interpretation: Warnock presents God’s care for the insignificant not as an exception to His greatness but as its most direct expression.