THE INCOMPREHENSIBILITY OF GOD

THE INCOMPREHENSIBILITY OF GOD

By: Daniel McMillin

How do we begin to talk about God? What words could we possibly use? What words are worthy of discussing our infinite God? It becomes difficult to discuss God, and it is hard to know where to start. Do we mention one of the many inseparable attributes of God that are vast and essential? Do we initiate a discourse in the names and titles that describe His essence? Do we begin to read every book, chapter, and verse that reveals the glory of our God? If we were to begin down this path, our discussion would never end. This conversation is limitless and never-ending. And somehow, as God’s creatures, we fall short in our view of the infinite, boundless God due to our finite nature. We are lacking in our comprehension of God due to us being bound to time, matter, and space; thus, the most proper way to begin is with humility as we note the incomprehensibility of God. What this means is that “the finite creature cannot comprehend the infinite essence of God. The creature can know God as he has revealed himself in his works but cannot know God’s infinite essence in all its glory and mystery. The creature may know God truly but not exhaustively or comprehensively.” (Barrett 251) Incomprehensible can be defined as “unable to be fully understood.” (Grudem 149) This does not mean that we cannot know nor understand God, but we are not fully capable of comprehending fully the depths of who God truly is in an exhaustive manner. This is due to His infinite greatness. As we approach this topic, it is helpful to be mindful of its purpose. “God’s incomprehensibility is a helpful reminder that whenever we speak of the infinite God, there is a proper, biblical role for mystery.” (Barrett 25) We do not know everything there is to know about God, and we do not know God in His fullness.

Our Incapability of Comprehension

Augustine suggests that we cannot comprehend God; if we could, He would no longer remain to be God. “We are speaking of God. Is it any wonder if you do not comprehend? For if you comprehend, it is not God you comprehend. Let it be a pious confession of ignorance rather than a rash profession of knowledge. To attain some slight knowledge of God is a great blessing; to comprehend him, however, is totally impossible.” (Bavinck 2:48) Barrett said, “we, the creature, would have to be God to comprehend God in all his glory. But of course, if we were to become divine to comprehend him who alone is divinity, then God himself would cease to be divine.” (Barrett 23) It’s difficult to comprehend, I admit, but it is essential. If we think we are so bold as to know our God in His fullness, we are foolish. “God’s essence is indescribable. It is so infinite, so supreme, so glorious, that its majesty, its beauty, and its perfection transcend our feeble human words.” (Barrett 23) Thomas Aquinas said that “no created mind can attain the perfect sort of understanding of God’s essence that is intrinsically possible…the infinite cannot be contained in the finite. God exists infinitely, and nothing finite can grasp infinitely…it is impossible for a created mind to understand God infinitely; it is impossible, therefore, to comprehend him.” (1a.12.7) When we read about who our God is, we are revealed who God truly is, but it is not an exhaustive description of the divine essence. God has not communicated Himself in all His fullness. We are not capable of containing this knowledge. Bavinck says that “He cannot fully impart himself to creatures.” (Bavinck 2:36) The Creator is so far beyond the creature that we cannot fully comprehend Him because God possesses “a nature supreme in excellence and eternal in existence.” (Augustine, On Christian Doctrine 11) The Psalmist wrote, “You are clothed with splendor and majesty” (Ps. 104:1). His magnificence, beauty, and power are beyond our reach.

Our Way of Thinking

God is more than we know. “What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.” (Tozer 9) Does it misrepresent God, or does it come short of God’s glory? These are two different things. Either we are thinking about God in an incorrect manner due to misguidance or lack of thought, or it could be because we are human and do not have access to this knowledge. Nonetheless, “it is a dangerous thing to assume that the conception of God in our minds pictures God just as he is in all his infinite incomprehensibility.” (Barrett 40) How do we think about God? What do we think about God? If we think about God, we should say to ourselves, “this is not God; God is more than this: if I could conceive him, he were not God; for God is incomprehensibly above whatsoever I can say, whatsoever I can think and conceive of him.” (Charnock 1:201)

Our Approach of Humility

Anslem said, “For I do not seek to understand so that I may believe; but I believe so that I may understand.” (87) We start with a disclaimer of humility that we may not have the pride to say, “I know everything there is to know about the unknown” it is to make sure we are careful to not boast about possessing transcendent truths that are vastly beyond our reach. In our quest to know our God, we must approach cautiously with humility. “A humility that looks to God’s revelation of himself for understanding. It is the approach of faith seeking understanding.” (Barratt 24) We are not demanding to know everything about God but are considering what God has given and ciphering through the words God has communicated to us. “God’s Word, the holy Scripture, opens the door for us to have a true knowledge of God. Yet the more we know, the more we realize we don’t know.” (Barrett 24) “The more God reveals who he is and the more we come to a true and authentic knowledge of who he is, the more mysterious he becomes.” (Weinandy 33) “Christian humility requires us to receive with gratitude what he has spoken and to limit ourselves to what he has said and done, rather than pine after what he has not to demand knowledge of that which he has chosen to conceal.” (Barrett 27)

Our understanding of this theological concept, the incomprehensibility of God, is vital in approaching the topic of God because it puts us into a proper mindset. “Incomprehensibility guards the Christian from thinking that a mere mortal can know God’s very essence.” (Barrett 26) The beauty of theology is knowing that you do not have to know everything. “We will never be able to know ‘too much’ about God, for we will never run out of things to learn about him, and we will thus never tire in delighting in the discovery of more and more of his excellence and of the greatness of his works.” (Grudem 150)

“If we ever wished to make ourselves equal to God in knowledge, or if we wished to derive satisfaction from the sin of intellectual pride, the fact that we will never stop growing in knowledge of God would be a discouraging thing for us –we might become frustrated that God is a subject of study that we will never master! But if we rather delight in the fact that God alone is God, that he is always infinitely greater than we are, that we are his creatures who owe him worship and adoration, then this will be a very encouraging idea. Even though we spend time in Bible study and fellowship with God every day of our lives, there will always be more to learn about God and his relationships to us and the world, and thus there will always be more that we can be thankful for and for which we can give him praise. When we realize this, the prospect of a lifelong habit of regular Bible study, and even the prospect of a lifetime of study of theology (if it is theology that is solidly grounded in God’s Word), should be a very exciting prospect to us. To study and to teach God’s Word in both formal and informal ways will always be a great privilege and joy.” (Grudem 151)

Our Way Is Lacking

Our God “has undergone a softening of demeanor.” (Marsha Witten, All is Forgiven) It is due to our misconceptions of God. We view God in an incorrect lighting. We limit Him to our flawed rendering. Thus the necessity of this topic. Theology, the doctrine of God, God-talk is unintelligible, un-understandable, inconceivable. There are great truths and mysteries that lie before our feet. This does not mean that we cannot talk about God. It does mean that our knowledge of God will always be limited. We can have an apprehensive knowledge of God. A meaningful knowledge of God. A profound knowledge of God. But we can never have (poses) a knowledge of God that totally, exhaustively that comprehends all that He is. We will never know God the way He knows Himself. We will never completely know God. Thomas Aquinas said, “in this life we cannot understand God’s essence as it is in itself.” (Summa 1:13.2)

It is interesting that Scripture commands us to think about our God though He remains to be incomprehensible. With this, we are all theologians. But we must realize that when thinking about God, “we are aware that our thoughts are quite inadequate to their object, and incapable of grasping as he is…. [we] can never think about him as he deserves.” (Augustine, Trinity 189) If we are ever to endeavor to know our God, we must seek God’s help since we are desperately in need of His guidance. If we are to ever know our God, we must discover for ourselves the depths of His word that He has revealed to us.

We have to recognize that our understanding is from a human perspective. We are viewing the infinite, eternal, glorious Majesty that reigns in heaven from our viewpoint of earth. “It entails an acknowledgement that we are the recipients and beneficiaries, not the originators and creators, of divine revelation. If we know anything about God, it is because he has chosen to make it know revelation is a gift. In that light, our task cannot be speculation. Our response to his revelation concerning himself is not to demand knowledge of that which eh has chosen to conceal.” (Barrett 27)

“God’s greatness is beyond searching out or discovering it too great ever to be fully known.” (Grudem 150) As the psalmist penned, “Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised, and his greatness is unsearchable” (Ps. 145:3). How can we know God? How can God reveal Himself to us? “We need this unsearchable God to make himself known to us; we need the Infinite One to accommodate himself to our very finite understanding. And we need the incomprehensible God to tell us how we should and should not talk about who he is and what he has done.” (Barrett 30) “Great is our Lord and abundant in strength; His understanding is infinite” (Ps. 147:5). God’s knowledge is limitless. In comparison, our knowledge could never compete. We can never know the knowledge of God to its fullest. “It is far too great for us to equal or to understand.” (Grudem 150) David humbly admitted “such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is too high, I  cannot attain it” (Ps. 139:6, 17). Paul said that “no one comprehends the things of God except the Spirit of God” (1 Cor. 2:10-12) No one knows God like God knows God. Listen to these words spoken by Paul. “Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways!” (Rom. 11:33). We can never fully understand His greatness (Ps. 145:3), understanding (Ps. 147:5), and knowledge (Ps. 139:6). His ways are beyond our ability to completely understand (Rom. 11:33).

May God have mercy on us when we desperately attempt to speak of our God as the human language falls short of His glory due to our fall of glory. “Although nothing worthy of His greatness can be said of Him, has condescend to accept the worship of men’s mouths, and has desired us through medium of our own words to rejoice in His praise.” (Christian Doctrine 10)

Can we see God’s glory?

      I.          Holy, infinite, self-sustaining (Exodus 3-4)

    II.          Deliver (Exodus 15)

  III.          Sovereign Exodus 19-20

  IV.          Incomparable (Isaiah 46)

    V.          Exodus 33

Knowability of God

 “He will bring about at the proper time –He who is blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone possesses immortality and dwells in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see. To Him be honor and eternal dominion! Amen” (1 Tim. 6:15-16). Can we know the essence of God? No. It is only by faith that we may know our God (Heb. 11:1, 3). As Paul affirms, we have never known God, we have never seen God, our understanding of God’s essence is found insufficient. But that does not mean that we cannot know God. It still remains that we may know God though we may not know Him in His fullness. “We can know God truly even if not comprehensively. It may be impossible to comprehend God in his essence, in all his glory and radiance, but that does not preclude us from knowing God as he has made himself known to us.” (Barrett 32)

“If we are to know God at all, it is necessary that he reveal himself to us.” (Grudem 149) As we read the Bible, we leave with the impression that God wants us to know Him. And within those pages that we read, we find the way to know God. We see His hand in every part of the world, in every nation, in every person, throughout all of time. We see God in creation itself because it testifies as to the masterful works of a divine Being (Rom. 1:20). God has chosen to reveal Himself through His works and His words. As a result, “we depend on God’s active communication to us in Scripture for our true knowledge of God.” (Grudem 149)

“Knowledge of God is a gift God himself gives. The reason we know God at all and in any way at all is only because our Creator communicates by means of his words and works.” (Barrett 32) If it were not for God, who initiated the conversation, we would be hopeless. God communicated to us in a most personal way that we may obtain His message and receive it with gladness as we strive to please God and serve Him. “As unbelievable as it may seem, the infinite, incomprehensible God has made us for the distinct purpose of knowing him, even enjoying him, and reflecting his image to the world around us…. after forming humankind in his image, God then spoke. That’s right, the infinite, transcendent, incomprehensible God used words, and these words revealed not only who he is but what duty God requires of humans. His words established a covenantal relationship between God and his people.” (Barrett 30-31)

We “cannot comprehend” God in His fullness and thus have “absolute knowledge” of God. However, we can have “relative knowledge” (Bavinck 2:51). We cannot absolutely know the absolute Being, but we can know, in part, the truth that God has unveiled to us about Him. We catch a glimpse of the infinite and enter into a realm we know so little about. We are like a child that enters into a museum that is unable to appreciate the vast knowledge that surrounds us.

In our attempts to understand the nature of God, we run the risk of limiting God. How do we avoid limiting God? We use God’s Word as the guide and dare not deviate off of the path. Thus the necessity of using the correct manual and the right tools to interpret the guidebook. There are three ways our knowledge of God will not limit God (Bavinck 2:159):

1.     Our knowledge of God is “grounded in God himself.”

2.     Our knowledge of God “can only exist through him.”

3.     Our knowledge of God “has as its object and content God as the infinite One.”

When our knowledge of God is dependent on the God that has revealed Himself, we are no longer limiting God but are finally able to see God in a way that He desires for us to attain. We may not be able to bask in all of His glory as we would like. However, we are able to see God in a most glorious manner. “Even though we cannot know God exhaustively, we can know true things about God.” (Grudem 151) Through God’s word, we can know the truth of who God is. “It is in our knowledge of God: we have true knowledge of God from Scripture, even though we do not have exhaustive knowledge.” (Grudem 151) We know more than just facts about God, but we actually know God. There is this intimate knowledge of who God is that we possess as Christians. Jesus said, “this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent” (John 17:3). We notice that there is more to this knowledge of God. There is this close connection we find in our union with God. As God’s people, we have this personal relationship with God that began through our knowledge of God which produced faith (Rom. 10:17).

Our Reaction

How can we talk about God? How can and should the creature talking about the Creator? With humility, reverence, and adoration. The purpose of such a lesson as this is to generate Christian conversations. It is to set our minds on the inescapable truths of the sovereign, divine Being of heaven. It is a most humbling way to approach God when we recognize how far beyond our reach He truly is. To attempt to fathom His superior essence and merely scratch the surface of things that transcend us. We see how small we truly are in comparison to our God. How unworthy we are. Because of how powerful and holy He is. How worthy of worship He is than the way we react. Ultimately, the purpose of this study is to grow closer to God, which may seem strange since we have discovered how incomprehensible His nature is, that we cannot know everything about Him. However, it puts us on the right path to viewing God as One who is vastly different than we are that it brings us to our knees. That is our purpose. Not merely to learn some facts but to know God. Not just to know God but to draw closer to our God. God “is the sole object of all our love, precisely because he is the infinite and incomprehensible One.” (Bavinck 2:48) May our lives be in service to the God we love.