THE INCOMPREHENSIBLE GOD

DEUTERONOMY 29:9–29

The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law

(Deuteronomy 29:29).

Christianity teaches that God is incomprehensible. This means two things. First, no human being can ever understand everything there is to know about God. There will always be more to learn about God, age after age, forever. Second, the incomprehensibility of God means that only God is God, and only God knows all things immediately and fully. Our knowledge of things is discursive, which means that we know one thing at a time. God’s knowledge of all things, including Himself, is timeless, immediate, and total. He never needs to “recall” information. Our knowledge of God, and of the world also, exists in time and consists of learning one thing after another. God does not learn things; He knows them from the beginning. We learn things as we think God’s thoughts after Him.

This doctrine of the incomprehensibility of God has to be balanced by the doctrine of the apprehensibility of God. God is incomprehensible (we cannot know all), but not inapprehensible (because we can and do know some things). Indeed, since man is created as God’s image, and the human mind was made to understand God, we cannot help but know some things about God. As time goes along, we cannot help but learn more and more about Him. The wicked learn more and more things to hate, while we learn more and more things to love.

We know about God because God has revealed Himself to us, and has designed us to receive His revelation. God created human language as one of the most important means of His revelation. God created human writing as well, so it is no surprise that God speaks in human words and that God has written a book.

The only way we can know about God is through revelation. God reveals Himself to all men through nature and through the human heart, but this revelation needs words to make it clear. The Bible supplies those words. Now we see the importance of the fact that God has revealed names for Himself. Left to ourselves, we would come up with erroneous names for God, which would be idolatrous. God, to make Himself apprehensible, has given us the names that we need.

CORAM DEO

Hosea 11–14

In the twentieth century, liberal theologians have said that God is wholly other, which means we cannot know anything about Him. Think back to when God brought you to Himself. How much have you learned of Him since? Seek even deeper understanding as you study His names.

For further study: Isa. 40:12–14; 55:6–13 • 1 Cor. 1:20–25; 2:6–16

thursday

june