THE INCOMPREHENSIBLE GOD

This morning we are considering "The Being of God." As we take a look at God as a "being" the first thing we note is that ultimately in our finite state God is incomprehensible. Let me say right here at the outset we have to be aware of several important truths. If we fail to consider these truths we begin to tread on some very dangerous ground. Often times we are guilty of concocting a god in our own imagination. Bible writers when trying to explain or define something about God often used words such as "like", "appearance", or "likeness." The writer is telling us that something about God is like something that we already know. This comparison helps us to understand something about God. When the bible states that we are created in the image of God, we can not think that this means “exact” imagine. The creator and the creature are not alike in their essential being. When we think of God, we can never forget what God is not. In other words, whatever we visualize God to be, He is not that. The problem with trying to visualize God is whatever things we use in our mind to imagine God have been created by God, therefore they are less than God, and they are not God. If we try to imagine what God is or what God looks like then we have created an idol. An idol of or in our mind is just as offensive to God as if we had carved a statue out of wood, stone, or metal. So, it goes that God is incomprehensible. We can not know all that God is. Nicholas of Cusa said it this way, “The intellect knoweth that it is ignorant of Thee, because it knoweth Thou canst not be known, unless the unknowable could be known, and the invisible beheld, and the inaccessible attained.” [1] If we are left totally to ourselves, without guidance of the bible, the HS, pastors, teachers, etc. we will concoct a god that is both manageable and acceptable to ourselves. The human mind, apart from God, wants a god that it can understand and control. Job 22:21 says, “Now acquaint yourself with Him, and be at peace; thereby good will come to you.” Zophar asked this question, “…canst thou by searching find out God?” Jesus said, “…nor does anyone know the Father accept the Son, and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal Him.” Not everybody can know God biblically and especially salvificly – only those whom Jesus determines to reveal God to can know God. It is only God Himself as He pleases that enables anyone to be persuaded that there is a God. Remember that the “god” of this world has blinded the minds of unbelievers and this “god” keeps them from seeing the light and the truth unless and until God is pleased to enable them to "see" by opening their hearts to the truth.(II Cor 4:4) So, at the very beginning we find that we can never fully understand God. He is incomprehensible in the fullest sense. We can only be and therefore must be satisfied with knowing what we can know as God reveals Himself to us by His Son, Jesus Christ. (Matt 11:27) [1] Nicholas of Cusa, The Vision of God (E. P. Dutton & Sons, New York, 1928) p. 60