Can We Understand God?

I had a conversation with someone following my sermon this past Sunday that got me thinking about our ability to understand God. This individual was thanking me for pointing out the tension between predestination and free-will and how we as Christians have to seek truth instead of finding Scriptures that support our views. They commented on the fact that this is just one of the mysteries of God that we cannot fully comprehend.

My last blog post was an encouragement to worship in the face of mystery rather than always trying to find concrete answers to things we just can't understand. But I want to point out something else on the topic of mystery: We will NEVER fully comprehend God. Not even in eternity.

God is infinite in nature; which means that there is no limit to His glory and His ways are unsearchable. He has certainly made Himself known to us through His creation and His divinely inspired Word, but there are depths that we simply will never reach in our understanding of Who He is. And if that's discouraging or disappointing to you, your perspective may need to be adjusted.

Think about it this way: have you ever been on a really long road trip with friends? You begin by sharing stories, laughing, maybe even having deep conversations, and then you run out of things to talk about? Or maybe eventually you just realize that you've lost interest in the conversation, so you tune out?

We don't have that problem with God - His infinite nature means that we will spend eternity learning new things about Him that lead us to a deeper adoration and worship of Him. We can't "figure Him out" and He will never become "predictable" to us. You can't put Him in a box, and He will always exceed our expectations of him (Ephesians 3:20-21).

Yet, at the very same time the invitation goes out to us - "Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you" (James 4:8). God has revealed Himself to His creation and wants us to know Him intimately. He is beyond our understanding, yet He is near. His wisdom is unsearchable, yet He bestows wisdom upon us. This should make us drop to our knees in awe and wonder. We shouldn't be frustrated that we don't understand everything about Him, we should be passionate to know Him more deeply every day.

Praise Him for His infinite nature and, at the very same time, draw near to Him to know him more.