As we begin our series studying the attributes (or character) of God, we begin by acknowledging that God is incomprehensible. It might seem a little odd that we are admitting that we cannot comprehend the One who we will learn about in this series of articles, but it’s important that we begin here to set our expectations right.
As we seek to know more about God, we have to understand that he is infinite, and we are finite. He is eternal, we are temporal. He is transcendent, we are immanent. In fact, if we were to list all of the attributes of God that we’re aiming to learn about in this series, we’d see that he is not like us at all. And it’s good for us to begin setting our expectations right so that we don’t fool ourselves into thinking we are able to ‘wrap our heads’ around God. We can learn about him, and we will! But we’ll be learning about him for all eternity, and by his grace, that learning begins in the here and now.
It’s also good for us to begin by acknowledging the incomprehensibility of God to keep us humble as we seek to know him. I mentioned above that God is not like us, but the truth is, God is not like anything he has made. As we’ll look at in the next article: “God’s Aseity (uniqueness)” God is in a category of his own, if you could even call it a category. He is so far above his creation that nothing in creation can compare to him. As God himself says;
“To whom will you compare me?
Or who is my equal?” says the Holy One.
– Isaiah 40:25
He is above all things, and at the same time all things exist and are held together ‘in him’. God is incomprehensible, and that should keep us humble as we seek to know him in his word, while we trust that our humility will enable us to gain the wisdom we need to begin the journey of discovering who God is.
We’ll also learn in this series that our human language struggles to communicate the attributes of God because language is also finite, ‘from below’, whereas the proper study of God is ‘from above’, revealed by God himself as he makes himself known. And as we read this first article,, we’ll need to learn the difference between comprehension and apprehension.
The word comprehend is related to the word ‘complete’. So to properly comprehend something with the mind means we know it completely. As we use this word properly you’d be right to consider whether we know anything completely! Since the world is a complex place. However, the truth is there are some things we can comprehend. There are some skills we can master. There are some ideas that we can know completely, such as simple mathematics, 2 + 2 = 4. But we cannot comprehend God. As the prophet, King David said;
How precious to me are your thoughts, God!
How vast is the sum of them!
Were I to count them,
they would outnumber the grains of sand…
(Psalm 139:17–18)
Or as our Apostle Paul said of God’s Providence;
Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God!
How unsearchable his judgments,
and his paths beyond tracing out!
(Romans 11:33)
Only God can comprehend God. But by his grace, we have been created ‘in his image’ so that we can know him truly. This is where we use the word apprehend to describe our knowledge of God. The word apprehend describes a kind of ‘grasping’.
To use an illustration, if to comprehend something like a marble is to grasp it completely, so that our hand encompasses it, our fist would completely surround it. Whereas to apprehend the marble would be to take hold of it with two fingers. We have it truly, but only a part of it. We are holding onto it, but only from two points, and not as securely as we would if we grasped it (comprehensively) with our entire fist.
The knowledge of God is incomprehensible, but it is apprehensible. And we’ve begun our study of the attributes of God by acknowledging this truth, so that we can come to know him truly, without dissolving the distinction between the Creator and the creature that exists between us and God, and will be in place for all eternity.
It’s so interesting to think about the connection between God’s incomprehensible nature and idolatry. When a person is content not knowing everything there is to know about God, they are often also content seeking to know him better. However, when a person is not content with the idea of God’s incomprehensibility, they often fall into idolatry because they’re forced to reduce God to categories their finite minds can comprehend, to save them from admitting that they don’t know as much as they think they know. And by ‘putting God in a box’ in order to give themselves the impression that they can comprehend the incomprehensible, they make a god of their own liking, and in so doing, they commit idolatry.
Of course the root of this idolatry is pride, which stems from the inability of a person to admit that there are many things we don’t understand. Instead of declaring with our Apostle Paul;
Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God!
How unsearchable his judgments,
and his paths beyond tracing out!
“Who has known the mind of the Lord?
Or who has been his counselor?” ← Isaiah 40:13!
– Romans 11:33–34
People who cannot submit to the incomprehensibility of God say, “He is no mystery to us. We can comprehend him.”
In verses 21–26, God goes on to make the point that there is no one like him, and that nothing that he’s created can compare to him. There is infinite distance between the Creator and the creature, and God wants us to know this, so that we don’t fall into idolatry by trying to comprehend the incomprehensible.
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