Try to fit God into a box? What an absurdity! But this is what man has tried to do, the finite creature trying to reduce the infinite God into manageable terms. Who would be so conceited as to engage in such a ludicrous exercise?

On one hand there is the pagan who fashions idols and images and has the audacity to represent God as a man, a bird, a four-footed beast or a creeping thing (Romans 1: 23) Imagine the insult it would be if one offered up a family album for viewing in which grandma, grandpa, mother, and dad were merely represented by birds, beasts, or reptiles and yet man has the nerve to represent the omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, infinite God in such a nonsensical way!

Unfortunately even those who claim to know God have hedged Him about with all kinds of restrictive parameters. For example it is most interesting to hear those who hold oneness views arguing with those who believe, as most orthodox groups do, in the three-ness or Trinity of the Godhead. Those of oneness persuasion insist that God is one and simply manifests Himself in three different forms, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. They reason that this parallels the fact that a man can be a father, a son, and a husband while still remaining one entity. This, however, is reducing God to a human example which is totally impossible. God is not human. He cannot be restricted to such dimensions. There is nothing on earth that can be compared to the Trinity and neither should there be. Isaiah 40:25 states it well, To whom will ye compare Me, that I should be like him? Man was made in God’s image not the other way around. Tozer says it well when he states, Our sincerest effort to grasp the incomprehensible mystery of the Trinity must remain forever futile, and only by the deepest reverence can it be saved from actual presumption. (Tozer:17)

Then there are hyper dispensationalists who have pigeon-holed not only the events of history into neat compartments, but have subjected God to the same treatment. This is not to speak negatively of dispensationalism in general but it becomes a rather interesting problem when one tries to force God to stay within the parameters of dispensational divisions. It may be true that God did not deal with man under the Dispensation of Innocence in exactly the same as He did under the Dispensation of Human Government or under the Dispensation of the Law. This does not mean, however, that God is limited by these man-made categories and cannot cross back and forth over these boundaries as He sees fit. Furthermore, there is nothing to suggest that God must be tied to our time lines even within a given dispensation. Take for example, the working of miracles. How many well-meaning theologians have categorically stated that the day of miracles is past. Who said so? God can do as He wishes. Others have vehemently argued that some gifts of the Spirit are no longer needed nor exercised today. God can do whatever He wishes, whenever He wishes,regardless of any defined dispensational time line.

Another interesting example of trying to limit God to man’s ways is to suggest that man is the only means of bringing the Gospel to the lost. Now, generally speaking, God has entrusted His followers with the task of winning the unsaved but no man can limit God to this method, if He should choose otherwise. Take Saul of Tarsus, for example, who was converted by the appearance of the Lord Jesus Christ, as he was on his way to Damascus. In Muslim dominated cultures, the Lord has also appeared to many, counselling them to forsake their ways and turn to Him. He is not even restricted by the Ten-forty Window. During the Tribulation, the Gospel will be preached by the one hundred and forty-four thousand Jewish believers mentioned in the Book of Revelation. Furthermore there will be two special, miracle-working messengers who will also be engaged in this process. Add to this the angel who will also evangelize by preaching the everlasting gospel to those suffering through the agony of the Great Tribulation. (Revelation 14:6)

In defining God, the theological mind has described Him by using such adjectives as omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent but maybe, just maybe, God has characteristics we have never even heard of. He is infinite after all. How is it possible to be able to understand such infinity, even quantifying and explaining all its aspects? Solomon, while dedicating Israel’s first temple bore witness to the infinite nature of God. But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain Thee; how much less this house that I have builded? (1Kings 8:27)

Furthermore His mind and thought processes are infinite. Isaiah 55: 8 and 9 states, For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are My ways your ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.

It is God who created a universe that continues to baffle the tiny mind of man. When one considers the number of stars in a galaxy and then tries to figure out how many galaxies exist, he is left with a task of gargantuan proportion. Travelling at the speed of light, it would take 4.3 years to reach the nearest star but to reach the huge planet of Betelgeuse would take three hundred and one years. But God’s infinite mind handles this with ease. The Psalmist states in Psalm 147:4, He counts the number of stars. He calls them all by name.

Even the creation of man demonstrates His remarkable intelligence. Man was given 10 billion brain cells and 25 trillion corpuscles to travel in his bloodstream. The heart Hecreated in man beats 100,000 times a day and lasts for, in some instances, close to one hundred years. No wonder God said to Job, Shall he that contendeth with the Almighty instruct Him? He that reproveth God, let him answer it. (Job 40:2)

This infinite greatness of God is surely intimidating for finite creatures. Consider Psalm 104: 1-2. Bless the Lord, O my soul. O Lord my God, Thou art very great; Thou art clothed with honour and majesty. Who covereth Thyself with light as with a garment: who stretcheth out the heavens like a curtain.

Isaiah 40:22 builds on this when describing God. It is He that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in:

Because God is infinite, He will be able to progressively reveal Himself to His saints throughout eternity without ever exhausting His infinity. With all due reverence, one could compare getting to know God in eternity like peeling away the layers of an onion but without ever diminishing the onion.

When God commissioned Moses at the burning bush to lead Israel out of Egypt, Moses asked what name he should call God in relaying the message of deliverance to his suffering people. God’s response was , And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and He said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent you. (Exodus 3:14) Such a name further points to the immeasurable greatness of God. The name I AM suggests someone who is eternal, the past, present, and future rolled into one continual present. God was the eternal I Am during creation but He will also be the eternal I Am when all kingdoms will be turned over to our Lord and His Christ. Not only does the name I Am suggest that He is eternal but it suggests that He is not only self-existent but self-dependent, and self-sufficient. (Tozer:26)

God is immutable. He never changes. Malachi 3:6 states, For I am the Lord, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed. God does not change His life, His character, His truth, His ways, or His purposes. (Packer: 92ff) The Westminister Shorter Catechism states , God is a Spirit, infinite, and unchangeable in His being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth…(Packer:19)

God is holy. Holiness deals with separateness and it is understood that God is separate, higher than all others, or in other words, transcendent. Psalm 99:9 states, Exalt the Lord our God, and worship at His holy hill; for the Lord our God is holy. Psalm 111:9 continues to deal with His holiness when it says, He sent redemption unto His people: He hath commanded His covenant for ever: holy and reverend is His name. No wonder Isaiah was impressed by his vision of the Lord enthroned in the temple. Above it stood the seraphims; each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly. And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts: the whole earth is filled with His glory. (Isaiah 6:1-3)

Again in the Book of Revelation God’s holiness is extolled. And the four beasts had each of them six wings about him; and they were full of eyes within; and they rest not day and night, saying Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come. (Revelation:4:8) How is it possible to place restrictions on such a high and holy God?

Now lest one feels that it is wholly impossible to even be marginally acquainted with such an infinite, immutable, holy, transcendent God, he must be eternally grateful that the Lord Jesus Christ came to bridge the gap between God and man. John 1: 18 states, No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, hath declared Him. Furthermore Jesus responds to Philip in John 14:8 and 9, Philip saith unto Him, Lord, show us the Father, and it sufficeth us. Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known Me, Philip? He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Show us the Father?

While Jesus did show us the Father, he only revealed so much. Much of God is still inscrutable but thanks be to God, Jesus revealed enough to allow one to experience salvation and through the Holy Spirit to establish an intimate relationship with Him. It will take eternity to grow in the knowledge of the Lord and as mentioned, this process will never end.

Tozer provides an interesting summary of God’s greatness when he states,

We can know, for instance, that because God is self-existent, His love had no beginning; because He is eternal, His love can have no end; because He is infinite, it has no limit; because He is holy, it is quintessence of all spotless purity; because He is immense, His love is an incomprehensibly vast, bottomless, shoreless sea before which we kneel in joyful silence and from which the loftiest eloquence retreats confused and ashamed. (Tozer:98)

If God is this great why would puny man endeavour to make Him fit into the parameters of his limited earthly mind? Why try to put God into your puny box when He wants to fill your universe?

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. Packer, J.I. Knowing God. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1973.

2. Tozer, A.W. The Knowledge of the Holy. San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1961.