Is God really knowable?

I’ve heard many people ask that question, and not have any good answers. They believe that God is unknowable. If God is incomprehensible, how can we really know him? He’s infinite, so far above us, that we couldn’t really know what he’s like, can’t really know him, and they don’t seek to know him.

This second chapter of None Like Him by Jen Wilkin, addressed how God’s limitlessness affects how we can know him. Like I talked about in the first paragraph, what we can know about God is important – it determines what we think about God and ourselves.

We know that God is incomprehensible and has infinite mystery. That means there’s so much about him we don’t know, and will never know because we are finite. But incomprehensible doesn’t mean we can’t know him! It just means that he can’t be fully known. We as finite beings can’t fully understand or explain an infinite God.

But we can know him in part! We have to joy of being able to know him, because he has revealed himself to us. We can know him through his word, and through the person Jesus Christ, who was God made flesh.

Even though he can’t be fully known, through Jesus Christ and the Holy Scriptures he can be sufficiently known. If he could be fully known he wouldn’t be God. But what we can know about him is enough for salvation and sanctification. He has revealed enough about himself that we can spend time reflecting on what he’s said until we leave this earth and stand before him face-to-face.

We know he is good. That means we don’t have to worry about what we don’t know: because he is infinitely good, the things we don’t know can only be good! And when we’re in eternity with him, we’ll be able to continue learning about our wonderful God.

God is infinitely good so do not worry about what we don't know of him: they can only be good! Click To Tweet

This is another difference between God and us: because he’s infinite he can’t be fully known, because we’re finite we can be fully known. We may not be fully known to our fellow humans because we tend to hide our shortcomings and put our best foot forward. We also won’t fully know ourselves, because we tend to be blind to our own sins. But God knows us inside and out (Psalm 139:1-6)! He knows my best and my worst. And yet,

He is neither impressed nor horrified. He accepts me as I am because of Christ. Nothing is hidden before the One who formed my inmost being, and because I am fully known, I am free to love the God I know only in part. Though I do not know him fully, what little I do know is cause for the deepest love the human heart can produce.
Jen Wilkin (None Like Him)

Only God is the expert on God. But because I know the great love he has for me, displayed by Jesus Christ on the cross, I know that even though I can’t understand everything about him that I want to know him and be like him.

How should the knowledge that God is incomprehensible change the way I live? I cannot comprehend God, myself, or anyone else, but knowing that God can comprehend should bring me to my knees in prayer instead of judgmental thoughts, and cause me to worship my God all the more.

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