Incomprehensibility
The incomprehensibility of God means that he is not able to be fully known. Isaiah 40:28 says "his understanding no one can fathom". Louis Berkhof states that "the consensus of opinion" through most of church history has been that God is the "Incomprehensible One". Berkhof, however, argues that, "in so far as God reveals Himself in His attributes, we also have some knowledge of His Divine Being, though even so our knowledge is subject to human limitations." Romans 11:33-36: “Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! ‘For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?’ ‘Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?’ For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.” Sometimes when we hear someone say that God is incomprehensible, we sort of react negatively to that well, can't I know him, can't I come to know him? And of course, the Bible is God's self-revelation. He has revealed himself so that we can come to know him in a personal way and that we can come to know something about him. But if you stop and think about it, if God is truly the infinite God, then my poor little mind, and even the best theological minds that have ever lived will not be able to comprehend him in his fullness. By definition, if I could comprehend him, I would be as great as he is. And so this is a very important part of our God is not a little God. He is not small enough that I can get all of him into my mind or into a book. We are grateful that he has revealed enough of himself and that he has provided for our salvation that we can come to have some understanding of him, and can come into fellowship with him to live rightly in fellowship with him, and to think rightly about him, though not exhaustively. If we misunderstand the doctrine of God’s incomprehensibility, we can easily slide into serious errors. One of the errors says that since God is incomprehensible, He must be utterly unknowable, and anything we say about God is gibberish. But Christianity affirms the rationality of God alongside the incomprehensibility of God. Our minds can go only so far in understanding God, and to know God we need His revelation. But that revelation is intelligible, not irrational. It is not gibberish. It is not nonsense. God remains incomprehensible because He reveals Himself without revealing everything there is to know about Him. “The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever” (Deut. 29:29). The incomprehensible God has revealed Himself truly. Romans 11:33 Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways! Ecclesiastes 3:11 [11] Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God's work from beginning to end. Ecclesiastes 8:17 [17] I realized that no one can discover everything God is doing under the sun. Not even the wisest people discover everything, no matter what they claim. Isaiah 55:8-9 [8] "My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts," says the LORD. "And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine. [9] For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.. 1 Corinthians 2:13-16 [13] When we tell you these things, we do not use words that come from human wisdom. Instead, we speak words given to us by the Spirit, using the Spirit's words to explain spiritual truths. [14] But people who aren't spiritual can't receive these truths from God's Spirit. It all sounds foolish to them and they can't understand it, for only those who are spiritual can understand what the Spirit means. [15] Those who are spiritual can evaluate all things, but they themselves cannot be evaluated by others. [16] For, "Who can know the LORD's thoughts? Who knows enough to teach him?" But we understand these things, for we have the mind of Christ.
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