An update of an update at Texas Epic

http://utepic.blogspot.com/2009/12/worry-much.html

The Incomprehensibility and Knowability of God

I was reading through this section of my ESV study bible, and I wanted to write it down because it's something that is often discussed in bits in pieces, but rarely in fullness according to scripture. So, here is a brief overview of our ability to know God, and our inability to know God :)

The Incomprehensibility of God - it is ultimately impossible to know God FULLY:

Great is our Lord, and greatly to be praised, and his greatness is unsearchable (Ps. 145:3)

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?" (Rom. 11:33-34)

Why God is Incomprehensible - four main reasons:

1. God is infinite and his creatures are finite. I will die soon, but God will never die because he is eternal.

2. The perfect unity of God's attributes is far beyond the realm of human experience. "God's love, wrath, grace, justice, holiness, patience, and jealousy are continually functioning in a perfectly integrated yet infinitely complex way." In my interpretation, how in the world can one be both full of love and full of wrath? Fully just, and fully gracious? Incomprehensible.

3. The effects of sin on the minds of fallen humans also greatly inhibit the ability to know God. Romans 1:18-26

4. In his sovereign wisdom God has chosen not to reveal some things.

"The secret things belong to the LORD our GOd, but the things that are revealed belon to us and to our chihldren forever, that we may do all the words of this law" (Deut. 29:29)

Implications of God's Incomprehensibility - since we can never fully understand God, we should be deeply humbled by the process of trying - realizing more and more the extent of our fallen nature while seeing the incomprehensible holiness of God's. The "appropriate response to God is a heart of wonder and awe in light of his incomprehensible greatness."

The Knowability of God - six key points. Our knowledge of God:

1. while God is incomprehensible, it shouldn't lead to apathy or despair. The Bible is also clear that God is fully knowable. "He can be known truly, personally, and sufficiently." Our spiritual growth depends on our knowledge of God:

²Grace and peace be yours in abundance through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. ³His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. (2 Pet. 1:2-3)

2. Knowledge of God in Christ should be our greatest delight (Jer. 9:23-24; 1 Cor. 2:2; Gal. 6:14)
3. It is the basis of attaining eternal life (John 17:3)
4. It is at the heart of life in the new covenant (Heb 8:11-12)
5. It was Paul's primary goal (Phil 3:10)
6. It leads to Godly love (1 John 4:7-8)

Implications of the Knowability of God - "God's personal and sufficent revelation of himself should foster solid conviction among believers." Most of the rising influence of religions and postmodern views nowadays likes to say that God is so incomprehensible that he is unknowable. "We should never grow apathetic in seeking to know God because we are in fact able and equipped to know him and to please him with our lives."
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now go learn what you can about God and rejoice in his incomprehensible nature!!

balancing = sin

Just had a quick conversation with a friend about glorifying God through everything we do. I need to write this before I forget it.

It’s so easy for me to see my spiritual, academic, and social life as a balancing act, like all of life needs to be done in balance to each other. It doesn’t sound too bad. It’s a simple statement that requires little thought and it often consumes my life. I’m not talking about the practical act of balancing, like physically doing one thing vs. another, but the mindset of balancing activities in our minds as if they are completely separate in nature.

While thinking about my future and what it means to glorify God in everything I do, I cant help but find so much sin in that way of thinking for a couple reasons. To me, it suggests that I need to compartmentalize my life in a way that is even - separate, but even. Separate because we can't do everything at once, and even, because if we don't separate evenly, then we will compromise one thing over another. Sounds fine, but it's not.

My recent revelation is that the mindset of balancing promotes that I put God into a box and store him away for however long is convenient to my schedule. That attitude puts God under the bed, no matter how big of a box it is. I’ve stored some expensive, important possessions of mine in boxes. When I moved to college, I stored my most valuable possessions and packed them away until I could open them later. Some things belong in boxes. You can't put God in a box, it's as silly as putting a house into a box. You can't, but we try. God is not a convenience matter, nor is it a compartmentalized one. When I put God into a box, I sin, and I become more and more numb to it as I face the challenges of multiple priorities.

If everything I do, from the smallest activities of eating and drinking to the big decisions of choosing a career, is done to glorify God, then NOTHING is balanced, nor compartmentalized. Instead, EVERYTHING is wholly devoted to one thing, God, but through different means.

So since everything I do should be in effort to glorify God, then I can't be limited in striving to see Him glorified through direct means only, but through indirect means, as well.

The question is not: "how do I balance my life efficiently," but should be, "How do I understand more fully how to glorify You even when I can't see the direct result."

Those direct results are what we experience when we sing worship songs, read the bible, or go to church. The indirect results are what we do when we don’t sing worship songs, read the bible, or go to church.

God is the giver of life, not just part of our lives.