Moses said, "Please show me your glory." And he said, "I will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you my name 'The LORD.' And I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy." But, he said, "you cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live." (Exodus 33:18-20 ESV)
"Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!" (Romans 11:33 ESV)
"...he who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see. To him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen." (1 Timothy 6:15-16 ESV)
We know what we know about God because he chooses to reveal himself to us. Though we may know him truly -- and we do -- we do not know him exhaustively. We should always be aware of our limitations, our ignorance, the darkening effects of sin, and our restricted perspective. We should have confidence in knowing him and taking him at his word, for he is always true and trustworthy. But there should always be humility, because we are limited in our understanding. Someone once said, "We are afloat on a raft knowledge upon a sea of ignorance."
Dutch theologian, Herman Bavinck, writes... "It is completely incomprehensible to us how God can reveal himself and to some extent make himself known in created beings: eternity in time, immensity in space, infinity in finite, immutability in change, being in becoming, the all, as it were, in that which is nothing. This mystery cannot be comprehended; it can only be gratefully acknowledged." ~ Herman Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics II:49 (Baker Academic, 2004)
Photo credit above: Artem Sapegin / Unsplash.
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