God does not come to us in nicely defined explained thought categories. God does not fit Himself into our theological textbooks. God breaks our rules. He is near, yet transcendent, clothed in human form, yet holy, and more terrifying than can be imagined, yet compassionate, and invisible, yet revealed, judging yet merciful, and sovereign, yet humble. No matter where you look God breaks the molds. Skip Moen said that in a book I’m reading for a Bible study.
Not matter who we are, or where we come from, every one of us have an idea about God. Whether you don’t believe God insists or He created the world and not just sits back and watches it not interested. Or even think He is a she or an it. Maybe that God is just an ultimate 911 service, only to be called in an emergency, or a cosmic police officer, waiting and watching to catch you breaking laws. We are sometimes engrained with these images of God early in our lives by our parents, our cultures, and even the church.
The issue is that none of these images can adequately capture who God is. The Bible reinforces this over and over. Our descriptions of God cannot even begin to capture His majesty, glory, and infiniteness. He is holy, awesome, vast, and eternal. His thoughts are higher than our thoughts, and His ways higher than ours (Isaiah 55:8-9). Our limited minds and finite lives simply cannot fathom the depth and extent of God.
It is only God who reveals Himself to us that we can even begin to get an accurate picture of who He really is. And this revelation comes to us in three ways: through creation, through Jesus, and through the Bible.
All we know about God comes from His revelation about Himself. We only know Him as He discloses Himself to us. Because of this, we must keep two things constantly in our view. We can know God and have confidence about what He is like, but at the same time, we will never be able to understand Him completely. We know enough about God to love, revere, and worship Him, but most of God will remain mysterious because it’s beyond our comprehension.
C.H. Surgeon puts it this way,
“There is something exceedingly improving to the mind in a contemplation of the Divinity. It is a subject so vast, that all our thoughts are lost in its immensity, so deep, that our pride is drowned in its infinity.”
We will never be able to fully grasp all of who He is.
From Pity to Praise 