Knowing the Incomprehensible
We can think of God through faith and love, as revealed to us through Jesus Christ, who is the means of God's self-disclosure.
A.W. Tozer emphasizes the incomprehensibility of God and critiques the contemporary understanding of Him as weak and limited, akin to ancient deities. He questions how Christians can truly know God if He is beyond human comprehension, yet offers hope through the revelation of God in Jesus Christ. Tozer asserts that through faith and love, believers can experience God's presence and glory, which transcends human understanding. He encourages the faithful to seek a deeper relationship with God, who reveals Himself not through reason but through the heart's desire for Him. Ultimately, Tozer reminds us that while God is infinite and unknowable, He invites us to experience His glory through Christ.
Text
The glory of God has not been revealed to this generation of men. The God of contemporary Christianity is only slightly superior to the gods of Greece and Rome, if indeed He is not actually inferior to them, in that He is weak and helpless while they at least had power.
If what we conceive God to be He is not, how then shall we think of Him? If He is indeed incomprehensible. . . how can we Christians satisfy our longing after Him? The hopeful words, "Acquaint now thyself with him, and be at peace," still stand after the passing of the centuries; but how shall we acquaint ourselves with One who eludes all the straining efforts of mind and heart? And how shall we beheld accountable to know what cannot be known? . . .
The answer of the Bible is simply "through Jesus Christ our Lord." In Christ and by Christ, God effects complete self-disclosure, although He shows Himself not to reason but to faith and love. Faith is an organ of knowledge, and love an organ of experience. God came to us in the incarnation; in atonement He reconciled us to Himself, and by faith and love we enter and lay hold on Him.
"Verily God is of infinite greatness. . . more than we can think; . . . unknowable by created things; and can never be comprehended by us as He is in Himself. But even here and now, whenever the heart begins to burn with a desire for God, she is made able to receive the uncreated light and, inspired and fulfilled by the gifts of the Holy Ghost, she tastes the joys of heaven (A. W. Tozer, The Knowledge of the Holy, p. 16-17).
Now, Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was. . . Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am, so that they may see My glory which You have given Me, for You loved Me before the foundation of the world. O righteous Father, although the world has not known You, yet I have known You; and these have known that You sent Me; and I have made Your name known to them, and will make it known, so that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them" (John 17:5, 24-26).
Sermon Outline
- I. The Problem of Incomprehensibility
- A. The God of contemporary Christianity is weak and helpless
- B. The Bible's answer is through Jesus Christ our Lord
- II. The Means of Self-Disclosure
- A. God effects complete self-disclosure through Jesus Christ
- B. Faith and love are the organs of knowledge and experience
- III. The Incarnation and Atonement
- A. God came to us in the incarnation
- B. God reconciled us to Himself through atonement
Key Quotes
“Verily God is of infinite greatness... more than we can think; ... unknowable by created things; and can never be comprehended by us as He is in Himself.” — A.W. Tozer
“Acquaint now thyself with him, and be at peace,” — A.W. Tozer
Application Points
- We must approach God with faith and love, rather than trying to comprehend Him through reason alone.
- Through Jesus Christ, we can behold God's glory and experience His love.
- Faith and love are essential for understanding and experiencing God's presence in our lives.