As someone who is in seminary, I can easily fall into the trap of thinking I have God figured out.
I’ve read the Bible, Biblical commentaries, systematic theologies, and studied the languages. I’ve been a part of the church since before I could speak and I’m in my 7th year of theological education.
Surely, I know all there is to know. I know what God thinks and how he works. What he loves and hates. What he’s up to and what he isn’t. Where he’s on the move and where he’s absent.
The ways of God are familiar to me, predictable even. I can put him in a box and fit him in a U-Haul, taking him wherever I need to go. Wherever I want to go.
Right?
Wrong.
What I can never forget—what we can never forget— is that God is infinite, holy, and utterly free. He is in a category all by himself. God isn’t just holy, God is wholly other. He is utterly, unfathomably unlike anything else that is. We can’t study our way to God. We can’t put him in a lab for examination. We can’t size him up or compare him to anything else.
As one of my college professors once said, “Israel’s God isn’t just omnipresent and omnipotent. He’s omni-elusive too. You just can’t pin him down.”
In fact, we only know about God because he has graciously revealed himself to us.
In his freedom God’s opened up the deep recesses of his being and shows us glimpses of his inner life as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
He’s spoken through the words of Scripture and the incarnation of his Son so that we might know him. Know his ways, his mercy, and his purposes. To know his redemption.
And in the redemptive work of Jesus, he’s saved us so that we might abide in him, experiencing the love that dwells within his very being, and be set free from Sin and Death.
I don’t have God figured out. No one does.
Who could have expected what he’s revealed? Who could have anticipated a share in the divine life brought by the crucifixion of God himself?
This God we call Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is vast beyond our imagination but mysteriously, graciously close. One day we’ll see this God face to face and if the past is any predictor of the future, it’s going to be a beautifully glorious and shocking day.
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Amen...