In the Word: Knowing Our Glorious God

Welcome to Hope Mommies’ In the Word devotionals. Over the next several weeks, we will be pouring over Scripture with the goal of knowing God increasingly as He truly is. As we study together, we encourage you to use the comments as a place to dialogue with us about what you are learning and share your answers to the questions below. We pray that you hearts will be encouraged as you study these names of God along with us! 

Knowing Our Glorious God

“In the beginning, God…”
Gen. 1:1

READ:

Perhaps this time of life-altering sorrow is one in which you are starting to think more theologically than you have in the past—or maybe you are revisiting and testing your already-held theological assumptions. Though your pain may have propelled this new urgency for examining your beliefs, I want to suggest that you not begin your theological paths of reasoning and study with the thoughts and questions surrounding your sorrow. Though perhaps prompted by suffering toward greater answers and assurances than you previously felt need to have, I want to recommend that you rewind your theological starting point to the starting point of Scripture: “In the beginning, God…” (Gen. 1:1a).

The knowledge of God Himself is first and ultimate; He has given us His Word in order to know Him—not fully, but truly. By starting with knowing Him as our goal—and with His self-revealed Word as our axiom—we can grow to have grand view of Him that reigns above our experiences. Through truly knowing Him as He is, we can come to say—God, be glorified forever! Though mysteries of Your understanding exist that I cannot access with my feeble mind, I long to see all that happens in this world magnify You. You are worthier than I can comprehend, and so in suffering, You are my answer; I get to know You, and I praise You.

REFLECT:

• Which has been more important to me—knowing God or having answers to all of my questions
  
• Is coming to an accurate knowledge of God so that I can worship Him truly my active aim when studying Scripture?
  
• What is my current view of who God is? How has my loss influenced my current view of God?

PRAYER AND PRAISE:

Father, I long to know You as You desire to be known. Though I cannot fully understand You, thank You for Your Word through which I can truly understand You. I recognize that my loss has likely influenced my view of You; I desire to know You as Scripture teaches. As I continue to make a study of You, may any good areas of change in my view of You be confirmed by Scripture so that I can trust them, and may I be willing to let go of any misconceptions I may have formed. I have been made to know You, and to know You is to worship You. That is what I want—a life of worship. Finally, You have made me such that knowing You is the greatest joy I am capable of experiencing. For that, I praise You.

QUOTES FROM SOURCES CONSULTED:

Use the quotes below for reflection upon the doctrine of God, and to launch your own further study.

“It is the clear doctrine of the Scriptures that God can be known. Our Lord teaches that eternal life consists in the knowledge of God and of Jesus Christ, whom He hath sent. The Psalmist says, “In Judah is God known” (Ps. 76:1). Isaiah predicts, that “the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord” (Is. 11:9). Paul says even of the heathen, that they knew God, but did not like to retain that knowledge (Rom. 1:19, 20, 21, 28).

It is, however, important distinctly to understand what is meant when it is said, God can be known.

1. This does not mean that we can know all that is true concerning God. […]
2. It is not held that God, properly speaking, can be conceived of; that is, we cannot form a mental image of God. […]
3. When it is said that God can be known, it is not meant that He can be comprehended. To comprehend is to have a complete and exhaustive knowledge of an object. […]
4. It is included in what has been said, that our knowledge of God is partial and inadequate. There is infinitely more in God than we have any idea of; and what we do know, we know imperfectly. […]

While, therefore, it is admitted not only that the infinite God is incomprehensible, and that our knowledge of Him is both partial and imperfect; that there is much in God which we do not know at all, and that what we do know, we know very imperfectly; nevertheless our knowledge, as far as it goes, is true knowledge.” (Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology)

“God is great, says Scripture (Deut. 7:21; Neh. 4:14; Pss. 48:1; 86:10; 95:3; 145:3; Dan. 9:4): greater than we can grasp. Theology states this by describing him as incomprehensible—not in the sense that logic is somehow different for him from what it is for us, so that we cannot follow the workings of his mind at all, but in the sense that we can never understand him fully, just because he is infinite and we are finite. Scripture pictures God as dwelling not only in thick and impenetrable darkness but also in unapproachable light (Ps. 97:2; 1 Tim. 6:16), and both images express the same thought: our Creator is above us, and it is beyond our power to take his measure in any way. […]

As it would be wrong, however, to suppose ourselves to know everything about God (and so in effect to imprison him in the box of our own limited notion of him), so it would be wrong to doubt whether our concept constitutes real knowledge of him. Part of the significance of our creation in God’s image is that we are able both to know about him and to know him relationally in a true if limited sense of “know”; and what God tells us in Scripture about himself is true as far as it goes. Calvin spoke of God as having condescended to our weakness and accommodated himself to our capacity, both in the inspiring of the Scriptures and in the incarnating of the Son, so that he might give us genuine understanding of himself. The form and substance of a parent’s baby talk bears no comparison with the full contents of that parent’s mind, which he or she could express in full if talking to another adult; but the child receives from the baby talk factual information, real if limited, about the parent, and responsive love and trust grow accordingly. That is the analogy here. […]

We should never forget that in any case theology is for doxology: the truest expression of trust in a great God will always be worship, and it will always be proper worship to praise God for being far greater than we can know.” (J. I. Packer, Concise Theology: A Guide to Historic Christian Beliefs)

For further study on this topic, the following are recommended resources:
God the Father, God the Son, D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones
Moody Handbook of Theology, Paul Enns
Institutes of the Christian Religion, John Calvin 

Lianna (@liannadavis) is wed to Tyler and mom of two dear daughters. She is author of Made for a Different Land: Eternal Hope for Baby Loss (Hope Mommies, 2019). More of her writing can be found at her website.

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