I have been reading John Owen's wonderful work Of the Mortification of Sin in Believers. I have been humbled in reading his twelfth chapter on Thoughtfulness of the excellency and majesty of God-Our unacquaintedness with him proposed and considered. Owen suggests that the more thoughtful you are about the excellence of who God really is, the more you realize your own distance from Him.
John Owen challenges us to "think greatly of the greatness of God." Oh how little we really know of God! When I contrast what I know of Him in comparison to who He really is I know just enough to be utterly humbled in the little knowledge and understanding that I really have. There is an infinite chasm between my knowledge and who God really is!
Owen says, "We speak much of God, can talk 0f His ways, His works, His counsels, all the day long; the truth is, we know very little of Him. Our thoughts, our meditations, our expressions of Him are low, many of them unworthy of His glory, none of them reaching His perfections."
The apostle Paul says that we are able to "behold the glory of the Lord...as in a glass or mirror" (2 Corinthians3:18 NKJV). What this means is that in the New Covenant , by the sovereign grace of God through the power of the Holy Spirit and the Word of God, we are able to "see" the beauty, worth, and excellence of the glory of God but infinitely limited "as in a glass".
Yet, in 1 Corinthians 13:12 Paul says, "we see through a mirror dimly...we know in part" (ESV). Jonathan Edwards speaks of God like an ocean. Well, if God is like an ocean, then my knowledge of Him is like a little cup of ocean water. It reminds me of what a know it all I was as a young man. but as I have grown older, I realize how foolish and childish were my notions of God. Owen says, "all our notions of God are but childish in respect to His infinite perfections...we may love honor, believe, and obey our Father; and He accepts our childish thoughts, for they are but childish. We see...but know very little of Him."
Why is it that no matter what we know of God that we know so little of Him? Because it is GOD that we claim to know. Remember Paul praying that we would know the love of God which is unknowable (Ephesians 3:19)? What an amazing paradox, we are called to know what in this life we cannot know. No wonder, He is God, we are creatures; He is immortal, we are mortal; He is infinite, we are finite; He is unlimited, we are limited; He is independent, we are dependent; and so on.
Paul says of God in 1 Timothy 6:16, "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." In this light, a wise Christian can only say that as he considers God and all He is and all that He does, he realizes that he knows nothing. Nevertheless, oh how wonderful it is that at least we are able to know something of this unknowable being.
He has revealed Himself in the light of His glory in the face of Jesus (2 Corinthians 4:4,6; John 1:14,18). Therefore, we can know, see, understand, and speak about His ways and His works because we can see Him in Jesus. He is not a God who is hidden but rather a God that wants to be seen and savored by His creatures. Though we see Him dimly or limited, we see Him in the illuminating light of the Spirit of God, as Owen puts it "In a saving, soul transforming light, and this is what gives us communion with God." With that knowledge, we can love Him , delight in Him, serve Him, worship Him, believe Him, obey Him, and speak of Him in a soul saving, soul transforming light. Owen concludes that "notwithstanding all this, it is but a little portion we know of Him."
My response to all of this is simply and humbly and lovingly and worshipful and longingly:
Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! "For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?" "Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?" For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen" (Romans 11:33-36)
Longing to know Him more and more,
Pastor Bill
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