“Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised, and his greatness is unsearchable.”
(Psalm 145:3)
“Who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?”
(Romans 11:34)
That God is incomprehensible means that only God knows God unmediated, immediately, and completely.
This is a foundational doctrine, not a concession we make when we punt.
It’s the beauty of what everything is grounded on. We can only know God because he self-discloses. He reveals himself.
He doesn’t speak across to us. He kindly speaks down to us with analogical categories.
God alone “dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see.” (1 Timothy 6:16), yet that light illuminates and gives meaning to all else.
The same holy fire that can destroy us, that we cannot grasp or contain or manipulate, also provides life and light and warmth and sight for creatures.
“The heavenly begetting is more incomprehensible than your own, to the same extent that God is harder to trace out than Man.” (Gregory of Nazianzus)
“If you make its incomprehensibility a ground for denying the fact, it is high time you ruled out as non-existent a good number of things you do not understand, the chief of which is God himself.” (Gregory of Nazianzus)
“Like the sun you cannot look at God without going blind. And yet, we cannot see anything apart from the sun illuminating our way.” (Matthew Barrett)
Human incomprehensibility
“The human person is made in the image of God, who is incomprehensible, and so shares an element of incomprehensibility on a creaturely level.” (Robert Letham)
My 10-year-old daughter knows me, but she does not comprehend me. If creation has its own incomprehensibility (Proverbs 30:18-19), how much more does God himself (Psalm 139:4-6)?
There is a worshipful humility in marveling at such depth.
“Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!” (Romans 11:33)
Incomprehensibility as the infinite depth of divine rationality
“If we demand comprehensive understanding of God and his ways, then we deny that he is God, the incomprehensible one. There is a mystery to the incarnation, but not irrationality; it is an infinite depth of divine rationality that we cannot plumb, yet can receive by faith.”
– Joel R. Beeke and Paul M. Smalley, Reformed Systematic Theology: Volume 2: Man and Christ (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2020), 843–44.
John Owen: “unto this loss do I desire to be brought”
“I know that in the contemplation of [the incarnation], it will quickly overwhelm our reason, and bring our understanding unto a loss:
“but unto this loss do I desire to be brought every day;
“for when faith can no more act itself in comprehension, when it finds the object it is fixed on too great and glorious to be brought into our minds and capacities, it will issue…in holy admiration, humble adoration, and joyful thanksgiving.
“…In and by its actings in them does it fill the soul with ‘joy unspeakable, and full of glory.’”
– John Owen, Meditations and Discourses on the Glory of Christ (link)
I Am Aaron Shafovaloff 