We must acknowledge that because we follow God who is completely infinite in all that He is and does, we will 1) lack understanding in many things He does and is because of our finite and limited nature, and 2) what we do understand and know about God is entirely due to His gracious revelation of Himself.
If you recall God's response to Job in the Old Testament, what is possibly implied is that Job cannot understand God's reasoning for allowing the pain and suffering in Job's life! God asks Job a series of questions, asking Job to explain how God created, how God designed, how God eternally existed, to name just a few of the questions. We would be wise, as Job was, to recognize that such knowledge simply isn't possible for us! It is beyond us!
I know you (and I) don't want to hear this. Seriously. I want to know. I want to be able to know. I think myself fairly smart and surely I can understand! But can I explain to the God of the universe how He made even the simplest of organisms? Can I create a simple living thing on my own, with matter and energy that I created, without using the materials He has made? Good grief, no!
I have a dog who is quite a joy to have and spend time with. In one of our first walks, as I have related previously, she picked up a saw blade thinking it something fun to chew on. I quickly removed it from her mouth and we moved on. I was (and still am) unable to explain to her why I took it away from her in a manner that she would understand. Notice the conundrum. I want my dog to know that I am good in taking away this blade, but I am unable to do so, because of limitations in both of us. I would need to make myself a "dog" to speak to her in a language she could understand, and I'm not sure even as a dog she'd understand what "good" actually means when something is removed that she wants. She must simply trust me, without understanding. Jesus Christ, the second Member of the Trinity, became fully man, speaking our language, that we might know Him.
Now, the intellectual difference between my dog and I is nothing---nothing---compared to the difference between God and I. So anything God does, if I am to know any part of it and understand any part of it, will be entirely due to Him communicating to me. And I will only know in part, but not in whole. I simply do not have the capacity of mind to comprehend all of the wisdom of God.
To put this in a much more elegant way, let's turn to the great Anselm of Canterbury, in his famous Proslogion:
I acknowledge, Lord, and I thank you, that you have created in me this image of you that I may remember you, think of you, and love you. Yet this image is so eroded by my vices, so clouded by the smoke of my sins, that it cannot do what it was created to do unless you renew and refashion it. I am not trying to scale your heights, Lord; my understanding is in no way equal to that. But I do long to understand your truth in some way, your truth which my heart believes and loves. For I do not seek to understand in order to believe; I believe in order to understand. For I also believe that "Unless I believe, I shall not understand." (my emphasis) [Classics of Western Philosophy, 8th ed., Steven M. Cahn, 2012, Hackett Publishing]
No comments:
Post a Comment