“CAN GOD BE TRULY KNOWN?” – That is the question that I recalled asking myself as a young believer of the Christian faith. God, by now, has become so much closer and So much more familiar than I remember in those early days. Like many new believers, I had wrestled with the paradoxical revelation about God- that He is both Known and mysterious.
You see, the real question here is: Can God fully be known? Aaaanndd… how can God be known yet remain a mystery?
The direct answer to that first question is – YES, to the extent that He has revealed Himself; and to the second question – He just is, because that is His nature!
The proof for this statement is found in the fact that, God, albeit mysterious, has not only revealed Himself to human beings but that He also desires to be known. In fact, Proverbs 25: 2 explains this truth.
Proverbs 25: 2 - “It is the glory of God to conceal a matter; to search out a matter is the glory of kings.”
One truth that is relayed in this verse is that God chooses to conceal matters- and yes, that includes Himself.
But the good news is that it doesn’t end there.
The other truth that this verse also reveals is that the purpose of concealing Himself is so that man finds Him.
This right here, is the duality of God’s reach- in that, He is reachable – but only to those who search for Him.
But there is another caveat here, that is, the nature of the search must be sincere, earnest and devout.
If you take a closer look at this verse, you will realize that ‘glory’ is attributed to two different beings, and, in two different forms. One aspect of glory is that it is described as pertains to God and the second is as it pertains to man; which leads one to question, “what exactly is glory and how it differ from one being to another?”
Let’s have a look…
What is glory?
In simple terms, the glory of something refers to its essence.
Therefore, to reveal the glory of a thing is to reveal its truest and most raw nature. In other words, that is its essence.
God’s glory is a revelation of His true nature. As a matter of fact, one of the things about the nature of God that is revealed through His glory is his sovereignty.
This sovereignty is a distinction of the nature and character of God as being separate, different and supreme, as compared to any existence of any other person or creature. It is God’s holy, omni-potent, omniscient and omnipresent nature that sets Him apart from any other thing. And for that reason, He remains not only sovereign but also almost incomprehensible for the human mind.
The underlying question is- Has God intentionally concealed Himself from human comprehension?
Why does God conceal himself?
The answer to this question can be found in the second half of that same verse in Proverbs 25:2.
Proverbs 25:2 - "It is the glory of God to conceal a matter; to search out a matter is the glory of kings.”
You see, what this verse is communicating is loaded into three truths:
- it is in God nature to conceal things
- It is the nature of men, referred to as kings, to search for the things of God.
Another way to look at this is in this way:
- It is the nature of God to be concealed.
- It is nature of man to look for God.
However, the third fact is hidden within these first two. That is, it is for the benefit of man that he searches out for God.
The act of searching for God has multiple results. One of them is that because of the dedication and persistence that is required to search out a matter, once found, great value is ascribed to that matter. In other words, man finds true satisfaction and esteems great value to God once He finds Him.
The other result of the act of searching for God is that it fosters the relationship between God and man.
Out of this diligence in searching for God, man also comes to the realization that one of the purposes of God being concealed is so that man can exercise his free will in deciding whether or not he wants to truly know God.
God’s sovereignty is not a hindrance to respect for the free will given to human beings. In fact, this simple act of respect for free will is a revelation of His humility.
Put simply, God conceals Himself so that man can make the choice of whether or not to know Him. In other words, human beings can know God, to the extent that He has revealed Himself and – if they choose to.
How can a person know god?
A person can only know God if they truly search for Him with all their heart. The truth is that God intends to be found and the key to knowing God is in man’s hands.
Jeremiah 29: 13 - "Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart."
Only in reverence and true humility can one truly acknowledge that God is so worthy of awe that it would require a person’s full attention and devotion for them to find Him. Although God promises to be found by us, it is on the condition that we seek Him with all our hearts. It is the kind of demand that only a superior can give. Yes, only one who is Majestic can be found by complete commitment- nothing less- nor with any ulterior motive.
As a matter of fact, Jesus, when responding to the tempter, the devil, responded by saying, ‘You shall not test the Lord your God. In saying this, Jesus was revealing that God is not one to whom we, as mortal beings, can make any demand from. Not a single person can say, ‘If you are truly God then prove yourself”… and then expect God to do so. That would be akin to commanding the Divine God to not only respond to your summoning but to also prove the claim for superiority.
Numbers 23:19 – God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?”
This verse reveals that because of the distinct and Holy nature of God- He is incapable of lying. Which means that if God promises to be found, then He intends to be found.
According to John 1: 1-4, God has revealed Himself through His word.
As a matter of fact, the evidence that God wants to make Himself known is in the fact that as complex as He is, he clothed Himself in human form, came to our world, and revealed Himself in the person of Jesus Christ.
John 1: 1-4 - In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind.
Another piece of evidence is Matthew says, “ seek and you will find, knock and the door shall be opened…
It is this reality that God wants to be known, and yet chooses to be hidden that many wrestle. How could one fully understand that which wants to be hidden?
The truth is that God is too vast to be uncovered by mere human effort. But the good news is that to the degree that human effort can uncover AND understand God- to that degree, He has made Himself known.
God does not give us more than we can handle. He gives us the exact measure of Himself that we are able to understand. As a matter of fact, He is majestic and awesome enough that it could take eternity to fully know God. After all, how could and eternal God be known through the confinement of mortal men? How could a God who has existed forever, since before the beginning of time, be made known in so little time and be grasped with such limited minds? It would be impossible.
God explained his divinity and eternity to Moses when He posed the question, “who do I say sent me?” by stating that, “I AM”. Jesus later stated, “before Abraham was, I AM”
This is to mean that Jesus always exists in the present time and always has. So many centuries (or eternities) before Abraham existed, Jesus was there. And the reason He uses present tense is saying -I AM- is because Jesus has never been bound by time. Such a claim can only be made by one who exists outside of time. Otherwise, to be accurate, He would have had to say- I WAS. But contrary to that, Jesus’ eternity is described in revelation as “the one who is and was and is to come.” He is present both yesterday, today and tomorrow, forever and for eternity- He always is.
How could a God – to whom the present, the past and the future are always before His eyes, be understood by immortal man.
When Job uncovered one more truth about this God that he had known to some extent and had just uncovered one more layer of knowledge about this God- He marveled at it.
Job 42: 5 - "My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you."
I n fact, something remarkable and hardly describable happens when a person encounters God. It becomes impossible for them to deny that revelation.
For the one who searches for God with all His heart, and finds Him, it is impossible to take that revelation from Him. However, To the person who has yet to encounter any truth about God it seems like foolishness.
1 Corinthians 2:14 - “The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit.”
This verse makes two powerful claims. The first is that the person who ignores the reality of God views those who talk about God and everything about God as foolishness. The second is that, only with the help of the Holy Spirit, referred here as the Spirit, can one truly discern the truth of God.
The irony is that while the ignorant and apathetic person regards the matters of God as foolishness, the same scriptures refer to that kind of a person as a foolish person.
Psalms 14: 1 The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good.
Psalms 53: 1 The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. Corrupt are they, and have done abominable iniquity: there is none that doeth good.
To truth is that to deny the existence of God is not to deny the reality of God. Ignoring something does not negate its reality or existence. Nor does disputing reality change its nature.
PARTING SHORT: God continues to reveal Himself through the Holy Spirit, His creation, His people through testimonies, and so many other ways. In fact, the duality of God’s complex mystery and perpetual revelation, while being a paradoxical, is not and should not be a hindrance nor an equation to the knowledge of God.