Humanity is the only species in God’s created order that asks questions. So why?! Questions are valuable since they ultimately lead to discovery. Possibly the two most important life questions any person can ask is, “Is there a God, and if so, what is he like?” The biblical answers to these questions are “Yes, there is a God, and he is:
1. Infinite: Outside of time, eternal
2. Transcendent: Outside of the created cosmos and independent from it
3. Immanent: Knowable and personal.
The first two traits are outside our comprehension and should leave us in awe. God’s immanence should not only create awe but ignite our design for discovery. Consider the following observations:
God wants to be known.
And you will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart (Jeremiah 29:13).
The habitable zone (called the Goldilocks zone) is the location of a planet relative to a star, where advanced, carbon-based life can exist. In particular, it is a place in which water can exist in liquid form. The earth is in this finely tuned zone around our host star, the sun.
The habitable zone for advanced carbon-based life also applies to the location of a planet within a galaxy. In the book The Privileged Planet, Guillermo Gonzalez and Jay Richards make a case for the unique position of our earth not only in our solar system but also in the Milky Way galaxy. The earth is located in a habitable part of our galaxy and in a habitable part that is relatively free from cosmic gas and dust. Even before the telescope, we could look into the heavens and see out into the vast regions of our cosmos.
Because of our planet’s unique position in our solar system and our host galaxy, we can extend our discovery further into the cosmos with orbiting space telescopes like Hubble and Webb (the newest infrared telescope), anticipating even more discovery into the mystery of the origin of our universe.
So why did God give earth this unique position? Gonzales and Richards suggest God put planet earth in this specific position to allow us to discover something about him. The Psalmist thought so, too. “The heavens proclaim the glory of God. The skies display his craftsmanship. Day after day they continue to speak; night after night they make him known” (Psalm 19:1-2). The implication: God wants to be discovered.
We are created to know God.
As the deer pants for the water brooks, So my soul pants for You, God (Psalm42:1).
Not only does God want to be known, but he has designed us with the ability to know him. St. Augustine wrote, “Because you have made us for Yourself, our hearts are restless till they find their rest in You.” Centuries earlier, Solomon wrote, “Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart” (Ecclesiastes 3:11).
Even though there is still a vertical tug in the hearts of men, sin has obscured our view of God. Notice that Isaiah says our sin has created a barrier so that what can be known is not known.
Behold, the LORD’S hand is not so short that it cannot save; Nor is His ear so dull that it cannot hear. But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God and your sins have hidden His face from you so that He does not hear (Isa 59:1-2).
What can be known about God requires a discovery zone.
God has not just given us a list of his traits but placed them into a context in which he can uniquely reveal himself: a laboratory for discovering the infinite and transcendent God through personal experience. God’s revelation in our broken world laboratory is a place where the spiritual world looks on in wonder and amazement at the wisdom of God; they are watching what God’s people are experiencing (Ephesians 3:8-10).
Paul confirmed the uniqueness of our broken world when he said that of the big three, faith, hope, and love, only love would transcend into the next life. Our current discovery zone is specifically (possibly exclusively) designed to experience faith and hope. Our current life is also a unique context where God displays his grace, forgiveness, and mercy for us to discovery. (See Romans 5:20)
We can only know what he has revealed.
God has chosen to reveal himself to humanity through creation, his Word, Jesus Christ, and his spiritual children. Without God taking the initiative, we would remain clueless about his nature.
Moses is an example of a man who desperately wanted God to reveal himself. Given the humanly impossible task of leading the Children of Israel to the Promised Land, he wanted to know what kind of God was leading the expedition. So, Moses asked God to show him his glory. God’s answer:
And He said, “I Myself will make all My goodness pass before you, and will proclaim the name of the LORD before you;…, “You cannot see My face, for no man can see Me and live!” Then the LORD said, “Behold, there is a place by Me, and you shall stand there on the rock; and it will come about, while My glory is passing by, that I will put you in the cleft of the rock and cover you with My hand until I have passed by. “Then I will take My hand away and you shall see My back, but My face shall not be seen” (Exodus 33:17-23).
Moses could not (nor could we) survive looking at the glory of God directly, only indirectly. God limited his revelation to Moses — his back (shadow), not his face. There was much more of God Moses could not see or understand. The same is true for us.
What can be known may not necessarily be known.
There are conditions for us to know God experientially. We noted earlier from Jeremiah 29:13 that God reveals himself to those who seek him, giving evidence that he does not force himself on those who have no interest. Jesus identified another condition in the Sermon on the Mount “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God” (Matthew 5:8). Obedience to his commandments is yet another condition.
The one who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and the one who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will reveal (manifest/disclose) Myself to him (John 14:21).
Notice that the promised result of obedient love is not greater comfort but a greater revelation of the nature of Christ.
What can be known is not all there is to know.
It would be naïve to think that what can be known about God, in our present created order, is all there is to know about God. Since God is infinite, certainly there is more to God’s nature than can be discerned in our limited, fallen condition.
The beauty of redemption is that it awakens our hearts to pursue knowing God, but it will take all of eternity to discover the rest of the story. Even then, will we know all there is to know? For now, the apostle John says it best as we look forward to the clarity that our resurrection and glorification will bring.
Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is. And everyone who has this hope set on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure (1 John 3:2-3).
Paul expresses a similar hope when he contrasts our present situation of looking at a dark mirror with a distorted reflection verses of a clear mirror when we meet Jesus face to face. “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully, just as I also have been fully known” (1 Corinthians 13:12).
What are we currently discovering if life on earth is designed to discover God (his glory)? Do we approach each day as a new adventure of experiencing God, anticipating his presence not only in the crises but also in the ordinary?
1 Gonzalez is an assistant research professor of astronomy and physics at Iowa State, Richards has a doctorate from Princeton Theological Seminary)
For Reflection
1. How do you normally expect God to reveal himself to you?
2. What have you discovered about God lately?