When Logic Hits a Wall

There comes a time when each of us realizes that God is far bigger than we could ever imagine. Some of us deal with it better than others but I think we can all admit that at times it has felt like we have literally ran into a wall and we don't know what to do or what to believe.

As I am sure all of us have learned throughout life, the more we learn about God it seems the bigger He gets. And the bigger He gets the more we realize how little we actually know about God.

The truth can hurt sometimes, especially when we come face to face with the fact that God had to literally dumb His Word down so much so that we could understand it.

Too often I feel like the guy in the picture. The ball represents a specific doctrine or belief that I hold to and running to catch the ball represents me trying to gain a full understanding of that specific area or characteristic of God. It is, I feel like, just before I catch it and think that I have it all in order that I come crashing into God (i.e. the wall).

I have been through physical and emotional pain. I have suffered spiritually at times being enslaved by my flesh. And I have hurt other believers and have possibly even hindered some unbelievers from coming to faith in Christ. It is at times like these when I realize that the Lord Jesus really is the God I don't understand.

Understanding why God would allow evil is a wall. Understanding why God would not just do away with me in times when I have committed great treason against Him and the advancement of His kingdom is a wall. Understanding why He allows me and so many others to not only have, but at times even spread a false picture of who He really is a wall.

Ultimately, what I must remember is that above God's sovereignty, above His wrath and grace, above His love and unwillingness for any to perish, God is God. His wrath is fully against all who do evil, but He is not controlled by it. His love and unwillingness for any to perish extends to all of mankind, but He is not controlled by it. His sovereignty and freedom are infinitely equal in the doctrine of His predestination, but He is not controlled by either.

Above wrath, He says, "I AM GOD."  Above love, He says, "I AM GOD."  Above sovereignty, He says, "I AM GOD."  For every one of His attributes that we too often emphasize over the others, He says, "I AM GOD and I AM not bound or controlled by your limited thinking in this area of My being."

It is easy to say that God exists outside of time and space yet also transcends throughout and within it, but how can this be? God's presence is in Heaven right now, yet He is also everywhere present. This means that He is taking up space somewhere (at least through Christ's body) yet He is also not taking up space everywhere else, yet there He is.

For almost six thousand years it was illogical to say that a really heavy object can remain in the air for long periods of time and even carry people to great distances. That was until we discovered more in the laws of physics and began building airplanes.

Airplanes have always been logical, but because we had not discovered the laws of aerodynamics until recently, we believed it to be absurd.

It is logical to say that God exists above and beyond time and space yet also within them since He transcends throughout His own creation. The dilemma that we face at least at this time however, is that we have not discovered how this can be. I will be honest, I am not sure if our understanding will ever reach this level, but no matter what, you and I will continue to move forward. God created in us the desire and passion for discovery and we will spend an eternity learning more and more about Him in His fullness.

We do not understand the concept of outside of time because everything we know of is created in time. We do not understand the concept of not taking up space because almost everything takes up space. We do know that electricity does not take up space, but to fully understand that, I at least am not at that point.

How could God talk with Himself and do whatever it is He did before time still existing outside of it and not subject to it? How could God's presence before time and space not take up even the slightest measure of space? These are questions we may not have answers to for billions of years...maybe never.

We will continue to grow in our understanding of God for all of eternity, but ultimately we must remember that we will never become omniscient. There will never come a point when we know everything there is to know. He alone holds infinite knowledge. That's how big our God is. Real big!