What does it mean that God is infinite and unlimited?
God has no edges. That single fact reshapes everything else we say about Him — how much we can know, why He had to speak first, and what is left for us to do once we admit we cannot measure Him.
Nothing sets a limit to Him
Everything in creation has a boundary, and God is the one who set it. He alone stands outside that rule.
Hamilton SmithGod, who sets bounds to everything else, is Himself without bounds. He sets bounds to the sea — "Thus far shall you come, and no farther." He sets bounds to the angels; like the cherubim, they move and stand at His appointment. But He is infinite, without bounds... The humble heart is His throne, as far as His gracious presence goes, and heaven is His throne, as far as His glorious presence goes. Yet neither of these thrones will hold Him, for the highest heavens cannot contain Him.
No arithmetic reaches Him
The gap between a creature and God is not a large gap. It is a gap of a different kind, and that is why no amount of study closes it.
A J PollockWho by searching can find out God? Who can understand the mystery of the Godhead?... Far sooner ask an ant to understand the working of a man's mind than ask a man to fathom the mind of God. In the first case the ant is finite and so is man; in the second, man is finite and God is infinite. In the first case you can measure the distance; in the second it is impossible to do so.
Success at such searching would not be a triumph. It would quietly prove that God is smaller than advertised.
A J PollockIndeed, if we could understand this mystery, it would prove that the creature could grasp the Creator; and if that were possible, it would reduce the infinite and limitless to the finite — to what can be measured by the human and fallen mind.
So He must make the first move
If God cannot be found by searching, then either He speaks or we stay in the dark. Revelation is not a bonus; it is the only route.
F. B. HoleOnce lost, that highest and best of all knowledge could not be regained by any effort of man's will or intellect. "Can you find out the deep things of God?" was Zophar's question... Since, then, we cannot discover God, He must make Himself known to us. Revelation becomes a necessity; and the crowning point of that revelation of Himself was reached when in Christ He made Himself known as Father.
Truly known, never exhausted
Being unable to comprehend God is not the same as being kept at arm's length. What He has disclosed of Himself is real knowledge, and it is enough.
James BoydThe creature can never perfectly comprehend the Creator. It is our privilege and joy to know Him in His nature, so that we can say God is love, and this is the highest knowledge the creature can possess... We know Him in the way it has pleased Him to declare Himself, and that is in His infinite love; but as to His essential being and the mystery of His existence, we know nothing, can know nothing, and need to know nothing. What He has in His grace caused us to know fills our cup of happiness to overflowing.
A person, not a concept
Infinity as an idea leaves the mind stranded. Infinity in a Man who loves you is something a creature can actually hold.
G. V. WigramIf I turn my mind to what Ephesians 3 closes with — the breadth and length and depth and height of love, tied to the infinity of the divine Being — my mind cannot grasp it. But when I see that the central object is Christ, Christ loving me, love presented in a human heart, and He Himself mine... I can lay hold of it; and it is the only way a creature could have anything to do with the divine infinity... I cannot grasp the infinity of God, but I can say, "He does love me."
The unlimited God comes close
The strangest consequence of God's limitlessness is that He chose an address. Solomon saw the oddity of it at the temple's dedication and said so.
Leslie M. GrantTo do so would require an astounding act of grace, for the heavens and the highest heavens cannot contain God. He is infinite, without limits, and omnipresent — present everywhere at all times. We cannot understand the greatness of His being. He cannot be confined anywhere, yet in a very real sense He dwelt in the temple... This is a paradox in which we may rejoice.
What is left is worship
Since measuring is off the table, the fitting response is not resignation but adoration — and a real, if partial, enjoyment.
George DavisonThe infinity of this vast circle, whose limits we cannot reach, and the love of Christ, which in its fullness is beyond us... We are touching the infinity of God here, and we can only worship before Him. If we cannot take it all in, we do have the ability to grasp something of its blessedness, and as we do, it fills our hearts with worship.
Summary
- Boundless. God sets the limits of sea, angels and heaven itself; nothing sets a limit to Him.
- Unmeasurable. The distance between Creator and creature cannot be calculated — and if we could measure Him, He would not be God.
- Revealed. Because searching fails, God speaks first; the high point of that self-disclosure is Christ making Him known as Father.
- Enough. We know Him truly in His love, never fully in His being — and what He has given us to know overflows the cup.
- Near. The God no heaven can contain chose to dwell with men, so the only measureless thing left to do is worship.