What does it mean that God is infinite?
God is not simply bigger than everything else. To call Him infinite is to say that He has no boundary at all — no edge to His being, His love, or His power — and that raises a hard question: how can a creature with a limited mind know a Being without limits?
Without bounds
Everything in creation has a line drawn around it. God draws those lines, and no one draws one around Him.
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; they move and stand at His appointment (Ezekiel 10:16), but He is infinite, without bounds. He who can span the heavens and weigh the earth in scales must be infinite (Isaiah 40:22). "Do I not fill heaven and earth?" (Jeremiah 23:24). The humble heart is His throne, as regards His gracious presence (Isaiah 57:15); and heaven is His throne, as regards His glorious presence (Isaiah 66:1); and yet neither of these thrones will hold Him, for the highest heaven cannot contain Him.
Not endless size
It is easy to picture infinity as space stretching on forever. One writer warns that this picture belongs to matter, not to God, and then answers a common objection — that God cannot be infinite if there is something He will not do.
J. N. DarbyIt is a mistake to suppose that not being the author of evil limits Him. As to power, He can do anything; but to limit means putting a stop to something in the direction in which it tends or might continue, whereas there is no evil in God to be stopped. Power does not create evil. Were God the author of evil (apart from physical evil or punishment), that would be a limit on what He is — good.
Beyond the measuring mind
The gap between us and God is not a large gap. It is a gap of a different kind, and one writer illustrates it by watching an ant colony.
A. J. PollockThe distance between a man and an ant is very great, but after all it is only a finite distance. You can weigh the substance of a man and that of an ant, and you can find out how much heavier a man is than an ant. But can an ant understand what is passing through a man's mind? Can an ant understand the achievements of men? We know it cannot. But the distance between God and man is infinitely greater than that between man and ant. God is the Creator. Man is the creature. The distance between them is infinite. No arithmetic is of any use here.
Known but never contained
That gap does not leave us with an unknowable blank. A sharp distinction is drawn between grasping infinity and knowing the Person who is infinite.
Frederick W. GrantWe cannot know infinity, but we can know the One who is infinite — yes, know Him to be infinite: know His name, and not know His name.
The difference this makes is emotional as much as intellectual. An unlimited power whose intentions you cannot read is terrifying; the same Being made known in His Son is not.
E. C. HadleyHow blessed it is to believe it simply on the authority of God's Word. For here we have the revelation of God's eternal love to our souls and the sure foundation of eternal joy together with Him. Almighty God — some dreaded ruler with unconquerable power, who, if we dared to resist Him, could crush us like a moth, while we, ignorant of His inner thoughts about us, would not know what He might do next — what terror this would be for our souls. But what joy, what eternal happiness: God is no longer for us an unknown and unknowable something.
Infinity displayed at the cross
Creation shows unlimited power, but power alone tells you nothing about character. The cross is where the infinite qualities of God become visible together.
J. A. TrenchWhere do our hearts turn to see all the love of God? The cross of Christ is the full display of it. The hostility of our hearts that pursued Him even in death with the soldier's spear only drew out the answer of infinite love, in the blood that cleanses from all sin. Eternity will have no new depths of divine love to disclose to us... But where we see His love, there also we see infinite holiness. That is what makes the cross the resting place of our souls for ever.
No shortage at the source
Human love often fails not for lack of willingness but for lack of means. With God, love and supply have the same measure.
H. J. VineSome people in this life have others depending on them. Though they would gladly meet all the need of those they love and care for, they are often unable to do so — not through lack of love, but through lack of means. It is not so with God and ourselves. His love truly is infinite, and so also are His resources and His power.
Summary
- Boundless. God sets the limits of sea, angels and heaven itself; nothing sets a limit to Him.
- Moral, not material. His infinity is not endless size, and His refusal of evil is no restriction — it is what He is: good.
- Unmeasurable. The distance between Creator and creature is not a big gap but an infinite one, where no arithmetic helps.
- Knowable. We can never know infinity, yet we can know the One who is infinite — He is no longer an unknown something.
- Given. At the cross that infinite love and holiness came into view, and with it resources for us that can never run short.