The Mysteries of God

I’m taking a seminary class on church history from the establishment of the Church to the time of the Reformation. In my years at Baylor and Southwestern Seminary, I studied church history from the perspective of music and worship. We broadly touched on the theological issues; usually when these issues influenced church music and worship form. The class that I’m presently taking focuses on the historical and theological aspects of the church.

It has been so interesting looking at the early church fathers and apologists wrestle with and defend both the humanity and divinity of Christ. In the early 4th century, the debate mainly focused upon the deity of Christ. After A.D. 360, the divinity of the Holy Spirit became a target for heretics. The Council of Constantinople in A.D. 381 drove a stake into the heart of heretical teaching concerning the divinity of Christ and the Holy Spirit and helped define what we call today the doctrine of the Trinity.

As I read a good deal of the writings of these early church fathers and apologists, it is fascinating to see them try to verbalize the doctrine of the Trinity. After the Council of Constantinople, the wording was God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are “one in substance/essence and three persons/beings/hypostases to which we today speak of one God in three Persons. Yet the early writers struggled with describing one God in three Persons much like we do today. We use descriptions like water in three different forms, a pie cut in three pieces, or a man being a husband, father, and son. All of these descriptions fall so short. How can we truly begin to explain in human terms the Trinity?

There are others aspects about God that are almost impossible to understand or explain. Try explaining some of these mysteries:

How does God eternally exist?
How vast is God’s presence?
How great is God’s greatness?
How does Christ, the hope of glory, exist in man?
How is my body a temple and place of residence for the Holy Spirit?
How can God love someone like me?

Here are my answers:
He just does.
Vast.
The greatest.
By His grace.
By His grace.
By His grace.

To truly think about and meditate upon God is to realize that He is mysterious. He cannot be fathomed. Consider some of these passages from the Word:

Can you fathom the mysteries of God? Can you probe the limits of the Almighty? (Job 11:7)

Great is the LORD and most worthy of praise; His greatness no one can fathom. (Psalms 145:3)

Do you not know? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and His understanding no one can fathom. (Isaiah 40:28)

One of the newer worship songs that I enjoy today speaks to this theme, especially in the choruses. I’ll close out today’s thought with this song by Laura Story and Jesse Reeves calld "Indescribable."

Indescribable! Uncontainable!
You place the stars in the sky,
And You know them by name;
You are amazing, God!

All powerful! Untameable!
Awestruck, we fall to our knees
As we humbly proclaim:
You are amazing, God!

Incomparable! Unchangeable!
You see the depths of my heart
And You love me the same;
You are amazing, God!