Trinity — The Incomprehensible God

Source: Trinity, Robert Morey, pp. 73ff

The Trinitarian begins with the a priori assumption that the triune God of Father, Son and Holy Spirit will be incomprehensible because God is essentially incomprehensible in His nature. (This means that God cannot be fully understood; not that he cannot be partially understood. We can only understand God partially.) The inescapable truth is that God will always be greater than our finite capacity to understand fully or to explain exhaustively.

Our failure to understand or explain fully the Trinity or any other aspect of God is not due to some defect in God or in His revelation. The "defect," if it can be called that, is nothing more or less than the reality of our own finiteness. Man is a finite creature with limited abilities intellectually as well as physically. Indeed, we do not even have an exhaustive knowledge of ourselves much less God!

If the Trinity were fully understandable, this would be an indication that it is erroneous. But the Trinity is so deep and so high a concept that we expect to be left with unresolved problems and unanswered questions. (1Co 1:31)

Any god we could fully understand and explain would be less than what we are. He who can understand God would be greater than God.

The incomprehensibility of God is, thus, not a surprise to the Trinitarian. If there is an infinite God who has revealed Himself to finite man, then it only follows that what is revealed will go beyond man's finite capacity to understand.

Trinitarians do not mean to imply that God is irrational or illogical when they speak of His incomprehensibility. They simply mean that God is beyond man's capacity to understand or explain exhaustively. In this sense, God is beyond human reason without being contradictory of it.

If we begin with the a priori assumption that, if something cannot be fully explained, it must be rejected, then we must reject the love and peace of Christ because they are "beyond our comprehension" Eph 3:19; Php 4:7.

Job 5:8-9; 11:7-9; 36:26; 37:5; 42:1-4,6; Psa 77:19; 92:5; 139:6; 145:3; Ecc 3:11; 8:17; 11:5; Isa 40:28; Rom 11:33-34; Eph 3:8,19; Php 4:7

Translation: NASB

Romans 11:33-34 Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways! For WHO HAS KNOWN THE MIND OF THE LORD, OR WHO BECAME HIS COUNSELOR?
Ephesians 3:8 To me, the very least of all saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ,
Ephesians 3:19 "and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God."
Philippians 4:7 "And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."
Job 5:8-9 "But as for me, I would seek God, and I would place my cause before God; who does great and unsearchable things, wonders without number."
Job 11:7-9 "Can you discover the depths of God? Can you discover the limits of the Almighty? They are high as the heavens, what can you do? Deeper than Sheol, what can you know? Its measure is longer than the earth and broader than the sea."
Job 36:26 "Behold, God is exalted, and we do not know Him; the number of His years is unsearchable."
Job 42:1-4 Then Job answered the LORD and said, "I know that You can do all things, and that no purpose of Yours can be thwarted. 'Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?' "Therefore I have declared that which I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know. Hear, now, and I will speak; I will ask You, and You instruct me."
Psalm 77:19 Your way was in the sea and Your paths in the mighty waters, and Your footprints may not be known.
Psalm 92:5 How great are Your works, O LORD! Your thoughts are very deep.
Psalm 139:6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is too high, I cannot attain to it.
Psalm 145:3 Great is the LORD, and highly to be praised, and His greatness is unsearchable.
Ecclesiastes 3:11 He has made everything appropriate in its time. He has also set eternity in their heart, yet so that man will not find out the work which God has done from the beginning even to the end.
Ecclesiastes 8:17 and I saw every work of God, I concluded that man cannot discover the work which has been done under the sun. Even though man should seek laboriously, he will not discover; and though the wise man should say, "I know," he cannot discover.
Ecclesiastes 11:5 Just as you do not know the path of the wind and how bones are formed in the womb of the pregnant woman, so you do not know the activity of God who makes all things.
Isaiah 40:28 Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth Does not become weary or tired. His understanding is inscrutable.