Unfathomable but Knowable Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out! “Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counsellor?” “Who has ever given to God, that God should repay them?” For from him and through him and for him are all things. To him be the glory forever! Amen. (Romans 11:33-36)
It is impossible to sum up what God is like in one or two words, or even a sentence, or even a book. I guess we tend to define God by what characteristic of His hits us afresh at any given time of our lives. We say (and rightly so), that God is love; God is just; God is almighty; God is omniscient (He knows everything); God is omnipresent (He’s everywhere at the same time) — and so on and so forth. Here are two of my currently favourite words to describe God. 
God is unfathomable. You just simply cannot suss Him out. What I mean is that you’ll never reach a point that you can say: “Yep; I now know everything about God.” He is mysterious. I mean, could you kindly tell me how He does this, for instance: He knows from eternity past (my mind breaks down at this point…) who are those whom He will save; in fact, He has actively predestined them for salvation (getting hot now?)
— yet He calls us all to repentance, which is an act of our will (cf. Romans 8:29-30 & Acts 17:29-31). I mean, how does He do that?! Yet, He does. Or think of this: how is it that God can change His mind and yet He never changes? (See Jonah 4:10 & James 1:17.) He’s puzzling; He is unfathomable.
Yet, at the same time, He is knowable. That is, while you can’t figure Him out, you can get to know Him. Personally. You see, He is a He, not an it — a Person, not an immaterial idea or thing. Persons interact — ideas and things don’t. Trying to get to know God is not like digging for diamonds — diamonds won’t help you find them, so all the effort is on your side (hence, I don’t own a single diamond…) God, as unfathomable as He is, can still be known, in fact, He wants to be known. He reveals Himself to us in His creation and His Word, the Bible. In fact, this is why we preach: to make God known.
Because He is unfathomable, we ought to approach Him humbly, in awe. It also leaves us no choice but to either trust Him or turn from away Him. For those who choose to trust Him, He will reveal Himself more and more, so that we will know (and love, and follow) Him.
Calix Furus
Pastoral Elder
March 2016
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