What is the incomprehensibility of God?

The incomprehensibility of God means that, although people can know God truly, they cannot know Him fully. David reflected this reality when he declared that he knows that God is worthy of praise, yet he is unable to comprehend the magnitude of His greatness. He writes, “Great is the Lord and most worthy of praise; his greatness no one can fathom” (Psalm 145:3). This verse illustrates that there are realities about God that people can understand and others they cannot.

Throughout the Bible, various writers affirm God’s incomprehensibility. Human beings will never be able to know God fully because His wisdom, judgments, and plans are beyond human comprehension. We can know true things about God, but we cannot know Him exhaustively.

Theologians sometimes classify God’s attributes as either communicable or incommunicable. The communicable attributes of God, such as love, wisdom, and justice, are characteristics that people can also possess in a limited way. God’s incommunicable attributes, such as infinity, immutability, and omnipresence, are characteristics that belong to God alone. No human can share in God’s incommunicable attributes. God’s incomprehensibility is one of His incommunicable attributes. It is a quality that belongs to Him alone and cannot be shared with humans.

The Bible teaches that God’s nature exceeds what people can fully comprehend. In the book of Job, Zophar alludes to the incomprehensibility of God when he says, “Can you fathom the mysteries of God? Can you probe the limits of the Almighty? They are higher than the heavens above—what can you do? They are deeper than the depths below—what can you know?” (Job 11:7–8). Job’s friend understood that God’s ways and greatness are beyond human understanding. No human reasoning or wisdom can grasp the totality of who God is.

Likewise, Paul marveled at the greatness of God’s wisdom and knowledge. After reflecting on God’s plan of salvation, he wrote, “Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out!” (Romans 11:33). With the phrase the depth of the riches, Paul expresses praise for the greatness of God, whose wisdom and ways he cannot fully comprehend.

Understanding the doctrine of God’s incomprehensibility promotes spiritual growth and Christlikeness in the lives of Christians. It guards against trying to fit God into human categories or imagining Him as merely a greater version of ourselves. God rebukes the wicked in Psalm 50:21 because they assumed God was exactly like them. Numbers 23:19 teaches, “God is not human, that he should lie, not a human being, that he should change his mind.” God declares in Hosea 11:9, “For I am God, and not a man—the Holy One among you.”

The doctrine of the incomprehensibility of God highlights the limits of human knowledge, and the result should be praise. God is infinitely greater than His creation and is worthy of our praise. As God says in Isaiah 55:8–9, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways. . . . As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

Understanding the incomprehensibility of God enhances people’s worship of Him and leads to an accurate awareness of themselves. As Ecclesiastes 3:11 says, “No one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.” And as Psalm 147:5 declares, “Great is our Lord and mighty in power; his understanding has no limit.” God’s incomprehensibility is praiseworthy because it is associated with the greatness of who He is.