The Theology of God

The word ‘theo’ means “god” in Greek and the suffix ‘logy’ means “the study of”. Thus, theology literally means the study of god. For Christians, it is the attempt to know God as He reveals Himself in the Bible in a structured and systematic manner. It is the discovery of who God is as He reveals Himself through His names, His attributes and His dealings with mankind in the bible history. To put it simply, it is faith seeking understanding.

Studying God’s nature and character gives us greater understanding of who God is, what kind of being He is, what He is like, and affirms our faith as to why we can trust Him. There are many who believe in God, but sadly, few can fully trust and obey Him. One of the key reasons is that we have not known God enough.

The Infinite God

However, we should understand that we can never know all there is to know about God. We are finite beings, and thus limited in knowledge. God is an infinite being, He is unlimited in knowledge, and the gap between the two can never be bridged.

Psa.147:3,5 – “Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised; and His greatness is unsearchable... His understanding is infinite.”

Rom.11:33 – “Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out!”

Job 11:7-9 – “Can you search out the deep things of God? Can you find out the limits of the Almighty? They are higher than heaven—what can you do? Deeper than Sheol - what can you know? Their measure is longer than the earth and broader than the sea.”

Job 26:14 – “He hangs the earth on nothing. He binds up the water in His thick clouds, yet the clouds are not broken under it…Indeed these are the mere edges of His ways, and how small a whisper we hear of Him!”

Job 37:5 – “God thunders marvelously with His voice; He does great things which we cannot comprehend.”

Yet, God being incomprehensible does not mean that God cannot be understood at all; it simply means that He cannot be fully or exhaustively understood. Even though we would not ever be able to comprehend all there is to know about God, we can grow in knowledge of Him through His dealing on the earth and what He reveals within the pages of the Bible.

Knowing God

Jn.17:3 – “Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.”

What is eternal life? Is it eternal existence going on and on infinitely? Eternal life is not just about quantity of life, it is quality of life. It begins when we receive Jesus as our Lord and saviour and continue when we see Him face to face. Jesus says it plainly, the purpose of eternal life is not just to escape hell fire but to know God, and this will be the most fulfilling thing we will be doing for eternity. Nevertheless, it is not knowing Him the way the theologians know Him, being able to explain the trinity of God, being able to outline His character and His nature, etc. rather, it is to know Him personally and experientially.

Psa.103:7 - “He made known his ways to Moses, his acts to the people of Israel.”

The Israelites know the great works of God. He rolled back the Red Sea and defeated the Egyptians, He fed them with manna every day, He did a miracle among them that their clothes and sandals never wore out; He made known His acts to the people. However, privately, in a quiet place on the mountain, God brought Moses into a deeper knowledge of Him. He made known His ways to Moses. This should be the earnest hunger in our heart, to know Him as we are known by Him, to know Him intimately and grow in understanding of His nature and character.

Phil.3:10 - “That I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that if possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.”

Paul was a “Hebrew of the Hebrews”, a Pharisees, brought up at the feet of Gamaliel, a well-respected and great teacher of the Jewish law. He is well trained in theology, yet he had a deep hunger to know God experientially. To do that, often times, God has to allow us to come to the end of our own abilities and our own resources so that we will lean desperately on Him to experience His breakthroughs in our lives.

We often wonder, aren’t principles, skills, strategy useful to resolve challenges in life? Yes, but for God to reveal Himself in a personal way to us, at times, He may allow difficulties and challenges in our lives that cannot be solved by human wisdom? It can only be solved by us knowing the power of Jesus’ resurrection, which is by knowing God personally amid our difficulties. So, our difficulties are here for a reason. Our problems, our challenges, are here for a reason. God has arranged a personal pilgrimage because He wants us to know Him.

When we experience His strength, that is where we get to know Him most intimately. To know God is to keep hungering for His own heart as the main essential of our lives. Unless we get to know God in conjunction with the ways He is dealing with us in our practical lives, we will never fulfil the purpose of our lives. Most importantly, if the purpose of eternal life is to know God, and yet, if we do not spend sizeable part of life pursuing that knowledge, we could be wasting our whole life on this earth. We could be pursuing all the wrong things in life.

“Knowing about God is crucially important for the living of our lives. Disregard the study of God, and you sentence yourself to stumble and blunder through life, blindfolded, as it were, with no sense of direction and no understanding of what surrounds you. This way, you can waste your life and lose your soul.” - J I Packer