How To Respond To A Mystery

Can you solve the mysteries of God? Can you discover everything about the Almighty?   Job 11:7

The nature of God is a mystery, but it is not a contradiction. If Christians believed that there is one God and that there are three gods, that would be a contradiction. If we believed that there are three persons and that there is one person, that would be a contradiction. But to say that there is one God who exists in three persons is not a contradiction; it is a mystery.

There are a number of places in the Bible where we’re presented with mysteries, and it’s important to know how to respond to them.

Don’t turn away from a mystery. Some people instinctively throw their hands in the air and turn away from anything they cannot understand, as if something that cannot be understood cannot possibly be true. If you do that, you will miss the unfathomable splendor of the glory of God.

Don’t try to explain a mystery. You can’t put “understanding the nature of God” on your to-do list and expect that one day some publisher will put out a book that explains it all, so you can cross it off your list and say, “It all makes sense to me now; I don’t know why I didn’t see it before.” God will never let you get there; if you did, you would probably cease to worship.

The other day my wife said to me, “I knew you were going to say that. I’ve been married to you over twenty years, and I’ve figured you out.” That’s a rather intimidating phrase, “I’ve figured you out.” And she has—I can’t deny it. After twenty years, there isn’t much mystery left. It’s getting harder to surprise her.

God has revealed himself in such a way that we may truly know him, but we will never come to the point where we’ve “figured him out.” Even in heaven, when you see God as he is, you will be lost in wonder and praise. You will look into the face of God and find yourself filled with more wonder than ever before. The way to respond to a mystery is to let it lead you into worship.

For further reading, see Job 42