Christian, do you wish that you could know all there is to know about God and everything else for that matter? Do you think that when you die and go to heaven that will happen? Well, the truth about these matters is actually better than what a lot of believers wish for. First of all, we will never know all there is to know about God and everything else. Secondly, dying and going to heaven is not really what it is all about! It is about God’s redeeming of all creation. Our ultimate goal is bodily resurrection in the likeness of Christ’s glorified body and everlasting life in a renewed creation. It is then that we will experience the glories of our infinite God. We are finite and will never know all that God knows or understand all that He understands. Believer, you and I will never fully comprehend His greatness. Now, let me explain why this is such a tremendous blessing!
1. There will always be more coming that will amaze us about God and His person and works!
Psalm 145:3 states: “Great is the LORD and most worthy of praise; his greatness no one can fathom (NIV).” Psalm 147:5 says something similar: “Great is our Lord and mighty in power; his understanding has no limit (NIV).” God will be unfolding His greatness to us for all eternity and it will never be exhausted. Keep in mind that in this future Kingdom there will be no pain, sorrow, death, or evil. All will be light and joy. There will be and endless stream of more and more of God’s greatness!
2. We can live now with enthusiastic anticipation of an unfolding eternal future glory.
Psalm 16:11states: “You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.” How we need to be looking toward this future joy! How sad that some believers wonder that we might get bored in eternity. No! An understanding of God’s infinite greatness will certainly prevent that kind of thinking. We must not be those who think we are living our best life now. Instead we are living in the excitement and anticipation of the endless joy and pleasure of knowing God in the fullness of His Kingdom. We were created to be satisfied with something outside of ourselves! That something is God Himself.
3. As eternity unfolds, we will understand and appreciate more and more the riches of His grace given to us through the work of Jesus Christ.
Listen to Paul’s words in Ephesians 3:9: “To me, though I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ” According to one Greek lexicon, the word unsearchable in the context of this verse means “too much to be measured, infinite, beyond one’s ability to imagine.” What endless worship will take place around God’s throne as the great host of saints sing praises to the Lamb who is worthy to receive all glory and honor! The glory of His grace will be magnified more and more as His greatness is unfolded more and more in eternity.
So our inability to fully comprehend God and His greatness and glory is a wondrous and glorious truth. God in His great love gave us the gift of His great and glorious and incomprehensible (to His finite creatures) self! Anything less, would be indeed inferior. There is no arrival in heaven and instantly being given infinite knowledge and understanding. When Paul expresses the fact that he will know fully (in I Corinthians 13:12), he is not saying that he will know inexhaustibly. He is saying that he will know differently that he now knows, for now he sees in a mirror dimly. We will know things clearly. But we will not know all things. We will pursue with delight the knowledge of God forever!
