Chapter Two -- Comments & Commentary -- Knowledge of the Holy --Tozer

God Incomprehensible

Tozer poses the question in Chapter Two: What is God like?
He asserts that this book is an attempt to answer that question. However, he acknowledges that it cannot be fully answered in our human inadequacies, except to say: God is not like anything or anybody, not exactly.

Our minds are not capable of leaping directly to contemplation of the unfamiliar or unknown. We access unfamiliar territory by bridging over and extending from what we already know. Complete knowledge or understanding of “what God is like” is unfamiliar territory that cannot be directly accessed in our minds.

Tozer illustrates this limitation of our minds by suggesting that even those with the most nimble minds, at their most imaginative, are unable to conjure up something spontaneous out of nothing. It always begins with something you already know. For example, try to imagine a new kind of creature or being that does not incorporate something from what is familiar to you. The human mind does not directly access the unfamiliar; it extends to the unfamiliar over the bride of the familiar.

Tozer also cites the example of the strain of the assignment of being inspired by God (as the writers of Scripture) to express infinite thoughts and concepts of the supernatural with finite words and language of the natural. That is, the difficulty of having to express the unfamiliar, using the tools of the familiar. “It’s like, you know, just like, man, sort of like, wow, like….”

Tozer argues that when the Scriptures state that “man was made in the image of God”, it does not say or mean the “exact” image of God. For this to be so would necessarily break down the barrier of the high wall that exists to separate “that-which-is-God” from “that-which-is-not-God”.(i.e.,Creator from created).

Tozer asserts that in trying to imagine God, we run the risk of creating an “idol of the mind” made with “thoughts”, which would be just as offensive to God as an idol made with “hands”. Ultimately, “Idolatry” is our attempt to shape God, either physically or mentally, to suit our desires.

Tozar quotes Nicholas of Cusa (a 15th century theological philosopher/thinker), for the proposition that the intellect knows that man is ignorant of God, because God cannot be fully known, unless the “unknowable could be known”, and the “invisible beheld”, and the “inaccessible attained.”

Tozar further quotes Nicholas to support the concept that God cannot really be ultimately conceived or totally understood, because God is absolute above any concepts of Him that man could conjure up.

In effect, man in his inadequacies, wants to craft God in his own image, which necessarily reduces God to less than He ultimately is, in order to manage or control Him.

I believe that Tozar is emphasizing this concept (to the point of potentially belaboring it) for the purpose of combating the two extreme directions that men tend to go that creates the “loss” which Tozar identified in the Preface of this book. That is, the loss of the sense of majesty of God or a low view of God. On the one hand, man, in his pride, deceives himself into thinking that he truly and clearly can understand and comprehend what God is like; or on the other hand, he is all too willing to give up and not engage in the spiritual disciplines necessary to systematically study and learn more and more about what God is like. Either extreme necessarily will give man a low view of God, and a false understanding of what God is really like.

Tozar contends that in the 20th century, God has been taken for granted and has not been properly conceived of by men. As a consequence thereof, Man's perception of the glory of God has necessarily suffered and been insufficient in this generation.

Tozar asks: If we do not conceive God properly, how then shall we think of Him? Is He incomprehensible?

Tozar provides the Biblical answer: We can know God only through Jesus Christ our Lord. In Christ and by Christ, God makes self-disclosure of Himself in response to man’s faith and love (as opposed to man’s reason and intellect). We process God in Jesus Christ, by faith and through love. By Faith, we gain knowledge of God, and by Love, we experience God.

Tozer returns to the original question: “What is God like?” If by the question we mean what is He like in Himself in His ultimate and essential nature?, there is no answer for us. It is known only to God. However, if we mean, “What has God disclosed about Himself that believers can comprehend?”, then the answer is that He has, in love, condescended to reveal things about Himself to us to be true as to his nature and character. These things are called His attributes. By identifying them and studying them and mediating on them, we can answer in part, what God is like.

In summary, Tozer entitled the chapter well: God is incomprehensible, except to the extent that He chooses to reveal Himself to us; so…what do His attributes reveal about Him?

The rest of the book will expound on the ATTRIBUTES OF GOD which have been revealed to us by Him through Holy Scripture and Jesus Christ.

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Start reading Chapter Three. "The Divine Attribute (Defined): Something True About God"