God in His Infinite Greatness

In speaking to the Samaritan woman at the well, our Lord and Savior stressed that God is spirit (John 4:24). It is of the essence of God to be immaterial, to not be composed of atoms and molecules as we are. When we meditate on what Scripture has to say about the divine attributes, it becomes clear that the Lord must be spirit if the other things said about Him are to be true.

One place where we see this is in God’s attribute of infinity. The Bible presents divine infinity in several passages, including Psalm 145:3, which refers to the greatness of the Lord as “unsearchable.” Finite greatness would have limits. Though it might take a long time, we would be able to plumb the depths of finite greatness and finally comprehend it completely. God’s greatness, however, is unsearchable. We could spend an eternity examining it and still only scratch the surface.

When we speak of the Lord’s infinity, really we are saying that God has no limits. His knowledge has no boundaries but includes His understanding of all things—He is omniscient. His spatial presence has no limits but is everywhere—He is omnipresent. His goodness knows no bounds but is perfect in every way—He is omnibenevolent. His life has no beginning or end, and He does not experience in His own being the passage of time as we do in our bodies and souls—He is timeless. His power never encounters an obstacle that He cannot overcome, but He can fully accomplish all His holy will—He is omnipotent.

Physical beings cannot be infinite, for it is the nature of physical entities to have spatial boundaries. Physical or material entities, by definition, are containable within particular spaces. They might be very large and might require an immense space to hold them, but they are still limited to particular places at particular times. Spirit, however, because it is immaterial, has the potential for infinity. This is not to say that all spirits are infinite. Our souls and spiritual beings such as angels are finite and have limitations. But God, who is spirit, is not spirit in that way. His spirituality is of a different nature from ours, which is why He is infinite.

Divine infinity is hard to grasp because we are used to limits on power, time, location, knowledge, and much more. Yet, it is God’s very nature to be without limitations. Confronted with this knowledge, all we can do is worship and adore Him.