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Numbers 23:19
“God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it?”
Theological study has as its aim improving our knowledge and worship of God and our service to God’s people. Consequently, love of God and love of neighbor are the fundamental qualifications for theologians as they seek to grow in their doctrinal understanding (Matt. 22:34–40). Before we begin our study of the various loci or topics in systematic theology, however, we should consider one more fundamental issue: the distinction between Creator and creature.
We have said that theology as a science exists so that we can gain a coherent and consistent knowledge of God. Thus, God is the “object” of our study. We put the word object in quotes because, in fact, the Lord is not an object to be studied, at least not in the same way that we study other topics. It is possible to attain a degree of mastery in other areas, whether we are talking about music, economics, history, chemistry, mathematics, or something else. Yet we will never become masters of the Lord God Almighty. As we will see in a few months when we study the names and attributes of God, our Creator is incomprehensible. That is, while we can know God truly and appropriately as creatures, we will never know God fully and we will never understand God as He understands Himself.
Comprehensive knowledge of God that is identical to God’s own understanding of Himself is impossible because of the distinction between Creator and creature. To put it another way, God is God and we are not. There is a qualitative difference between the Creator and His creation, between God and that which depends on Him for its existence. Scripture stresses the Creator-creature distinction in many places, including Numbers 23:19, where the Lord gives us a fundamental difference between God and man: human beings can change and can fail to fulfill their promises, but it is utterly impossible for God to do so.
The qualitative difference between God and humanity means that we cannot of ourselves find our way to the Lord or know Him without His assistance. Yet the Lord can bridge the gap between Him and us by revealing Himself to us. He has done this in nature and in Scripture, having made us in His image so that we can understand Him when He speaks to us (Gen. 1:27). The Lord by His revelation stoops down and gives us truths about His character and His ways, but He remains God and we remain man.
Coram Deo Living before the face of God
We seek to remember the distinction between Creator and creature so that we do not become puffed up with pride and presume that we can attain mastery over God by knowing Him fully or by knowing things the way that He knows them. That was the goal that Adam and Eve aimed at in their sin (Gen. 3:1–7), but it is an impossible goal for creatures to achieve. Let us always understand that we can know God truly but never fully.
For further study
- Isaiah 55:8–9
- Romans 11:33–36
The bible in a year
- Genesis 6–8
- Matthew 3
- Genesis 9–14
- Matthew 4