As we contemplate life and God, it strikes us that so many things are beyond us. Even the knowledge of tomorrow is more than we can know (James 4:13-16). We are like young children staring into the night sky and wondering at its grandeur. We are called upon to worship the true God, but His very praise is something we can never do adequately. The Psalmist asked: ‘Who can utter the mighty deeds of the Lord, or declare all His praise?’ (Ps.106:2) The greatest hymns express this thought. Paul Gerhardt asked: ‘What language shall I borrow to praise Thee, heavenly Friend?’ It was all rather beyond the capabilities of Gerhardt, the greatest German hymn-writer of his day. There is a paradoxical aspect to our praise of God, as Michael Perry well realised as he wrote the words that have been put to the majestic tune, Thaxted, composed by Gustav Holst:
O God beyond all praising, we worship You today,
And sing the love amazing that songs cannot repay.
We praise the God who is beyond our praises!
The revelation of heaven is also something that could not have come from a human being pondering the after life. Paul writes: ‘What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love Him’ (1 Cor.2:9). It is not so much heaven that he marvels at as the revelation of it. No one could possibly have imagined what it is like.
As Paul spoke of the proclamation of the gospel which is life to those who are being saved and death to those who are perishing, he felt his own inadequacy: ‘Who is sufficient for these things?’ (2 Cor.2:16b) Politicians are always reassuring us that they are up to the task. Paul knew that his task of heralding the gospel of the great God of heaven and earth was far beyond him. Paul had to preach what he called ‘the unsearchable riches of Christ’ (Eph.3:8). The more he understood of God and His ways, the more he was driven to praise and wonder: ‘Oh, the depths of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and how inscrutable His ways!’ (Rom.11:33) Not only is God beyond our understanding but so too is the evil and corruption of the human heart (Jer.17:9). Small wonder that Paul felt that he was in no way up to the task of bringing God and sinners together. He could plumb the depths of neither.
With regard to human character, Jesus commands us to be perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect (Matt.5:48). Back in the fifth century Pelagius taught that if God commanded this, it must mean that we are capable of obeying it. This is to misunderstand God’s law, which reflects His holiness, not our capabilities. The Scripture shouts at us what we ought to know by instinct and experience, that ‘None is righteous, no, not one’ (Rom.3:10). The demand that we be perfect leads us to the realization that we are sinners, and that the law is not our saviour (Rom.3:19-20).
David quieted his heart and soul by determining: ‘I do not occupy myself with things too great and too marvellous for me’ (Ps.131:1). There are things in this world that are beyond us, and there is terrible danger in claiming too much. The Psalmist declared: ‘How great are Your works, O Lord! Your thoughts are very deep! The stupid man cannot know; the fool cannot understand this’ (Ps.92:5-6). John Bunyan comforts us with the thought that ‘He that is down need fear no fall.’ The other side of this is ‘He who thinks he is something can do a lot of damage.’ Anselm of Canterbury was the most powerful theologian of the eleventh century. Yet he wrote humbly: ‘I do not seek, O Lord, to penetrate Your depths. I by no means think my intellect equal to them: but I long to understand in some degree Your truth, which my heart believes and loves. For I do not seek to understand that I may believe; but I believe, that I may understand.’
This leads us to the vital last point. Our acknowledgment that there are many things beyond us should never be used as an excuse not to believe and obey what God has clearly revealed. As James warns us: ‘So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin’ (James 4:17). A false humility is as dangerous as outright pride. Those who desire to do God’s will have the promise that they will know whether Jesus’ teaching is from God or whether He spoke on His own authority (John 7:17). Humility goes together with a hunger for righteousness, and knows what is beyond it and what has been graciously given to us.
– Peter Barnes