God is Infinite

God’s personal name YHWH, as revealed to Moses, grants a hint at His nature as an eternally existing, infinite being. Rooted in the Hebrew verb translated “to be,” the God of the Bible is a necessary being in that His existence precedes all other existence and knowledge. From the Biblical perspective, God Is the source of all life and possesses all power and knowledge. Though His existence transcends our understanding, He personally makes Himself known to His people and desires to be in relationship with His creation.

God Is All Powerful
In His encounter with Moses, God revealed that He is all-powerful and is, therefore, greater than any other power. God’s power is infinite, or omnipotent, which means He is all-powerful.

Exodus 3:13 After God appeared to Moses in the burning bush and charged him to go before Pharaoh to demand freedom for the Israelites who had been enslaved by the Egyptians, Moses expressed his concern that the Israelites would not accept his authority to make such a demand. The Israelites’ hypothetical response to Moses’ assertion that “the God of your fathers has sent me to you” was “What is His name?” Such a response seems odd to modern readers. We might expect the challenge to be something akin to, “And who is the God of our fathers?” Instead, Moses’ concern is that he will be challenged about his ignorance in regards to the name of the God who has supposedly sent him. Keep in mind that the Ancient Near East was comprised of polytheistic societies, so simply asserting that a deity had sent him would have left a lot to interpretation to Moses’ hearers.

Exodus 3:14 Somewhat as a capitulation to Moses’ request, God told Moses His name: YHWH (Yahweh). While God had been referred to by His name by the narrator of Genesis, God had not personally revealed His name to any individual to this point in history (JE.com, “Names of God”).

Exodus 3:15 After God’s revelation to Moses, Moses was equipped to tell the Israelites that the God who had sent him was the God known by their forefathers and the God who would be their deity. God again gave Moses His personal name and linked it to how He would be known by the Israelites, as the God of their ancestors. God’s personal name has, in fact, become the name by which He has been known through “all generations” (Utley). In essence, God has said to Moses that He was, He is, and He will be.

God Is Ever-Present
The psalmist David understood another aspect of God’s infinite nature––that He is ever-present. He is not limited by time or space or any other conditions. His presence is infinite, or omnipresent, which means He is everywhere at all times.

Psalm 139:7 Two options are possible for interpreting the opening question of this verse, “Where can I flee from your Spirit?” The psalmist was either expressing mankind’s attempts to flee from the presence of God because of our sin in light of His holiness or the question was a rhetorical device utilized to demonstrate God’s omnipresence. The second option seems preferable since “Spirit” and “presence” seem to be parallel terms. One should be cautious about reading the full New Testament Trinitarian understanding of God from this reference to His “Spirit.” This particular text uses the term to characterize God’s active presence in the view of the psalmist (Utley).

Psalm 139:8 The Psalmist employed parallelism, a Hebrew poetic device, to demonstrate the scope of God’s presence. He used the verb “ascend,” literally meaning “to scale,” to describe an upward movement towards Heaven. In contrast, if the psalmist were to “make my bed” in Sheol, God would still be found there. These are the first in a series of extreme directional statements the psalmist made to describe the scope of God’s presence. These two describe the heights and the depths that God’s presence reaches (Utley).

Psalm 139:9-10 “The wings of the dawn” is another directional image spanning an infinite eastward direction. It’s parallel image, “the remotest part of the sea,” may literally be translated “from the sunrise to the sunset,” and is best taken to describe an infinite westward direction (Utley). No matter where the psalmist turned, God would be there, leading him as a parent might lead a child, taking him by the hand while teaching him to walk or guiding him through dangerous pathways.

God Is All Knowing
The apostle Paul also recognized another part of God’s infinite nature––that He has all knowledge. God created the universe and everything in it. He knows how it works in its totality. His knowledge is infinite, or omniscient, which means He has all knowledge and wisdom.

Romans 11:33 This is the first verse in a spontaneous doxology that asserts the superiority of God’s knowledge compared to mankind’s (Utley). The “riches” of God’s wisdom and knowledge” refers to “an abundance of possessions exceeding the norm” (Louw-Nida, p. 560). The “depths” of the storehouses that contain God’s wisdom and knowledge are such that Paul described them as “unsearchable” and “unfathomable” to the human mind when observing His actions or considering His nature. The human mind simply does not possess the capability to fully understand or comprehend a Being as wise and knowledgeable as God.

Romans 11:34 To further reinforce his point, Paul quoted the Septuagint (the Greek translation of the Old Testament) text of Isaiah 40:13 (Utley). Again stating the truth that God’s knowledge and ways are beyond the comprehension of the human mind, Paul rhetorically asked who would be bold enough to assert that he/she knew how the mind of God worked. Further, the Isaiah passage pointed out that, in contrast to a person’s need for counselors, God has no peer who would be able to give Him sufficient counsel because He possess all wisdom and knowledge.

Romans 11:35 Paul again used the Septuagint to further his point. Paul’s quote is loose but either references Job 35:7 or 41:11 (Utley). Moving on from the idea that God possessed all wisdom and knowledge, this reference emphasized that all things belong to God to the extent that mankind cannot offer anything to Him that does not already belong to Him.

Romans 11:36 To close this doxology, Paul phrased the point of the preceding Job passage in his own words: “All things issue from and return to God” (Utley). As a result of God’s possession of all wisdom and knowledge, as well as His ultimate possession of all things on earth, God is worthy of all glory being ascribed to Him.

Throughout Scripture, God’s infinte nature is revealed. Because we are finite beings, we may find it difficult to grasp the concept of the infinite. We cannot visualize or comprehend what that means. But God Is infinite. He is all-powerful, always present, and has all knowledge. There is no one else like Him.

These divine characteristics of God––all-powerful, ever-present, knowing all things––can be difficult to explain, especially when we add the corresponding theological terms of omnipotent, omnipresent, and omniscient. Yet these theological terms can actually help adults grasp God’s infinite nature. The first half of each word is “omni,” which means “the only one.” Each of these infinite natures can only belong to the one true God. Only God has all power. Only God is ever-present. Only God has all knowledge. As you continue helping adults comprehend the unlimited nature of God, do not shy away from introducing these terms. They can actually make it easier for adults to grasp these concepts.