What is God like? That is the question we have been asking ourselves in this study on the attributes of God. Transcendent means God is wholly independent and beyond all physical laws. God is exalted and far exceeds both the universe and human knowledge. God is incomprehensible and incomparable. He cannot be fully known. He is also above all in magnitude, spirit, being, nature, character, and every quality and aspect of life.
If God transcends all things, then all of His attributes are transcendent like His love, power, sovereignty, holiness, beauty, glory, knowledge and wisdom. Since He is infinite and eternal, His transcendence was, is, and will always be in surpassing abundance forever. He has no equal. There is no comparison. He is not like anything or anybody the human mind can ever imagine.
God cannot be fully grasped, seen, or attained.He will always supersed our highest thoughts of Him. He is truly mysterious. He is deeper, wider, longer, fuller, richer, and beyond greater.
In Job, “How great is God—beyond our understanding! The number of His years is past finding out,” “The Almighty is beyond our reach and exalted in power.” [Ps 97:9] “For you, Lord, are the Most High over all the earth; You are exalted far above all gods.” [Ps 150:2b] “Praise Him for His surpassing greatness.”[Is 55:8] “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.”
God is totally outside and not confined in any way to the world. He is Creator and we are creatures. In Rom 1, “For since the creation of the world, God’s invisible qualities—His eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made.” God intentionally built into creation some of His attributes so everyone would know that He exists and is real. But God isn’t nature or in nature. He transcends nature. He is like no other.
Throughout history, man fashioned their gods based on their own moral beliefs. Nations created what they thought God was like and built whole societies around that view. We have to be careful that we don’t do the same today. We can create an imagine of who we think God is and build our lives around that image. In the first two commandments God says we are to have no other gods before Him. And we should not make for ourselves an idol in the form of anything. Because God has no visible form, any idol intended to resemble Him would be a sinful misrepresentation of Him. Idolatry, whether a physical or mental idol, defames God’s character and assumes that God is other than He is. It is a substitute for the one true God.
Jesus is an exact representation of God. Jesus said, if you have seen me, then you have seen the Father. [Matt 11:27] “No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal Him.” Jesus came not only to redeem us but to reveal the Father through the way He lived in perfect obedience, His non-condemning interactions with people, the authority of His teachings, His supernatural miracles, and His resurrection power from the dead.
Jesus also has transcendent qualities. Eph 3 says the love of Christ surpasses knowledge. It is not unknowable, but so great that it cannot be completely known. Jesus says, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives.” It says in Phil 4:6-7 “The peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” God’s love and care are beyond human comprehension.
This transcendent, incomprehensible, incomparable God asks us to seek His face even though we can never fully know. He promises that those who seek Him will find Him. The knowledge of Him is so precious that you'll want His thoughts and His ways to become your thoughts and your ways.
