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claim that any member of the One Body during the dispensation of the Mystery "knows
even as he is known".
It is certainly our joy to testify to the fuller knowledge that is ours now that the
Mystery has been made known, but we cannot in this life ever "know as we are known".
That the glorious consummation awaits the day of resurrection, when we shall see "face
to face". However full our faith, however near we are to the Lord, nothing that we
experience now can compare with the joy of that day, when we shall be manifested with
Him in glory.
The word translated "darkly" in the A.V. is our English word "enigma". In this life
we see by means of the mirror of the Word, reflecting spiritual realities in an enigma.
Invisible things are represented by things seen, spiritual things are spoken of as
possessing natural qualities, and eternal things are expressed in the terms of time. There
are certain things that it is possible for us to know while encompassed with the infirmities
and limitations of our human nature, but we must not imagine that these relative truths
are absolute, or that types and shadows are realities. We must be careful not to import
into the realm of the real, the shadows and images of the relative.
In his book "God and Nature", H. Spencer has said one or two things in connection
with our subject that are perhaps worth repeating here:
(1)
God is invisible to our physical senses because He is pure Spirit and Infinite
(Exod. 33: 20; John 1: 18).
(2)
God is unimaginable. He cannot be pictured by act or by mind.
(3)
Our knowledge of God is indirect. Even Scripture and the manifestation of God in
Christ involve translation into human and finite terms.
(4)
The relativity that characterizes human knowledge limits our knowledge of God.
We can only know what He reveals and the finite capacity or our minds limits His
self-manifestation to us.
(5)
Divine inscrutability does not mean that God is wholly unknowable, but that
we are unable to know Him fully and adequately (Job 11: 7-9; 36: 26;
Psa. 77: 19; 139: 6; Prov. 30: 4; Isa. 45: 15; 55: 8, 9).
While we are considering this question of the limitations of human knowledge, it may
be useful to observe one or two related ideas so that our understanding may be clarified.
We speak of the "Infinite" and the "Absolute" in our endeavour to present something of
the greatness of the Lord, but we must remember that the word "infinite" means strictly
"unlimited", while the word "absolute" means "unrelated". So far as man is concerned, a
thing which is wholly umlimited and wholly unrelated, is wholly unknown and wholly
unreal. In theology, therefore, the terms "Infinite" and "Absolute" are modified to refer
to a Being Who is "Self-limited" and "Self-sufficient". When we use the term "the
Infinite", we mean the Being, Whose limitations are wholly within Himself. He is
limited by what He is, and not by other and external things. Similarly, when we use the
term "absolute" we mean that God is absolute in the sense that He is self-sufficient and
independent of all externals. We find, however, that the philosopher speaks of God as
being self-sufficient and independent for His fullness upon relations to other realities.
This is where Scripture is at variance with Philosophy, for, according to the Scriptures,