# “We could sooner fit the oceans of the world in a teacup than understand God” by Mark Jones

- Link: https://tollelege.net/2025/08/29/the-oceans-of-the-world-in-a-teacup-by-mark-jones/
- Published: 2025-08-29T16:30:00-05:00
- Author: tollelege

“When we consider God’s attributes, we must always consider them as infinite. His
infinity is a positive concept, so that we must say that His attributes are intensively
and qualitatively infinite.

God’s infinity is the highest sense of perfection. Without bounds or limits or degrees,
God knows infinitely (**Isa. 40:28**) and is a sphere whose center is everywhere
and circumference nowhere. He is as present in our midst as He is farthest from 
us in the universe. Yet while He is present in one place, He is never confined to
any place.

The psalmist explicitly acknowledges God’s infinity: “_Great is our Lord, and abundant
in power; his understanding is beyond measure_” (**Ps. 147:5**). God’s understanding
exists without measure. The psalmist here combines one attribute with another, as
he does elsewhere. God is great, because He is abundant in power (_omnipotent_) 
and measureless (_infinite_) in His understanding (_omniscience_).

Because God is eternal and omnipotent, nothing can limit Him or be too hard for 
him: “_Behold, I am the LORD, the God of all flesh. Is anything too hard for me?_”(**
Jer. 32:27**). He is the eternal, independent, powerful God who determines all things.

He is perfection, so that nothing extends beyond him. God’s infinity consists not
in “_indefiniteness_” or “_potentiality_” but in the perfection of His attributes.
God is fully actualized potentiality. In other words, He cannot “_become_” anything;
He always has and always will be what He alone is: a fully actualized being who 
needs nothing and possesses everything.

Affirming God’s infinity implies his incomprehensibility. We can never know God 
as He knows Himself, for the finite cannot comprehend the infinite. We possess a
bounded understanding, because we are creatures. God has a boundless understanding
as the infinite, eternal God.

We could sooner fit the oceans of the world in a teacup than understand God. Our
grasp of God compared with God’s actual being is like a dim light compared with 
the vast radiance of the sun. We can say with certainty that what we know about 
God can never be full but only adequate (i.e., saving) knowledge, which can always
increase.”

–Mark Jones, [_God Is: A Devotional Guide to the Attributes of God_](https://www.amazon.com/dp/143355562X?tag=toletaupanre-20)(
Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2017), 44-45.

More on [Glorification](https://tollelege.net/category/glorification/)