Commentary on Westminster Shorter Catechism Part 8

Q. 4. What is God?
A. God is a Spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth.

1 Kings 8:27 27 “But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain You, how much less this house which I have built!

In the age of the internet, we are used to having seemingly boundless information at the tips of our fingers. You can google just about anything. With all this information so at hand, we ought to be aware of how little we actually know. You might be able to do a web search for some piece of information but there are limits to what you can learn and hold on to. Furthermore, the internet isn’t limitless. It’s just a lot and not all of it is actual knowledge. Humans for all our technological advances are bound in our knowing. Even if our brains were to work like a google search, we would be bound in our being able to sort it all and to apply it. We are finite. We have limits to our capacity to know things. We are bound physically to the space that we currently take up. We are frozen in time, that is we don’t know the future and we cannot go back to the past. Neither can we stop the progress of time. What was just the present is the past and what was the future is now the present- oops is now the past.
God is infinite. He isn’t bound by the restraints of space and time. He knows the beginning from the end perfectly. God is omniscient which means that He has unlimited knowledge. Not only does God know everything that has happened perfectly and everything that will happen, but He also knows all things that could have possibly happened. Nothing takes God by surprise.
God is also omnipotent. This means that He has infinite power. There are no limits to his strength. He can do all His holy will, nothing can stop His decreed will from happening, and nothing can thwart or stop His divine purposes from being fulfilled.
God is all-wise. His wisdom is not bound. He knows not only everything there is to know, He knows what to do with all of his knowledge. He knows the perfect and best way to accomplish His holy will.
God is infinitely holy. God is infinitely good. There are no limits to the good that God will do for his people.
Now someone might ask, well if God is all-knowing, all-powerful, and all-good, then how come evil exists. If God is all-good and all-powerful, they say, then he would not have allowed evil to exist. But since evil exists God is either not all-good or He is not all-powerful. What is this answer to this supposed problem? Might I humbly suggest there is no problem. The problem is that we as humans are limited in our knowledge and wisdom, God is not. God in his infinite wisdom, being all-good, all-holy, all-powerful, and all-just knows what will bring about the perfect good, holy, and just outcome.
What right do those with finite knowledge, finite power, finite wisdom, and corrupt hearts have to say to God that He is not doing what is good or just? It is only ignorant pride that would cause the creature to think he could question the creator.
Finally, as we think about God, we must be careful to think that our minds can grasp all there is to know about God. We do not even know all there is to know about ourselves. Therefore, we ought to always be humbly submitting ourselves to His revelation of himself found in His word. We will be studying God for eternity and because of his infinite nature we will never find ourselves at the end of that study. Give yourself to that study. And trust Him because He is Infinite and you are finite.