God Is Infinite

Back in 1995, Pixar’s groundbreaking first feature-length computer-animated movie Toy Story came out. It quickly became a box office success and a household name. Kids and adults alike were motivated by and would quote Buzz Lightyear’s famous line: “To infinity and beyond!” Buzz was one of the two main characters, a super-hero astronaut action figure. His catchphrase conveyed his conviction in limitless possibilities and the desire to travel beyond space’s known boundaries.

We often use infinite and its related words wrongly – unlimited wealth, a kid with boundless energy, or taking infinite pains to accomplish a task. These things may seem unlimited, boundless, and infinite because they are beyond our personal ability, but in truth, they all have limits. The only One to whom this adjective can rightly apply to is God.

But what do we mean by God is infinite? First, let me echo Henry Ward Beecher, a pastor from the 1800s. My words will be “broken and imperfect” as would be any finite creature seeking to describe our infinite God.

Next, it means that God is incomprehensible. Even as we know God more and more throughout all eternity, we will never know Him completely. In one of his sermons, Charles Spurgeon gave a helpful illustration: “As well might a gnat seek to drink in the ocean as a finite creature to comprehend the Eternal God. A God whom we could understand would be no God. If we could grasp Him, He could not be infinite. If we could understand Him, He could not be divine.”^[1]

In addition to meaning incomprehensible, infinite means “All that God is, He is without bounds or limits.”^[2]One approach theologians take in describing God is by using negation – what He is not. God knows no degrees. He can’t be measured. He has no end. Ligonier Ministries has another helpful definition: “To be infinite means God’s being and greatness have no limits.”^[3]

Although Scripture does not contain the word infinite, the doctrine of God’s infinitude is throughout Scripture.

Great is the Lord, and abundant in power;

his understanding is beyond measure.

Psalm 147:5 (emphasis added)

⁷Can you find out the deep things of God?

Can you find out the limit of the Almighty?

⁸It is higher than heaven – what can you do?

Deeper than Sheol – what can you know?

⁹Its measure is longer than the earth

and broader than the sea.

Job 11:7-9 (emphasis added)

Like God’s simplicity, His infinitude qualifies all His other attributes. Let’s look at a few examples:

God is not limited or bound by space: “Where shall I go from Your Spirit? Where shall I flee from your presence” (Psalm 139:7-8)?

God is not limited or bound by time. He created time: “God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day” (Genesis 1:5)

God existed before creation: “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1).

God is spirit, so He cannot be measured like the rest of creation: “God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship him in spirit and truth” (John 4:24).

God’s steadfast love and faithfulness endure forever: “For the Lord is good; his steadfast love endures forever and his faithfulness to all generations” (Psalm 100:5).

God’s knowledge is limitless: “Oh the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways (Romans 11:33)!

“O Lord, you have searched me and known me! You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar. You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways. Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O Lord, you know it altogether. You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high; I cannot attain it” (Psalm 139:1-6).

God is the Almighty. Omnipotent: “When Abram was ninety-nine years old the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, ‘I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless’” (Genesis 17:1).

“God spoke to Moses and said to him, ‘I am the Lord. I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, as God Almighty, but by my name the Lord I did not make myself known to them” (Exodus 6:2-3)

As we continue to journey through “God is…” truths, we not only remember that each is who God is, His very essence, and inextricably intertwined with all the others, but that there is also no limit to any of them. He is perfect in each. He is the fullness of each. If He was lacking by even an iota in one of them, He could not be God.

In “God Is Simple”, we learned that Jesus is the image of the invisible God (Colossians 1:15), so we see and know God only in and through Christ. As we consider God’s infinitude, we understand that when we sin, it is rebellion against “an infinitely glorious God” (Mark Jones). Therefore, Jesus as fully God and fully man had to atone for sin “because the atonement needed to be infinite in value.”^[4]

It is only by God’s great kindness that finite creatures such as us can understand by means of the Gospel even a glimmer of an infinite God.

Reflection

1.    In her song, King of the World, Natalie Grant sings: “How could I make You so small when You’re the One who made it all?” In what ways have you made God small? Limited Him to a box of your making?

2.    Take one or two of your favorite “God is…” truths and think about what it means for God to be limitless, boundless, and measureless in that attribute. Make it personal. How does it impact you? For example: Because God is infinitely sovereign, He is never taken by surprise. Nothing ever gets by Him. There is no plan that succeed against Him. Every detail, even a hair that falls from my head is under His control. I do not need to be anxious about anything because He holds it all in His hand.

3.    Any praise we offer our infinite God is insufficient compared to what He is due. Yet, still, with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength, we praise Him. You can use these verses or others to praise Him: Psalm 103:11; Isaiah 55:9-12; Psalm 36:5

You can also listen to, sing, or read these songs based on God’s infinitude: Indescribable (Chris Tomlin), Magnificent (Matt Redman), Great God How Infinite Art Thou (Isaac Watts), Infinite God to Thee We Raise (Charles Wesley), Great Is Thy Faithfulness (Thomas Obadiah Chisholm), King of the World (Natlie Grant)

For Further Study

1.    Read the following passages, write what you learn about God’s infinitude, and discuss it through text or in-person with others in your small group: Psalm 119:96; Revelation 5:9-11; 1 Kings 8:27; Isaiah 40:12, 28; 55:8-9; 66:1-2; Matthew 10:29-30

2.    Memorize one of the verses from “God Is Infinite”.

^[1] Spurgeon, Charles. A Christmas Question, Sermon #291, December 25, 1859. https://www.spurgeon.org/resource-library/sermons/a-christmas-question/#flipbook/

^[2] Tozer, A.W. The Attributes of God Volume 1: A Journey Into the Father’s Heart (Camp Hill, Pa: Wing Spread Publishers, 1997), 4.

^[3] “Our Infinite God.” Learn.Ligonier, Ligonier Ministries, 26 June 2006, https://learn.ligonier.org/devotionals/our-infinite-god. Accessed 1 Aug. 2025.

^[4] Jones, Mark. God Is: A Devotional Guide to the Attributes of God (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2017.