A phrase you often hear when speaking about God in public situations is, “You can’t put God in box.” Now of course, that’s true on several levels. It would be one big box. But beyond that, what non-believers tend to mean when they say things like this is that Christians are wrong to claim to know things about God specifically, like for instance, that Jesus Christ is the only way to the Father. Or that God is no one other than who he is shown to be in Jesus. Now, it’s pretty obvious why some people would hear that as limiting. And we admit–God is infinite–and it’s surprising that the infinite God would allow himself to be described by finitude. But if that is in fact what he has done by expressing his ultimate revelation through the man Jesus Christ, are we to say he can’t do that? And is that really putting God in a box? Here’s some thoughts on this I read recently:
Human beings do not set the conditions for what God can or cannot do.
But Christian faith has gained confidence that God will not reveal himself in a way contrary to the way he has revealed himself in Jesus Christ. Christianity does not limit revelation to Christ, but through Christ sees God’s revelation as occurring elsewhere and finally, echoing everywhere.
The more clearly God is seen in Christ, the less ambiguously God is seen everywhere else. This does not result in a syncretism that quickly forgets that God was made known in Christ and looks for God independently elsewhere. For the general revelation of God everywhere is now all the more knowable through the Revealer.
Christ is the unparalleled and unrepeatable Revealer through whom other revelations are best understood.
–F. Leroy Forlines