Talking God #9
January 8, 2011
GOD’S POWER
God’s power is infinite, eternal and unchangeable. Our second big word for the evening is omnipotent. He is the Lord God Almighty. God is sovereign over all the universe. There is no one telling him what he can and cannot do. This has always been the case and always will be. He can never become more powerful than he is now.
Again there are plenty of scriptures to support this doctrine. When the geriatric Sarah laughs at the stranger’s pronouncement that she will bear a son, the Lord says (Gen.18:14): Is anything too hard for the Lord?
When, in a different spirit, Mary asks Gabriel, how she could become pregnant since she is a virgin, the angel replies: Nothing is impossible with God. (Lk.1:37)
Jeremiah prays: Ah Sovereign Lord, you have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and outstretched arm. Nothing is too hard for you. (Jer.32:17)
Now, when we say that God is omnipotent we do not mean that God can do anything! There are things that God cannot do. For a start, God cannot do anything that is contrary to his nature. So he cannot lie (Heb.6:17,18); he cannot break a promise (2 Corinthians.1:20); he cannot change.
Secondly, God cannot do the irrational. He cannot make 2+2=5, he cannot make a boulder too heavy for him to lift; he cannot make a four-sided triangle or a square circle. These are absurdities.
Thirdly, God can never exhaust his power. He could never not do what he wants to do.
Conversely, there are certain things that he can do that he doesn’t; for example, ridding the world of sin and evil right now. He has his own reasons for not doing so. So when we say that God is omnipotent, that he is the Almighty God, we mean that he has the power to do what he wants to do. There is nothing to hinder him putting his will into effect. Ps.115:3: Our God is in heaven; he does whatever pleases him.
I think there are a lot of misunderstandings about the will of God. Sometimes we can use the phrase “it’s God’s will” in a rather fatalistic manner. There’s a helplessness, a hopelessness behind that phrase, a resignation.
It is true that the Bible teaches us that behind everything that happens is the will of God. The early church understood this. Turn to Acts 4:27, which is the prayer of the disciples after they had been arrested for the first time for preaching that Jesus had risen from the dead. As I read this to you think about every decision, every step that had to be taken by so many people before Jesus could have been crucified: Indeed Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles and the people of Israel in the city to conspire against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed. They did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen.
What if Judas had changed his mind? What if the Sanhedrin had refused to meet at night-time, for to do so was against their rules? What if Herod had decided not to send Jesus back to Pilate; he would have been doing Pilate a favour? What if Pilate had had the courage to release an innocent man? What if Barabbas hadn’t been waiting in death row?
God willed the role played by every actor in the crucifixion drama; just as ultimately everything that happens is as a result of his will.
Over the centuries Christian theologians have differentiated between God’s revealed will and God’s secret will. God’s revealed will is what he tells us to do, his commands. He has revealed that we are to love one another; that we are to honour our parents, that we are not to kill or steal from each other, and so on.
However, there are stories in the Bible where it is apparent that there is more going on than meets the eye. Take the story of Joseph, for example. The revealed will of God told Joseph’s brothers not to harm him, not to make plans to murder him, not to sell him into slavery. They disobeyed God’s will for them. God’s revealed will for Potiphar’s wife was that she should be faithful to her husband. She should not have tried to seduce Joseph; nor should she have lied about him attacking her. God’s revealed will for Pharaoh’s cupbearer was that he should have remembered his promise to Joseph to mention his plight to Pharaoh.
All of these characters acted in breach of God’s revealed will for humanity.Yet at the very end of the story Joseph could say to his brothers—as he could have said to each of the others: Don’t be afraid. Am I in the place of God? You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. (Gen.50:19)
If the brothers had not sold Joseph into slavery, they, and countless others, would have starved. If Potiphar’s wife had not lied, Joseph would not have been in prison and would not have met the cupbearer. If the cupbearer had remember him to Pharaoh when he said he would, Joseph might have been released, and would have been no where to be found when he was needed.
While the revealed will of God was broken time after time, the secret will of God was at work, for the saving of many lives. He even uses sin to achieve his purposes. Herman Bavinck uses this illustration: Just as a father forbids his child to touch a sharp knife even though he himself uses it without injury or damage, so God forbids us to sin though he himself is able to use and does use sin as a means to self-glorification. (Doctrine of God p.240)
So then, when some tragedy befalls us—and we only have to live long enough for that to happen—we can truly say “it’s the will of God” and have the assurance that though we don’t understand why what’s happening is happening, and though it is heart-breaking, and though unbelievers will question our continuing faith, that the God who loves us, the God who works out all things for our good, is active. He is not impotent. He is omnipotent.
Ye fearful saints fresh courage take, the clouds ye so much dread/are big with mercy, and shall break, in blessings on your head.
Judge not the Lord by feeble sense, but trust him for his grace./ Behind a frowning providence he hides a smiling face.
His purposes will ripen fast, unfolding every hour;/the bud may have a bitter taste, but sweet will be the flower. (Cowper)
