God's Power

Another attributes of God post re-edited and reposted so I can link to it in this week’s Theological Term of the Week.

For since the creation of the world his invisible attributes—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, because they are understood through what has been made. (Romans 1:20 NET)

Although there are statements about God’s power throughout scripture, we don’t need the revelation of scripture to know something of it, for creation itself is a clear witness to the power of God. Every person who sees the natural world we live in knows that its origin was at the hand of an unfathomably powerful God. Anyone who denies that they see God’s power in creation is suppressing what they really do know. We all understand, deep down, that there is a God who possesses eternal power and those who deny him are are choosing, on some level, to fool themselves into believing otherwise.

Not only did God create the world by His power, but we know from scripture that the created order is maintained “by the word of his power” (Hebrews 1). The universe keeps on functioning because of God is constantly exerting his power to sustain it. God spoke the universe into existence and he speaks its continued existence.

That God is omnipotent means that he has the power to execute his will. When Psalm 115 tells us that God does whatever he pleases it is telling us that God is omnipotent. So, too, when Paul tell us in Ephesians 1 that God works all things after the counsel of His will. What God decides to do comes about with certainty because he has the power to accomplish whatever he wills.

If God desired, he could do more than he does. His power could raise up children of Abraham from stones, but He chooses not to work that way (Matthew 3). God had the power to free Jesus from the multitude that took him, for Jesus tells us that he could have called upon the Father and the Father would have sent more than twelve legions of angels to rescue him (Matthew 26:53); but it was God’s will that Christ be delivered over to be crucified in order to work the salvation that had already declared in scripture (Matthew 26:54).

That God is omnipotent doesn’t mean that he can do absolutely anything at all. We are told that God cannot lie, he cannot sin, and he cannot deny himself. What keeps him from doing those things, however, is not lack of power, but steadfastness of character. It is the constancy of God’s perfections, not a shortage of power, that determines that there are certain actions he cannot do.

Every single person knows God’s power through his creative work, but those of us who belong to him have another witness of his power—his re-creative work within us. We know “what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe” (Ephesians 1:19ff). The power that called Lazarus from the tomb and raised Jesus from the dead has also “called us out of darkness and into his marvelous light” (1 Peter 2:9).

And we have no excuses for our failures, do we? We cannot excuse ourselves because we are weak, for while it is true that we are weak, the same power that raised Jesus dwells within us. The power of the resurrection is ours for our sanctification. It is by the work of the One who accomplishes all that He wills that we are becoming righteous. We have no excuse for not doing the works of our salvation, for it is the omnipotent God who is working in us, “both to will and to work for his good pleasure” (Philippians 2:13).

God’s “power toward us who believe” means that we have security despite our weaknesses. The God who spoke the universe into existence, who sustains it by his word, who raised Christ from the dead, and who is always, ever working all things according to the counsel of his will keeps us by his power (1 Peter 1:3-5). The God of all ability is on our side. Who can stand against us?

It is through the power of the One who accomplishes all that he pleases that we are overwhelming conquerors in the most difficult circumstances, so that

…neither death nor life,
nor angels nor principalities nor powers,
nor things present nor things to come,
nor height nor depth,
nor any other created thing,
shall be able to separate us from the love of God
which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
(Romans 8:38,39)

The limitlessness of God’s power is one more reason for us to trust in him.

Comments

[TulipGirl]

Amen!