Power of God
What The Bible Teaches
Unit 1
Who is God?
Lesson 5
How Powerful Is God?
God is all-powerful (omnipotent or His omnipotence). What does this mean to you? What should it mean to you? God created the universe. God created you. Don’t you believe that God has the power to solve all those surrounding problems you?
Psalm 115:3 (NKJV)
3 But our God is in heaven; He does whatever He pleases.
Getting Attention
Why should thoughtful people ask, How powerful is God?
Why is power needed? How do people use their power today?
Knowing and Understanding the Bible
The world is full of people who do not believe in God. Why does Bad Things Happen to Good People by Rabbi Harold Kushner conclude that God is not powerful enough to stop all of the evil and bad events of life? He used this method to explain the death of his child. More relevant to modern Christians, this same question has led to a new cult called Open Theism.
Open Theism, while saying that God has the power, denies God’s ability to use this power to help us by declaring that God cannot see the future, so He cannot stop that truck from running over you since He does not know it will happen. While stated in terms of knowledge, one could restate their position to be that God is not powerful enough to see the future.
This was also the question of Job. Why do bad things happen to you? Does God not love? Is He not powerful enough to protect you?
Sovereignty
God is the supreme ruler and controller of all things in the universe. This is the teaching of Psalm 115:3. God is King or President of the universe. The word sovereign means chief, highest, or supreme. God is in control.
1 Timothy 6:15-16 (NKJV)
15 which He will manifest in His own time, He who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings and Lord of lords, 16 who alone has immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see, to whom be honor and everlasting power. Amen.
1 Timothy 1:17 (NKJV)
17 Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, to God who alone is wise, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.
Omniscience
God is omniscient or all-knowing. God knows all things, past, present, or future.
Psalm 139:1-6 (NKJV)
1 O Lord, You have searched me and known me. 2 You know my sitting down and my rising up; You understand my thought afar off. 3 You comprehend my path and my lying down, And are acquainted with all my ways. 4 For there is not a word on my tongue, But behold, O Lord, You know it altogether. 5 You have hedged me behind and before, And laid Your hand upon me. 6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; It is high, I cannot attain it.
God knows us in a personal way – He searches us personally and knows all about us. The concept of a hedge in v5 suggests that God’s knowledge is active rather than passive. It is not just that He knows things; rather, He acts as sovereign over situations and actually controls situations. The knowledge of God is beyond man’s understanding and comprehension.
Isaiah 55:8-9 (NKJV)
8 “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord. 9 “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts.
In addition, Scriptures teach us that God knows things that would have taken place if people had acted differently. See 1 Sam 23:1-13 as an example.
If God knows everything, including all possibilities, and takes an active role in assuring which events become fact, then believers should take great assurance that God is at work for our benefit all of the time.
Omnipresence
God is present everywhere (omnipresence). In this fashion, He is able to work His power when ever, where ever He desires.
Psalm 139:7-12 (NKJV)
7 Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? 8 If I ascend into heaven, You are there; If I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there. 9 If I take the wings of the morning, And dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, 10 Even there Your hand shall lead me, And Your right hand shall hold me. 11 If I say, “Surely the darkness shall fall on me,” Even the night shall be light about me; 12 Indeed, the darkness shall not hide from You, But the night shines as the day; The darkness and the light are both alike to You.
Omnipotence
As indicated above, omnipotence means all-powerful. This does not mean there are things God cannot do. For example, God cannot lie (Titus 1:2). What God cannot do is act contrary to His nature or essence. Therefore, God cannot sin or abide sin.
Psalm 139:13-24 (NKJV)
13 For You formed my inward parts; You covered me in my mother’s womb. 14 I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Marvelous are Your works, And that my soul knows very well. 15 My frame was not hidden from You, When I was made in secret, And skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. 16 Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in Your book they all were written, The days fashioned for me, When as yet there were none of them. 17 How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How great is the sum of them! 18 If I should count them, they would be more in number than the sand; When I awake, I am still with You. 19 Oh, that You would slay the wicked, O God! Depart from me, therefore, you bloodthirsty men. 20 For they speak against You wickedly; Your enemies take Your name in vain. 21 Do I not hate them, O Lord, who hate You? And do I not loathe those who rise up against You? 22 I hate them with perfect hatred; I count them my enemies. 23 Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me, and know my anxieties; 24 And see if there is any wicked way in me, And lead me in the way everlasting.
All of God’s works demonstrate His great power. Look at the world around you. Consider all of the different types of trees and shrubs, grasses, animals, insects, as well as people. This is the power of God! God has the power to create, rule, and control His creation, including “balancing the books” (vv19-24). God is Almighty, a term used over 40 times in the Old Testament (Gen 17:1; 35:11). This term reappears several times in Revelation (Rev 1:8; 4:8; 11:7; 15:3; 16:7, 14; 19:15; 21:22).
In other words, God is more powerful than all of His Creation.
Two Special Issues
The creation of the universe
In Psalm 139 David speaks of the special event of the birth of a child. If one thinks of special events in Scripture, the incarnation and resurrection of Jesus would surely come to mind. The judgments to come are another aspect of God’s power. However, there are two special events that deal with God’s power and are of concern to the believer today.
The first of these is the issue of creation. Today’s humanist, secular society pins its beliefs on science and evolution. The universe was formed by natural laws and mankind lives by these rules. If evolution is true, the resurrection is difficult to believe because there is no entity powerful enough to overcome the natural laws. If, however, there is a Creator who made the heavens and the earth, it is a simple, short step to belief in the incarnation and the resurrection.
The Bible clearly states that God exists and that He has made the Heavens and the earth, as well as man (see generally Gen 1).
Genesis 1:1 (NKJV)
1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
Genesis 1:26 (NKJV)
26 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
Hebrews 11:3 (NKJV)
3 By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible.
God’s great power demonstrates His difference and separation from His Creation. His relationship with Creation is spoken of in terms of transcendence, providence, and immanence.
Transcendence speaks to God’s separation and difference from the Creation. God is not a part of Creation. This concept does not refer so much to physical distance as it does to the quality of being. God is so majestic and holy that He is far above and beyond any thoughts man may have about Him. God stands apart from man in unapproachable light. This is truly the key thought behind transcendence, the idea of God being unapproachable.
Even though God is far apart from His creation, He also penetrates everything. This paradox is best explained by the example of a bucket of water in the ocean. The ocean is in the bucket at the same time the bucket is in the ocean. God is the ocean while creation is the bucket. The bucket is not part of God, but God fills creation. This is His immanence. Thus, when man goes looking for God he need not look far. God is right there! This is the beauty of immanence and helps to explain why God is so far from the sinner, yet, immediately present when the sinner falls to his knees in heart felt repentance. Transcendence requires that man recognize God as being God. He is not human! At the same time, God so cares for His creation that He has made Himself immediate accessible to it through His immanence. God does have a narrative with His creation.
Psalm 139 truly speaks to God’s transcendence. Passages which speak to His immanence are Hab 1:6 (dealing with nations), Psalm 104:13-14 (rain falls, grass grows), and Psalm 104:23-24 (man and work, God and work).
Providence describes the method by which God exercises His sovereign control over the affairs of Creation, especially the affairs of individual men. Nothing happens by chance. All events are controlled by God.
Psalm 104:27-30 (NKJV)
27 These all wait for You, That You may give them their food in due season. 28 What You give them they gather in; You open Your hand, they are filled with good. 29 You hide Your face, they are troubled; You take away their breath, they die and return to their dust. 30 You send forth Your Spirit, they are created; And You renew the face of the earth.
Other New Testament verses would include Matthew 6: 25-33; 10:29-31; Rom. 8:28-39; 2 Cor. 4:11-18; 1 Pet. 1:3-9).
The problem of evil
If God is loving He wants to keep us all happy and safe.
We are not all happy and safe.
Therefore, either God is not all loving or He is not able to keep us safe, that is, He is not all-powerful.
This is the “problem of evil.”
Many people feel this is a particular problem with Christianity. You should note at the start that this issue exists for all religions and worldviews. Everyone faces the problem of evil in one form or another.
Evil includes the issues of sin as well as war, crime, and “natural disasters.” No worldview has a solution to these issues. There has always been evil and natural disasters. Those who postulate a solution normally end up with some type of dualism that postulates both a “good” force (God) and a “bad” force (evil or Satan). This is the solution of Open Theism. Those following the Open View of theology suggests that God is not really powerful enough to defeat Satan at a daily, individual level.
How is evil to be explained if God is all-powerful?
We must remember first that humans chose to be evil. This is the story of Adam and Eve (Gen 3). The human race is born in sin because of their choice (Rom 5:12-21). If God were to have destroyed evil immediately, the human race as well as the serpent would have died. Adam and Eve lived because of God’s grace.
Second, God has kept every promise He has made. This is the history and story of the Bible. There are prophecies that have not yet been fulfilled, but Revelation tells us the end of the story. In the end, God will win.
Revelation 21:4 (NKJV)
4 And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.”
Only Christianity has this promise.
Applying / Practicing the Bible
Why rejoice over God’s power? How much do you believe typical believers live their lives in dependence on an all-powerful God?
What about you? Can you thank God for the grace, faith, and obedience that you have in living your life in dependence on this all-powerful God?