Is There Anything God Can’t Do?

Stephen answers the question, “is there anything God can’t do?” He discusses God’s omnipotence and its meaning for us today.

The Omnipotent God

Another word that is sometimes used to describe the nature of God is Omnipotence, which simply means God is all-powerful.   And there are certainly a number of passages in the Bible that support this teaching as true.  Jeremiah 32:27 says “Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh.  Is anything too hard for me?”  Jesus would say in Matthew 19:26 “with man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”  If we read through the creation account in Genesis and see how God spoke the universe into existence, or read through Job 38-41 where God goes through His hand at work in the nature of our world, we get a glimpse of the almighty power of God.

Is There Anything God Can’t Do?

So, is there anything God can’t do?  The answer to that question we get directly from the Bible.  Titus 1:2 reads ‘in hope of eternal life , which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began.”  Another instance we find is in the gospel of Mark, chapter 6, where is says of Jesus in his hometown, 

“he could do no mighty work there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and healed them.  And he marveled because of their unbelief.” Mark 6:5

The Importance of Holiness

So it would seem that there might be a bit of a contradiction in the scripture here, but there really isn’t.  Let’s start with God the Father, and the claim that he cannot lie.  Surely, if God has the power to do anything, He should have the power to lie.  But let’s understand that this isn’t a question of power, it is a question of will, intent and on a more philosophical level, of nature. 

The fact is, God can do anything He wants to, because He has the power to do anything He wants to.  God cannot lie, or commit any sin for that matter, because he doesn’t want to. 

Holiness is extremely important to God, both His holiness and ours.  There are three occasions in Leviticus, which are also quoted in 1 Peter, where God says to his people “Be Holy, because I am Holy.”   Because holiness is so important to God, He will not do anything that would corrupt His holiness.   So when the Bible says God cannot lie, it isn’t speaking about whether God has the power to lie, that’s a far more philosophical discussion, it is talking about God’s unwillingness to lie, or to sin.

God Cannot Do Anything Outside His Nature

The philosophical standpoint on the matter, which is much harder to fully comprehend is that God cannot do anything that is outside His nature, which is perfection, goodness, and love.  Therefore, since sin is defined best as anything contrary to the nature of God, then if God sinned, as we know it, you could only have one of two results, either God would prove Himself not to be God, or, whatever it was that God did, would no longer be classified as sin as it would be within God’s nature to do. 

Personally, I’m not a big fan of the philosophical approach because however you look at it, the first step is never going to happen because of God will never sin.

God’s Power on Display

Looking to the instance of Jesus, we see the context of the people in Nazareth not believing that Jesus had performed the miracles people were saying he had done.  So when Mark writes he could do no great work there, it wasn’t for a lack of power, it was due to a lack of faith. 

This is even more evident as Mark does actually continue to write that despite their lack of faith, he did actually still perform some small miracles of healing on the sick.  And here is where we see God’s power on the fullest display.  Not in the signs and wonders, but in his love and compassion toward us despite our disobedience.  The power that God shows in His restraint, in not giving us what we truly deserve, speaks to me much louder than all the works of creation and all of the miracles He has done throughout history.

God Doesn’t Treat Us Like We Treat Him

When we sin, we are turned away from God, the Bible tells us that we were once alienated from God, dead in our trespasses, enemies of God, and so on.  But God doesn’t treat us in kind, by distancing himself from us, or utterly destroying us which He would be fully justified to do based on His holiness and righteousness, but rather he provides the solution to the problem of our sin, and allows us, through Christ, to be restored to him, to be forgiven.  He can make the unholy, holy, the unclean clean. He can make the spiritually dead alive again.  Is there anything God can’t do?

Romans 5:8 says that God demonstrated His love toward us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 

God Can Redeem Us From Our Sinful Nature

That God can redeem us from ourselves, from our sinful nature, speaks of a power beyond anything we can imagine.  And God wants us to know His power.  Ephesians 1 reads “having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable power greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places”       

Do you think that there is anything God can’t do? Tell us what you think. We would love to hear from you. Comment below or contact us at HopeStreamRadio.