God Omnipotent
Earlier this month, NASA released information about its Parker Solar Probe. Compelled by the gravitational pull of the sun, the probe reached speeds up to 365,000 miles per hour and came within 8.1 million miles of the sun earlier this year. The probe is expected to pass by the sun fourteen more times in the next four years, with the closest advance being on its last flyby in 2024-25—coming as near as 3.8 million miles (the sun is approximately 93 million miles from earth).
The probe is sending solar information back to earth that scientists hope will help them understand why the outer atmosphere of the sun (the corona) reaches temperatures of 3.5 million degrees Fahrenheit, several times hotter than the surface of the sun. They also hope to gain further insights into things like the solar wind that emanates from the surface of the sun, reaching speeds of 1.7 million miles per hour.
The power of the sun seems overwhelming to us. Yet the power of the sun’s rays and the lumens it produces pale in comparison to God who created it and sustains it. The only reason that the sun stays in its heavenly position is because Christ holds it there (Colossians 1:17—an impressive figure when one considers the “size” of One who can hold something as immense as the sun and how strong One must be to withstand its heat). And the glory of the sun and even the pervasiveness of the darkness of night will soon be overshadowed by the glory emanating from the throne of God; the need for the sun’s light will be rendered useless because of the ever-present radiance of God (Revelation 22:5).
These contrasts reveal something of the infinite power of God. Theologians call that limitless power of God His omnipotence—He is omni (all) potent. Yet as remarkable as God’s power is in the natural world, His power is exemplified in even grander ways in the spiritual realm. God’s power is seen most greatly in His act of redemption and salvation.
As you minister in weakness and brokenness to weak and broken people, consider just four demonstrations of God’s unlimited spiritual power.
God’s Omnipotence Supersedes the Power of Satan (Hebrews 2:14)
That God’s power is superior to Satan’s was evidenced when Satan was cast out of heaven (Ezekiel 28:16ff) and then in the Garden when Satan had to submit to God’s curse (Genesis 3:14-15). For all the power Satan does have, he was unable to circumvent God’s curse against him.
Satan has spent the rest of human history attempting to overcome God’s power and attempting to seduce men with the belief that he is more powerful than God (Job 1-2; 1 Peter 5:8). And all those attempts will prove finally to be vain because at the cross, the One who partook of our flesh “rendered Satan powerless” (Hebrews 2:14).
That is not to say that Satan has no power—certainly he is a roaring lion (1 Peter 5:8), he is a deceiver who blinds (2 Corinthians 4:4), and through his temptations he keeps people in bondage to their sin (2 Timothy 2:26). It is to say, however, that at the moment of Christ’s willful death Satan was stripped of his power and those who believe in Christ are freed from the guile of his temptations and the chains of his bondage to act sinfully. Satan’s strength is great, but it is also limited. God’s power of salvation is unlimited and infinite and that is demonstrated by Christ’s stripping Satan of his power of temptation, sin, and death. Christ’s willful death and resurrection are His authoritative demonstrations of supreme power over Satan.
The truth of Christ’s power over Satan leads to another demonstration of God’s spiritual omnipotence.
God’s Omnipotence Vanquishes the Power of Sin and Death Through the Resurrection (1 Corinthians 15)
Charles Spurgeon pointed out a particular significance of the death of Christ when he said, “We celebrate Gethsemane and Calvary, and find no bitterness in their grief, because death is swallowed up in the victory of the resurrection.… If you ask me where God’s glory is most seen, I will not point to the creation, nor to providence, but to the raising of Jesus from the dead.”
How is Christ’s resurrection and God’s power to resurrect Christ so significant? Paul points out a number of aspects of that power in 1 Corinthians 15:
The resurrection gospel (defined in v. 3) is the power by which we stand before God (v. 1)
The resurrection of Christ is the power for our resurrection; without it we remain in sin (vv. 12, 17)
The resurrection is the power by which we will be made alive (v. 22)
The resurrection is the power by which Christ abolishes all false rulers and establishes His own ultimate kingly reign (v. 24)
The resurrection is the power by which death is abolished (v. 26)
The resurrection is the power for the provision of our new, spiritual bodies (vv. 42ff)
The resurrection is the power by which we are enabled to inherit imperishable blessings (v. 50)
The resurrection is the power to remove death’s sting and grant final victory to the believer (vv. 56-57)
The cross and the grave—two places that the world perceives as the greatest failure and weakness, God uses to accomplish His great demonstration of power.
There is a related aspect of God’s unlimited power in salvation.
God’s Omnipotence Gives Salvation to Whom He Wills (John 6:37ff)
As a parent, I have particularly seen the limitations of my strength in two places—a sick child and a disobedient child. Holding a sick child (and taking her to a doctor—or even a series of medical experts) makes one realize that he is powerless to sustain that child’s life. Likewise, nothing a parent can say or do will ever change the heart of a sinner; we not only cannot keep them from sinning, but even more, we are powerless to change their hearts to keep them from wanting to sin.
But the omnipotence of God is not restricted by the sinful will of any man—a truth Christ articulated in John 6. Consider that in God’s power,
All that are given to Christ will come (v. 37—and remember that everyone who is now a believer began life as a God-hater, resistant to His will).
The process of redemption is the very reason for the incarnation and advent of Christ (vv. 38, 40). Christ demonstrated His power by becoming the unique God-Man for the purpose of buying enslaved sinners out of sin.
None that God wills to save will be lost in the process—He is powerful to know them all, save them all, and keep them all (v. 39).
The Father’s will draws sinners to Christ and the Son powerfully raises them up finally and fully to eternal life (v. 44). The proverbial saying, “you can lead a horse to water but you cannot make him drink” does not apply to God. The sinful will of man is no impediment to God. God is powerful to make the rebellious sinner yearn for Him, and He is powerful to keep him for all eternity (1 Peter 1:3-5).
God’s Omnipotence Produces Present Sanctification (Galatians 3:3; 5:16)
On what basis can anyone not carry out the desire of the flesh? We know the unbeliever cannot stop sinning on his own; the only thing he can do is sin and even his best efforts are sin (Romans 3:10-18, 23). But what about the believer? How will he stop sinning and begin doing things that please the Lord? Both Scripture and experience inform us that will power is not sufficient to stop sinning.
The flesh is incapable of producing sanctification and spiritual maturity—and to attempt fleshly sanctification is folly (Galatians 3:3). Only the Spirit of God is powerful enough to produce God’s work in a man (Galatians 5:16)—only the Spirit of God will enable one to resist the pull of the flesh. The strength of the believer is only and always from the power of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22ff) and the gospel (Ephesians 6:10ff) residing in him. That also means that when the believer has the Spirit of God, he is able (because of the omnipotence of the Spirit) to do what the Spirit compels him to do.
Prior to believing the gospel, you and I could do nothing to please God; after the gospel, we can please Him and do acts of righteousness. That’s the power of His omnipotence to produce spiritual living.
How might the counselor and counselee be helped by these realities about God’s omnipotence?
Lessons from God’s Omnipotence
Many counselees will be ensnared by lifetime habits of sin—they have been caught by Satan’s deluding traps. They may well say (as I have often heard), “I can’t imagine battling this sin the rest of my life—I can’t do it.” They are right. They cannot do it. But the power of God in them can do what He has called and equipped them to do.
Further, if counselees repeatedly fall into sin, that may be an indication that they are not believers—that they do not have the resurrection power of Christ in them because they do not yet belong to Him as God’s children. And that gives us an opportunity to explain the gospel and how it frees from sin. For this, I like to use Romans 6, slowly explaining the entire chapter and what the gospel does to change and liberate believers, and then ask, “Have you ever experienced the power of the gospel like that?” And if they haven’t, then call them to repentance and faith.
Thirdly, God’s omnipotence is also an encouragement to the counselor that when our counselees fail and even walk away from biblical instruction and exhortation, they have not captivated God; He is not bound by their sin but He is capable of overwhelming their unbelief and drawing them to Himself in fellowship and faith and then sanctifying them. Because of the omnipotence of God, we can hopefully say about persistent sinners, “As long as they have breath, their rebellion is not final—who knows what God will do to change them?”
And finally, the omnipotence of God is an invitation to trust God when we are weary, overwhelmed, and struggling (with how to counsel, or even with our own sin). As one pastor said a couple of generations ago: “After Calvary, God has the right to be trusted; to be believed that He means what He says; and that His love is dependable.”
He is an omnipotent God. That omnipotence is enough for any and all of our needs in this world and in the eternal world.