“Lo, these are parts of his ways: but how little a portion is
heard of him? but the thunder of his power who can
understand?” (Job 26:14).
Job gives a few illustrations of the power of God, and then
says that these are only parts of His ways; and not
withstanding His manifest greatness there is but little heard of
Him. In Job’s day men gave little attention to God; He was not
in their thought and speech. And it is much the same today,
for human nature never changes of itself. Man is ever the
same proud, hateful, rebellious creature, apart from the in
wrought grace of God. There is not much heard about God
today, even in the average pulpit. And in most social
gatherings the very name of God is taboo. Man is the theme
of the popular discourses of the day; it is human virtues that
are praised and human achievements that are celebrated.
God is in His world providentially, but the world knows Him
not.
God’s power takes two directions and has two objectives:
salvation and judgment. God’s power in salvation is gracious;
His power in judgment is righteous. God’s power in salvation
is the expression of His love; His power in judgment is the
expression of His holy wrath. And God’s power in grace is
equal to His power in wrath, for “There is one lawgiver, who is
able to save and to destroy: who art thou that judgest
another?” (James 4:12). If God is unable to save (convert)
“the vessels of mercy, “He might also be unable to judge
(punish) the “vessels of wrath.” Those who deny irresistible
grace cannot logically or consistently ask God to save
(convert) sinner’s; they can only ask Him to try to convert
them, or to spare sinners who convert themselves. They
cannot ask Him to bring sinners to the Savior; they can only
ask Him to try to draw them, or deliver from punishment those
who, of themselves, come to the Savior.
The popular view of God’s power in grace is given by one
writer after this fashion: “The banners of God’s army halt
outside the little fortress of our hearts inviting us to surrender;
His mighty love and grace and power wait for our decision.”
This statement ignores the truth of the depravity of human
nature, denies the need of any inward work of grace, and
overlooks the truth of the power of the Holy Spirit. It is
inconsistent in talking about the “little fortress of our hearts,
“and at the same time talking about “His mighty love and
grace and power.” To the same effect are the words of
another popular preacher: “We are bidden to make a choice.
No man can choose for us. God Almighty cannot choose for
you and me. I can put God who made me, and who gives me
the breath I breathe at arm’s length and say, ‘I will not’;or I can
turn to Him, through the gracious operation of the Holy Spirit,
and receive His salvation.” What a strange medley of truth
and error! We are bidden to choose and we ought to choose
Christ as our Lord and Savior, but because of inherent
depravity nobody makes such a choice apart from the
gracious operation of the Holy Spirit in conviction and
conversion. It is true that the sinner resists God until his
resistance is overcome by the gracious operation of the Holy
Spirit; an operation that makes the sinner willing to take Christ
as Savior and Lord; an operation that imparts to the sinner a
new mind and a new heart. As another has said: “It is simply
preposterous to speak of God Almighty, and with the same
breath to say, ‘I can put God at arm’s length.”‘ But still another
writer takes the prize for his description of a helpless God:
“Omnipotence itself is powerless (a new definition of
omnipotence, C. D. C.) in the presence of obduracy. Even a
child can raise its hand and shake its tiny fist in the face of
God Almighty, and God Almighty can do nothing.” In Prov.
21:1 we are told that “The king’s heart is in the hand of the
LORD, as the rivers of water: he turneth it whithersoever he
will, ” but the foregoing statement makes Him helpless in the
face of a child.
The power of God is a truth that ought to give peace and joy
to the heart of the believer, and strike terror to the heart of the
unbeliever. Whether Savior or Judge He is the Almighty. Both
salvation and judgment call for a mighty God.
THE NATURE OF GOD’S POWER
1. God’s power is absolute. There is nothing impossible with
Him that is an object of power. He is able to do more than He
does do. The exercise of His power is limited only by His
desire. Job says, “But he is in one mind, and who can turn
him? and what his soul desireth, even that he doeth” (Job
23:13). John the Baptist tells us “And think not to say within
yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto
you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto
Abraham” (Matt. 3:9). He could have kept Satan out of the
garden and thereby spared our parents the temptation which
resulted in the terrible ruin of the race but He did not desire to
do so. Paul says “Now unto him that is able to do exceeding
abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the
power that worketh in us, “(Eph. 3:20). And Christ assures us:
“But Jesus beheld them, and said unto them, With men this is
impossible; but with God all things are possible” (Matt. 19:26).
2. God’s power is original and essential. The power of man is
a derived power, but power belongs inherently to God. The
power of human governments lie in their armies and natural
resources of the country. It is God’s nature to be almighty. His
power is not derivative, but creative and original. He gives
power to His creatures, but derives none from them. “Let
every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no
power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God.
Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the
ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to
themselves damnation” (Rom. 13:1,2).
3. God’s power is the life and activity of all His other attributes.
All other attributes would be worthless without His power.
Without power His mercy would be feeble pity; His justice
would be a slighted scarecrow; His promises would be but
empty sound; and His love would be as helpless as was the
love of Darius for Daniel. And vain would be all His eternal
counsels if power did not step in to execute them.
THE MANIFESTATIONS OF GOD’S POWER
Whatever qualities or characteristics inhere in the Divine
nature will sooner or later be manifested or exercised, for
there are no idle dispositions in God. His power has been
marvelously exemplified in the past as it will be in the future.
1. Divine power appears in creation. “Ah Lord GOD! behold,
thou hast made the heaven and the earth by thy great power
and stretched out arm, and there is nothing too hard for thee:”
(Jer. 32:17). At God’s word nothing began to be something.
He spake and it was done. He willed and it came to pass.
“Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and
power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure
they are and were created” (Rev. 4:11). The word for create
means to make out of nothing. “Through faith we understand
that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things
which are seen were not made of things which do appear”
(Heb. 11:3). “For by him were all things created, that are in
heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether
they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all
things were created by him, and for him:” (Col. 1:16). And yet
all this work of creation did not make Him tired, for He is the
Almighty. “Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the
everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the
earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of
his understanding” (Isa. 40:28).
2. God’s power is seen in the sustentation of all creation.
“Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image
of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his
power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on
the right hand of the Majesty on high:” (Heb. 1:3). By Him all
things consist (are held together): “And he is before all things,
and by him all things consist” (Col. 1:17). In Him we live and
move and have our being: “For in him we live, and move, and
have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said,
For we are also his offspring” (Acts 17:28). He gives rain from
heaven and fruitful seasons “Nevertheless he left not himself
without witness, in that he did good, and gave us rain from
heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and
gladness” (Acts 14:17). We are to look to Him for our daily
bread: “Give us this day our daily bread” (Matt. 6:11). But
somebody says that all things happen according to natural
laws. But God created the law of nature and can use it or work
beyond it, and without it. His hands are not tied with any rope
of nature.
3. The power of God may be seen in human redemption.
3a) In the birth of the Redeemer: “And the angel answered
and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and
the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore
also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called
the Son of God.” (Lk. 1:35). What mighty power it took to bring
a clean thing out of an unclean! But the Holy Spirit was equal
to the task of the incarnation of the Second Person of the
Trinity, who became God with us; yea, God manifest in the
flesh.
3b) In the miracles of Christ. They were all manifestations of
Divine power. The blind saw, the lame leaped, the dead lived,
because He willed it so.
3c) In the death of Christ. Here is the greatest of all miracles;
the most stupendous and amazing act of power ever
exercised: the power to die. Our minds are staggered at this
thought: the power to die! Death among men is the very
emblem of helplessness. The lives of men are taken from
them in the ordeal of death, but Christ had power to lay down
His life. He said, “No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down
of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to
take it again. This commandment have I received of my
Father” (John 10:18). The Lord Jesus Christ was the Actor in
the drama of the ages, when He put away sin by the sacrifice
of Himself: “For then must he often have suffered since the
foundation of the world: but now once in the end of the world
hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself”
(Heb. 9:26). Let nobody think of Him as the helpless victim of
human hate. In His death He was performing the task
assigned Him by the Father, as He said, “No man taketh it
from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it
down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment
have I received of my Father” (John 10:18).
3d) In the resurrection of Christ. He who had power to lay
down His life had power to take it again. He triumphed over
death, men, and demons. “For thou wilt not leave my soul in
hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption”
(Ps. 16:10); “Because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell,
neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption” (Acts
2:27).
3e) In His ascension. Our Saviour had the power to overcome
the law of gravitation and ascend bodily to the Father. “And he
led them out as far as to Bethany, and he lifted up his hands,
and blessed them. And it came to pass, while he blessed
them, he was parted from them, and carried up into heaven”
(Luke 24:50,51). Hallelujah! what a Savior!
4. Almighty power is manifested in the regeneration of
sinners. In regeneration men have new hearts and new
desires created in them; new principles imparted to them; they
are turned from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan
unto God, being made willing in the day of God’s power.
When we consider the natural blindness and opposition of the
sinner, and the weakness of the human agent (the preacher),
and the means used (the foolishness of preaching), the work
of conversion appears to be the effect of the power of God.
“But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the
excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us” (II Cor.
4:7); “And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to usward who believe, according to the working of his mighty
power” (Eph. 1:19).
5. The final perseverance of every believer is proof of the
power of God. “Wherefore he is able also to save them to the
uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to
make intercession for them” (Heb. 7:25). We are kept by the
power of God: “Who are kept by the power of God through
faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time” (I
Peter 1:5). No one is able to pluck us out of His hand: “And I
give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither
shall any man pluck them out of my hand” (John 10:28). “For
whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is
the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.” (I John
5:4).
6. Divine power will be displayed in the resurrection. What but
the voice of the Almighty will be able to awake the dead? “And
when he thus had spoken, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus,
come forth. And he that was dead came forth, bound hand
and foot with graveclothes: and his face was bound about with
a napkin. Jesus saith unto them, Loose him, and let him go”
(John 11:43,44). What but Almighty power can change this
ugly, vile, humiliated, diseased body into a glorious, beautiful,
and deathless body? “For our conversation is in heaven; from
whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ:
Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like
unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is
able even to subdue all things unto himself” (Phil. 3:20,21).
What is it that can give us hope as we stand by the side of the
open grave and see it swallow up the one so dear to our heart
but the thought of an Almighty God who can and will raise the
dead by the word of His power? “So when this corruptible
shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put
on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is
written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is
thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is
sin; and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God,
which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (I
Cor. 15:54-57).
7. The power of God will be manifested in the day of
judgment. In that day it will appear how pitiably weak man is,
and how great is the power of God’s anger. Think of the power
necessary to put down the rebellion of innumerable men and
demons! But God will be equal to the task, “To go into the
clefts of the rocks, and into the tops of the ragged rocks, for
fear of the LORD, and for the glory of his majesty, when he
ariseth to shake terribly the earth” (Isa. 2:21). “Why do the
heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings
of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel
together, against the LORD, and against his anointed, saying,
Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords
from us. He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord
shall have them in derision. Then shall he speak unto them in
his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure. Yet have I set
my king upon my holy hill of Zion” (Ps. 2:1-6).
“Great God, what do I see and hear?
The end of things created!
‘The judge of all men doth appear,
On clouds of glory seated:
The trumpet sounds; the graves restore
The dead which they contained before;
Prepare my soul to meet Him.
“The dead in Christ shall first arise
At the last trumpet’s sounding
Caught up to meet Him in the skies,
With joy, their Lord surrounding:
No gloomy fears their souls dismay,
His presence sheds eternal day
On those prepared to meet Him.
“But sinners filled with guilty fears,
Behold His wrath prevailing;
For they shall rise, and find their tears
And sighs are unavailing:
The day of grace is past and gone;
Trembling, they stand before the throne,
All unprepared to meet Him.”
“Only one life to live and soon is past
Only what’s done for Christ will last!”
Hoping to make the time I have left count for the glory of God.
THE POWER OF GOD