The Attributes of God: Omnipotence

“This simple idea of the omnipotence of God, that He can do without effort, and by a volition, whatever He wills, is the highest conceivable idea of power, and is that which is clearly presented in the Scriptures.” Charles Hodge

As God is an infinite Being, and so is His every perfection and attribute. And since power is attributed to God, it must be infinite; for if it was finite, then it could be conceived that there is a being with greater power than His. (See article “Is There a God? 1“)

As He is limitless and boundless with respect to space, so He is omnipresent; and as He is limitless and boundless with respect to time, and so He is eternal; and as He is limitless and boundless with respect to power, therefore He is omnipotent. And if God never exercised His power nor displayed it by any outward visible works, it would still be inherently essential to His nature for it was from eternity, and therefore immutable, that is, it neither increases nor in the least diminishes whenever He expends of it. “Once God has spoken; twice have I heard this: that power belongs to God” (Psalm 62:11). “The Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless”" (Genesis 17:1).

A feeble Deity is an foolishness to the human mind, for even the pagans assume their gods to be omnipotent for no reason at all, but we have every reason to believe that the Lord our God is almighty, as His various operations sufficiently prove, as follows:

1. In creation: God created everything there is: the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them.
   • “For His invisible attributes, namely, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made.” (Romans 1:20) Creation is making something out of nothing, which none but omnipotence of God can bring about effectively. No craftsman can work without materials but only God created the first matter from which all other things were made.
   • Nor can any craftsman work without tools, but God, on the other hand, can work without instruments; it was only by His all powerful word that everything in all creation came into existence. “God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light” (Genesis 1:3). “By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.” (Hebrews 11:3).
   • The works of creation were performed without weariness, while no labor of men is exempt from it. Though God is said to have rested on the seventh day, yet this was not on account of exhaustion or weakness but to indicate that His work was finished and perfected. “The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary” (Isaiah 40:28).
2. In preservation of His creation: How all things in all creation are preserved and sustained is truly marvelous and surprising, and can only be attributed to the omnipotence of God.
   • “In Him we live and move and have our being” (Act 17:28)
   • “For by Him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities–all things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.” (Colossians 1:16-17)
   • Of Christ, it is said: “He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of His nature, and He upholds the universe by the word of His power.” (Hebrews 1:3)
   • “He is wise in heart and mighty in strength –who has hardened himself against Him, and succeeded?– He who removes mountains, and they know it not, when He overturns them in his anger, who shakes the earth out of its place, and its pillars tremble; who commands the sun, and it does not rise; who seals up the stars; who alone stretched out the heavens and trampled the waves of the sea; who made the Bear and Orion, the Pleiades and the chambers of the south; who does great things beyond searching out, and marvelous things beyond number.” (Job 9:4-10)
   • His omnipotence is also evident in His acts in the history of mankind, as the flooding of the world; the burning of Sodom and Gomorrah; the exploits of some particular persons, as Moses and David; the incredible victories of a few over a multitude by unarmed/untrained men, sometimes even without struggle, always through His help, as the cases of Gideon and Jehoshaphat; and others too numerous to mention
3. In the redemption of mankind by Christ:
   • In the incarnation of Christ, and His virgin birth, which the angel ascribes to “the power of the Most High” with whom “nothing is impossible” (Luke 1:35,37). It is necessary that the our Savior should be man, that our salvation should be worked out in His human nature, so that humanity might benefit from it. It was also essential that He should be free from sin, yet how could this be since all human nature were corrupted by it? It is only through omnipotence that He was formed sinless in His human nature, as He was “conceived by the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 1:20).
   • God’s omnipotence was also manifest in His protection in the womb; in His infancy, from the malevolence of Herod; after His baptism, from Satan’s temptations; and from all the traps and attempts of the Scribes and Pharisees to kill Him before His appointed time; and in the miraculous works He had performed, which were evidences of His Messiahship; such as “the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up” (Matthew 11:5)
   • His omnipotence was more particularly apparent in making Christ strong in His human nature to work out our salvation, in the fulfillment of all righteousness on our behalf, and satisfying justice; in sustaining Him under the weight of sins of the world and sufferings; in making Him able to absorb the wrath of God against sin and its curse, and to triumph over the all the powers of darkness in raising Him from the dead for our justification, without which salvation would not have been complete; all of which were “according to the working of His great might” (Ephesians 1:19) and whereby Christ “was declared to be the Son of God in power” (Romans 1:4)
4. In His conversion of sinners. Men, being sinners, are by nature “hostile to God, for they do not submit to God’s law; indeed, they cannot” (Romans 8:7). But in conversion, they are made new creatures; “created in Christ, and after the image of God”; given new hearts and spirits where His grace is implanted; and “are turned from darkness to light, from the power of Satan unto God; and are made willing in the day of God’s power” to be saved by Christ, and to serve Him; to submit to His righteousness, and to renounce their sins, all of which are mighty workings of “the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe” (Ephesians 1:19).
5. In the perseverance of every believer in grace and holiness: It is by His omnipotence that not one of His chosen ones would fall away from Him. Their indwelling sins and corruptions, Satan’s temptations, and the stranglehold of the world would not overwhelm them for they are “kept by the power of God” “being guarded through faith for salvation” (1 Peter 1:5). “Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of His glory with great joy, to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.” (Jude 1:24-25)

“We cannot have a right conception of God unless we think of Him as all-powerful, as well as all-wise. He who cannot do what he will and perform all his pleasure cannot be God. As God hath a will to resolve what He deems good, so has He power to execute His will. The power of God is that ability and strength whereby He can bring to pass whatsoever He pleases, whatsoever His infinite wisdom may direct, and whatsoever the infinite purity of His will may resolve… As holiness is the beauty of all God’s attributes, so power is that which gives life and action to all the perfections of the Divine nature. How vain would be the eternal counsels, if power did not step in to execute them. Without power His mercy would be but feeble pity, His promises an empty sound, His threatenings a mere scarecrow. God’s power is like Himself: infinite, eternal, incomprehensible; it can neither be checked, restrained, nor frustrated by the creature.” (Stephen Charnock).

Well we have a God who is worthy of our trust and full confidence. Nothing is too difficult or impossible for Him. We have every reason to feel hopeless if our God was weak in might. But knowing that He is armed with omnipotence, no prayer will be too hard for Himto answer, no need too great for Him to provide, no trial or temptation too great for Him to rescue us from, no despair too intense for Him to comfort. “The Lord is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid” (Psalm 27:1). “Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen” (Ephesians 3:20,21).