The Omnipotence of God Defined

Simply stated, the omnipotence of God means that He “is all-powerful and able to do whatever He wills. Since His will is limited by His nature, God can do everything that is in harmony with His perfections.”[2] Omnipotence is a biblical as well as a philosophical conclusion about the God of the Bible.

The Bible clearly reveals a God who is not limited in His ability; there is no inherent lack of power to accomplish what He determines to do. Eight times in Genesis 1 “God spoke” and another element of creation occurred; out of nothing God made creation by the power of His words. In Genesis 17:5 God promised Abram, “I will make you the father of a multitude of nations” when Abram had no children; then later in chapter 18 after the Lord specifically promised Abraham that Sarah would have a child (and Sarah laughed for she was past childbearing), the Lord said, “Is anything too difficult for the Lord?” (18:14). Enabling a barren woman to conceive and bear a child is not beyond the power of God (cf. Lk 1:37). God exercises controlling power over kings and kingdoms (Isa 40:28; Ps 75:7), over angels (2Pe 2:4), over Satan (Job 2:6; Rev 20:10), and even over life and death (Ro 1:16; 2Co 5:17; 13:4; Rev 21:4–5). There is no power greater than the power of God, and there is no being with more power than the God of the Bible.

That God would have unlimited power is consistent with a logical conception of God. If the God of the universe has infinite power, then, necessarily, all His other attributes would be infinite too. “If [God] is knowing, then [God] must be all-knowing. If powerful, then [God] must be all-powerful. If good, then [God] must be all good.”[3] God must be, and the only God that can exist must possess the ability to create time and space, material and immaterial substance, and physical and spiritual life. The omnipotence of God is a logical and necessary conclusion.

Of special note are two names given only to God in the Bible: El-Shaddai (in the Old Testament) and Lord/God Almighty (in the New Testament). El-Shaddai is the God who appeared to each of the Patriarchs (Ge 17:1; 28:3; 35:11)—the One who had the power to fulfill His covenant promises to his chosen people.[4] The New Testament term (pantokrator) is used only of God and most often used in Revelation (nine times), where it refers to the greatness of God, His power over all men and all things.[5] The God of the Bible is the omnipotent One (in the Vulgate, El-Shaddai and pantokrator and both translated with the Latin “omnipotens”).[6]

 

Omnipotence Compared to God’s Other Attributes

God’s omnipotence does not exist in isolation. His attributes are inseparable—all of The Omnipotence of God His “perfections” (as some theologians call them) work together. As Tozer clearly explains, “His substance is indivisible. He has no parts but is single in his unitary being…. between His attributes no contradiction can exist. He need not suspend one to exercise another, for in Him all attributes are one. All of God does all that God does; He does not divide Himself to perform a work, but works in the totality of His being.”[7] God’s other attributes are also involved whenever God displays His power. “This perfection gives life and action to all the other perfections of God. Without the exercise of His power, we would not know of His love, grace, mercy, etc.”[8]

Being eternal and immense, God’s power is not limited to the space and time of His creation; His power has no bounds and no limit. Being truth and love, God can only accomplish that which is true and display love toward the object when God exerts His power. Being sovereign and immutable, God will use His power only to accomplish His eternal purposes that will never change. And being holy and just, God’s displays of His power will always affirm holy intentions and just results.

Philosophers like to engage in thought exercises concerning the omnipotence of God: “Can God create a rock so large that He cannot pick it up?” Theoretically, God can do anything, but will He? No, because God must limit His power according to His other attributes. As Enns explains, “God can do all things that are in harmony with His nature and person.”[9] For example, God cannot use His power to do that which is untrue, unjust, or illogical. God “cannot do things which are absurd or self-contradictory… That’s why He did not keep sin out of the universe by a display of His power and why He does not save anyone by force.”[10] Satan may use His delegated power to steal, kill, and destroy, for that is within His nature, but God can only use His power for accomplishing His good purposes.

 

God’s Use of His Omnipotence

God has purposed to use all His power to accomplish His divine will. Creatures cannot understand unlimited power. Cars have limited horsepower, batteries have limited life, earthquakes have limited destructive power, and even thermonuclear bombs (perhaps the greatest power on earth) do not destroy everything—they are limited. But God has no limit to the power available to Him for the accomplishment of His purposes. On one occasion Jesus’ disciples heard Him say that people cannot “buy” their way into heaven, so they wondered, “Then who can be saved?” Jesus responded, “With people, this is impossible, but with God all things are possible” (Mt 19:26). God will use all the power needed to provide heaven to totally incapable sinners (cf. Jn 3:4–8, by the regenerating power of the Spirit).

Yet God will limit the use of His power because that limiting accomplishes His divine will as well. God “did not choose to save all people; He did not choose all nations in Old Testament times; He did not choose Esau; He did not choose to spare James (Ac 12:2). Although He could have done any of these things, He did not choose to do so in his plan.”[11] God (Jesus) did not choose to call on the power of the Father to keep Him from experiencing life and its temptations as a man (Mt 4:3–4), nor did God the Father use His power to keep Jesus from death on the cross to atone for the sin of others (Mt 26:53). God also chooses to limit the use of His power to judge sinners because He is “patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance” (2Pe 3:9). There are situations where God chooses to limit for now the use of His power, but there will come a time when He will use His full force to accomplish His divine purposes (2Pe 3:7).

“The infinite power of God, which is termed omnipotence, is employed in the realization of all that God wills.”[12] Being omniscient, eternal, sovereign, and immutable, God predetermined all that is and will be to the accomplishment of His divine glory and the good of all those who trust Him (Eph 1:3–14; Ro 8:28). Therefore, every part of God’s eternal plan will be accomplished—and His power in harmony with His sovereign will ensure that (Isa 46:10; Ac 5:39).

 

God’s Omnipotence Applied to Living

God’s eternal plans include the personal lives of every person, and therefore, the truth of God’s omnipotence should make a difference in daily living. Of passages that speak of God’s unlimited power, one theologian observes that “. . . the believer’s confidence is based on a universal premise: God can fulfill His promise to me because He can do anything. So, in these passages, ‘God can do all things’ is a normative premise that should govern the thinking of His people. When God promises something that seems impossible, God’s people should be thinking, not only that ‘God’s word is always true,’ but also that ‘God can do all things.”[13]

Not only has God promised His eternal presence with His children, but he has also promised to use His power to provide them the “resources” they need to live in a resource-depriving, chaotic world. But Jesus warned, “Make sure that your character is free from the love of money, being content with what you have; for He Himself has said, ‘I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you,’ so that we confidently say, ‘The Lord is my helper, I will not be afraid. What will man do to me?” (Heb 13:5–6). While this is not a promise to use His power to give His children unlimited material resources, it is a promise of all the resources needed to accomplish God’s will and to bring Him glory through the circumstances of this world. As Paul testified, “I can do all things through Him who strengthens me” (Php 4:13). Though Paul said this in a specific personal situation, he later says to the recipients of his letter, “And my God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus” (Php 4:19). God will not limit his power to provide the resources His children need to accomplish His divine will.

The children of God should rejoice that God displayed His power through the gospel to bring them to salvation (Ro 1:16) and that God will use His power to protect their spiritual lives— “Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy” (Jude 24). “Repeatedly the believer is urged to trust God in every walk of life on the ground of his creative, preserving, and providential power (Isa 45:11–13; 46:4; Jer 32:16–44; Ac 4:24–31).”[14] God has promised to use his power to surround his child with security, even amid the circumstances of an insecure world. “The steadfast of mind You will keep in perfect peace, because he trusts in You” (Isa 26:3). And they should finally trust God to use his power to bring them into God’s eternal presence (1Pt 1:5; 1Co 6:14).[15]

It is true that some people fear a powerful being. For example, some fathers use their power to threaten and hurt their children; and so, their children flinch when they raise their voices or arms. Yet, there are fathers whose strength in their arms and tones in their voices—their power—are used to care for, protect, provide, and guide their children away from evil. When they do this, these fathers image our Lord as He uses His power to do the same: “But the Lord is faithful, and He will strengthen and protect you from the evil one” (2Th 3:3; cf. Isa 41:10). And even when God disciplines His children, His power is being used to mold and shape their character—a necessary use of His power for the good of His children. “All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness” (Heb 12:11).

However, those who are in bondage to “the evil one,” those who do not trust God through faith in Jesus, have every reason to fear the omnipotence of God. All people see the power of God and are given the opportunity to respond correctly to it: “For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse” (Ro 1:19–20). One day God will use His power to judge all the rebellious on the earth (Lk 12:7; Jn 5:25–29; Rev 19:15). Even the demons fear God’s power for they know that one day He will use His power to cast them into eternal torment (Jas 2:19; Rev 20:10). “Someday even the strongest and greatest will seek to hide from him (Rev 6:15–17; cf., Isa 2:10–21), and every knee will bow at the name of Jesus (Php 2:10).”[16]

God is omnipotent: He has the power to do anything and everything that conforms to His nature and will. “I know that You can do all things, and that no purpose of Yours can be thwarted” (Job 42:2). Therefore, all God’s children must sing along with the children in Sunday School—and with gusto and all the appropriate motions, of course—“My God is so BIG, so strong, and so mighty, there’s nothing my God cannot do!”

 

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ENDNOTES

[1] Ruth Harms Calkin, Nuggets of Truth, 2002.

[2] Henry Clarence Thiessen, Lectures in Systematic Theology, Revised by Vernon D. Doerksen (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans, 1979), 82.

[3] Norman Geisler, Christian Apologetics (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 1975), 240.

[4] Victor P. Hamilton, Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament (TWOT), Volume 2, R. Laird Harris Ed. (Chicago, IL: Moody, 1980), 907.

[5] Georg Braumann, s.v “kratos”, NIDNTT, Colin Brown Ed. Vol. 3 (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1978), 717–718.

[6] TWOT, 907.

[7] A. W. Tozer, The Knowledge of the Holy (San Francisco, CA: Harper & Row, 1961), 15.

[8] Robert P. Lightner, The God of the Bible: An Introduction to the Doctrine of God (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 1973), 104.

[9] Paul Enns, The Moody Handbook of Theology, Revised and Expanded (Chicago, IL: Moody, 2014), 201.

[10] Thiessen, 82.

[11] Charles C. Ryrie, Basic Theology (Wheaton, IL: Scripture Press, 1986), 40.

[12] Lewis Sperry Chafer, Systematic Theology: Volume I, Prolegomena, Bibliology, Theology Proper (Dallas, TX: Dallas Seminary Press, 1947) 209.

[13] John M. Frame, The Doctrine of God (Phillips – burg, NJ: P & R Publishing, 2002), 517.

[14] Thiessen, 82.

[15] Ryrie, 46.

[16] Thiessen, 83.