The Attributes of God
by Arthur W. Pink
The Power of God
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 has 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 whatever He pleases, whatever His infinite wisdom may
direct, and whatever 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).
"God has spoken once; twice have I heard this, that power
belongs unto God" (Psalm 62:11). "God has spoken once": nothing more is
necessary! Heaven and earth shall pass away, but His word abides forever."
"God has spoken once": how befitting His divine majesty! We poor mortals may
speak often and yet fail to be heard. He speaks but once and the thunder of
His power is heard on a thousand hills.
"The Lord thundered from heaven; the voice of the Most
High resounded. He shot his arrows and scattered the enemies, great bolts of
lightning and routed them. The valleys of the sea were exposed and the
foundations of the earth laid bare at your rebuke, O Lord, at the blast of
breath from your nostrils." (Psalm 18:13-15).
"God has spoken once": behold His unchanging authority.
"For who in the heaven can be compared unto the Lord? who among the sons of
the mighty can be likened unto the Lord?" (Psalm 89:6). "All the peoples of
the earth are regarded as nothing. He does as He pleases with the powers of
heaven and the peoples of the earth. No one can hold back His hand or say to
Him—What have You done?" (Dan 4:35). This was openly displayed when God
became incarnate and tabernacled among men. To the leper He said, "I will;
be clean. And immediately his leprosy was cleansed' (Matt 8:3). To one who
had lain in the grave four days He cried, "Lazarus, come forth," and the
dead came forth. The stormy wind and the angry waves were hushed at a single
word from Him. A legion of demons could not resist His authoritative
command.
"Power belongs unto God," and to Him alone. Not a
creature in the entire universe has an atom of power—but what God delegates.
But God's power is not acquired, nor does it depend upon any recognition by
any other authority. It belongs to Him inherently.
"God's power is like Himself, self-existent,
self-sustained. The mightiest of men cannot add so much as a shadow of
increased power to the Omnipotent One. He sits on no buttressed throne and
leans on no assisting arm. His court is not maintained by His courtiers, not
does it borrow its splendor from His creatures. He is Himself the great
central source and Originator of all power" (C. H. Spurgeon).
Not only does all creation bear witness to the great
power of God, but also to His entire independency of all created things.
Listen to His own challenge: ""Where were you when I laid the earth's
foundation? Tell me, if you understand. Who marked off its dimensions?
Surely you know! Who stretched a measuring line across it? On what were its
footings set, or who laid its cornerstone?" (Job 38:4-6). How completely is
the pride of man laid in the dust!
"Power is also used as a name of God, 'the Son of man
sitting on the right hand of power' (Mark 14:62), that is, at the right hand
of God. God and power are so inseparable that they are reciprocated. As His
essence is immense, not to be confined in place; as it is eternal, not to be
measured in time; so it is almighty, not to be limited in regard of action"
(S. Charnock).
"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). Who is able to count all the monuments of His power? Even that
which is displayed of His might in the visible creation is utterly beyond
our powers of comprehension, still less are we able to conceive of
omnipotence itself. There is infinitely more power lodged in the nature of
God than is expressed in all His works.
"Parts of His ways" we behold in creation, providence,
redemption, but only a "little part" of His might is seen in them.
Remarkably is this brought out—"And there was the hiding of His power" (Hab
3:4). It is scarcely possible to imagine anything more grandiose than the
imagery of this whole chapter, yet nothing in it surpasses the nobility of
this statement. The prophet (in vision) beheld the mighty God scattering the
hills and overturning the mountains, which one would think afforded an
amazing demonstration of His power. Nay, says our verse, that is rather the
"hiding" than the displaying of His power. What is meant? This: so
inconceivable, so immense, so uncontrollable is the power of Deity, that the
fearful convulsions which He works in nature conceal, more than they reveal,
of His infinite might!
It is very beautiful to link together the following
passages: He "treads upon the waves of the sea" (Job 9:8), which expresses
God's uncontrollable power. "He walks in the circuit of Heaven" (Job 22:14),
which tells of the immensity of His presence. He "walks upon the wings of
the wind' (Psalm 104:3), which signifies the amazing swiftness of His
operations. This last expression is very remarkable. It is not that He
"flies," or "runs," but that He "walks" and that, on the very "wings of the
wind"—on the most impetuous of the elements, tossed into utmost rage, and
sweeping along with almost inconceivable rapidity, yet they are under His
feet, beneath His perfect control!
Let us now consider God's power in
creation. "The heavens are yours, and the earth is yours;
everything in the world is yours—you created it all. You created north and
south" (Psalm 89:11, 12). Before man can work he must have both tools and
materials, but God began with nothing, and by His word alone out of nothing
made all things. The intellect cannot grasp it. "God spoke, and it was done;
He commanded, and it stood fast" (Psalm 33:9). Primeval matter heard His
voice. "God said, Let there be ... and it was so" (Gen 1). Well may we
exclaim, "Powerful is your arm! Strong is your hand! Your right hand is
lifted high in glorious strength" (Psalm 89:13).
"Who, that looks upward to the midnight sky; and, with an
eye of reason, beholds its rolling wonders; who can forbear enquiring, Of
what were their mighty orbs formed? Amazing to relate, they were produced
without materials. They sprung from emptiness itself. The stately fabric of
universal nature emerged out of nothing. What instruments were used by the
Supreme Architect to fashion the parts with such exquisite niceness, and
give so beautiful a polish to the whole? How was it all connected into one
finely-proportioned and nobly finished structure? A bare fiat accomplished
all. 'Let them be', said God. He added no more; and at once the marvelous
edifice arose, adorned with every beauty, displaying innumerable
perfections, and declaring amidst enraptured seraphs its great Creator's
praise. 'The Lord merely spoke, and the heavens were created. He breathed
the word, and all the stars were born' (Psalm 33:6)" James Hervey, 1789).
Consider God's power in
preservation. No creature has power to preserve itself. "Can
papyrus reeds grow where there is no marsh? Can bulrushes flourish where
there is no water?" (Job 8:11). Both man and beast would perish if there
were not herbs for food; herbs would wither and die if the earth were not
refreshed with fruitful showers. Therefore is God called the Preserver of
"man and beast" (Psalm 36:6), "upholding all things by the word of His
power" (Heb 1:3). What a marvel of divine power is the prenatal life of
every human being! That an infant can live at all, and for so many months,
in such cramped and filthy quarters, and that without breathing, is
unaccountable without the power of God. Truly He "holds our soul in life"
(Psalm 66:9).
The preservation of the earth from the violence of the
sea is another plain instance of God's might. How is that raging element
kept pent within those limits wherein He first lodged it, continuing its
channel, without overflowing the earth and dashing in pieces the lower part
of the creation? The natural situation of the water is to be above the
earth, because it is lighter, and immediately under the air, because it is
heavier. Who restrains the natural quality of it? Certainly man does not,
and cannot. It is the fiat of its Creator which alone bridles it: "Hitherto
shall you come, but no further: and here shall your proud waves be stayed"
(Job 38:11). What a standing monument to the power of God is the
preservation of the world!
Consider God's power in
government. Take His restraining of the malice of Satan. "The
devil, as a roaring lion, walks about, seeking whom he may devour" (1 Peter
5:8). He is filled with hatred against God, and with fiendish enmity against
men, particularly the saints. He who envied Adam in paradise envies us the
pleasure of enjoying any of God's blessings. Could he have his will, he
would treat all the same way he treated Job: he would send fire from heaven
on the fruits of the earth, destroy the cattle, cause a wind to overthrow
our houses, and cover our bodies with boils. But, little as men may realize
it, God bridles him to a large extent, prevents him from carrying out his
evil designs, and confines him within His ordinations.
So too God restrains the natural
corruption of men. He allows sufficient outbreakings of sin to
show what fearful havoc has been wrought by man's apostasy from his Maker,
but who can conceive the frightful lengths to which men would go were God to
remove His curbing hand? "Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness,
their feet are swift to shed blood" (Rom 3:14,15). This is the nature of
every descendant of Adam. Then what unbridled licentiousness and headstrong
folly would triumph in the world, if the power of God did not interpose to
lock down the floodgates of it! See Psalm 93:3, 4.
Consider God's power in judgment.
When He smites, none can resist Him: see Ezekiel 22:14. How terribly this
was exemplified at the Flood! God opened the windows of heaven and broke up
the great fountains of the deep, and (excepting those in the ark) the entire
human race, helpless before the storm of His wrath, was swept away. A shower
of fire and brimstone from heaven, and the cities of the plain were
exterminated. Pharaoh and all his armies were impotent when God blew upon
them at the Red Sea. What a terrific word is that in Romans 9:22: "What if
God, willing to show His wrath, and to make His power known, endured with
much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction." God is going
to display His mighty power upon the reprobate not merely by incarcerating
them in Gehenna, but by supernaturally preserving their bodies as well as
souls amid the eternal burnings of the Lake of Fire. Well may all tremble
before such a God! To treat with impudence One who can crush us more easily
than we can a moth, is a suicidal policy. To openly defy Him who is clothed
with omnipotence, who can rend us in pieces or cast us into Hell any moment
He pleases, is the very height of insanity. To put it on its lowest ground,
it is but the part of wisdom to heed His command, "Kiss the Son, lest he be
angry and you be destroyed in your way, for his wrath can flare up in a
moment. Blessed are all who take refuge in him." (Psalm 2:12).
Well may the enlightened soul adore such a God! The
wondrous and infinite perfections of such a Being call for fervent worship.
If men of might and renown claim the admiration of the world, how much more
should the power of the Almighty fill us with wonderment and homage. "Who
among the gods is like you, O Lord? Who is like you--majestic in holiness,
awesome in glory, working wonders?" (Exo 15:11).
Well may the saint trust such a God! He is worthy of
implicit confidence. Nothing is too hard for Him. If God were stinted in
might and had a limit to His strength we might well despair. But seeing that
He is clothed with omnipotence, no prayer is too hard for Him to answer, no
need too great for Him to supply, no passion too strong for Him to subdue;
no temptation too powerful for Him to deliver from, no misery too deep for
Him to relieve. "The Lord is my light and my salvation--whom shall I fear?
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 immeasurably more than all
we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him
be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for
ever and ever! Amen." (Eph 3:20-21).