What Is God Like?
Part 3
John S. Robertson gives us another instructive article on the doctrine of God for children. These are so helpful for parents and Sunday School teachers.
There was a puzzled look on John’s face when grandpa saw him next. “What problem is vexing you?” inquired grandpa.
“I was thinking,” replied John, “that God is so different from anyone else we know. He is ageless and He is limitless. What else is there about Him that is different?”
“You remember,” said grandpa, “that when we talked about God being ageless and limitless we used the word omnipresent. There are two other words beginning with omni that describe Him. One is omnipotent. It is made up of “omni” meaning all and “potent” meaning powerful. Of course there are many other attributes of God that we should discuss but let us talk about God as “omnipotent.”
“What makes us say that God is omnipotent” asked John, and the word came a little more easily than his first attempts at the word omnipresent.
“The first verse of the Bible says, ‘In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth,’ responded grandpa. ‘Now that is a pretty good start at showing power. It doesn’t say he made the earth for that would suggest He made it out of something but it says He created them. He made them out of nothing.”
‘I guess no one could be more powerful than that,” interjected John.
“If you read the rest of Genesis one, you will find God just spoke and light came into the world, continued grandpa. He divided the light from the darkness; He separated the waters from the dry land; He caused the earth to bring forth grass and fruit; He placed the sun and the moon and the stars in the heavens; He spoke the animals of the earth, the fish of the sea and the fowl of the earth into being; He created man. All this was done by an omnipotent God. Indeed the whole Bible is full of the mighty acts of God. We sometimes call these miracles because they seem impossible to us as human beings. Do you recall any miracles God performed, John?”
“I remember,” John recalled, “that he saved three men from the fiery furnace and that He also saved Daniel from the den of the lions.”
“That is true,” affirmed grandpa, “God exercised power over nature and the elements of nature as well as over the actions of men. He opened the Red Sea to allow the children of Israel to escape from Egypt and He confused the language of the people at Babel and scattered man over the face of the earth.”
“Didn’t God make a big fish to swallow Jonah, and didn’t it cast him up on dry land after three days and he was still alive?” interrupted John.
“Yes He did that and many other things,” grandpa replied. “We could go on all day talking about them. You will find that Jesus Christ could do what seemed impossible too. He walked upon the sea and He stilled the raging waters when they threatened to overturn the boat in which He and His disciples were crossing the Sea of Galillee.
“He changed water into wine,” added John.
“That was the first of His miracles,” offered grandpa. “He performed many more. He healed the sick, made the blind to see and even raised people from the dead.”
“Is there anything God cannot do?” asked John.
“Strangely enough, the answer is yes,” admitted grandpa. God cannot lie; nor can He sin. God cannot even look upon sin. That is why He sent His Son to die on the cross. ‘Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners,’ says the fifteenth verse of the first chapter of First Timothy. God is holy and righteous and therefore He must punish sin. Love sent His Son into the world but it was His righteousness that demanded Christ’s death for sin. He bore the punishment that should have been ours. God is holy, wise and perfect and He cannot do anything that would be contrary to His perfect nature.”
Passages to read: Ex. 15:1-12; Psa. 62:11; 65:5-7; 147:4, 5; Jer. 32:17; Matt. 19:26; John 10:17, 18; Matt. 28:18; Rev. 19:6.