Can God lie?

Why are men put on oath in the law courts of the land? It is because they are capable of lying. The psalmist said in his haste that “all men are liars” (Ps. 116:11), and men have not altered. In happy contrast to this we are told that it is “impossible for God to lie.” God cannot do these things that would be the negation of His being, nature and holiness. God cannot swear by one higher than Himself, so He swears by Himself. He said to Abraham. “SURELY… I will bless thee.” Why add the word surely? On the Divine side there was no need for it whatever. No word can add to God’s trustworthiness. His word is His bond. It is immutable, unchangeable, divine. God confirmed His word by an oath, most graciously given for our sakes, seeing we are naturally “slow of heart to believe” (Luke 24:25).

But our Hindu friend expressed a wish that, in order to forgive him, God would set aside His law. Impossible! You may ask perhaps, Cannot God do anything that He likes? Certainly, anything He LIKES. But remember, He must ever act in consonance with His own nature. He cannot do those things that are a contradiction of His nature and being. For instance, “It is impossible for God to lie” (Heb. 6:18).

Now for God to depart from His just laws in order to forgive would be in the nature of a lie. In other words He would have to set aside His own words and decrees to do such a thing as that. He would cease to be consistent. That could not possibly be.

That God cannot confer immortality inherently upon anyone is clear. To do so would be to abrogate His own Godhead, for it would be equivalent to making another God, independent of Himself, an utter impossibility. We may assert that God can do anything, but it is likewise true that God cannot do anything that is a contradiction of His own Being. We are told for instance in the Scriptures that God cannot lie, for departure from the truth would be the denial of His holy Being, and to communicate immortality inherently on any would be to do that likewise.

The confounding moral infinitude (that is, absoluteness of perfection) with extension, which I have noticed is a very great blunder. But then I freely own that in strictness we cannot speak of attributes in God (moral ones). It is only a human way which (speaking reverently) divides God into parts. God cannot be or do evil: to say this is a limitation of power is only a delusion. If I say that He cannot do what He pleases, for He cannot do evil, the "cannot" applies to "what He pleases," not to the power of God. As to acts of power, He can do everything. It is morally impossible that there should be in Him the contrary of what He is, that is of good and right. But this is not limiting power or anything; it is denying a limit to goodness, and saying it is absolute. Infinite goodness means merely goodness always perfect as goodness. That this is after an imperfect thought as to God I admit, because it takes one characteristic by itself (that is through our finite nature), for nothing in God is characteristic (that is, special and in part). It has been noticed elsewhere how thus Christ had no character, but was always what He ought to be wherever He was. Perfect goodness He was, but not goodness by itself as we conceive it. He was firm and severe where He ought, and good in that; He was tender and affectionate where He ought, and good in that; He was seemingly hard and deaf to seed, and unchanged in goodness in that - in all love to His Father, and obedience. The divine nature in man which produced one produced all, perfect in each place in relation because perfect in itself.

It finds its rest in God; blessed rest. "Far be it from God to do evil." "God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all" (1 John 1:5). The Almighty — the Omnipotent — can do everything, but "He cannot lie." "He cannot deny Himself." This ensures perfect, even justice in His dealings with men; He will recompense man's own work to him, and He will cause him to find the results of his own ways. This does not mean that Job's friends are in the right as to their charges, but that God is dealing in absolute justice with Job, causing him to learn his needed lessons. How could God act wickedly or pervert the right? He would not be God if this were possible. The answer is most convincing.

C.C. — Yes; but how can God consistently save anybody? The answer is, Through grace. He has a righteous way to do this. Some things God cannot do — it is impossible for Him to lie; it is imposible for Him to violate His holiness; He cannot infringe on His righteousness. In everything that He does His own character and nature must be maintained.

Here is the key to the meaning of a term about which there has been so much perplexity, and so great a variety of thoughts. God Himself is limited in a certain way, as we all realize. He cannot lie; He cannot repent. This is no limit indeed, save that of His own perfections: He cannot act in contradiction to His attributes. Thus, though He be Love itself, yet love cannot with Him, even in the least degree, overbalance justice. "He that justifieth the wicked, and he that condemneth the just, even they both are abomination to the Lord" (Prov. 17:15). So His own Word declares, and how can He then clear the guilty? Did He not, when He gave the law, say distinctly that He could not? (Ex. 34:7.)

What God has purposed He will bring to pass; He is able to do it, and He cannot lie. What strong encouragement this gives us who have put our whole trust in His word. It is almost impossible for man, who is naturally false, to take in the idea of absolute truthfulness. Neither Balaam nor Balak could believe that God would not be induced to change His mind, and therefore did they shift their altars about from place to place, but they had to learn that God was not a man that He should lie, nor the son of man that He should repent. "Thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as thyself" is the charge God brings against the wicked. Man is by nature false. He bears the moral features of the fell destroyer of the human race, who, "When he speaks a lie, speaks of his own; for he is a liar, and the father of it." The Cretians were strongly marked by this devilish characteristic; they were "always liars." They had been nurtured in an atmosphere of falsehood, and with truth they had never met until the Gospel came to them. And now they needed to be aroused to the great fact that they had to do with One who could not lie. It was a change for men who had hitherto to do with liars only, now to have to do with One to whom lying was an impossibility. And God had promised Eternal Life, and they were heirs of the promise.

When Micaiah told Ahab that the Lord had prophesied that Israel would have no master, Ahab rightly considered that Micaiah had prophesied evil concerning him (v.17). But Micaiah had much more to say, and declared this to Ahab as the word of the Lord. He had seen the Lord on His throne and all the host of heaven standing, some on His right hand, others on His left. This included evil spirits. The Lord asked them, "Who will persuade Ahab king of Israel to go up that he may fall at Ramoth Gilead?" After some had made suggestions, a spirit spoke confidently that he would persuade Ahab, by being a lying spirit in the mouths of all Ahab's prophets. This may seem a strange situation, but it illustrates the fact that the Lord allows evil spirits to do their evil work of lying so that ungodly people will be deceived, just as 2 Thessalonians 2 indicates the folly of those who are deceived by the strong delusion the Lord sends by means of the antichrist because of people's refusing to believe the truth of God (vv. 6-11). Thus, because Ahab had refused God's Word, he would accept the falsehood of Satan's prophets. Micaiah therefore declares that the Lord had put a lying spirit in the mouths of these prophets, and the Lord had declared disaster to fall on Ahab (v. 22).

God had already determined that Ahab would fall at Ramoth Gilead, and God questioned the spirits as to which of them could persuade Ahab to go to Ramoth Gilead. Some spoke in different ways as to how they could accomplish this (v.20), but one said he would go out and be a lying spirit in the mouth of Ahab's prophets (vs.21-22). The Lord told him, "Go out and do so," for this would persuade Ahab.

Thus God, who is in perfect control of every matter, had put a lying spirit in the mouth of Ahab's prophets, and He had declared disaster against Ahab (v.23). In this prophecy we see how God can use even those who are most opposed to Him to accomplish His own ends. One of the false prophets, Zedekiah, became bitterly angry at Micaiah and struck him on the cheek, saying haughtily, "Which way did the spirit go from me to speak to you?" (v.24).