Is there anything God cannot do?
God's power has no boundary anywhere in creation, yet Scripture itself says there are things He cannot do. Holding both truths together is what keeps our idea of God from collapsing either into a tyrant who can do as He pleases or into a being too weak to save.
Power without limit
Start where the Bible starts: nothing in the created order can resist Him. One writer presses the word "nothing" to its full width.
J. Wilson SmithHow absolutely necessary it is, in the whole life of faith, for us also to believe that "nothing will be impossible with God" — nothing! His power is infinite, and no physical law is beyond that power. Nature is clearly subservient to the will of its Maker.
The one limit is Himself
So where does the "cannot" come from? Not from outside pressure, but from who He is.
A. J. PollockYou may perhaps ask, Cannot God do anything He likes? Certainly, anything He likes. But remember, He must always act in keeping with His own nature. He cannot do the things that would contradict His nature and being. For instance, "it is impossible for God to lie."
This is not a rule God agreed to obey. It is what He is, and the contrast with His freedom over the physical world is striking.
James McBroomHe may even go back on what we call the laws of nature, but never for one moment has He changed His word... While it is clear there can be no limit to His power, we know He is governed by His love, and in the realm of moral truth there are certain things He cannot do. "He cannot deny himself" (2 Tim. 2:13). "God cannot be tempted with evil" (James 1:13)... It is not that He binds Himself to use His almighty power in line with justice, but that justice belongs so deeply to His moral nature that He cannot act otherwise.
The problem that creates
This "cannot" is not a comfortable idea. Follow it through and it shuts a door we badly want open.
F. W. GrantGod Himself is limited in a certain way, as we all realise. He cannot lie; He cannot change His mind. This is no real limit, except the limit of His own perfections: He cannot act against His own attributes. So, though He is Love itself, love can never with Him outweigh justice, even slightly. "He who justifies the wicked and he who condemns the righteous are both alike an abomination to the LORD" (Prov. 17:15). His own Word says so — and how then can He clear the guilty?
What the cross made possible
The answer is not that God relaxed His standard. He found another way.
W. W. FeredayGod in His perfect wisdom has found a way by which He can justify the ungodly and still maintain His own unbending righteousness. The cross has made possible what would otherwise have been morally impossible. Christ's redemptive work has so perfectly satisfied the claims of divine righteousness that God now proclaims Him as a mercy-seat, which all who feel their need may approach with confidence.
Why the "cannot" is good news
Every limit named here is a guarantee. Because He cannot lie, what He has said will hold.
A. J. PollockWhat, then, is the anchor of hope? Surely, the word of God... we are told of "two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie" (Heb. 6:18), showing how reliable God's word is. The divine anchor, then — the Word of God itself — has no flaw in it. It cannot snap or break or fail in any way.
And because He cannot deny Himself, the weakness of our grip on Him does not weaken His grip on us.
F. B. HoleStill, we must never forget that His trustworthiness does not in the least depend on the worthiness, or otherwise, of our trust. "If we are faithless, he remains faithful — for he cannot deny himself" (2 Tim. 2:13). So it is a very happy fact that those who are weak in faith, and therefore do not trust Him fully, still find Him fully true.
Summary
- Power. No physical law and no created thing can stand against Him; with God nothing is impossible.
- Nature. The only limit on that power is Himself — He cannot lie, cannot be tempted with evil, cannot deny Himself, because justice belongs to what He is.
- Problem. That limit closes the easy door: love never outweighs justice with Him, so He cannot simply wave guilt away.
- Cross. There God opened a righteous way to justify the ungodly, making possible what would otherwise have been morally impossible.
- Anchor. So each "cannot" turns into security: His word cannot break, and when we are faithless He stays faithful.