God’s Attributes – Power

Both the Scriptures and general revelation indicate that, in many respects, God’s power is a communicable attribute because power is a quality that creation shares. But even the greatest powers in creation are limited, temporal and changeable. So, the Scriptures clearly teach the ways that God’s power is incommunicable. This contrast between God’s power and creation is most often expressed in systematic theology in terms of God’s “omnipotence” and God’s “sovereignty.”

On the one side, when we speak of the omnipotence of God, we mean that God is all-powerful. For example, in Job 42:2, Job exclaimed “You can do all things.” Psalm 115:3 says that "[God] does whatever pleases him.” And in Matthew 19:26 Jesus reassured his disciples that “with God all things are possible.”

Now, we must be sure to add one important qualification here: God’s power is always true to his other attributes. He cannot do things that are contrary to the other perfections of his essence. For instance, the Scriptures explicitly declare some things that God cannot do. We learn that God cannot lie, sin, change, nor deny himself in passages like Numbers 23:19 and James 1:13, 17. If we keep this qualification in mind, we can be assured that God is omnipotent in the sense that his power is infinite, eternal and unchangeable.

On the other side, systematic theologians refer to the infinite, eternal and unchangeable character of God’s power as the “sovereignty of God.” Simply put, God’s sovereignty is his absolute control over creation. As King Jehoshaphat declared in 2 Chronicles 20:6, “Power and might are in your hand, and no one can withstand you.” Or as Job put it in 42:2, “No purpose of yours can be thwarted.” According to Ephesians 1:11, God’s sovereignty is so extensive that he “works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will.” These and countless other passages clearly indicate that God’s sovereignty is infinite, eternal and unchangeable.