Even for those who know the Bible, there are limitations to
our understanding of God (Deuteronomy 29:29; 1 Corinthians 8:2; 13:8-12).
God had encountered Moses through a burning bush after he
had been humbled, serving 40 years as lowly shepherd. He wanted Moses to return
to Egypt to free His people Israel, but Moses objected:
·
“If I come to the people of Israel and say to
them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is
his name?’ what shall I say to them?” God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” And
he said, “Say this to the people of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’” (Exodus
3:13-14; ESV)
God had already identified Himself as “the God of your
father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob” (Exodus
3:6). However, that didn’t seem to be enough for Moses. By asking for His
“name,” he was asking for an explanation of who He is. In essence, God answered
that no explanation would be given, apart from “I AM WHO I AM.”
This is very revealing. We cannot explain God. Instead, we
have to simply accept what He reveals about Himself. Let me try to explain
using a puzzling example. In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus prayed that if
redemption could be accomplished apart from His going to the Cross, then God should
accomplish it without the Cross:
·
And going a little farther he fell on his face
and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me;
nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.” (Matthew 26:39)
Evidently, the Father could not accomplish redemption in
another way, but why not? In so many different ways, the Bible assures us that
God is omnipotent, all powerful (Luke 1:37). If this is so, then why couldn’t
the Father forgive sin without the Cross?
I think that this question highlights the fact that we
cannot understand God. Instead, we have to accept that His nature requires an
adequate payment to forgive sin.
Of course, many will object that we should have an
explanation. Otherwise, our faith in God is just a blind, unreasonable, and
contradictory, but is it? If God is eternal and uncaused as our Bible claims,
then no explanation is even possible. Why not? Because all of our explanations
depend on identifying antecedent causal agents! But in this case, there is
none. Think of it this way:
No cause possible à
God’s righteous eternal Being ß
no explanation possible
While this might help explain why we have no explanation for
the need for Christ to die on the Cross, apart from the fact that God’s
righteous character demanded it, we are still left with a possible
contradiction. On the one hand, God is omnipotent, but, on the other, He
couldn’t simply forgive sin without the Cross.
To resolve this problem, we need to re-examine the Bible’s
teachings on God’s omnipotence. It should be clear that there are many things
that God cannot do, things that His character forbids Him to do. He cannot sin,
violate His Word, and also accomplish anything in any way. However, He can accomplish anything He wants to accomplish
in His own way.
This distinction also helps us to
answer the challenge:
·
If God is omnipotent, can He create a boulder so
big that He cannot move it.
Either way we answer, we seem to deny God’s omnipotence,
unless we first understand that His omnipotence doesn’t require Him to violate
logic. Perhaps, to violate logic is to also violate Himself – an impossibility!
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