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Pt. 1
I suppose if I walked up to the average evangelical, or even
someone who acknowledged the existence of God, and asked a seemingly simple,
straight forward question,
“Can God do anything?”
Ninety five out of a hundred would say,
“Well, of course He can do anything! He’s God!”
To which I would first mimic the sound of a game show buzzer,
and then respond,
“Nah Uh.”
(and)
“Not so quick.”
(and)
“Give me a couple of minutes and I will prove to you that
there are several things God CAN’T do.”
One thing God is incapable of doing is telling a
lie.
In Numbers 23:19 we read,
“God is not a man that He should lie…”
Of course, every man, woman, boy and girl that ever walked
upon the earth has, at one time or another, told a lie. Sin, among which is the
wherewithal to distort the truth, is the result of living in a corrupt world in
which we are susceptible to various temptations to cooperate with our natural
enemy.
However, it is impossible for God to lie. In Psalm 138:2 we read an amazing scripture, amazing since God’s holy writ assures us that God honors and sanctifies His word above His name, itself.
“I will worship toward thy holy
temple, and praise thy name for thy lovingkindness and for thy truth: for
thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name.” Psalm 138:2
God simply cannot tell a lie.
Pt. 2
Another thing God cannot do is remember.
Oh, I don’t mean His exhibits symptoms of dementia. Not by a
long shot. His vast intelligence and wisdom is fully intact. Thank you.
However, in Isaiah 43:25, we read,
“I, I am he who blots out your
transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins.”
(and)
In Hebrews 10:17, we read,
“And their sins and
iniquities I will remember no more.”
It is impossible for God to
remember the transgressions of a believer who has repented of their sins.
“If we confess our sins, He is
faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all
unrighteousness.” (1st John 1:9)
I love to impact the lives of
fellow believers, and as a result I have written and taught a mentoring program
for many years. One of these weekly teachings is titled, “God’s Forgetter
Mechanism.”
In the course of this teaching,
I share the concept that God has both a Forgiver and a Forgetter Mechanism, whereas
human beings only have a Forgiver Mechanism. We are incapable of forgetting
another individual’s sins against us, although we are expected to offer them
forgiveness, if we wish to be forgiven our own transgressions. For whatever
reason, God possesses the ability of both forgiving and forgetting the sins of
those who He has created.
God cannot remember the sins He
has forgiven.
Pt. 3
A third thing which
God cannot do is to divest Himself of His physical body. Obviously, I am referring to the second
person of the Godhead, Jesus Christ.
I have previously conjectured
that it was possible for God to have a new experience. Following is an excerpt
from that particular piece of writing.
“You might find it surprising if I were to tell you that it is
possible for God to have a new experience. At least, the Creator of the
universe, the King of kings and Lord of lords, the Supreme Ruler, the ‘I AM,’
the Bright and Morning Star, the Everlasting God once participated in an
experience which He’d never before been exposed…
“when Christ, the Son of God submitted Himself to the will of
His Father, allowed the most dramatic limitation of His Person and power of all
time, was in some inexplicable way reduced from a Spirit which was capable of
filling up the universe to the microscopic size of a fertilized human egg,
matured as a fetus in a human womb, was born of a virgin named ‘Mary,’ suckled
at his mother’s breasts, and lived in obscurity for three decades; prior to His
advent and introduction to public ministry.
“Jesus Christ, who along with His Father and the Holy Spirit
participated in the very creation of the universe, voluntarily limited Himself,
and embraced a new experience unlike anything He’d ever known in the eons, and
ultimately gave Himself over to the sacrificial death of the cross.
“The Eternal God, Jesus Christ, the spirit being who, prior to
His advent on the earth, possessed the power to manifest Himself anywhere and
everywhere, limited Himself and dwelt among us, and experienced something
unique to Himself; becoming the God-man. As much God as man. As much man as
God. And He has seen fit to retain His earthly, nail-pierced body forevermore,
(and despite His power) has forevermore limited Himself to occupying one
human-sized bit of space at any given time. If He appeared in this room where I
am typing out these words, this is the only place He would be capable of being!
According to scripture Christ not only walked and talked among
us, was ultimately hung on a cross and died in a human body, but He rose from
the dead still voluntarily confined within mortal flesh.
The author of the books of Luke and Acts reported that,
“They were startled and frightened, thinking they saw a
ghost. He said to them, ‘Why are you troubled,
and why do doubts rise in your minds? Look at my
hands and my feet. It is I myself! Touch me and see; a ghost does not have
flesh and bones, as you see that I have.’” (Luke
24:37-39)
Not only was Christ wearing His human body when He rose from
the dead, but the Apostle John assures us that He will still be confined to a
human body when He comes again.
In 1st John 3:2 we
read,
“Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is."
Christ cannot leave His glorified human body and become spirit again.
Yes, dear readers there really are three things which the King
of kings and Lord of lords, the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End is
incapable of doing.
He cannot lie.
He cannot remember our sins once we have confessed them.
He cannot divest Himself of His physical body which He
voluntarily put on 2,000 years ago, and will never take off again.
And best and most astounding of all, everything that God cannot do, He cannot do because of His amazing love for us.
by William McDonald, PhD
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