Q&A - Are There Things God Cannot Do?

 

I recently preached a sermon called Beholding God’s Glory: The God of All Power. In that sermon, we talked about God’s omnipotence, His complete and absolute power. We emphasized that God can do anything He desires to do. He is God Almighty, El Shaddai.

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Are there things, however, that despite God being all powerful, He cannot do?

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People have often raised mind stumping scenarios that attempt to put God in a conundrum. The classic question is, “Can God create a rock so heavy that He cannot lift it?” Others humorously point out that God cannot perform logically impossible tasks, like drawing a “square circle” or making a bachelor whose wife has a name. Some joke that God cannot authentically laugh at a joke because He has already known every joke ever told, and their punchlines, for all of eternity. Can God tell Himself a secret and then keep it from Himself?

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These are most commonly called omnipotence paradoxes or theological traps. But when we ask, “Is there anything God cannot do?” in a serious Q and A, we move from the logical playground to asking questions about God’s character and moral consistency.

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When we consider the integrity of God’s moral nature, are there things He cannot do? If there are, what are they? And how do we harmonize them with His nature as a God who possesses complete and absolute power?

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NEXT Sunday evening, April 26th, following our evening worship hour, we will explore these questions together in a Q&A format. You may be surprised to find that there are more things God cannot do than you might initially think, not because of any limitation in His power, but because of the perfection of His nature. We invite you to come and participate in this study as we seek to better understand the power of God and the unchanging character that defines it

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Written by Craig Ressler