For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given; and the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of His government and peace there will be no end, upon the throne of David and over His kingdom, to order it and establish it with judgment and justice from that time forward, even forever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this. (Isaiah 9:6-7)
Jeremiah said, ‘Ah, Lord GOD! Behold, You have made the heavens and the earth by Your great power and outstretched arm. There is nothing too hard for You.’ (Jer.32:17)
The words “too hard” come from the same Hebrew root as the word “wonderful” in the Isaiah passage. Is there anything too wonderful, too hard, for the Lord? Anything beyond His creative and redemptive ability?
This is what C. S. Lewis wrote, in The Problem of Pain. “His Omnipotence means power to do all that is intrinsically possible, not to do the intrinsically impossible. You may attribute miracles to Him, but not nonsense. There is no limit to His power. If you choose to say, ‘God can give a creature free will and at the same time withhold free will from it,’ you have not succeeded in saying anything about God: meaningless combinations of words do not suddenly acquire meaning simply because we prefix to them the two other words, ‘God can.’ It remains true that all things are possible with God: the intrinsic impossibilities are not things but nonentities. It is no more possible for God than for the weakest of His creatures to carry out both of two mutually exclusive alternatives; not because His power meets an obstacle, but because nonsense remains nonsense even when we talk it about God.”
Therefore, if the salvation of all God’s creatures is an eminently desirable goal, one which is totally free of “nonsense”, then this is well within the capability of the Wonderful God, the One Jeremiah says “There is nothing too hard for Him”. Are we ready to believe this? Or is our concept of God’s ability to save too small?
