Is there anything God cannot do?
Jeremiah 32:17 firmly declares, "Ah, Sovereign LORD, you have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and outstretched arm. Nothing is too hard for you" (NIV). God is all-powerful (Genesis 17:1), indicating that He can do anything He pleases.However, some point out that there are certain things the Bible teaches God cannot do. Some further suggest that if there are some things God can't do, then He is not all-powerful. Yet this is a logical fallacy. A true understanding of what God can and cannot do is logically expressed as follows:
God is all-powerful and can do anything.
God cannot do some things (lie, be tempted).
Therefore, an all-powerful God chooses to not allow Himself to do certain things that would cause Him to be less than all-powerful.
To express it another way, the only things God cannot do are those things that would cause Him to no longer be all-powerful or perfect. God cannot lie (Hebrews 6:18) because lying would mean He was no longer perfect. Lying would contradict God's nature; He cannot be other than who He is. God cannot be tempted by sin (James 1:13) because He would then exhibit a sign of weakness and no longer be all-powerful. Sin is contradictory to God's nature. Again, He cannot be other than who He is. God also cannot stop being God. He is eternal and by definition could not become finite (Psalm 90:2). Second Timothy 2:13 teaches that God cannot deny Himself.
In addition, because God is perfect He cannot overlook sin. To forgive sin, God the Father sent Jesus Christ the Son of God as a sacrifice (Isaiah 53:1-12; Romans 3:26). Through Christ, we can have eternal life with God (John 3:16).
Some have further argued absurd hypothetical ideas; such as if God cannot create a rock He cannot lift, He is not all-powerful. However, the point of God's power is that there is no power greater than His. He has no reason to create something else that is all-powerful. To do so would be to create another God, and there can by definition be only one Creator God who made everything else (Genesis 1:1).
This is why the Scriptures repeatedly declare God's supreme power. Jeremiah 10:12 declares, "It is he who made the earth by his power, who established the world by his wisdom, and by his understanding stretched out the heavens." Job 42:2 notes, "I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted." This is why Matthew 19:26 teaches, "with God all things are possible." As Isaiah 40:28 also declares, "Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable."
Can God make a rock so heavy He cannot lift it?
Is God immutable? What is the significance of the immutability of God?
Is God omnipresent? What does it mean to be omnipresent?
Is God omniscient? What does it mean to be omniscient?
Is God omnipotent? What does it mean to be omnipotent?
Truth about God
