God is all-might-y. The word “might” has two meanings: It either expresses the possibility that something may happen, or it refers to the power that can bring to pass what is possible. God’s might shares in both meanings. Before the worlds began, God decided what he would do and permit, as well as what he would not do or permit, in his creation. This great decision fixed forever what is possible in this world (what might come into being) and what is impossible (what cannot ever successfully come to pass). The Almighty’s primal decree laid down the constitution of the universe and settled forever the nature of things and men. Anything which the Almighty created may operate only within the limits of the possibilities which God’s law has set for it. God has also the might, the power, to do all that may be done, all that is possible according to his law. He can control what he has created, uphold and preserve it or, if necessary, let it go back down again to nothing when it has sewed its purpose. He is all-might-y. He has no ultimate rivals to stand over him. The same God who gave the Word that created the worlds will have the last Word about their destiny too. The Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is the source of all authority, ability, and reality.
If all might belongs to him, am I then only a helpless toy in his hands? I certainly seem to move at my own commands. But if I always have to do what he makes me do, it would be hard for me to explain all my mis~ takes and sins. Then God would have to beat the blame for all the crimes of the human race. If my children were not free to rage against me, their freely given love would mean nothing to me. Even the Almighty would not likely rejoice when, at the push of a button, he heard a talking toyman say, “I love you.” When I hear him command “thou shalt . . .” or “thou shalt not . . I believe he assumes that it is up to me to decide whether or not I am going to obey him. Within limits I can do what I want to do when I want to do it. The Almighty sets obvious bounds to my freedom but, inside my “cage,” I am free to be what I am. I can choose how I shall react to anything that happens to me. To a large degree I am therefore responsible for the direction my life takes. When I try to be what I am not, to live in a way not permitted to me by God, then I am destroying myself either slowly or suddenly. What is outlawed by God always contains within itself the means of its own destruction. But Jesus is the indestructible One,—God’s Way, Truth, and Life. He is the true way for man to live. He is the way for man to live truly. His truth will make me free. But when I go against his way of living life, I have to take the consequences. I cannot be free from them. When I resist God’s will for me in Christ, I am resisting my own true self, the life God intended me to live. I cannot escape from the ultimate realities of my situation. They are backed up by the Almighty. I can only break myself against the universe when I persist in following ungodly dreams and believing in things that never can be so. I believe in the Almighty.
Books by Dr. John A. Ross
