God and “All”

Anselm of Canterbury gave this definition of God: “Now we believe that You [God] are something than which nothing greater can be thought.”  I’ve always liked that definition.  It says however grand our thoughts of God might be, He’s much more.

He is personal because a personal God is greater than an impersonal one.  He is all powerful, all knowing, ever present, unchanging, all good, infinite in His nature, eternal past and present all because those attributes are greater than their alternatives.

Interesting enough, the Bible supports these ideas: He is all-knowing (1 John 3:20), He is all powerful and greater than the universe itself – infinite (Gen. 1:1), He is omnipresent (Ps. 139:7-10), He is unchanging (Jam. 1:17), He is personal (Ex. 3:14), He is all good (Luke 18:19), He is eternal past and future (Ps. 90:2).

If God is infinite in nature, then His attributes should be infinite as well.  We serve a God who is more merciful than we can ever imagine, more gracious, more forgiving, more just, more loving, our God, the God of the Bible, is greater in all ways than could ever be imagined.

A few weeks ago Pastor Tim talked about Namaan the leper (2 Kings 5:1-14).  Namaan came to Elisha’s home with gifts and all sorts of expectations of what Elisha should do to heal him of leprosy.  Instead, Elisha didn’t even come to the door but sent his servant.  The servant told Namaan Elisha’s instructions were to dip seven times in the Jordan river.

Thinking about this later, I realized Namaan didn’t understand whose door he was knocking on.  It was the door of  the personal representative of the perfect and infinite God.  Namaan expected rituals and sacrifice.  What he got was a commonplace request: “go bathe.”

To the God we love Who is greater than we can ever imagine, healing leprosy requires no effort at all.  In fact, Genesis 1:1 required no effort at all for an infinitely powerful God.  How can we doubt Him as Namaan did.  Is there truly anything this God cannot do in our lives?

 

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