The All-Mighty God

God is infinitely powerful, or almighty. The power of God is that perfection whereby he is able to effect all things that do not imply a contradiction, either to his own perfections, or to the nature of things themselves. "With God nothing shall be impossible," said the angel to the Virgin Mary. "With God all things are possible," said Jesus to his disciples. How great must be that power which produced the beautiful fabric of the universe out of nothing! "By the word of the Lord were the heavens made, and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth" "For he spoke, and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast."–Ps. xxxiii. 6, 9. His power is still exerted in the preservation of the world; for he upholds all creatures in their being and operations by the word of his power.  - Robert Shaw.  Commentary on the Westminster Confession of Faith. 

God’s sovereignty over evil is beautiful and comforting.

Here is another tid bite of wisdom from Stephen Charnock on God and his control even over evil.

"If we deny God the government of sin in the course of his providence, we must necessarily deny him the government of the world, because there is not an action of any man’s in the world, which is under the government of God, but is either a sinful action or an action mixed with sin. God therefore in his government doth advance his power in the weakness, his wisdom in the follies, his holiness in the sins, his mercy in the unkindness, and his justice in the unrighteousness of men; yet God is not defiled with the impurities of men, but rather draws forth a glory to himself, as a rose doth a greater beauty and sweetness from the strong smell of the garlic set near it."

God's Providence and Sin: He even brings it to glorify him.

This is an encouraging word from Stephen Charnock on the providence of God and his sovereignty over evil.

God by his providence draws glory to himself and good out of sin. It is the highest excellency to draw good out of evil, and it is God’s right to manifest his excellency when he pleases, and to direct that to his honour which is acted against his law. The holiness of God could never intend sin as sin. But the wisdom of God foreseeing it, and decreeing to permit it, intended the making it subservient to his own honour.

Charnock, S. (1864–1866). Vol. 1: The Complete Works of Stephen Charnock, Volume 1–5 (29).

Excerpts from Bavink's Reformed Dogmatics vol.2: We can truly know God.

It is so encouraging to realize that God is infinite.  He is not like us humans, finite and limited.  So he is completely trustworthy and able to care for his creation.  What is also encouraging is though he is infinite and we cannot therefore never know God in the fullness of his awesome perfection, we can still know truly know him and fellowship with him.  In grace he reveals himself to us.  This is gospel.  Bavink explained it this way…

God Almighty is truly incomprehensible.  "The distance between God and us is the gulf between the Infinite and the finite, between eternity and time, between being and becoming, between the All and the nothing" (Page 30).  Yes, he is infinitely exalted above us and we will never know the fullness of the glory of God.  However, this does not mean we cannot truly know God.  Scripture teaches the incomprehensibility of God... "His ways are past finding out" (Is 40:13; 1 Cor 2:16).  However, the bible also sets "forth a doctrine of God that fully upholds his knowability...In Scripture the knowability of God is never in doubt even for a moment (Is 40:26; acts 14:27; Rom 1:19-20; Jn 17:3; 20:31).  The purpose of God's revelation, according to Scripture, is precisely that human beings may know God and so receive eternal life" (Page 30).

Excerpts from Bavink's Reformed Dogmatics vol.2: The Centre of all dogmatics - God.

The great and all pervasive subject of church dogmatics, sermons, and theology is and always must be God himself.  Herman Bavink makes this point right out of the gate in volume 2 of his Reformed Dogmatics.  He says…

“All the doctrine treated in dogmatics, in sermons, or in other theological treatises, whether they concern the universe, humanity, Christ, and so forth - are but the explication of the one central dogma of the knowledge of God.  All things are considered in light of God, subsumed under him, traced back to him as the starting point....this has practical usefulness in life...the more (we) reflect on God, the knowledge of whom is its (dogma, theology, sermons) only content, the more we will be moved to adoration and worship.  The fact is “The knowledge of God-in-Christ is life itself (Ps 89:16; Is 11:9; Jer 31:34; Jn 17:3).” (Page 29)

We can know God even though he is incomprehensible

“What is God Jehovah Almighty?”  “Who is God Jehovah Almighty?”  People often wonder if these questions can be answered; especially when we in the Christian Church proclaim that the true God is eternal, infinite, and perfect in all his being.  I mean, if he is without beginning or ending when will we ever fully know, say his love or justice?  Would we ever come to the end of his perfect love or justice?  Well, if he is infinite (without beginning or ending) then of course not.  So then can we know him? 

Yes.  Let me explain.

First, it is true it is impossible for anyone to give a perfect description of God or know God completely as God knows himself.  God is incomprehensible because he is infinitely perfect. No human mind or word can fully know and express the perfections of God!  See these Bible verses Job 11:7; 27:23; Psalm 77:19; 145:3; Isaiah 40:28; 45:22; Romans 11:33.

But secondly, though God cannot be fully know or described by us, yet we may know and describe something about him.  He has revealed himself to us, and that which he makes known to us we can know for he teaches it to us.  For instance God sent his only begotten Son, Jesus to this earth to be the Saviour of sinners.  Now we see God in the flesh.  “He that has seen me, has seen the Father,” Jesus said (John 14:9).  Also God’s glory is set forth in the Bible.  The Bible is God’s Word.  In it God teaches us about himself as we read of his works in our world.  And then there is creation.  Our natural world reveals the attributes of God to us…so much so as to leave us without excuse!  See Romans 1.

You see in Jesus Christ, in the God-the-Spirit-inspired-Bible, and in creation God overcomes our darkness and finite mind.  We can know something of God, because God wants us to know something about him.  Yes, we cannot know God perfectly, but what we do know about God from Jesus Christ and the Spirit speaking through the Bible is perfectly true.  And we come to know what God wants us to know through the things I mentioned above through the Spirit and the faith he gives us.  Thanks be to God that “in his light we see light.”  (Psalm 36:9)