What God Can't Do

A God, no, THE God who can do infinitely more than we can imagine, who is all seeing, all knowing, ever present, knows the past, knows the future, knows our thoughts, knows the very numbers of hairs on our heads and stars in the sky, God with whom nothing is impossible, but yet there are few things I can name that He can't do.

I know what you're probably thinking, "Wait a minute, God can do anything!' Then you would quote Luke 1:37 to reiterate that "nothing is impossible with God." You would be right, of course. This verse in in reference to the angel of the Lord telling Mary that she will miraculously conceive a child by the Holy Spirit and her cousin, Elizabeth who is of old age will have a son. Yes, these and many more are great and wonderful miracles that only God can do and proves nothing is impossible with Him.

I ask you to bare with me a moment, indulge me, if you will, and let me present these thoughts that the Bible does actually say there are a few things that God can't do.

God can't lie.

God also bound himself with an oath, so that those who received the promise could be perfectly sure that he would never change his mind. So God has given both his promise and his oath. These two things are unchangeable because it is impossible for God to lie. Therefore, we who have fled to him for refuge can have great confidence as we hold to the hope that lies before us. This hope is a strong and trustworthy anchor for our souls. It leads us through the curtain into God’s inner sanctuary. Jesus has already gone in there for us. He has become our eternal High Priest in the order of Melchizedek. Hebrews 6:17-20

Hebrews tells us of an impossibility of God. It is impossible for Him to lie. This notion that He cannot lie shows us not His limitations, but rather the hope and trust that we can put in God. These verses show us that God bound Himself to an oath, so that we who receive the promise can be perfectly sure that His word is true! We have hope as strong and trustworthy as an anchor for our souls. It's a hope and confidence in Jesus as our Savior, it's a hope of eternal life to be with Him forever. With God the glass is always half full and we can think optimistically and look at the bright side and see that his inability to lie is rather a promise sure and strong as an anchor for our souls.

Titus 1:2 and Numbers 23:19 reiterate this idea that God cannot lie, making the truth of God even more evident.

God can't deny Himself or be Unfaithful

If we are faithless, He remains faithful; He cannot deny Himself. 2 Timothy 2:13

For God to deny Himself, It would be to prove Himself false and act entirely against His nature. He wouldn't be true to who He is if He is unfaithful. His very essence is faithfulness, despite our even being unfaithful to Him. Even though we fail, make mistakes, God cannot deny His own faithfulness. "He saves those whose faith magnify his name, for he cannot deny the infinite value of His name," John Piper, Desiring God.

What if some were unfaithful? Does their faithlessness nullify the faithfulness of God? By no means! Let God be true though every one were a liar. Romans 3:3

The good news is that His faithfulness never runs out! Know therefore that the LORD your God is God, the faithful God who keeps His covenant of loving devotion for a thousand generations of those who love Him and keep His commandments. Deuteronomy 7:9

Once again, God's impracticable ways show us just who He truly is and His true capability. It shines a light on His faithfulness and trustworthiness.

God Cannot Stand Sin or Unholiness

“But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear” (Isaiah 59:1–2)

God is Holy. In our sins, we are unholy. Unholy cannot meet with the Holy. God reminded Moses of exactly who He is and that He is holy. Then he said, “Do not come near; take your sandals off your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.” And he said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.”

In the Old Testament the people could not come before God because of their unhoiliness but there was a system in place to take care of that for the time being.

"But only the high priest ever entered the Most Holy Place, and only once a year. And he always offered blood for his own sins and for the sins the people had committed in ignorance." Hebrews 9:7

God could not become unholy to be close to mankind, but He didn't let that stop Him. He had a better plan and turned it all around and instead gives us a chance to become holy like Him.

So Christ has now become the High Priest over all the good things that have come. He has entered that greater, more perfect Tabernacle in heaven, which was not made by human hands and is not part of this created world. With his own blood—not the blood of goats and calves—he entered the Most Holy Place once for all time and secured our redemption forever. Under the old system, the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer could cleanse people’s bodies from ceremonial impurity. Just think how much more the blood of Christ will purify our consciences from sinful deeds so that we can worship the living God. For by the power of the eternal Spirit, Christ offered himself to God as a perfect sacrifice for our sins. Hebrews 9:11-14

And so, dear brothers and sisters, we can boldly enter heaven’s Most Holy Place because of the blood of Jesus. By his death, Jesus opened a new and life-giving way through the curtain into the Most Holy Place. And since we have a great High Priest who rules over God’s house, let us go right into the presence of God with sincere hearts fully trusting him. Hebrews 10:19-22

Through Christ's blood we are made holy like God. He can't become less than what He is so He makes us more like Him. What a wonderful God!

God Can't Die

Yet, the account of salvation gets even better. The death Jesus died to wash us clean of sins and make us Holy wasn't the end of the book. No, death could not hold him, death did not stop Him. He can't die!

But God released him from the horrors of death and raised him back to life, for death could not keep him in its grip. Acts 2:24 NLT

But God raised Him up again, putting an end to the agony of death, since it was impossible for Him to be held in its power. Acts 2:24 NASB

This is wonderful news for Jesus' followers. For His disciples then and for Christians today, for the believer and follower of His word, for those who obey His Gospel, His immortality results in eternal life for us, as well.

Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in Me will live, even though he dies and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. John 11:25-26

The One who cannot die, brings life.

We must believe and obey the author and perfecter of life and place our hope in His eternal salvation and know that death could not hold Jesus and He was raised and we must no longer "look for the living among the dead." Luke 24:1-5

I have read Lamentations 3:22-24 many times, I have it memorized, thanks mainly to the song that actually sings the verse, but yet when I looked at it recently something new and fresh popped out of that verse for me and it's the reminder that God's faithful love never ends and His mercy never ceases. I guess I've always known that, but it reminds me that it's another thing that God can't do and that is, He can't stop being merciful and loving to those who hope in Him!

We are reminded in the old hymn, "Great is Thy Faithfulness" as we sing these words to God, "Thou changest not, thy compassions they fail not." These words we sing remind us of what God does not do as the lyrics continue on to remind us of just how great God's faithfulness is. "Great is Thy Faithfulness, great is Thy faithfulness."

What God can't do only proves His faithfulness and only shows what he does for us. Him being incapable to lie, be unholy, unfaithful, or especially die, brings eternal and great promises to us.

In the end God really does not have any limitations. He allows and doesn't allow certain things for us. We can know and rest assure that God never fails and everything He does and "can't do" is for our benefit because of how much He loves us.

I, on the other hand, and all of His followers have many things we can't do. We do not have His power, wisdom, strength and ability and would not be able to live eternally without Him. The benefits we can receive and make us more like Him are only found in Christ. We must be in Christ, put on Christ for Him to enable us to do the things that we can't do, for apart from Him we can do nothing. I for one know I can't live my life without Him, nor would I want to. For all of the things He can't do results in everything He can do for me! What a wonderful, awesome God!