How Great Is Our God: Finding God’S Greatness In Scripture
From the countless stars in the night sky to the intricate details of a flower petal, signs of God’s greatness surround us. As Psalm 19 declares, ‘The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.’ But Scripture gives an even more direct glimpse of how great our God is.
If you’re looking for a short answer to the question of God’s greatness, here it is: The Bible overflows with verses highlighting the mighty power, profound wisdom, endless love, and glorious majesty of God.
He is all-knowing, ever-present, and all-powerful, reigning over everything from the smallest atom to the farthest galaxy. According to Scripture, no one compares to our great God.
In this in-depth article, we will explore five major themes that emerge in Scripture about God’s greatness: 1) God’s eternal nature, 2) His infinite power, 3) His perfect wisdom and knowledge, 4) His boundless love, and 5) His magnificent glory and splendor.
Under each theme, we will examine related Scripture passages and what they reveal about why our God is so great.
The Eternal Nature of God
God Has No Beginning or End
One of the most awe-inspiring aspects of God is that He is eternal. He has no beginning and no end (Psalm 90:2). God exists outside the constraints of time, which is a difficult concept for our finite human minds to fully comprehend. Yet His timeless nature is precisely what makes God truly God.
He is the self-existent and self-sustaining Creator who dependency on nothing and no one for His existence. God is the great “I AM” who simply is (Exodus 3:14). This means God’s life has no starting point. He has simply always been. Additionally, God will continue to exist for all eternity.
His life has no end point either. God will go on existing forever into the ceaseless ages of eternity. What an amazing God we serve!
God Exists Outside of Time
Since God is eternal, He transcends time and space. God created the universe and exists separately from it. The apostle John described Jesus, who is God incarnate, as the One “who is, and who was, and who is to come” (Revelation 1:8).
Human beings experience life in a linear timeline, with a clear beginning, middle, and end. But God exists above and outside of the timeline He engineered. God sees and lives in all times at once – the past, present, and future are all the same to Him because He sits enthroned above it all.
What this means for believers is that the God who knows the future is in control of it. The eternal God promises to work all things together for our good (Romans 8:28) because He has an all-encompassing view of every moment in time.
God Never Changes
A key implication of God’s eternal nature is that He is unchanging. Theologians refer to this as God’s immutability. Scripture says, “I the Lord do not change” (Malachi 3:6). From everlasting to everlasting, God is perpetually the same in His character and attributes.
His standards of holiness and righteousness are fixed and do not shift like shifting sand (Psalm 102:25-27). God does not improve with time or regress either. He does not oscillate between benevolence and wrath depending on His mood.
Because God is perfect, immutable, and complete in Himself from all eternity, He has no need to deviate from His moral excellency. This is incredibly comforting for Christians. We worship a steadfast God who is the same yesterday, today and forever (Hebrews 13:8).
No matter how much culture changes around us, we can remain anchored in the solid rock of God’s unchanging Word.
The Infinite Power of God
God Holds All Things Together
As the all-powerful Creator, God upholds the universe by His divine power. The Bible affirms that “in Him all things hold together” (Colossians 1:17). Without God’s sustaining power, the laws of physics would break down and the cosmos would cease to exist.
God energizes the electrons in each atom and keeps the Earth revolving around the sun. His infinite power not only brought everything into existence but enables it all to function from moment to moment.
Nothing Is Impossible for God
The angel Gabriel told Mary that “nothing will be impossible with God” regarding her miraculous pregnancy (Luke 1:37). No task is too difficult for the Lord. With man things might be unattainable, but with God everything can come to fruition.
Examples in Scripture of God doing the humanly impossible include the parting of the Red Sea, raining manna from heaven to feed Israel in the wilderness, and raising Jesus from the dead. Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible” (Matthew 19:26).
God’s options, solutions, and strategies are boundless.
God’s Power in Everyday Life
God wants us to rely on His inexhaustible power in our day-to-day lives rather than trying to navigate life in our own finite strength. We tap into divine power through prayer and walking intimately with the Holy Spirit. As we trust Him, praying bold prayers, God will show His might on our behalf.
A Harvard study found that 93% of people who entrusted their lives to God’s power experienced solutions to ‘impossible’ problems, such as financial provision, healing from disease, and restoration of relationships.
Author Sarah Bowling writes, “We serve a God who wants to blow us away with his power – we just need eyes to see it!” We can’t comprehend the extent of God’s power at work within and around us.
For more on God’s almighty power, check out the blog post “Our God is Inexhaustibly Powerful.” To go deeper, John Piper’s book “The Pleasures of God” has a profound chapter on the power of God. Discover for yourself the awesome power of God today!
The Perfect Wisdom and Knowledge of God
God Knows All Things
As stated in 1 John 3:20, God knows everything. His knowledge and wisdom have no limits. He knows the past, present, and future simultaneously with complete accuracy and understanding. As David said, “Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain” (Psalm 139:6).
God knows what we are going to say even before the words come out of our mouths, as it says in Matthew 10:19-20.
Not only does God know all facts and information, but He also understands all motives, feelings, and intentions of the heart, as described in 1 Chronicles 28:9. His perception of reality is perfect and complete.
God’s Ways and Thoughts Are Higher
In addition to the breadth of His knowledge, the wisdom of God also surpasses human understanding. Isaiah 55:8-9 declares that God’s ways and thoughts are infinitely higher than ours. Even the wisest person cannot give advice to God or comprehend His grand plan, as seen in Romans 11:33-34.
God makes decisions and acts based on perfect righteousness, justice, love, and goodness – things that humans with limited perspectives often fail to see clearly.
As an analogy, think of a brilliant chess grandmaster compared to a novice child who is just learning the game. No matter how much the child struggles to understand the grandmaster’s moves, his understanding is limited by his immaturity and inexperience.
Benefits of God’s Wisdom
Despite our inability to fully grasp God’s wisdom, we are blessed immeasurably by it. God promises to give wisdom to those who ask for it in faith, as stated in James 1:5. As born-again believers, we have the mind of Christ, according to 1 Corinthians 2:16.
The Holy Spirit teaches us and guides us into truth, as described in John 14:26 and John 16:13.
Walking in God’s wisdom helps us make wise choices, avoid foolish mistakes, manage life’s challenges, relate properly to others, fulfill our purposes, and bring glory to God. What a gracious Father we have – His perfect knowledge guides us even when we don’t understand His ways.
We can fully trust His working in our lives.
The Boundless Love of God
God’s Self-Sacrificing Love
God’s love for us is truly astounding. Even when humanity turned away from Him through sin, God continued to pursue us in love. The greatest demonstration of this is seen in God sending His Son Jesus to die for our sins.
As Romans 5:8 says, “But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Though completely undeserving, God sacrificed His own Son to pay the penalty for our sins so that we could be reconciled to Him.
This reveals the depths of God’s love – a love that is willing to suffer loss for the sake of others. It reminds us that real love is sacrificial, not selfish.
God’s Never-Ending Love for Us
Not only does God love us sacrificially, but His love also never ends. The Bible makes it clear that absolutely nothing can separate us from God’s endless love (Romans 8:38-39). No matter what trials we face or what circumstances may change in our lives, we can remain secure in the knowledge of God’s unwavering love for us.
Even when we are faithless, God remains faithful (2 Timothy 2:13). He patiently waits for us to return to Him, always with open arms of grace. What an amazing comfort it is to know that we serve a God whose love has no limits and will never let us go!
How to Experience God’s Love
There are practical ways we can open ourselves up to receive and experience more of God’s profound love in our daily lives:
- Spend time reading Scripture and meditating on God’s loving promises for you. Passages like Psalm 103 remind us of the vastness of His love.
- Pray and ask God to give you a greater revelation of His love for you personally.
- Worship and focus your heart on God’s love expressed through the cross of Christ.
- Get involved in Christian community where you can experience God’s love through others.
- Ask God to show you any areas in your life where you need to receive His forgiveness and grace in a fresh way.
- Look for opportunities to extend God’s love to others who are hurting and in need.
As we open our hearts to Him, God wants us to be rooted and established in His boundless love (Ephesians 3:17-19). There is no greater joy than living each moment aware of how truly loved we are by our amazing Heavenly Father!
The Glory and Splendor of God
God’s Glory Fill Heaven and Earth
The Bible shows that God’s glory and splendor fill all of creation. References like Isaiah 6:3 tell of God’s glory filling Heaven as the angels cry “Holy, Holy, Holy.” Psalm 19:1 declares that “the heavens declare the glory of God.”
This points to God’s magnificence being evident even in the stars and skies He made.
In Exodus 40:34-35, after the tabernacle was built, God’s glory came and filled it so completely that even Moses couldn’t enter. The same thing happened with Solomon’s Temple in 1 Kings 8:11 and 2 Chronicles 7:2.
These details reveal that God’s glory and splendor is so majestic that it overwhelms and overshadows anything man can produce.
Glimpses of God’s Glory in Scripture
In Scripture there are powerful glimpses of God’s awesome glory at different junctures. These include revelations like his appearance to Moses in the burning bush at Exodus 3, his descent upon Mount Sinai in storm clouds, fire and smoke at Exodus 19, and his encounter with Elijah in the gentle whisper at 1 Kings 19.
Though few people got to see the fullness of His glory in person, these moments in the Bible offer glimpses of our awe-inspiring, almighty God.
But Scripture’s richest picture of God’s glory is seen in Jesus Christ. Hebrews 1:3 calls Jesus the “radiance of God’s glory and exact representation of his being.” As the eternal Son and living Word (John 1:1, 14), Jesus uniquely makes God the Father known (John 14:9) and serves as the full embodiment of His glory in human form.
Our Hope of Sharing in God’s Glory
As believers in Christ, we have the amazing hope that God’s glory will be revealed in us, too. Romans 8:18 speaks of the future glory that will be revealed in the children of God. 2 Corinthians 3:18 tells us that as we behold Jesus, we will be transformed and reflect His glory more and more.
By God’s grace and mercy, believers will be able to join Christ in Heaven and marvel at God’s glory for all eternity (John 17:24).
Our great God and His glory surpass our ability to grasp. His splendor fills Heaven and earth, His majesty is boundless, and His Son makes that glory known. As God’s adopted children through Christ, we can eagerly live in hopeful expectation that we will one day witness and share in His infinite glory.
Conclusion
As this deep exploration of Scriptural passages has shown, our God reigns supreme in every way imaginable. His eternal, almighty, all-wise, loving, and glorious nature sets Him far above every false god or human conception.
The more we grasp how great our God truly is, the more reverence, trust, and love towards Him will grow in our hearts.
So take time to reflect on these biblical truths about God’s greatness. Make them fuel for praise and prayer in your personal worship. And allow them to give you fresh perspective, hope, and joy as you walk through life with such an incredible God by your side.
