God is Great - Part 1

What is God like? Too many people decide individually what they think God is like. Some of those conjured descriptions come close to the truth, while others minimize God, lower Him to human standards, or present a warped, inaccurate picture. A valid description of God cannot come from man's opinion, man's experience, man's reasoning, or even from tradition. An accurate understanding of God's character comes from His own revelation of Himself through the pages of Scripture. Below is an overview taken from the gospel of Mark. These references display the greatness of God's person as revealed through the person of Jesus Christ.

One major category in terms of God's characteristics is His greatness. God is great. That is, He is powerful, amazing, awesome, divine, and outstanding. Perhaps the most commonly known displays of God's greatness are instances of physical healing. Many passages reveal Jesus' ability to heal the sick; some do not mention specific diseases, but they do mention vast quantities of people. Large crowds descended on Jesus simultaneously, presenting a great variety of diseases, none of which were beyond the power of the Savior.

On one occasion people brought to Jesus "all who were ill" to the extent that "the whole city had gathered." These people were "ill with various diseases," and Jesus healed them (1:32-34). This is amazing. No doctor is able to heal (or even correctly diagnose) every disease, even with the advantages of vast research, availability of resources, accessibility to medicines and treatment, and a staff of medical personnel. No clinic or hospital, even with a team of doctors, can meet the needs of so many people in such a short time. Jesus did not give medications, perform surgeries, or prescribe bed rest. He did not deliver bad news to anyone or write off some illness as incurable. With nothing other than His power, Jesus was able to heal them all.

Other passages also speak in general terms of Jesus' ability to heal (6:5 and 6:55-56). In at least some cases, Jesus did not even touch the people or speak to them, yet they were healed. In addition to these large crowds, Jesus also healed individuals. Peter's mother-in-law had a relatively minor ailment, a fever. Many women "push on" when they are sick, but this fever had her laid up in bed. When Jesus healed her, she was immediately able to get up and serve her many guests.

Others came to Jesus with more serious conditions, including those that doctors had been unable to remedy in spite of continued efforts. These were people who had tried everything and had realized there was no hope of ever being healed through the efforts of the medical community. Even with modern medicine, some of these are conditions that man still has no hope of curing. Not one of the cases was too difficult for Jesus, who gave instantaneous healing. Jesus healed a man with a withered hand (3:5). He healed a woman from a twelve-year hemorrhage (5:29). He healed a leper (1:41) and a paralyzed man, who without rehab, stood, picked up his bed, and walked away (2:12). Jesus healed a deaf-mute (7:35) and two blind men (8:25 & 10:52). Even death itself was not too great a challenge for Jesus; He brought a girl back to life after she had already succumbed to her illness (5:41-42).

Jesus' healing ability extended to a realm that is incredibly serious but rarely identified in modern times - demon-possession. This is much more severe than a mere physical illness; it involves a spiritual dimension that is beyond man's comprehension. Jesus sometimes healed many demon-possessed people within a crowd (1:34,39). He also healed individuals who came to Him (1:26). He healed a little girl in this condition without even going near her (7:30). He healed a man with multiple demons (5:13). Jesus even bestowed upon His disciples the ability to cast out demons (6:7), but when a case arose that was too difficult for any of them (or for all of them combined), Jesus was successful (9:26).

Jesus' power reached beyond the realm of illness. He performed amazing acts that no one would even consider attempting. These are stories that people would be unlikely to believe if they had not seen them with their own eyes, or at least without the testimony of many witnesses. In Jesus' day, however, it was common knowledge that He had power to perform miracles (6:2). One day Jesus went for nourishment to a healthy-looking fig tree. Sadly, it had no fruit, and Jesus cursed it. The next day the disciples discovered this tree "withered from the roots up" (11:20).

On one occasion, Jesus looked upon a hungry crowd of 4,000 people. They had been listening to Him for three days and were far from any source of food. Jesus used seven loaves of bread and a few small fish to feed the entire crowd. The people ate until they were satisfied, after which seven large baskets of leftovers were collected (8:6). On another occasion, there were 5,000 men gathered (plus their families). Jesus fed them all (until they were satisfied), having available only five loaves of bread and two fish. Then the disciples gathered twelve full baskets of leftovers (6:41).

Jesus walked on the water. He did not have special shoes. He was not walking in water so shallow that it looked like He was walking on it. He did not have a jet ski, water skis, or a surfboard. He walked on top of the water. Walking on water is so impossible that the setting does not really matter, but the water Jesus walked on was out in the middle of the sea during a fierce storm (6:49). Speaking of storms, Jesus calmed that storm by causing the wind to immediately stop (6:51), and He quieted another fierce storm simply by telling it to be still (4:39). The waves that had been filling the boat to a dangerous level "became perfectly calm" and "the wind died down."

The climactic display of Jesus' power was when He conquered death, rising from the dead after three days (16:6). God has all power. He can do anything. He is not a wimp or a weakling. He is not in a battle with a devil or with forces of nature that are sometimes stronger than He is. There is no situation in which a Christian can accurately say, "I wish God could have done something about this" or "I wish God could have stopped this from happening." If something has not happened in a believer's life, it is never because God is unable. If something did happen, it is never because God could not stop it. God's power gives the believer the confidence to believe that God can do anything He says and everything that He deems best.

"For nothing will be impossible with God." Luke 1:37 (NASB) - Oh, and the context of this verse is that two women were going to have babies - one an old woman and the other a virgin!