I’d like to start with a challenge. Stop reading this blog and spend 30 seconds critically thinking in order to come up with a one sentence answer to the question, “Who is God?”.
Go.
What did you come up with? If you were anything like our middle school students, you probably really struggled to come up with a good answer using only one sentence!
However, about 1,000 years ago (1033-1109 AD), there was a Catholic philosopher and theologian who did give some serious thought about that question! He described God simply as “The Greatest Possible Being.”
I fell in love with this one sentence description of God. We cannot conceive of a greater possible being than God. God himself says in Isaiah 46:9, “I am God, and there is no other, I am God, and there is none like me”. God is a transcendent creator who is far above His creation. Today you may be asking, in what ways is God “the Greatest Possible Being”? I will start by sharing 4 reasons why.
- God is eternal. God is not bound by time. God is the creator of time. Even before the universe, time, and space even existed, God existed. God was not created. God can see the past and the future just as clearly as He can see the present. God is the Greatest Possible Being.
- God is omniscient. God is all knowing. David said in Psalm 139 that God knows “when I sit and when I rise” and “before a word is on my tongue, you, Lord, know it completely”. Jesus also makes the claim that God knows the very number of hairs on your head. Does this scare you, or does this comfort you? Perhaps both? God is the Greatest Possible Being.
- God is omnipotent. God is all powerful. Take a moment to think about the complexity of life on earth. Think about every cell working together to make the human body function. Think about the miracle of child birth. Now ponder the vastness and beauty of our seemingly never-ending universe. God has created it all and is sustaining it all. God is the Greatest Possible Being.
- God is omnipresent. Because God is spirit, he is not confined to space at all. John S. Feinberg states, “God is present at all places at once in His total being”. Once again, this may be terrifying, but it can also be so comforting! God is the Greatest Possible Being.
I hope that these truths cause you to be overwhelmed by our God. I hope that knowing these things about God cause you to live in awe, reverence, and holiness. But even more so, I hope that you are blown away that the Greatest Possible Being loves you and desires a relationship with you. Spend a few minutes today pondering, worshiping, and glorifying the “Greatest Possible Being”.
Greg Salmon – Pastor of Student Ministries
