Eagle Brook Church Blog

Inked Scripture Verse: The Impossible

By Vince Miller, Ministry Development Director

There are some things that God cannot do.

Interesting statement, right? And it is actually a true statement. God cannot sin, lie, or do evil because his character will not allow him to do so.

In spite of the short list of things that God cannot do, God can do the impossible, or what may seem to us to be impossible. His all-knowing wisdom and power allows him to see the bigger picture and take situations that look complex and hopeless and find ways to bring about good. For example, God does not see a dilemma in allowing love and justice to simultaneously coexist, yet this is hard for humanity to comprehend. God does not find it a perplexing dilemma to mutually hate sin in people and yet love people who sin, even though we find this remarkably difficult. God sees no dilemma in both punishing sin and forgiving people, while we still err to one side or the other in our human relationships. And what is His resolution to these impossible dilemmas?

A tiny seed planted in a virgin woman named Mary.

Luke 1:37

This verse is nestled within one of the most significant events of all human history. It is the closing statement of a conversation the angel Gabriel is having with a young virgin woman named Mary, who is preparing her for a moment in which God is going to supernaturally intervene in her life. The call is spectacular, for Mary would become the host of the divine seed, and in her womb would grow the human flesh of an Almighty Savior. In this son, Jesus meaning “the one who saves,” all creation would find a Savior whose perfect life would become the answer to the impossible. In Jesus’ life, all questions about an unseen God would be answered. In Jesus, all the penalty of sin would be paid for in a perfect sacrifice. In Jesus, all would find perfect love that was nowhere to be found. And in Jesus, humanity would discover a renewed relationship between God and man that was destroyed in the garden at the beginning of time. Perplexing–yes, but impossible–no.

A remarkably similar situation to Luke 1 is also found in the Old Testament.

Genesis 18:13-14

When Abraham’s wife, Sarah, learns that she’ll have a son at an old age, she laughs. God responds, “Is anything too hard for the LORD?”

What is remarkably transparent in this text is Sarah’s human response. Much like us, she laughs at the possibility, because what she sees is only the impossibility. The reality of her infertility and ripe age of 100 is too much of a mental obstacle for her to see the reality that God can do the impossible. God, in all his wisdom, perceives life so differently from her.

The challenge for us all is to believe in God’s reality more than our own. While there are many impossible things for us, nothing is impossible for God. Regardless of any situation you may be facing this season, how it may perplex you, or how tiresome it might be–know that God can conquer it. Just keep in mind that He conquered sin, death, evil and Satan by planting the smallest of seeds in an unassuming woman of Nazareth named Mary.