I appreciate the title of a little book by J.B. Phillips, Your God Is Too Small. Probably the biggest problem of believers through the ages has been a comprehending of the person of God which limits His infinite characteristics. After all, how can finite man understand an infinite Creator? Believers in all ages have struggled in their faith with limiting the person of God. Too often we have put God in a box!

However, there are some things that the Bible declares that God can not do. These things stem from His intrinsic nature. For example, repeatedly the Bible declares that God is holy. In 1 John 1:5, the Apostle likens God's holiness to light, stating that there is not one infinitesimal part of impurity in His character. In verse 6, John states that it is impossible for us to truthfully say that we are in fellowship with God if we are not walking in the light. 2 Corinthians 6:14 states that there is no communion (same word as fellowship in 1 John 1:6) between light and darkness. Therefore, we can conclude that it is impossible for God to fellowship with anything that is impure. Man was created for the purpose of fellowship with God, but because of sin, all of mankind is in an impure state. Since it is impossible for God to fellowship with sinful man in man's natural condition, a cleansing must take place in order for that to occur. But since God's character is unchangeable, man must come to God on His terms and not man's own.

A second attribute of God's character is His righteousness. By this we mean that everything that God does is always right. It is impossible for God to make a mistake. William Evans states it this way, "An evil God, one that could commit evil, would be a contradiction of terms, an impossible, inconceivable idea...God never did [nor] never will do wrong to any of His creatures." Someone has said that if God doesn't soon judge the U.S. for its sins, He will owe Sodom and Gommorah an apology. As much truth as may be communicated about the increasing immorality of our nation in that statement, there will never fall from the lips of our God the words, "I'm sorry". For God to utter these words would mean that He made a mistake and that is absolutely impossible for God to do.

Related to these characteristics of holiness and righteousness, are the characteristics of truth, veracity, and faithfulness. Paul describes the Father as the,"living and true God". John describes Jesus as, "him that is true". Peter describes God as the, "faithful creator". Because of these characteristics we may rightly say that it is impossible for God to state something that is not true or to state something and fail to fulfill its promise. This idea is most clearly stated in Hebrews 6:18 where we read that, "it is impossible for God to lie". If we declare the Bible to be the Word of God (and it is), then it is an absolute impossibility to say that the Bible can contain any errors.

These are just some of the examples of things God can not do because of his nature. There are also some specific things that God can not do because He has made specific statements that he will not do them. For example, in Genesis 9:11, God promised that He would never again destroy the earth with a flood. It is not that God is powerless to produce another world-wide flood, nor did God say that He would never destroy the world, but He limited Himself in how He would destroy the world. Again, since it is impossible for God to lie, we can rest assured that a world-wide flood is impossible for God to produce.

In like manner there are a number of places in the New Testament where action of our Lord are described as one-time events. Hebrews 9:26 states that the first advent of Jesus Christ was a "once and for all" event. The verse does not prohibit our Lord's second advent, for that is the "blessed hope" of the church, but it does rule out the possibility of Jesus coming again for the purpose putting away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. This truth is confirmed by Peter (1 Peter 3 :18) and by Paul (Acts 13:34). For Jesus to repeat the actions of His first advent and to die again for sin would render the accomplishments of His first advent as either insufficient or ineffective or both. This is what the author of Hebrews 6:4 has in mind where he writes about those who were once and for all enlightened concerning the gospel and who responded to it by faith. If by any means this was not sufficient to secure their eternal salvation, and by some means there was a possibility that they could fall away, then the only way back would be a re-crucifying of Jesus Christ, and that is an impossibility. Any religious system that insists upon a reoccurring sacrifice of Jesus Christ for sins is a religious system that is totally contrary to the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Often today, people will say that God can do anything. And if you try to persuade them that this statement is not true, you will be accused of putting God "in a box". But God is in a "box", it is the box of His own "self-limitations". That is a box composed of all the moral characteristics that he possesses and the specific statements that He has made concerning His activity throughout the ages, both past, present, and the one to come. For God to put Himself outside this "box" would necessitate God no longer being God, and who would want a Sovereign of the universe like that? Think for a moment the consequences of such a possibility. You go to sleep tonight trusting in the shed blood of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins and you wake up tomorrow only to find out that God has changed His plan of salvation. Or maybe you are trusting in the promises of Hebrews 13:5,6 and Psalm 23:4 which speak of the continuing presence of God in the adversities of our lives, only to find out that He decided to eliminate some adversities from His promises. Our lives would turn into utter chaos, simply because "God was not in a box". When we appeal to God's infinite attributes of omnipotence and omniscience and conclude that God can work in any way possible, we do not remove Him from the box of restrictions but we put Him in the box of our own imagination or faithlessness. God is confined in the box of His own moral character. To expect God to work in any way that is not consistent with the revelation of Himself, is to put God in the wrong box.