Soper: God limited by His goodness

Tuesday, August 15, 2017
Meditation:
    Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other. Truth shall spring out of the earth; and righteousness shall look down from heaven.
    —Psalm 85:10-11 (KJV)
Quotation:
    I can see no intellectual objection to the statement that God’s power is not limited by anything outside His own creative purpose: in that sense He is omnipotent, but it is even impossible for Him to exercise that power in certain ways without thereby ceasing to be our Father. In that sense God is not omnipotent: He is limited by His own nature, by His perfect goodness and mercy; for the omnipotence of God means nothing apart from His Fatherly love. In particular, this limitation of the power of God is to be found in the measure of freedom which, as His children, we enjoy. God shares His power with us so that, for a time at least, if we so determine, we can break His laws and frustrate His plans, but also so that we can give to Him, if we choose, the free allegiance of our hearts and minds, and become children at His Family Table, drawn together by the compulsion of His love, and not the exercise of His might.
    ... Donald O. Soper (1903-1998), Popular Fallacies about the Christian Faith, London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1938, p. 19-20 (see the book)
    See also Ps. 85:10-11; Nah. 1:3; Matt. 7:21; 12:46-50; 19:26; Mark 3:35; Luke 8:21; 11:28
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your rule and purposes are complete. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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