“other than that” = aside from a one-time, unique (if all-encompassing) event. Is this a regular habit of God’s?

“What happens when an irresistible force meets an immovable object?”

1. I tend to take the word sovereign at face value: “one who has ultimate or supreme power.” Having ultimate or supreme power does not necessarily imply “all-powerful” AND “all-knowing” AND “all-loving.” I’m not saying that those aren’t attributes of God. What I’m saying is that those aren’t part of his “sovereignty.” Sovereignty means that the buck stops with him, that the ultimate power rests in his hand; his authority is supreme; he is superior; he is the top of the food chain.

Between omnipotent, omniscient, and omnibenevolent, the closest, of course, would be “omnipotent.” But, I even find a distinction there. (Admittedly, I’m splitting hairs on that, and the distinction is probably not useful.)

2. I’ll admit that I could be very wrong on this (and a lot of other things!), but I’ve always taken Jesus to be God limited when in human form. So, the question is this: “Is Jesus still in a human form…e.g., flesh and blood?” Yikes. I don’t know. My reading of 1 Corinthians 15 had always made me think “no.” BUT, it would be extremely arrogant for me to say that I really know what’s going on here. I consider all of that part of the mystery.

In the end, I think of God as a God of possibility rather than a God of limitation. God can do whatever he wants and has the power to pull it off. While this may be a type of limitation (since he may indeed allow us to do what we want; he may allow for our free will), it feels very different from the sort of limitation that we’re talking about when we think of Jesus the human walking around the Galilee. On the other hand, God has made all things possible. And in spite of all of those universes of possibility running around out there, all things are working to his glory. To me, that is an extremely powerful God.

Perhaps this is fallacious on my part; perhaps this is me trying to define who God is rather than letting God be who God is.

Of course, I could be a total heretic…luckily Jesus loves heretics too!

I’m not sure I’m following you here. Could you clarify some things for me?

1. How would you define sovereignty? It looks like you have a working definition as “supreme/ultimate power.” Is that correct? If so, how does that differ from “all-powerful, all-good, all-knowing”?

2. In Jesus, God is necessarily limited all the time. If we believe the Word still exists in the flesh, seated at the right hand of the Father, that flesh is by definition is a necessary limitation. Wouldn’t that mean that God is limited at all times?

Let me know what you think. Great discussion!

I was struck by your words, “other than that.” God taking on the sinful flesh of human beings … Is there a need to for anything “other than that”?

Justin