Mighty God
by Solomon White
Isaiah 9:6, “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God …”
God is so mighty and powerful, so above us and set apart from us that he is incomprehensible. Yet, Jesus was given the name Immanuel, which means “God with us,” so to those who believe in Christ, God is still apprehendable. We cannot fully understand all aspects of God the Father, but we can approach him only through Christ. Jesus said, “No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). We are able to come to God without fully knowing every element of his mysterious being because he is revealed to us through Christ.
A unique characteristic of Christianity is that we finite beings are able to be reconciled to an infinite God. This is possible through Jesus Christ, who is God incarnate in human form. The second person of the Trinity, God the Son, condescended to earth and lived among his creation. Jesus Christ had a human nature and a divine nature. He was both fully God and fully man. Jesus, as the God-man, is how we unholy beings can be reconciled to the holy father. All other religious worldviews pursue some sort of personal transcendence from the finite to the infinite. This reconciliation is impossible without Christ.
God and Man
The condescension of Christ to earth from heaven is the most powerful display of humility ever. No one else could ever be as humble because no one else could ever start from such a high position. Philippians 2:6-7 says, “though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.”
Even as a baby in the manger, Jesus was still the mighty creator of the universe. His divine nature was not diminished in any way. He existed from eternity as the perfect God and entered into creation as the ideal human being. He was not born “by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind” (Eph 2:3). Following a distinct pattern of humiliation and exaltation, the day Jesus was born in a smelly barn, angels burst forth in a mighty chorus to sing “Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!” (Luke 2:14). That’s heaven’s way of saying, “It’s a boy!”
By any interpretation of Genesis 6, the Nephelim were the studs of their time. But their existence was in the context of the worst evil of humanity. They were the mighty men of renown (Gen. 6:4), and they led to the almost total destruction of life on earth. The best humanity has to offer gives us the worst that humans can be. Our mighty king Jesus is the exact opposite of this.
Jesus is better than you. He is the God of your life, not you. There’s just no other way to say it. We need to be reminded of this from time to time because it’s something we know officially but not always effectively. We think it, but we don’t act like it.
Jesus “upholds the universe by the word of his power” (Heb 1:3). The earth stays in orbit, not due to the random chance of matter in motion but because Jesus is keeping us on course. Christ is literally holding it all together. Do not believe the lies of popular culture about our King Jesus. He is not some blonde-haired, blue-eyed, lesser, weakling. He is the Alpha and the Omega; he declares the end from the beginning. “To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen” (1 Pet 4:11).
Mighty To Save
We see this on the cross. Jesus didn’t run away from death; he ran to it. He laid down his life willingly for us. No one took it from him. His might is only rivaled by his love for the Father and his people. Nothing is outside of his power, and it is only in his love that he allows pain (especially his own) in order to save us.
The most amazing aspect of our mighty King Jesus is that his power is for us, not against us. The gospel is not a suggestion, it’s a command. Romans 1:16 says, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.”
In C.S. Lewis’ timeless classic The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe, when Mr. Beaver describes the lion Aslan (Lewis’ literary Christ), he writes, “‘Safe?’ said Mr. Beaver …‘Who said anything about safe? Course he isn't safe. But he's good. He's the King, I tell you.’” Ours is not a God to be taken lightly. He wants and deserves all or nothing from you (Rev 3:16).
Even though he is mighty, he is also good. An all-powerful God who is not also all-loving is a tyrant. God rules, but he does so justly and righteously. It is both “a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God” (Heb 10:31), and also marvelous to know that God is mindful of us, considers us, and calls us friends (Ps 8:4; John 15:13-15).
Jesus is our Mighty God because he is stronger and more powerful than all his creation. John 1:3 says, “All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made.” In a display of pure humility, he stepped down into his creation and gave himself up to be brutally murdered by us. It’s only a Mighty God that can receive affliction from the people who are in the wrong. The evilest, sinful act in the history of humanity was the crucifixion of Christ, and Jesus had the strength to bear that affliction for all who would follow him.