The word “great” is relative. There are some things I may consider great that you wouldn’t have the same opinion of. Likewise, your definition of great could vary greatly from mine. There are also so many ways it is used which in all honesty, don’t capture the depth of the word’s meaning. The only person who is great, and that without personal bias is God. It’s not a matter of perspective or opinion to say God is great. Rather, it is a fact, a given…a well proven point.
According to the dictionary, the word “great” means considerably above average. Saying someone is considerably above average is ambiguous. There has to be a degree to it. So the question is, how great is God?
Before I give a definite answer to this, let’s do a little bit of meditation. For the purpose of this article, we will focus on two major events, if not anything, that reveal God’s greatness; the creation of the world and the salvation of the world. Let’s start with the creation of the world.
Look at nature, all of the trees, animals and water bodies. Think of space and the planets. Think of the order of life. In Genesis 1:1 we are told that God created the heavens and the earth, and since Genesis 2:3 when He rested, He has not had to create a thing.
Man does not create. Rather, he invents. We can only make stuff from stuff that already exist. Even supposed novel inventions like electricity were only discovered, not created. Only God has ever called what was not in existence to existence…from scratch (Gen. 1:3). He is the pioneer of the word existence. He made the word popular.
All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.
John 1:3 ESV
Beyond the creation of the world, He is the sustainer of it (Heb. 1:3). Everything that comes into existence remains because God sustains it. Since the day God suspended the sun in space, it has never fallen down. Since the day God created air, the world has never lacked it. God set up a system that is so functional. The sun knows when and where to rise, the planets know how fast they’re to turn and the trees understand seasons. The human mind and body as a whole also speak of the greatness of God. Any idea that a person could come up with, as superb as it may be, is just a tiny fraction of the wisdom God has.
I learned something recently that when a mother breastfeeds her child, a little amount of the baby’s saliva goes into the mother’s body. The mother’s system then processes the saliva to understand whatever is going on in the baby’s body in order to produce milk containing nutrients that the baby needs at that time. How magnificent and intelligent is that!
The intelligent system and world God set up proves His own intelligence and wisdom. When someone asks what the greatest miracle is, I don’t think of the miracle of making the blind see, or feeding 5000 with 2 bread loaves and 5 fish. I don’t even think of the resurrection from the dead. The greatest miracle God has ever done, I would say, is the creation of the whole world byjust a few words of His mouth. How awesome is it that we are all living in the confession of Somebody!
Next, the salvation of the world. After God set up this perfect system, humans introduced a bug which is called sin (Gen. 3). Now, this was nothing God was unprepared for. From the moment He reprimanded Adam and Eve for their rebellion, He promised them salvation (Gen. 3:15). The salvation of the whole world is a great task only great love could conquer. So another thing that reveals the greatness of God is the greatness of His love.
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
John 3:16 NIV
Remember when God asked Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac? Although Abraham never had to do that because God did not allow it, we could see that Abraham didn’t struggle so much with it because he presumed–and rightly so–that God would provide the lamb for the sacrifice, implying that one way or the other, Isaac would not die. That was a foreshadowing of God’s glorious plan to save mankind (Gen. 22:1-18). The scripture is clear on the fact that the wages of sin is death (Rom. 6: 23). But God did not want us all to die. So instead He sent His Son (which is the manifestation of God in flesh) to die in our stead. The sacrifice Abraham couldn’t go through with, God went through with it. It was a great sacrifice, borne by great love, to deliver a great salvation.
For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 6:23 NIV
In fact, the scripture tells us that that is the zenith of love. There is no greater love than for a man to lay down his life for his friends (Jn. 15:13). But what makes this more so great is that Jesus Christ did not just do this for His friends. He did for those who hated him too, because while we were yet sinners and scoffers and all of that, Christ died for us (Rom. 5:8). He did it for the whole world, past, present and to come. He gave Himself up to torture, shame, pain and the incredibly heavy weight of our sins just so we could have a place in eternity. When He was hung on that cross, He hung all of our sins and mistakes. When He was buried, He buried our guilt and shame. And when He rose again to life, He gave us the greatest gift mankind ever received; the gift of salvation. It is a great feat only a great God can do.
Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised, and his greatness is unsearchable.
Psalm 145:3 ESV
Now, to answer the question on how great God is, I would say God’s greatness is beyond what the human vocabulary can sum up. But if we were to describe or quantify it, I would say He is infinitely and magnificently great. Still, this doesn’t capture it in all its glory. God’s greatness is beyond what can we ever imagine or describe. How great do you think God is?
Oh Lord, my God
When I, in awesome wonder
Consider all the worlds Thy hands have made
I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder
Thy power throughout the universe displayed
Then sings my soul, my Savior God to Thee
How great Thou art, how great Thou art
Then sings my soul, my Savior God to Thee
How great Thou art, how great Thou art
And when I think that God, His Son not sparing
Sent Him to die, I scarce can take it in
That on the cross, my burden gladly bearing
He bled and died to take away my sin
Then sings my soul, my Savior God to Thee
How great Thou art, how great Thou art
Then sings my soul, my Savior God to Thee
How great Thou art, how great Thou art
Song by: Stuart Keene Hine
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