Holy, Mighty, Almighty God
Holy, Mighty, Almighty God
I spoke to you before about the phrase “Holy God,” and we spoke about the holiness of God. Today we continue our talk to speak about the power of God, as in the phrase “Holy, Mighty.”
And we rejoice in the power of God, because His power is for our benefit, not against us.
There are powerful people who use their power for oppression, harm, and domination, for intimidating people and threatening them. As for God, He is holy in His power; He is the Holy Mighty One. We praise Him in the holiness of His power.
God is mighty in His ability, mighty in His love, mighty in His forgiveness and in His forbearance, and mighty in His humility. Mighty in every good thing.
Mighty in His ability
This is because He is able to do all things. This is an attribute that belongs to God alone. There is no one able to do all things except God.
There are angels who are powerful, and we say of them in Psalm (103): “Bless the Lord, you His angels, mighty in strength.” But angels are not able to do all things. Moreover, all the power they have comes from God Himself. He is the One who grants them power.
There are also humans who are powerful, and apostles and saints who perform miracles. But this power is not from them; rather, it is from God who gives it. Therefore, in the miracle of healing the lame man at the Beautiful Gate, when the people were greatly amazed, Saint Peter the Apostle said to them: “Why do you marvel at this? Or why look so intently at us, as though by our own power or godliness we had made this man walk?” Then he directed their minds to the Lord Jesus Christ, in whose name the miracle was done (Acts 3:12–16).
God is able to do all things. Among God’s abilities are performing miracles and wonders, and they are very many. We mention among them the power to create and to raise the dead.
These two miracles are believed in by all religions, and no one is able to do them except God alone. Humans, despite what they have reached of astonishing knowledge, are not able to create. All that a human can do is to be a maker, not a creator. He makes from material that God created, and he uses a mind that God granted him, and he makes from material that God created.
Likewise, raising from death can only be done by God alone. At death, all human power, knowledge, genius, and intelligence come to a halt. What remains is the power of God, which is able to raise from death—not only a particular person, but in the general resurrection He will raise all.
Added to this is His power to heal incurable diseases and disabilities.
His power to grant sight to the blind, to heal the deaf and the lepers, to cast out demons, and to restore the minds of the insane and the possessed.
We also mention God’s power over nature:
His rebuke of the wind and the waves, the parting of the Red Sea, His power to bring water out of the rock, and to rain manna and quail from heaven, and His power to bless the five loaves and the two fish to satisfy thousands of people.
Just as the power of God appeared in His ability to perform wonders, so His power also appears in saving His beloved.
In salvation
The power of God in saving the three youths from the fiery furnace… The youths were in the furnace of fire. How God saved them while the fire was exceedingly hot, yet it did not burn them, nor did it have power over their bodies, and not a hair of their heads was burned. They were loosed, walking in the midst of the fire, and with them was a fourth, like the Son of the gods (Dan 3:25–27). How marvelous is God’s power and authority over fire.
Also Daniel the prophet, whom they cast into the den of lions, and they did not harm him, for he said: “My God sent His angel and shut the lions’ mouths” (Dan 6:22). We add to this how God saved His apostle Peter from prison (Acts 12), and His apostle Paul also from prison. And how He stood with the young man David in his battle against Goliath the giant, when David said to that giant: “This day the Lord will deliver you into my hand” (1 Sam 17:46). David slung his stone from the sling, and God made it lodge in the head of that giant, and he died.
Truly, as the psalmist said in the Psalm: “If it had not been the Lord who was on our side when men rose up against us, then they would have swallowed us alive when their wrath was kindled against us,” until he said: “Our soul has escaped as a bird from the snare of the fowlers; the snare is broken, and we have escaped. Our help is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth” (Ps 124).
The Lord is mighty in saving His beloved. And He is also mighty in His love.
Mighty in His love
Because of His love, He granted us the grace of existence, bringing us into being when we did not exist. And from the power of His love, He granted us blessing and gave us dominion over all the creatures of the earth. Indeed, from the abundance of His love, He created us in His image and likeness.
God’s continual giving is also a sign of His love.
In His love, He gives us what we ask, and more than what we ask. He even gives us without our asking. From His love, He cared for us: He sent us the Law and the prophets, and opened for us the door of repentance when we sin.
We can love those who love us, but God loved even those who opposed Him.
He loved sinners and led them to repentance. He loved atheists and led them to faith. He loved those who left Him and brought them back to Him. He loved all people and prepared for them the way of salvation.
He loved Thomas who doubted His resurrection, appeared to him, and saved him from his doubt. He loved Peter who denied Him three times, and in tenderness He strengthened him in his apostleship. He even loved those who crucified Him and said: “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do” (Luke 23:34). And in the realm of this love, He forgave the thief who was crucified with Him and promised him that he would be with Him that day in Paradise (Luke 23:43).
It is a comprehensive love—not only for His disciples of whom it was said: “Having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end” (John 13:1). Rather, the power of the Lord was in His love for the whole world. Thus was His redemption.
Mighty in His redemption
His redemption sprang from His love, for He said: “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends” (John 15:13). And it was said: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). And it was said: “In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 4:10).
The power of God’s redemption for us was in His love for us, and also because it was a sufficient redemption for the forgiveness of all sins, for all people, in all ages.
Also in redemption, His power appeared in His humility.
For the sake of our salvation, “He emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross” (Phil 2:7–8).
Here we mention another aspect of His power: His forbearance.
Mighty in His forbearance
We say of Him in the Divine Liturgy: “You endured the injustice of the wicked.” He endured bitter criticisms and evil accusations directed against Him.
They accused Him of being “a glutton and a winebibber,” and that He associated with tax collectors and sinners. They accused Him of breaking the Law, of violating the Sabbath, of being against Caesar, and of casting out demons by Beelzebub. They even went so far as to say to Him: “Do we not say rightly that You are a Samaritan and have a demon?” (John 8:48).
All this without responding to them with the punishment they deserved. Rather, as Isaiah the prophet says in his prophecy: “He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth; He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so He opened not His mouth” (Isa 53:7).
He also endured the challenge at the time of the cross: “He saved others; Himself He cannot save.” “If You are the Son of God, come down from the cross, and we will believe You.” “You who destroy the temple and build it in three days, save Yourself” (Matt 27:40–43).
In His power He endured the scourging, the slapping, and the mockery, and did not turn His face from the shame of spitting. He endured the thorns, the nails, and the disgrace. He endured the betrayal of those people to whom He had done good, who scattered from around Him and demanded His crucifixion. He also endured the pains of the cross and all that was said of Him in Psalm 22.
Therefore, we praise Him in Holy Week and say to Him every hour: “Yours is the power and the glory.”
He was also mighty in His forgiveness of sins, which does not accord with His nature as Holy.
Mighty in His forgiveness
He forgave all, from Adam and Eve, through the ages, to the end of days, all who believe and repent.
He forgave the centurion Longinus who pierced Him with a spear on the cross, led him to faith and to martyrdom, and wrote his name in the Synaxarion. Likewise Arius and to Anshna, among the most severe governors in persecuting the Church during the days of Diocletian, and he too became a martyr and his name was written in the Synaxarion.
In the power of His forgiveness, He forgave the sinful woman who washed His feet with her tears (Luke 7), and the woman caught in the very act (John 8). He forgave Zacchaeus the tax collector and entered his house, saying: “Today salvation has come to this house” (Luke 19:9). He forgave the repentant and transformed them into saints, such as Augustine, Moses the Black, Mary of Egypt, Pelagia, and many others like them.
Truly, He is mighty in His forgiveness. He forgave in the past and still forgives.
He forgave the communists who denied His existence and led them to faith. He forgave those who came to Him at the eleventh hour (Matt 20:9), and they became a symbol of those who repent at the end of their lives, like the thief on the right.
The children of God are strong
Finally, if He is thus mighty in everything, then we too should be strong, because we were created in His image and because we are His children.
It is fitting for the children of God to be strong, and this does not prevent them from being humble and meek. For in humility there is also strength. They are strong in their character and in their virtuous conduct, without pride, vanity, or self-glorification.
Strong in confronting sin and overcoming it, as Saint Peter the Apostle says: “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. Resist him, steadfast in the faith” (1 Pet 5:8–9).
Even the youth are praised by Saint John the Apostle for their conduct and strength, saying: “I have written to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the wicked one” (1 John 2:14).
Indeed, a life of righteousness requires strength from us. The virtue of self-control requires strength. Perseverance in the Lord requires strength. So be strong.
Be strong also in your service and in building the Kingdom.
You will have the power of the word and its influence on others, and your holy life will have a power of attraction for others toward a life of holiness.
In your service to others, you will have the power of love that cares for every soul and its salvation. You will love people as God loved you and as God loves them also, and you will say with the Apostle Paul: “Who is made to stumble, and I do not burn with indignation?” (2 Cor 11:29).
You will have power in giving and sacrifice.
You will have power in endurance, as Saint Paul the Apostle said: “We then who are strong ought to bear with the scruples of the weak, and not to please ourselves” (Rom 15:1). For the one who endures is undoubtedly strong, whereas the one who does not endure but becomes angry and clamorous is weak inwardly.
The children of God were strong, and so were the heroes of faith.
We mention Saint Athanasius the Apostolic, who defended the faith with all strength and endured exile more than once and the plots of the Arians, until it was said to him: The whole world is against you. He replied: And I am also against the world. They gave him the title Contra Mundum, and he remained strong and steadfast until he delivered to us the deposit intact. Also Saint Stephen the first deacon was strong in spreading Christianity, even standing before three councils of philosophers, and it was said of this that “they were not able to resist the wisdom and the Spirit by which he spoke” (Acts 6:10). He was also strong in his martyrdom, for it was said of him at his trial: “All who sat in the council, looking steadfastly at him, saw his face as the face of an angel” (Acts 6:15).
There is strength of character and strength of relationship with God, from whom all strength is derived, as Saint Paul the Apostle said:
“I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Phil 4:13).
And as the Lord Jesus Christ promised, saying: “All things are possible to him who believes” (Mark 9:23). If you have strength in your faith, then all things become possible for you by the grace of God working in you. And whenever you receive strength, be more humble, because the strength is not from you, but from God who grants it.
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