Acts 26:8
8 “Why is it considered incredible among you people if God does raise the dead?
One of the hugest errors I think we as humans commit in our search for “the ultimate truth” is that we put limits on everything. If we believe in the existence of God or the idea of God or even the possibility that something like God exists (ie “higher power”), why are we so restrictive in our thinking about it? One of my grandfather’s most exhorting phrases was, “I pity your god.” He said this whenever we didn’t remember the greatness of God. We are trying to constantly fit God into our box, which comes in many sizes depending on the person. We expect Him to fit within the confines of a preset construct so we can understand Him and whenever we get close to doing so, He reveals an anomaly that destroys our theory. In college, while studying statistics, we examined “outliers” which were statistical anomalies that could not be ignored but could at least be recognized as “not within the norm” so it did not completely throw off our data. God’s presence always resides outside the norm.
As I mentioned in my article discussing God and science, we cannot quantify God with natural parameters. We cannot test the size of God the way we test the size of anything else. We cannot define how He works with simple or even complicated equations. We cannot measure nor recreate a miracle. We cannot record His voice. We can do one thing, however: trust that He is God.
In the Old Testament, the Jews recorded the word YHVH to represent God. Ancient Jews and even some today consider this word to be forbidden to speak for fear and respect of God. The word translated means “the state of being”. Some people ask, “When was God born?” This reveals our limiting mindset and problem with accepting that God always was, is, and will be. The language designation represents God’s omnipresence and sovereignty over all things that exist. Anything less than this in our conceptualization of God’s character is a profane ignorance of who He is.
If God exists, why would we want Him to be any less than this? The biggest lie that the devil has convinced us of is that “we can be like God.” It’s the same lie he has been feeding us since the beginning of our existence. When we mentally limit God, we limit our relationship with Him. The Apostle Paul’s point here in verse 8 reflects this very thing. The Sadducees, a religious/political group of Jews refused to believe in resurrection of the dead, even though they believed in YHVH could not accept God’s ability or desire to raise people from the dead. If He created the universe and all life within it, then why couldn’t He and why wouldn’t He resurrect people from the dead? This is part of the Gospel Message that they had an issue with since Jesus’ resurrection is what set into motion the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon His people.
We can never fully understand or appreciate God’s greatness; He knows that. But even in our finite minds we can understand and appreciate that God can never be fully defined or quantified. The greatness of His existence is wonderful news to us. We don’t have to worry about keeping the world spinning, making it rain, or even making sure there is air to breathe. We can trust in His providence. We can trust in His sovereignty. We can trust that He is in control. We can trust that He knows what is best for us. If we can’t, then we are trying to be gods ourselves.
