He Is Able To Carry Us To His Praise And Glory

Feature 3 – June 2023 – Grace & Truth Magazine

He Is Able To Carry Us For His Praise And Glory

Many of our readers are familiar with the chorus by Paul E. Paino (1923–2005):

“He’s able, He’s able, I know He’s able;
I know my Lord is able to carry me through.”

The Creator and Upholder of this vast universe, with its many incredibly complex galaxies, is certainly able! He controls human history and, as the true Savior-God, has brought salvation. He cares for us, even to the minutest details of our lives.

Do you know that our brains do one million trillion operations per second? As His creatures, all humans are responsible to God since He has enabled them to give Him an account for their thoughts and actions (Rom. 1–3), which is a faculty that animals don’t have.

Speaking on Mars’ Hill to the philosophers of his day, the apostle Paul gave a succinct, or concise, outline of who God really is, what He has done and is doing, and what He is going to do (Acts 17:22-31). This includes the fact that God is seeking a relationship with every person. For this reason, everyone – even a very religious person such as Nicodemus – “must be born again” (Jn. 3:7 ESV). Because of Adam and Eve’s fall in the garden of Eden (please read Gen. 3), every human being must repent, no matter where or who he is (Acts 17:30). The great Savior-God desires that all people would be saved and come to know the truth (1 Tim. 2:4). Soon He is going to appear as the supreme Judge and decide about all matters. He will judge in righteousness through “a Man whom He has appointed; and of this He has given assurance to all by raising Him from the dead” (Acts 17:31) – the Lord Jesus Christ. Amazing, yes, but these are true and indisputable facts!

God has shown His skill and power in creation and history, and many books have been written about these matters. In fact, the Scriptures describe lots of details about them and confirm that our Lord Jesus Christ is to be honored forever as Creator (Rev. 4:11) and Redeemer (5:5-14). He is also to be honored as Judge, whether people accept this or not (see Acts 17:16-34).

God’s Word presents Him as the only and true Creator, Sustainer, Ruler, Savior and Judge. How solemn are these things! Even if you don’t accept Him in the first four functions, one day you will meet Him as Judge. There is no way out! Please read carefully the following quote from God’s holy Word:

Then I saw a great white throne and Him who was seated on it. From His presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done. And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done. Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire. —Revelation 20:11-15

Indeed, He is able! But, who can grasp all His abilities?

“To Him Who Is Able”*
God is looking for a response. As the Creator, He looks to receive a response from His creatures, which response will never end because we will always remain His creatures (see Rev. 4:1-11). This implies redeemed creatures because the unredeemed will never give such a response, for they are unable to do so and will be forever in the lake of fire with Satan and his fallen angels.

Furthermore, the Lord Jesus Christ will receive an ongoing and everlasting response from His redeemed ones, “Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen” (Eph. 3:20-21). This response fits in with the apostle Paul’s ministry, as he summarized in Acts 20:18-38: “I commend you to God and to the word of His grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified” (v.32).

The Epistle to the Romans expounds God’s salvation for believers in the age of grace. It concludes with this response, “Now to Him who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery that was kept secret for long ages but has now been disclosed and through the prophetic writings has been made known to all nations, according to the command of the eternal God, to bring about the obedience of faith – to the only wise God be glory forevermore through Jesus Christ! Amen” (Rom. 16:25-26).

Even in the face of failure in the early Church, as well as today, such a response was given and will always be given to Him who is worthy. We find this in the short epistle Jude wrote to address various failures at the beginning, and which would continue throughout church history. Nevertheless, Jude concluded it with a magnificent note of praise: “Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of His glory with great joy, to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen” (Jude 24-25).

Is this not amazing? In the face of tremendous failure then and all through church history, Jude concluded with this very remarkable praise as he focused on Him who is able! May we continue in this way and focus on Him who is able! Not in order to deny our shortcomings or the failures of the professing church, nor to be careless, but casting ourselves on Him who is able. Doing so, we will be able to bring praise and glory to His name and be a blessing for His people.

ENDNOTE
*This word “able” is derived from a word that means “power, strength or might.” Our word dynamite comes from that root. Its various forms as verbs, nouns or adjectives occur 210 times in the Greek New Testament.

By Alfred Bouter

Let us make sure that we are not ungrateful or dissatisfied with what the Lord has given us. Even in the most evil situations there is always a pathway for the faithful to follow, as we have in Jude: building himself up, praying, waiting on the Lord, showing concern for his brethren. The Holy Spirit, God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ are named together to assure us that, on the divine side, we have everything we need (vv.20-21). If we fail (v. 24), we only have ourselves to blame. Although we are “preserved in Jesus Christ” (v.1 KJV; consider Jn. 6:39), we must keep ourselves in the enjoyment of God’s love (Jude 21). May we even now experience that “exceeding joy” (v.24) and render worship and praise to God our Savior. —Jean Koechlin, Day By Day (adapted)