"With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible." - Matthew 19:26
Jesus regularly commands His disciples to do the impossible. Regularly! Let me give you some biblical examples:
- He commands a paralyzed man, “Arise, take your mat and go home” (Matt. 9:6)
- He commands His disciples to feed five thousand men plus women and children, saying “They do not need to go away; you give them something to eat.” (Matt. 14:16)
- He commands Peter to walk on water, saying “Come!” (Matt. 14:29)
- He commands Nicodemas, “You must be born again.” (John 3:7)
- He commands the Apostle John, after showing him a door standing open in heaven, “Come up here and I will show you what must take place after this.” (Rev. 4:2)
- He commands all His disciples in the Sermon on the Mount, “You must be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (Matt. 5:48)
- He commands His disciples, “Go and make disciples of all nations” (Not just go and preach the gospel, but actually be successful in converting them and making them disciples!!) (Matt. 28:19)
In each of these cases, Jesus’ disciples must have immediately stumbled over the impossibility of obeying the command. They must have felt immediately their own weakness, coupled with the seeming preposterousness of what Jesus commanded. In one sense, we know that “In Him (Christ) we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28) and that apart from Him (Christ) we can do nothing (John 15:5), so that we conceded generally and theologically that we can’t even tie our shoes without Christ’s help. But yet I think we can make a distinction between various types of commands Christ gives: those we can do in the normal course of things and those that take special, supernatural intervention of Almighty God in order for us to obey. For example, in the feeding of the five thousand, someone mentioned that they had five loaves and two fish, and Jesus commanded “Bring them here to me” (Matt. 14:18). Later at that same time, he commanded His disciples, “Gather up the pieces that are left over; let nothing be wasted” (John 6:12). I think when Jesus gave these commands, they immediately obeyed them without hesitation, and did not think “That’s impossible! How can I do that?!!”
So why does He command things that immediately run us into our limitations, that cause us to flinch and wonder, that stymie us in our weakness and inability? I think it’s probably because we are prone to rely on ourselves for everything and to forget how totally dependent we are on God. This is also why God sends trials, even bitter ones, that are too tough for His children to handle: a cancer diagnosis or other chronic medical situations, a serious relational conflict with a non-Christian member of the family, an insoluble financial crisis, arrest and persecution by a non-Christian government, etc. Paul said, “This happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead” (2 Cor. 1:9). Even a great man like Paul, so humble and godly, felt the pull of self-reliance at all times, and only great suffering caused him to rely openly on the supernatural power of a God who raises the dead.
So also, there are “impossible commands” because we stand motionless until God intervenes with the power needed to obey. When He commanded the paralyzed man in Mathew 9, “Arise, take your mat and go home,” he immediately supplied him with the power needed to obey. When he commanded the disciples to feed the five thousand, He supplied the power and the multiplication of the loaves and fish. When He commanded Peter to come to him on the sea, He supplied also the power to do it. When He commanded Nicodemas, “You must be born again,” it is implied that the power for the New Birth would come from above, not from within himself… the command is passive: “You must be born again.” Something must happen to you or you cannot obey! When He commanded the Apostle John to come up through the door standing open in heaven, the next verse showed how he obeyed: “At once I was in the Spirit…” (Rev. 4:2).
"...we are prone to rely on ourselves for everything and to forget how totally dependent we are on God."
God has set before us two infinite journeys: internally to become more and more like Christ, externally, to make disciples of all nations. These two are marked by the “impossible commands” listed above: “You must be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect,” and “Go and make disciples of all nations.” These journeys are called “infinite” not because we will not finish them, but because only the infinite power of God is sufficient for them. And God gives us His Spirit to enable us to do the impossible. Trust Him for it today!
