He Makes The Impossible Possible

He Makes the Impossible Possible

Humanly speaking, it was impossible that Abraham and Sarah would have a child. Sarah had always been barren, and even if she hadn’t been, now, in her nineties, she was far beyond childbearing years. So when she overheard one of the men God sent say, “I will return to you about this time next year, and your wife, Sarah, will have a son” (Genesis 18:10), she laughed to herself. The Lord asked Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh? Why did she say, ‘Can an old woman like me have a baby?’ Is anything too hard for the LORD? I will return about this time next year, and Sarah will have a son” (Genesis 18:13-14).

While Abraham and Sarah thought it was impossible for Sarah to give birth to a son, what was truly impossible was for God to not fulfill his promise. God waited until it was humanly impossible for the child of the covenant to be born in order to show that covenant people are created not by human effort but by divine and sovereign grace.

In Luke 1 the angel Gabriel told the virgin Mary (just like God had told the barren Sarah) that she would give birth to a son. Mary asked, “But how can this happen? I am a virgin” (1:34). The angel told her that the Holy Spirit would come upon her and that even her barren relative Elizabeth had become pregnant. He concluded his surprising message by saying, “Nothing is impossible with God” (1:37). Here again, God worked where it was humanly impossible to bring forth a child of promise. Why? To show that the creation of a covenant people does not rely on human effort or decision. It is God’s work, and nothing is impossible with God.

Later Jesus spoke these same words to his disciples that had been spoken to Abraham in Genesis 18 and to Mary in Luke 1. The rich young man had just gone away sad, unwilling to sell all he had to inherit eternal life. “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God!” Jesus had said. To this, the disciples responded, “Then who in the world can be saved?” Looking at them intently, Jesus said, “Humanly speaking, it is impossible. But not with God. Everything is possible with God” (Mark 10:23-27).

God of the impossible, it is only by your power and grace that what is impossible on human terms—that a sinner like me could be made acceptable to you—could be possible. You and you alone have made it possible for me to be reborn. Only you bring life from barrenness.