Yours, O Lord, is the greatness and the power, and the glory and the victory and the majesty, for all that is in the heavens and the earth is yours. Yours is the Kingdom, O Lord, and you are exalted as head over all.
I Chronicles 29:11
It is not possible for fallen men, remaining in the thrall of sin, to believe in God. Not the true God, the only God, revealed in Scripture.
Now it is perfectly possible, even inevitable, for all men to believe in gods. These gods do not actually exist, but are human inventions representing speculations about how the universe works. Because man is both finite and frail he is driven to seek refuge in fictional constructions of reality to make the world a kinder and gentler place. All the gods of Unbelief are thus human constructed crutches.
From the ancient who invoked the gods to bring good fortune and sound crops to today's sophisticates who invoke impersonal forces of blind chance implacably configured to lift mankind into higher states of being, Unbelieving man seeks to re-interpret the world after himself. Man is the creator, the denier, the re-constructer of the deities. He is the measure of all things, and the gods are weighed and measured in his hands—which is to say, they are idle fabrications and lies.
No Unbeliever can confess and acknowledge the God revealed in the Scripture, without God first changing his heart. Only then will he confess God in truth. For the one true God is the Almighty.
It is this attribute of God—His infinite and total power—which is so offensive to fallen man. It is this attribute which he cannot and will not acknowledge without first being born again by the Spirit of God. For to acknowledge truthfully that God is indeed Almighty is to surrender in body, mind, and soul to Him. One cannot believe in such a universal absolute Being without confessing and acknowledging His dominion over one's own life. That fallen man cannot do this of himself is obvious. Sin always insists on “wriggle room” when it comes to thinking about God.
It is not surprising then, that the Christian Church, by constrast, has always confessed that it believes in “God the Father, Almighty, maker of heaven and earth.” The ancient Christian church also likewise confessed. So, David in our text, prays to God during the convocation of all Israel to commit to the building of the temple after his death. “All that is in the heavens and earth is yours.” Period. No exceptions.
We are told that the universe continues to expand. At the frontiers of that expansion, every atom, every sub-atomic particle in all its movements and energies and existence is totally controlled by God. It belongs to God and answers utterly to God. It moves and has its being in God. And in our world—in the totality of its past, and the present in which we now live, and in the future to which God is taking it—the same is exhaustively true.
It is this attribute of God which is so offensive to Unbelief. But it is the attribute which gives such great comfort and hope and glory to the Believer. Life fundamentally becomes a celebration of the glory and majesty and victory of God. Everything has meaning and purpose. Nothing is without its place. All that is in the heavens and the earth—the entirety of everything—answers to our God and is for His glory and majesty.
For the Unbeliever this is minatory; a dire threat. For the Believer it is a great comfort. God must not acquit Himself and measure up before my requirements and standards, but I to Him and His. And He has sent His only begotten Son into the world to die and rise again in my place to ensure that this can and will be the case.
Truly, “yours, O Lord, is the greatness and the power, and the glory and the victory and the majesty”.
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