Common in English and used to describe anything that is remarkable or out of the ordinary in degree, magnitude, or effect, GREAT seems too small a word to describe God. Even Scripture uses this word for many events and other things. Yet God is GREAT, GREATER, GREATEST.
Deuteronomy 7:21 tells His people that their enemies should not be feared: “You shall not be in dread of them, for the Lord your God is in your midst, a great and awesome God.” Later, the writer repeats this idea, adding more words to amplify just how great God is:
Deuteronomy 10:17. For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who is not partial and takes no bribe.
In other OT verses, God is said to be greater than all gods, great and greatly to be praised, a great King, and His greatness is unsearchable, beyond our understanding. The idea is that God is so great that we cannot grasp the wonder of it!
In the NT, greatness also means something that exceeds the norm and this word is used to describe all sorts of things. When it comes to God, His witness and mystery are great, even profound. Jesus is called great in Hebrews 13:20 . . . “The God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep” . . . and more in other passages.
In other words, whatever is said of the Lord in both testaments describes Him and what He has done and will do as beyond what is normal or ordinary. What our great God is and does is not like an idol who just sits there nor human efforts that come to nothing because our hearts that are limited in knowledge and power.
1 John 3:20. “For whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything.”
1 John 5:9;11-12. If we receive the testimony of men, the testimony of God is greater . . . And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.
When the disciples argued about who is the greatest, Jesus told them that true greatness involves humility, brokenness, and sacrifice. His way of thinking is so opposite to our “bigger, better, more” idea of what makes something great. Jesus Himself demonstrated this:
Philippians 2:5–11. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
James 3:14–17 also describes the attitude of Jesus and the attitude that makes a person great in the eyes of God. James does this by first putting down what often drives the human heart to want greatness:
“But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth. This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice. But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere.”
GAZING INTO HIS GLORY. Looking at Jesus helps me to see true greatness, and to realize my ambitions to be great in any area of life can only come through being 100% yielded to the Lord Jesus Christ. Whether that puts me in the shadows or on a pedestal in the eyes of the world is not important. Being is about being and doing — in His time and in His way — whatever He asks.
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