TCR 57, 58 - Beliefs About God's Omnipotence

TCR 57

The prevalent opinion today
is that God's omnipotence resembles 
the absolute power of a king in this world, 
who can act at his pleasure however he wishes: 
acquit or condemn whom he will, 
make the guilty innocent, 
pronounce the traitor loyal, 
promote the unworthy and undeserving 
over the heads of the worthy and deserving, 
even on any pretext snatch away his subjects' goods, 
condemn them to death, 
and do other similar things. 
As a result of this absurd opinion, belief and teaching 
about the Divine omnipotence, 
as many falsities, fallacies and chimeras 
have invaded the church, 
as there are nuances, systems and derivations 
of belief there.

TCR 58

If the current belief 
about God's omnipotence was correct, 
so that it extended to doing evil as well as good, 
surely it would be possible, or rather easy, 
for God to lift the whole of hell up into heaven, 
change devils and satans into angels, 
and in an instant cleanse 
any irreligious person on earth of his sins, 
make him new and sanctify him, regenerate him, 
turn him from a son of wrath into a son of grace, 
that is, justify him, 
by the simple attribution and imputation 
of His Son's righteousness. 
But God cannot do this by His omnipotence, 
because it is contrary to the laws of order 
He has imposed on the universe, 
and at the same time to the laws of order 
imposed upon every person; 
for these demand that both sets 
should be mutually linked together.