What Does Awesome Mean?

When’s the last time you said, “That’s awesome?” Chances are, you’ve said it more than once today, maybe even sarcastically.

Don’t worry; this isn’t going to be a tirade about how we should never use the term “awesome” unless we are talking about God. I get that language morphs over time. It evolves with culture, and that’s why the dictionary is changing all the time. Today’s common usage becomes tomorrow’s standard rule.

“Awesome” used to mean jaw-dropping, breath-catching, heart-stopping, awe- inspiring. Now it has about as much oomph as “Have a good one.”

Our words change. But here’s the thing — the Word of God does not.

When we make a solemn promise, we might say, “I give you my word.” This is exactly what God has done. God gave us his word by sovereignly orchestrating the writing of the Bible, which is full of his covenantal promises to his people.

He also gave us his Word in the form of Jesus, who said, “I am the way, the truth and the life. No man comes to the Father but by me.” Jesus is described by the apostle John as the Word of God, who was with God from the beginning, and who is God. The writer of Hebrews says Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever.

God gave us his Word, Jesus. Think of him as truth with skin on.

This God, the one who authored a book through forty-plus human writers, the one who sent his only Son to live among us and die in our place, this is a God we can trust. What he says, we can count on.

Everything else about life is uncertain. Everything. You do not know how many days or hours you have left on the planet, or what the economy will do, or anything else about your future.

What you can be certain of is this: God tells the truth, he is good, and he will never change.

You could say he’s awesome.