Infinity and Evangelism

What is it about the infinity of God that would promote evangelism in the Church? Is this just some sort of high intellectual thought that has no real value other than to tickle the fancies of the intellectually proud? Since the infinity of God is necessary to understanding God and the Gospel is the Gospel of God, surely this has a place in evangelism. Does this mean that in evangelism we should run around preaching for people to repent of their finite god and turn to the infinite God? In some ways that is exactly what we are to do. This is, after all, the pattern of Paul in Acts 17.

Why should Christians evangelize at all? Well, because there is the command to go and make disciples. Included in this command is the command to do what we call “evangelize.” While evangelism is thought of differently today, evangelism is really all about rebellious sinners turning from their crimes against a holy God and being humbled to submit to His claims over them in the Gospel. In Acts 17 Paul proclaimed the glory of God and told people that He commanded them to repent. The infinity of God is a magnificent tool to be used by the evangelists. Perhaps it is true that the term “infinite” may not come up, though there is nothing wrong with doing that either. But the infinity of God as it relates to all the attributes of God and therefore to the nature of sin and the Gospel cannot be ignored. While this may sound weird to some, evangelism is far too man-centered and it must be returned to a thorough God-centeredness if it is going to be true evangelism. God is not standing by in heaven weeping while He anxiously hopes that people will choose Him. He is sovereign over the entire universe and has brought all things that have come into being into being (John 1:1-5). He is the One who turns people over to sin and hardens their hearts (Rom 1:18ff). He is the One that all sin is against and is enmity toward (Psa 51:4). He is the One who in the exercise of His will creates new hearts in sinners (James 1:18). He is the One who grants repentance or not (II Tim 2:25ff). He is the One who commands all men to repent (Acts 17:30-31).

As we look at the above list of things, surely it is clear that the greater God is the more those things will press upon the hearts of those we evangelize. If we picture God as helpless in the matter and just anxiously waiting for people to decide for Him, we have just committed idolatry in our view of God. Therefore, it appears that most evangelism in America is really an idolatrous practice. What is needed is a view of the infinite God so that true evangelism can be done. Stephen Charnock said this: “It is impossible to honour God as we ought, unless we know Him as He is.” The same thing is true of evangelism. We cannot evangelize with the Gospel of God unless we know God as He is. We cannot declare the Gospel of God in truth unless we know this true God. Indeed, as Paul said in Acts 17, people do worship things in ignorance thinking that it is the true God. They must know about and then know the true God in order to worship and to evangelize.

Eternal life is to know God and His Son, Jesus Christ (John 17:3). Can we even begin to tell people what eternal life is unless we know God who is infinite in His Being and character? In the modern day eternal life is thought of as living forever in a place that is not hell. What an impoverished and God-dishonoring view! Eternal life is sharing in the life and holiness of God on earth and then for eternity. Hell is falling into the hands of the living God who is a consuming fire (Hebrews 12:29). If the God of heaven and hell is finite, then we cannot think of eternal life or of eternity in hell in terms of length or in quality. The teaching of infinity is necessary to lift the minds of finite man above himself and to focus on the God who is far above him. Therefore, teaching the infinity of God is necessary to understand the God of the Gospel that man is to proclaim to sinners.

Why should we evangelize? Because God is exceedingly worthy to be proclaimed in all of His excellencies. Evangelism is stunted (to put it mildly) when the glories of God are not declared, but the reason for going forth in evangelism is because we love God and want to proclaim His glory to a world that should bow in humble submission to Him. We should evangelize because we want to make Him known so that others would share in His glory. But this cannot be done properly with a finite god who would be just some bigger and some better than finite man, so we must go forth with the message of an infinite God who is infinitely glorious and infinitely worthy of all the love and worship of man. Anything less is not evangelism of the true God. Evangelism to be evangelism must be good news about the true God, not good news about a false one which is simply an idolatrous message to sinful men who want to suppress the truth about the true God. May our evangelism not assist men in their suppression of the truth of God as we proclaim Him as infinite. 

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