God Loves… Himself

How in the world, one might ask, can the eternity of God promote evangelism? That appears almost an impossible question to answer in one sense, but in reality this is an important question that people will realize very quickly when the pieces are put together.

Romans 1:20-23 – “For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. 21 For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. 22 Professing to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures.”

The text above demonstrates that it is God that has created all things and that it is God that men answer to for their lives and sin. Let me quote another verse which is saying the same thing though a bit differently: “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom 3:23). The eternity of God declares that the universe and all men have a beginning. The eternity of God is declared throughout nature and is clearly seen. So believers are not out telling people things that are brand new and totally unknown, they are telling people things that are already known. But men try to suppress this and deny it because they hate God. So believers are tempted to water this down and go on to easier messages. But in reality evangelism should never get away from this truth because the Bible tells us that this is one truth that men try to suppress. If they never come to see this, they will never believe in the truth of the Gospel. After all, the Gospel is an eternal gospel (Rev 14:6) and the eternal God saves through the blood of an eternal covenant: “Now the God of peace, who brought up from the dead the great Shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the eternal covenant, even Jesus our Lord” (Heb 13:20).

In light of the eternal God who saves through an eternal Gospel and the blood of the eternal covenant, this brings us to see what a person is saved from and saved to. Evangelism is telling people about the glory of the eternal God in saving sinners from an eternal hell and giving them an eternal heaven. “Then He will also say to those on His left, ‘Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels” (Mat 25:41). Those who do not come to faith in Christ will be cast into the eternal fire. How is it that a fire can be eternal? Because God Himself is that fire and since He is eternal He is an eternal fire. “Therefore, since we receive a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us show gratitude, by which we may offer to God an acceptable service with reverence and awe; for our God is a consuming fire” (Hebrews 12:29). We also have the picture of the angels with bowls of wrath that are said to be the wrath of the God who lives forever (Rev 15:7).

Hell is always presented as an eternal punishment. It is the gnawing of a worm that will never die (Mark 9:48) which some view as the conscience that sees what it really did while on earth. It is pleading for one drop of water to cool the tongue as the torment is so great (Luke 16:24). Scripture also gives us a picture of hell and puts it in terms of the eternal fire: “just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them, since they in the same way as these indulged in gross immorality and went after strange flesh, are exhibited as an example in undergoing the punishment of eternal fire” (Jude 1:7). We also have the picture of hell as being a place where the smoke of people’s torment rises forever and forever (Rev 19:3) and of the lake of fire where the torment will be forever and ever (Rev 20:10, 14-15).

It is in light of these things that evangelism is seen. Evangelism is not just a light and glib thing where people want others to add Jesus to a little bit of their life to make it happy and have a card that gets them out of hell. Evangelism is dealing with people on the basis of eternal realities. Scripture tells us that we are to warn people that it is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God (Heb 10:31). Scripture also gives us a basis for evangelism that is not used much anymore. What if we made this a requirement in the church before people went out on evangelism trips or missions? “Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade men” (2 Cor 5:11). The eternity of God is taught in Scripture in so many ways that there is no real evangelism apart from it.

This entry was posted on February 6, 2007 at 9:00 am and is filed under Attributes of God. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.