I was just doing a word study this morning on the Greek word for "far", and lo and behold, it appeared in Acts 17: "That they would seek God, if perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us." This is the passage where Paul is talking to the people of Athens, looking at all of their foreign idols, and he begins to tell them about one of their idols, the "unknown God." In the midst of his sermon, he says that God is "not far" from each of us.
I still can't reconcile this with all the other places in Scripture where it says that we have been separated from God, that we are far from Him. Perhaps we can be a people who hold both truths in tension. Although we know that people are vastly separated from God, we can see the truths in their culture and in their lives that show a God who is already at work, who is already near in their lives.
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"The kingdom of heaven is at hand..." A place to discuss the various expressions of God's kingdom through justice, personal salvation, and care for the poor.
What is this blog about?
This blog is about a King named Jesus Christ and what it means for Him to rule the world. Churches and followers of Jesus have struggled with what it means for Jesus to be King of this earth. Some have emphasized the call to justice, a cry for Jesus to come and rule our social and economic systems. Some have invited people to make Jesus the King of their individual lives, encouraging others to pursue a meaningful relationship with Him. And many have chosen to make Him King of only one of these areas. This blog is dedicated to conversing about what it means for Jesus to be King of all of the above, as one who cares for the poor and who wants to draw all people to Himself. This blog comes from a belief that when Jesus comes as King, He will not be relegated to one domain or the other, but that He wants all things to be made subject to His rule.
About Me
- Jonny
- No particular city, CA
- I am currently beginning an adventure that started a long time ago. I am in the process of moving to Russia to work with Muslims. I will be spending my time there trying to flesh out God's present kingdom in a Muslim context. I will look to see God's kingdom come to individual hearts and to see the poor and disenfranchised empowered and set free.
1 comment:
As far as I understand it, in a way, it's like God is never "far" from us, partly because of His onmipresence, but we can still be "far" from Him relationally, because of our sin/rebellion. In the few places in Scripture where it says that God hardened His heart against someone, like with Pharoah, God made Himself relationally distant from someone. (Although, of course, it says that Pharoah hardened his heart against God several times before God basically said, "Fine, have it your way.")
But with distance, it's like, you can physically be in the same room with someone, or even sitting on the same couch with them, but still be very "far" from them in your interpersonal/relational connectedness.
I think that in the Mars Hill passage, Paul wasn't saying that the Greeks were literally worshipping YHWH through that idol; in the historical context, they created that idol as a divine safety valve of sorts to make sure that no other god in their pantheon felt left out, and would therefore rage against them, but the savvy Paul took that partial realization by the Greeks that they might not have their theology perfectly accurate as a launching off pad to preach to them the one true God, who transcends any earthly attempt to physically capture his image/nature.
Like the passage where it says that God sends His rain on the just and the unjust (and rain there is a positive image in a desert society), God's goodness (prevenient grace?) extends to all of His creation, so in that way He IS close to all of us, and relates to us in a sense. But only through Christ can we be fully reconciled to Him relationally, even to the point where we are "adopted as sons" and our selves literally become the intimate dwelling places of God, temples for His Holy Spirit. Though God can and does use all types of people to carry out His purposes, Scripture never apllies these intimate relational concepts to unbelievers.
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