THE INFINITY OF GOD

PSALM 139:7–24

Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence?

(Psalm 139:7).

Philosopher Anthony Flew told of two explorers who discovered a perfectly cultivated garden deep in the rain forest, far from civilization. “There must be a gardener,” one commented. “Let’s wait to meet him.”

They waited a day and no gardener came. “Maybe the gardener is invisible and comes to tend the garden at night,” they thought. So they rigged bells to catch the invisible gardener, but that night no bells rang.

“There is no invisible gardener,” the more skeptical of the two declared. “Let’s leave.”

“No,” the other replied. “Maybe the gardener is not only invisible, but immaterial as well. A spirit won’t make the bells ring.”

The second explorer exploded. “First you talk about a real live gardener, then about an invisible gardener, and then about a spiritually invisible gardener. What’s the difference between your invisible gardener and no gardener at all?”

In Professor Flew’s opinion that’s where modern man is—in a world where for all practical purposes, there is no difference between an infinite, eternal, invisible spirit being and no God at all.

Except there is a garden. And the garden is real.

The problem with infinity

One of the biggest difficulties we have as Christians arises from the fact that we have committed ourselves to a God we can’t see and who does not seem to be present. Theologians counter this by saying that God is an infinite spirit. To understand this we must try to comprehend the meanings of both infinity and spirit. Infinity is a word that describes by way of negation, indicating what something is not. It simply means “not finite.” That which is finite is that which has a definite size and can be measured; it is something that has boundaries to its existence.

God’s infinity and man’s predicament

When we are speaking of God, we are talking about an infinite Being. There is no place where God’s Being isn’t present. Finite beings cannot be in more than one place at a time, but God can be. His Being fills all space. He is everywhere. There is no nook or cranny where God is absent. We can never leave His presence.

CORAM DEO

When circumstances crash in around you keep the words of Hebrews 13:5–6 in mind: “God has said, ‘Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.’ So we say with confidence, ‘The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?’ ”

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