The Math of God

I got a link to this website the other day and browsed through some of their "De-motivation" posters (which I must confess are mostly hilarious).

 

This one caught my eye because it relates to a mathematical concept I've been meaning to write about.

Really, this picture saved me about a thousand words because it pretty much says it all.  Here's my mathematical version.

In English, it's "any number divided by infinity equals zero".  For example, take the numbers in that picture - seventy-four divided by maybe 200 million years.  That would be 0.00000037. That's a pretty small ratio. It simply illustrates how small our time on earth is relative to geologic time. If you want even smaller numbers compare your one little life to the number of people on earth. That makes you or me about 0.00000000166 percent of the world's population. It's pretty daunting to try to stand out in that crowd! The people at Despair.com would probably say "don't bother."

If you want to consider even more astronomical numbers, consider that God was around for eternity before the universe was created (maybe 13.7 billion years ago or so). Consider that the universe itself, which would take at least 13.7 billion years to cross at light speed, is a small thing to God in terms of both time and space.

You see, that equation I gave you means more than just how small our life is. It means that no matter how long and magnificent nor how short and small our physical life here on earth is, it's all the same in the end: ZERO.

Now before you give up in despair, let me point out something very important.

 



The God of the infinite has made an incredible offer to mortal man. He offers to come alongside us and to enter our hearts; to make us part of his infinite, timeless kingdom. His infinite presence in our heart makes us much greater than zero. (How much of him we allow in our heart really determines how great that number can be.)

There's just one thing preventing us from taking this fruit of eternal life - we have a massive debt to pay off. That debt is called "iniquity" in the Bible. It results from our selfish nature that causes each of us to pursue our own pleasure in defiance of God and at the expense of others. By allowing ourselves to be equal to God in determining the course of our lives (the original sin) we are accountable to an infinitely high standard (to be sinless), which no mortal man can satisfy.

When the original man and woman became sinful by nature, God removed our access to eternity, by withdrawing himself from our view and blocking the way to the tree of life. He did this for a simple but profound reason - a eternal sinner is infinitely evil and destructive. Satan and his dark angels are in this realm and must be bound and detained for eternity.

At the right time, God took a part of himself in the form of his son Jesus, and offered his life as the sufficient payment for our iniquity. His perfect sacrifice, being of infinite value, is greater than the sum total of all our debts before the high standard of the law.

Now if we receive this incredible gift from God, and allow Jesus to take his rightful place as our director in every aspect of our lives, we can enter into his eternal kingdom and eat the fruit of the tree of life. It is this infinite gift that gives us meaning in the vast eternity beyond space and time. Everything else that we see and treasure is - well - nothing really. As British missionary C. T. Studd once wrote:

Only one life, 'twill soon be past.

Only what's done for Christ will last.