Not Far At All
“And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation; That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after Him, and find Him, though He be not far from every one of us:” Acts 17:26-27
The Apostle Paul was in Greece to share the gospel with the Gentiles in Athens. Commentators have stated that the Athenians prided themselves as being above all the peoples of the world. They thought that they were better than all others–wiser, more intelligent, more attractive, and superior to those of other countries. (Know anyone like that? I can think of a few way back in high school.) These folks were about to meet their match in Paul. He told these high-minded folks that all people came from one man. He did not mention Adam and Eve, but informed these men that all people have the same red blood coursing through their veins, giving life, movement, and the ability to think and reason. We might say that everyone puts on his or her pants one leg at a time. All were created by the same God, who determined when each person would be born, to which parents, in which nation. He had a purpose for each individual and each nation namely to honor Him as the Supreme Lord over all. However, history has shown us that man did not take seriously God’s intended purpose for His creation, and thus man found himself a vagabond, one who is restless regarding the present and fearful of the future. What a different world we would have if all people in all nations had made God their Lord, but it wasn’t long at all after creation when the heart of man begin to plot and to continually plot to do evil (Genesis 6:5).
Paul continued to speak to the Athenians and stated that God’s purpose in creation was for man to seek Him out. Paul had not yet written the letter to the Romans, but he would state later in that letter that man was created with an internal instinct to know that there was Someone much greater than man, a Power who gave external evidence of His existence in the nature that He created all around them so that no one would have an excuse not to know God (Romans 1:19-20). This internal instinct results in a desire to worship. I read many years ago about some missionaries who discovered a long lost tribe of people, an unknown people group, who had an altar set up within their village with some type of image that they worshipped. They had never heard of God, but knew that there was something greater than themselves.
While it is true that Israel was God’s chosen nation, it is also true that God intended to make Himself known to all peoples of every nation. The Jews had an advantage in that they had God’s law and had been taught about God from generation to generation, even though they squandered their opportunity to promote the Lord when they rejected Christ. The Gentiles, on the other hand, had not been privileged with the knowledge of God, and when they heard the gospel, it was completely unfamiliar to them. This required some deep thought and searching on their part, an internal “feeling after” or “groping” for spiritual truth. A simple analogy would be a person who was familiar with a subject would not require as much diligent study as one who knew nothing about the subject. The one who is proficient in the subject must not become over-confident in their knowledge, otherwise he or she could actually fall behind. Much of Israel became over-confident in their self-righteousness which opened the door of salvation to the Gentiles.
God did not make it difficult to find Him. If one truly wants to know Him, God will reveal Himself to that person. He is not very far away. Jesus said in Revelation 3:20 that He stands at the door of a sinner’s heart and knocks, calling out that person’s name. If the person hears His voice and opens the door, Jesus will come in and make His home in that person’s heart. From this we see that God is the initiator. If you have ever seen an artist’s rendition of Jesus standing at a door, most of these depictions do not have a doorknob on the outside indicating that the only way to open the door is from the inside. He is the One who searches for us. If a sinner “gropes” after Him it is because He has put that desire into the sinner’s heart, but it is up to the sinner to open the door of his or her heart and invite the Savior in.