Scripture is a primary source of divine revelation, but Scripture itself affirms that it is not the only source through which God has revealed Himself to humankind. “The heavens declare the glory of God,” says the Psalmist. “And the firmament shows His handiwork. Day unto day utters speech, and night unto night reveals knowledge. There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard” (Psalm 19:1–3).
Similarly, the apostle Paul declares that God’s “invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead [divine nature], so that they [who suppress the truth] are without excuse” (Romans 1:20).
Creation, then, reveals the Creator. The starry night sky cries aloud declaring the glory and power of its Maker. The human body, fearfully and wonderfully made (Psalm 139:14), and the marvelous human mind with its capacity to store far more information than one could accumulate over many lifetimes, its power of reason, and its ability to perceive of intangibles such as justice, mercy, and morality declare the existence of a supremely intelligent Designer.
The ancients marveled at the power and glory of the Creator when they considered the works of His hands. Yet, they knew only a fraction of what we know. The breathtaking beauty of the “firmament” moved them to bend their knees before the Creator, but they knew nothing of quasars, black holes, galaxies, red shifts, gamma bursts, supernovas, or the space-time continuum. They saw the universe from below; we see it through the lenses of the Hubble telescope, so to speak.
We are also able to see the marvels of a much smaller, but no less marvelous, world—the world of the cell. Far from a simple glob of protoplasm, the cell, we now know, is an amazingly complex little information-processing machine. The notion that such a wondrous mechanism emerged by sheer chance from the primordial soup of earth’s evolutionary past defies logic. Even more fanciful is the idea that the purely accidental formation of the first cell led to an ages-long series of additional accidents that eventually produced the human mind, not to mention every life form that now exists or ever existed.
Paul says the ancients who refused to hear the sermon in creation were without excuse. Perhaps it is even more inexcusable for us if we fail to see the glorious power and majesty of the great Creator God through the marvels of creation.
Christians are able to look past the Darwinian threads that have been woven into the fabric of modern science and scientific theory and see the brilliant glory of God shining through. How awesome is our God!
Our finite minds will not allow us to comprehend the true greatness of God. He is wholly other than the material universe. In His essence, He is unapproachable, unknowable, invisible. He does not live on another planet; He inhabits eternity. He does not occupy a space in the universe; He is above it, beyond it. Yet there is no place inaccessible to Him. The divine nature is truly incomprehensible.
When we think of God this way, He seems so far removed from us, perhaps even impersonal. But we know He is personal, and that He loves us immensely. How do we know this? How can we be sure of it?
Scripture reveals a great mystery that is even more astounding than the wonders of the created universe. The incomprehensible God—the Creator of all things—has come to us as one of us! God has come to this earth in the Person of Jesus Christ and has died for us so that we may have eternal life. Now we can see God as we could not see Him before.
John put it this way: “No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him” (John 1:18). In ancient times, men saw manifestations of God, not the divine essence. But now, through the Incarnation, we “see” God in a way that past manifestations could not reveal Him. Indeed He is infinite, eternal, and wholly other than the material creation, but He is also personal—and He loves us!
“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).
Vance A. Stinson
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