How Do You Know That God Exists? God Has Revealed Himself In Nature (Romans 1:18-23)
In the last post we saw that the heavens declare not only that God exists, but they declare His glory. Today, we will see much the same thing about the world we inhabit. That is, we can look around at nature and see that God exists and should be worshipped.
We see this in Romans 1:18-23.
“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.” (Romans 1:18-23 ESV)
Through everything that surrounds us, and even the functioning of our own bodies, we can clearly see things about God. We don’t just see that He exists, but we see some characteristics of God. He has revealed Himself to us in the world that He has made. Paul here states that we can see God’s eternal power and divine nature through an examination of nature. We can see in examining nature that the one that created it is of immense power and is greater than anything created.
I don’t look at a beautiful building and think, “a dimwit must have made this thing”. No, I do quite the opposite. I think that the architect must have been brilliant. And I think that the laborers must have been very good at their respective jobs. And in the same way, when Creation is rightly understood, it points us to see the glory of the Creator.
There are many things that I could talk about here. We could discuss the beauty of the mountains, volcanoes, the sun, the clouds in the sky, the wonder of the moon. We could also talk about different animals and how they are beautifully and wonderfully made. But that’s not what I want to do. I want to talk to you about dirt.
From Dirt To Glory
I like to garden. I regret having started a little late this year, but all is well. I’m getting some food, so all is well.
One day I was listening to a book called “The Marvelous Pigness of Pigs” by a man named Joel Salatin. And his book made me marvel at the number of organisms living within the garden soil that I work every year. Even the ground that I walk on every day is teeming with life. I
According to the Encyclopedia Brittanica Online, one square meter of rich soil can contain around 1 billion organisms. These organisms include things like fungus and bacteria. But this also includes the roley polies (pill bugs) that you might have played with as a kid.
If you have good soil that encourages strong plant growth, then you have around 1 billion organisms living in it. And these organisms produce things within the soil that plants are able to feed on to grow. If you’re getting good tomatoes right now, then you have this in your soil. But that also means that there are organisms living all over the world, feeding plants right now. Right now this process is feeding crops, grass, trees, etc. Much of the food we eat is produced this way.
These crops, fed by billions of small organisms, will feed animals. We humans also eat these crops. But we cannot eat the grass that is produced. But some animals can. These animals are able to turn grass itself, which is found all over the planet into nutrient dense food within their digestive system. These animals are called ruminant animals. These are animals like cows, sheep, goats, deer, and elk. They are able to digest the grass fed by billions of organisms and turn it into the nutrients that they need. And then, other animals eat these animals. And humans eat these animals.
All the world works together in an intricate harmony. These facts are unfathomable. And this is just scraping the surface. You can surely begin to think about other aspects of this world and be struck by the awe and wonder of God with just a few moments thought. If I can do this with dirt, surely you can be in awe struck wonder at the greatness of God by looking at some other aspect of nature.
Now, what would happen if one type of these animals did not exist?
And now I ask, how could all of this just happen? How could all of this come about in pure chance? How could chaos create this intricate circle of life on Earth?
The fact of the matter is that it can’t. We barely talked about the complexity of creation and it is obvious that someone made it, ordered it, and put it here.
You Already Know This
Paul goes on to say that none of what I have written here is actually news to anyone. It is something that people already know to be true. Look at Romans 1 again and you’ll see what I’m talking about.
I will pull the pertinent individual statements out of the passage and we will look at them.
- It is not that people don’t know that God exists or see Him as glorious. It’s that they suppress the truth. “…who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth” (Romans 1:18)
- It is not hidden, it is plainly taught in nature. “For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them.” (Romans 1:19)
- These things have not just been taught, but have been understood. “For His invisible attributes, namely, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived,” (Romans 1:20)
- Everyone knows God exists and sees His glory, but some choose not to honor Him as they ought. “For although they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks to Him” (Romans 1:21)
It’s not that people don’t intuitively know this. It is that they suppress the truth about God. They hold it down and try to bury it until they become “futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts…darkened.” (Romans 1:21)
We don’t necessarily begin life desiring for God to exist. We don’t necessarily want Him to have created all things either because that would mean that God would be able to make demands of us. But no matter how hard or long you suppress that truth, it is still the truth.
My Desire And Reason For Writing This
I am a Christian, and so I have written this so that you will see the truth of God’s Word. And if you are a Christian reading this, my hope is that you will be better equipped to think through and respond to the questions of unbelievers. I have written that people would know that God is there and that He has declared His existence to us in many different ways.
But knowing that God exists is not the true purpose of my writing. The ultimate purpose of this is to drive you to Jesus Christ.
God exists. And we have all broken His laws. We have rebelled against him and earned His wrath and justice. But he sent His Son to bear our sins in our place. Jesus Christ died on the cross and paid the penalty for our sinfulness and rebellion. He took God’s wrath and justice in place of wicked sinners. And three days later, He rose from the grave. Now, all those who turn from ruling their own lives and entrust their selves to Christ will be forgiven of their sin and brought into fellowship with God.
I want you to turn from your sins and trust in Jesus. And if you would like to explore that further please click on this link and read this ebooklet from Victory Baptist Church.
R. Dwain Minor