January 11, 2018

God Is Clearly "Visible"

Romans 1:18–20

Mike Frizzell
Thursday's Devo

January 11, 2018

Thursday's Devo

January 11, 2018

Central Truth

The natural world around us cries out that a great Designer exists, that He loves beauty and order, and that He desires for us to know Him because of and through His creation.

Romans 1:18–20

God's Wrath on Unrighteousness

18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. 19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, 1 1:20 Or clearly perceived from the creation of the world in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.

Footnotes

[1] 1:20 Or clearly perceived from the creation of the world

Dive Deeper | Romans 1:18–20

If you stumbled upon a brick wall in a remote forest, you would assume a mason came before you. If you place anything green in that forest under a microscope, you would find a microscopic brick wall. But it's more complex than that. It's a wall made of bricks that make more bricks AND bricks that stack themselves! If we saw this happening on the scale of a man-made brick wall, we would marvel at the engineering, at the invention of this "magical" self-constructing wall, and at the invention of this new technology. And yet when some can't see it with their naked eyes, they marvel at life while deluding themselves that there isn't a great Engineer who conceived it, designed it, and created it.

The Psalmist writes, "The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands." (Psalm 19:1, NIV) When we are surrounded by man’s creation of concrete, buildings, manicured lawns, and city lights, it is no wonder that fallen man cannot see or perceive the invisible attributes of God.

Believing friends, I call you to “stop and smell the roses” and marvel that God designed you with two incredibly sensitive cameras that perceive the colors. He gave you a chemical sensor in your nose. Acoustic sensors to hear the birds. He gave you a brain that has the capacity to appreciate this beauty and enjoy it. Urbanites, I call you to find time to escape the hustle of man’s creation, observe the created order, marvel at the heavens, and worship their Creator. 

This verse encourages us to study the created natural world in order to perceive the “invisible.” He who has eyes, let him see: God's eternal power is clearly seen in the fundamental forces, His order in the well-tuned solar system, His timelessness in the theory of relativity, His creativity through the diversity of life, His love through the feeding of sparrows, His beauty in the wild flowers, His power in the storm, and His size in the vastness of the universe. As Thomas Obadiah Chisholm wrote in "Great Is Thy Faithfulness," let us "[j]oin with all nature in manifold witness."

This month's memory verse

23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

– Romans 6:23

Discussion Questions

1. When you study our world, are you searching/striving to discover a natural cause where the "God-crutch" isn't required?

2. What invisible attributes of God do you clearly see in nature? (Comment below!)

3. When was the last time you observed something in nature that took your breath away? Did your marveling turn to worship, or did you worship the creation rather than its Creator?

4. When's your next trip to the Grand Canyon, Niagara Falls, the Rocky Mountains, or just a place away from the city lights where your eyes can open enough (literally, like the pupil opens more!) to see the "Sun, moon, and stars in their courses above"?