At our church, we have just started our “If I were God…” sermon series. The aim of this series is to answer, from the Bible, the very real questions people have about God.
We asked people a few months ago, “What would you do differently if you were God?”
One answer was, “I would make my existence undeniably clear and reveal my presence in a way that removes all doubt.”
That was a great reply. That person clearly desires that more people acknowledge God and submit to him as King.
But have you perhaps wondered the same? Why doesn’t God make himself clearer? Why does God seem to be so hidden and unclear? Why doesn’t God simply write with neon lights in the sky: I AM GOD AND JESUS IS MY SON! Then loads of people would be convinced – or would they?
A few years back I thought that a book I was reading was not printed very well as the letters were rather unclear and fuzzy. After an eye test, I discovered there was nothing wrong with the printing. The printing was 100% clear. The problem was with my eyesight.
The Bible says that God has made his existence and what he requires of humans very clear. The problem is not on God’s side, but on our side. Our spiritual eyesight is very dodgy.
How has God made himself clear?
1. God has put eternity into our hearts
“He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man’s heart…” (Ecclesiastes 3:11)
Every person has a God-given awareness that there is “something more” than this transient world. We possess an inner knowledge that there is something more to life than what we can see and experience in the here and now. This inner sense is because we were created in the Image of God.
We have an inner sense of God and that there are things such as purpose, morality and justice.
We even have a conscience that informs us of what’s right and wrong.
Yet, we don’t often read the end of that verse:
…yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end. (Ecclesiastes 3:11b)
What happens is that we close our minds to this truth, push it down and even sear our consciences because we don’t like to think we’re accountable to God. We like to think and act as if we are God and can do as we please.
God has put eternity into our hearts, but our rebellion against God has dulled, darkened and deadened our spiritual eyesight.
2. God has revealed himself in creation
Psalm 19:1-6 tells of how the universe around us shouts out the existence of God.
We can this General Revelation – general truths about God that can be known through creation
The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. (Psalm 19:1)
The created world around us is tantamount to God putting neon lights in the sky.
In fact, God has done better than that, he has placed the sun.
In them (the heavens) he has set a tent for the sun, which comes out like a bridegroom leaving his chamber, and, like a strong man, runs its course with joy. (Psalm 19:4-5)
The reality of the sun tells us that God exists.
You probably know that the sun is the star at the center of our Solar System. It is a massive, nearly perfect sphere of massively hot plasma, heated by nuclear fusion reactions in its core. It radiates the energy from its surface mainly as visible light and infrared radiation. The sun orbits the Galactic Center at a distance of 24,000 to 28,000 light-years. From Earth, it is 1 astronomical unit or about 8 light-minutes away. Its diameter is about 1,4 million km. Its mass is about 330,000 times that of Earth, making up about 99.9% of the total mass of the Solar System.
And that’s only the sun.
The Bible states that the sun alone demonstrates the existence of God.
The sun is the focus of Psalm 19, but there is an entire complex universe that points to a Creator. There is the amazing animal kingdom, DNA, galaxies, microorganisms, dung beetles, the human eye, and countless more massively complex organisms and creatures.
All of complex life did not evolve from primordial slime or a random Big Bang. God has made his existence as Creator, abundantly clear.
No-one walks into the Louvre Museum in Paris and thinks that the paintings painted themselves and hung themselves. Paintings point to a painter. Design points to a Designer. Creation points to the Creator.
But our eyesight, our perception of reality, is terrible.
The Bible confirms this:
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. (Romans 1: 19-21)
Because our default factory setting is rebellion towards God, we instinctively block truth about God and drive it away. We would rather believe that somehow the universe with all its complexity evolved randomly over 100’s of millions of years.
You see, if there’s no God, we cannot be held accountable to Him.
3. God has revealed himself in his Word
Psalm 19:7-11 refers to the Law, the testimonies, the precepts, the commandment and the rules of the Lord. This is God’s Word written. At first in the Old Testament, now the entire Bible.
We call this Special Revelation: God reveals more specific truths about Himself that can only be known through his Word, particularly truth about Jesus, salvation and how we can be friends with God.
God has made himself known through his World and Word.
Jesus, the center of God’s Word, was incarnate (made human).
Why?
Imagine I’m an ant lover. I have pet ants in my backyard who live in an anthill and I adore those ants. I know them by name.
Now suppose I see on the news that a flood is coming and I know it will wash away my ants. I run to my backyard and start shouting at the ants: A FLOOD IS COMING. YOU NEED TO LEAVE!
Unfortunately, the ants will largely carry on doing ant things and largely ignore me. What do I need to do? I need to become an ant so I can speak ant language and warn them.
That’s what God did.
God the Son became a human person in the man Jesus, and dwelt among us to warn us of the coming flood of God’s wrath.
More than that, Jesus died for our rebellion and rose again, so that we may be God’s friends and live forever in the world to come.
God has revealed himself in his world and Word – and ultimately in Jesus, the Word made flesh.
God has made his existence very clear.
Why do so many people ignore and reject the truth about Jesus?
Not because God is unclear, but because our spiritual eyesight is poor. In fact, the book of Ephesians in the Bible says we are dead in our sins and darkened in our understanding. (cf. 2:1, 4:18)
The problem is not with God, but with us. We want to be in charge and run our own lives without reference to God.
What we need is for God, in his kindness, to open our spiritual eyes, so that we can see his world and Word clearly. And that’s exactly what God does when we become Christians.
For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. (2 Corinthians 4:6)
Perhaps you would like to ask God to give you clear spiritual-eyesight to that you can perceive the reality that God is God and Jesus is our Saviour?