Sunday, January 4, 2015

Truth #7 - God reveals Himself to us in His written Word and creation! Romans 1-2

Romans 1:18-20
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.

God has and continues to reveal Himself to man.   There are many in our society who would like to claim that it is impossible to "know" God or even know that He exists.   They like to stick their heads in the sand and deny what they actually see, hear and even feel.   In the above text we discover that God has fully made Himself known to us.   According to the above text, by observing the very world we live in, we should know the "invisible attributes" of God by observing the visible things we see.   We should know the "eternal power" of God by simply seeing the natural power in the world.   We should even be able to discover His "divine nature" by looking at the worlds physical and earthly nature.    God has and continues to reveal the awesome aspects of His character.   However, because of man's sin nature they continue to "suppress the truth."   God is giving us Divine truth, yet man, because of his unrighteous nature, holds that truth back.    If man was not unrighteous than the truth that He heard and observed would make Him free:

John 8:31-32
So Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, “If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.”

Yet, man is unrighteous.  This is the very fact that Paul is about to unfold in this first chapter of Romans.   Man's unrighteousness holds back truth.  It is only God's grace that can cut through that unrighteous nature that can then, in-turn, cause us to know God and the truth about Him.   Man is giving enough truth in nature to condemn Him.   Because man rejects that truth and suppresses it by his unrighteousness, he fails to see the eternal, divine nature of the Creator who has revealed Himself in all the wonders around him.   Those who are believers and have had their unrighteous nature cleansed by the saving grace of Christ, can see the beauty of God in nature and the world around us.   Although God's Word is the man source of truth for the believer, the world was created in truth (John 1:1-4) and from this creation we are to learn about God's divine nature and eternal power.   We can look into His Word to learn about God's attributes.   We should also be able to see them in the creation which came to being by His very Word (Proverbs 8).

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