Read the latest from LCMS Life Ministry
Saturday, June 30, 2018
Monday, June 25, 2018
Friday, June 1, 2018
CrossTalk: Where Is the Creator of the Universe?
Have you ever wondered why God doesn’t make Himself more visible? After all, if He is truly interested in saving the whole world, you might think He could do a better job of it by making His presence a bit more obvious.
This is a thought that most, if not all people, entertain. So, let’s think it through together. Never mind the fact that it is rather blasphemous to suggest that you know better than God how to save the world.
God is gracious enough to set that aside for a moment, because He knows that we don’t really mean it. He knows that our minds are just too puny to figure out a better way to phrase the question.
Of course, if He was the kind of God to use His almighty power to destroy anyone who glanced sideways at Him, we would already be dead by now. So, I guess that rules out one mistaken notion.
But as long as we’re still alive to think about it, let’s thank God for His mercy and ask permission to go a little farther. We can adopt the posture of Abraham who said, “Behold, I have undertaken to speak to the Lord, I who am but dust and ashes” (Genesis 18:27).
So, here’s a hypothetical. If you were the Creator of the universe and you wanted to prove it, what exactly would you do? It’s a simple question. But when you seriously try to answer it, strange things happen.
The true Creator of the universe made it because He wanted to--not in order to prove His existence to the things that He made. So, if you were a God who really liked making the things that you made, wouldn’t it be the most natural thing in the world to just keep on making them?
After all, we all do what we like to do. If you like playing baseball, you take every opportunity to play ball. If you like cooking, you cook whenever you can. If you like hunting, you live to hunt.
So, it would be perfectly natural for the Creator of the universe to keep on creating. He would do things at the subatomic level that boggle the mind. He would miraculously cause plants to grow in the most unlikely places. He would make so many different kinds of life that it would be impossible to count them all—much less to know all their secrets.
Like a master magician, He would do all of this out in the open, right in front of your eyes, and yet you still wouldn’t be able to say how He does it. At the end of the day, if the Creator of the universe wanted to be more impressively visible, I can’t think of a single thing He should do differently.
If anyone wants Him to act differently than this, they are not wanting a sign from the universe’s Creator, but from an imposter. They’re not wanting God to show Himself, they’re wanting a god who will submit himself to their whims.
No. It’s not that God is not making Himself visible. It’s that His creatures have become blind. We can’t see what’s right in front of our eyes.
If I were the God who created the universe and My creatures became so stupefied that they could no longer recognize me, I would do everything I could to save them from such a terrible blindness.
That’s why “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).
Where’s the Creator of the universe? He’s the Man on the cross, dying to create all things anew.
This is a thought that most, if not all people, entertain. So, let’s think it through together. Never mind the fact that it is rather blasphemous to suggest that you know better than God how to save the world.
God is gracious enough to set that aside for a moment, because He knows that we don’t really mean it. He knows that our minds are just too puny to figure out a better way to phrase the question.
Of course, if He was the kind of God to use His almighty power to destroy anyone who glanced sideways at Him, we would already be dead by now. So, I guess that rules out one mistaken notion.
But as long as we’re still alive to think about it, let’s thank God for His mercy and ask permission to go a little farther. We can adopt the posture of Abraham who said, “Behold, I have undertaken to speak to the Lord, I who am but dust and ashes” (Genesis 18:27).
So, here’s a hypothetical. If you were the Creator of the universe and you wanted to prove it, what exactly would you do? It’s a simple question. But when you seriously try to answer it, strange things happen.
The true Creator of the universe made it because He wanted to--not in order to prove His existence to the things that He made. So, if you were a God who really liked making the things that you made, wouldn’t it be the most natural thing in the world to just keep on making them?
After all, we all do what we like to do. If you like playing baseball, you take every opportunity to play ball. If you like cooking, you cook whenever you can. If you like hunting, you live to hunt.
So, it would be perfectly natural for the Creator of the universe to keep on creating. He would do things at the subatomic level that boggle the mind. He would miraculously cause plants to grow in the most unlikely places. He would make so many different kinds of life that it would be impossible to count them all—much less to know all their secrets.
Like a master magician, He would do all of this out in the open, right in front of your eyes, and yet you still wouldn’t be able to say how He does it. At the end of the day, if the Creator of the universe wanted to be more impressively visible, I can’t think of a single thing He should do differently.
If anyone wants Him to act differently than this, they are not wanting a sign from the universe’s Creator, but from an imposter. They’re not wanting God to show Himself, they’re wanting a god who will submit himself to their whims.
No. It’s not that God is not making Himself visible. It’s that His creatures have become blind. We can’t see what’s right in front of our eyes.
If I were the God who created the universe and My creatures became so stupefied that they could no longer recognize me, I would do everything I could to save them from such a terrible blindness.
That’s why “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).
Where’s the Creator of the universe? He’s the Man on the cross, dying to create all things anew.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)