THERE is a God, though some may deny it, and call it superstition to believe in the unseen. God IS, though His existence may be ignored or neglected by many, and by others admitted in words only.
“The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament showeth His handywork.”
All worlds throughout space—and this world on which we live among them—proclaim His Being. The trees did not create themselves, nor bring forth the sap that every spring rises from their roots. They have no intelligence nor skill to form their leaves or blossoms. The animals never begot themselves, nor did man—intelligent man—bring himself into being. Whosoever thinks that all these had their being without a Creator, is far more superstitious than he who accepts the evidence of creation that there IS a God. And surely intelligent man is responsible to believe that which speaks directly to his senses and his reason, for “the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse.”
There MUST, then, be a God, the Creator of all things, for the evidences of His eternal power and Godhead are made clear by all around us, yea by the existence of our very selves; and this leaves the unbeliever not only under the charge of superstitious incredulity but without excuse for his unbelief.
More than this, God has “left not Himself without witness, in that He did good and gave us rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness”; this is a daily and hourly reproach to him who denies or doubts the existence of a living God who is not only the Creator but the upholder of all things.
But after all, to acknowledge the existence of God on undeniable evidence which speaks to our senses, which we are responsible to use, is very far from being the highest ground on which God rests our responsibility to acknowledge Him; for in His mercy He has given a, yet surer witness in that which speaks to the conscience and the heart of man. He has spoken in His WORD, and this must call not only for earnest attention, but for submission and obedience. It establishes on a firm foundation the witness which creation bears to God, who in the beginning created the heavens and the earth, resting that testimony and man’s apprehension of it, not only on the works, but on the WORD of Him who did the works. “Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the Word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear” (Heb. 11:33Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear. (Hebrews 11:3)).
When God, the living God, the eternal God, has spoken, a tenfold responsibility devolves on those to whom His Word has come to listen to, and accept it, and let it speak with authority to their souls. That Word commends itself as its own witness, and not only reveals God as existing before all things, and creating and upholding all things, but it unfolds His very nature—light and love—a God of holiness and grace, yet love and grace according to righteousness. Creation does not and cannot reveal Him thus, but the written Word does, and oh! marvelous grace, the LIVING Word, His Son in whom He has spoken in these last days (Heb. 1:22Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds; (Hebrews 1:2)), tells out all the fullness of His heart; He not only speaks with authority to command obedience, but with light to search the conscience and love to win the heart, even the heart of sinful man.
That same Word was given to men in their sins, revealing their lost condition, though not to leave them there, but to lift them out of it and restore them to that God whom they did not like to retain in their knowledge, nor to glorify as God (Rom. 1:2121Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. (Romans 1:21)). It proves that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, so that every mouth may be stopped and all the world become guilty before God; while God who judges thus, reveals by the same Word the grace that meets men in their sinful ruined state, and displays His boundless grace in justifying and restoring all who believe (Rom. 3). For
“He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?” (Rom. 7:32) even eternal glory with Himself.
SUCH IS THE GOD WE ADORE.
D.H.