Ignoring the Evidence Within Us When it Comes to Creation...

Yesterday, we looked at a section of a letter in the Bible where we saw a man named Paul provide for us a timeless and true charge as to whether or not we are guilty of having a problem when it comes to our relationship with God. And that timeless and true charge was that we are guilty when we leave God out and live as though He does not exist. We are guilty of having a problem when it comes to our relationship with God when we leave God out of our lives and live as though He does not exist. Paul pointed out that God justly and rightly responds to humanities failure to acknowledge God and being at odds with God by living our lives as though He does not exist.

Now a natural question that may arise here is “well Dave, how do I suppress the truth about God? I mean to suppress or ignore something requires evidence of that something. So what evidence is there that there is a God that I am ignoring and living like He does not exist? Like any good prosecuting attorney, Paul continues by providing two pieces of evidence to prove that humanity is guilty of leaving God out and living as though He does not exist.

First, Paul charges that we are guilty because we ignore the evidence within us when it comes to creation. We see Paul reveal this piece of evidence to us in Romans 1:19-23. Let’s look at it together:

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. For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures.

In these verses, we see reveal for us two reasons why we are guilty because we ignore the evidence within us when it comes to creation. First, Paul explains that the evidence of God’s existence through creation clearly provokes within us an awareness and understanding of a Creator. When Paul uses the phrase known about God is evident, this phrase refers to something that is intelligible and capable of being known as it can be clearly and plainly seen. Paul’s point here is that God clearly reveals the truth about His existence to all humanity through His creative activity in the universe in a way that is understandable and can be clearly seen.

But notice where Paul reveals the truth about His existence; the clear and plain truth of God’s existence is within us. You see, in the core of every human being is an intuitive sense that there is something out there bigger and beyond us. Something within in us provokes a clear and plain concept of a Creator. Paul then unpacks this further in verse 20 by explaining that since the creation of the universe, God’s character, power, and nature have plainly and clearly been on display. God’s wisdom, God’s might, God’s greatness, God’s goodness, and God’s creativity is evidenced in the universe around us.

When Paul uses the words seen and understood here, he is explaining that God’s existence has been noticed and perceived in a way that has been grasped and comprehended by humanity throughout history as a result of His activity of creating the universe. Across cultures and continents, across calendars and centuries, humanity has been provoked to worship something that they clearly comprehended as their creator.

And because of this intuitive perception that all humanity experiences regarding the reality of the existence of something bigger and beyond us, called God, all of humanity is without excuse. In other words, no human being can say that they did not know that God exists, because the evidence that God exists is overwhelming through the creation.

However, in verses 21-23 Paul explains that the evidence of God’s existence through creation is rejected as humanity instead chose the path of foolishness. Paul explains that even though God’s existence has been noticed and perceived in a way that has been grasped and comprehended by humanity throughout history through His creation, they did not honor Him as God or gave thanks. The word honor here literally means to influence one’s opinion so as to enhance another’s reputation.
Paul’s point here is that humanity foolishly chose to refuse to live their lives in a way that enhanced God’s reputation; instead they chose to ignore Him. Instead of expressing appreciation for all the blessings and benefits that God gave humanity within the creation, humanity foolishly chose to ignore Him.

Now in the Bible, a fool is a person who knows something is true, yet proceeds to live life as though it is not true. A fool is a person who says “I know the law of gravity is true” then proceeds to step off a ten story building. The word that Paul uses for fool in verse 23 is the word that we translate in English as moron. The phrase they became futile in their expectations literally means that their reasoning became worthless. In other words, while all of humanity was able to clearly perceive and understand that God exists and created the universe, yet all of humanity worthlessly rejected that truth and proceeded to live life as though God does not exist.

Paul then unpacks exactly how all of humanity became worthless when it came to their reasoning and response about God in verse 23. Paul explains that while all humanity professed to be wise in that they could state with confidence what they believed about God, they were actually morons who exchanged “the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures.” In other words, instead of responding to the clear and plain evidence of God’s existence has been perceived and comprehended through His creation by worshipping God, all of humanity has foolishly chosen to worship the creation.

Whether it is in the image of an animal, the image of position, the image of possession, or the image that we seen in the mirror, all of humanity chooses to worship something other than God than God, which is called idolatry. Paul here is revealing for us the timeless reality that we are guilty of leaving God out and living life as though He does not exist when we ignore the evidence within us when it comes to creation.

But not only are we guilty because we ignore the evidence within us when it comes to creation. Paul also provides a second piece of evidence that we are guilty when he charges that we are guilty of having a problem when it come to our relationship with God. We will look at that evidence tomorrow.

In the meantime, our you guilty of ignoring the evidence within you when it comes to the existence of God?