SEEING THE INVISIBLE

SEEING THE INVISIBLE

Rom. 1:20 For ever since the creation of the world His invisible nature and attributes, that is, His eternal power and divinity, have been made intelligible and clearly discernible in and through the things that have been made (His handiworks). So [men] are without excuse [altogether without any defense or justification],

This is one of my favorite passages about the mystery of God. Paul says that the invisible attributes of God are clearly seen in God’s creation. Because of that, when we get still and listen to His sounds of silence in creation, we can actually touch or experience something of The Lord. That is actually the primary purpose of His creation, to display His qualities. Adam Clarke brings out God’s nature and His handiwork in creation in his comments on this verse.

” The invisible things of him. His invisible perfections are manifested by his visible works and may be apprehended by what he has made; their immensity showing his omnipotence, their vast variety and contrivance, his omniscience; and their adaptation to the most beneficent purposes, his infinite goodness and philanthropy.
His eternal power. That all-powerful energy that ever was, and ever will exist; so that, ever since there was a creation to be surveyed, there have been intelligent beings to make that survey.
And Godhead. His acting as God in the government and support of the universe. His works prove his being; the government and support of these works prove it equally. Creation and providence form a twofold demonstration of God, first in the perfections of his nature; and secondly, in the exercise of those perfections.”

We can see, for example, His creativity in His stunning attention to detail. Each leaf in His majestic trees is a work of art. The markings on the wing of a butterfly, the various hues of color in His sunset, or the brilliant blue of a tropical ocean or even in the legs of a grasshopper; these all portray His creative genius. Then there is the economy of His creation, everything has its place; water for drinking, air for breathing, grain for our food, His forethought is breathtaking. Then there is the eternal nature displayed in the seemingly infinite universe, have you been outside in the country at night and looked up at the sky? Most of the light you are seeing is actually hundreds of years old, it takes that long for light to travel from even the closest destinations in our universe. What an incredible picture of the eternal nature of our God.
No wonder Paul said we are without excuse; creation is shouting out the Glory of His Name. Paul spent the rest of Romans displaying to us the deeper revelation of the Glory of God. You see The Lord reserved His greatest display in the person of His Son. He actually became one of us, a common man like one of us. He loved us, He taught us, He died for us. This is God’s greatest display of what God is like. We see it in the death of His Son.