Romans 1:18-20 - The Revelation of God in Creation.
Romans 1:18-20 (NLT) But God shows his anger
from heaven against all sinful, wicked people who
suppress the truth by their wickedness. 19 They know
the truth about God because he has made it
obvious to them. 20 For ever since the world was
created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through
everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible
qualities - his eternal power and divine nature. So
they have no excuse for not knowing God.
INTRODUCTION
Nature teaches us that God exists. What kind
of God does nature reveal? Nature shows us a
God of might, intelligence, and intricate
detail; a God of order and beauty; a God who
controls powerful forces. That is general revelation.
Through special revelation (the Bible and the coming
of Jesus), we learn about Gods love and
forgiveness, and the promise of eternal life. God has
graciously given us both sources that we might fully
believe in him. [Life Application SB]
Natures revelation is distorted. God
reveals his divine nature and personal qualities
through creation, even though creations testimony
has been distorted by the fall. Adams sin
resulted in a divine curse upon the whole natural
order (Genesis 3:17-19); thorns and thistles were
an immediate result, and natural disasters have
been common from Adams day to ours. In Romans
8:19-21, Paul says that nature itself is eagerly
awaiting its own redemption from the effects of sin
(see Rev. 22:3). [Life Application SB]
God holds all men responsible for their
refusal to acknowledge what He has shown them of
Himself in His creation. Even those who have never
had an opportunity to hear the gospel have
received a clear witness about the existence and
character of God and have suppressed it. If a person
will respond to the revelation he has, even if it
is solely natural revelation, God will provide
some means for that person to hear the gospel
(Acts 8:26-39; 10:1-48; 17:27). [MacArthur Daily
Bible 2003]
COMMENTARY PEARLS
Evidence Of God
Everything in creation gives evidence of
God's existence. The intricacy of snowflakes, the
roar of a thunderstorm, the precision of a
honeybee, the bubbling of a cool mountain stream.
These miracles and a million more give testimony
to the existence of a brilliant, wise, and
tireless God (Psalm 19:1-4). The facts lead to a
wonderful conclusion. God is ... and God is knowable.
He has not hidden himself, but rather the
opposite: he promises success to all who search for
him. We can know God; we can know his heart, his
joy, his passion, his plan, and his sorrows. Of
course, we will never know him entirely. God is
knowable, but he is incomprehensible (Isaiah 55:8-9).
Our pursuit of him must be marked by humility.
We will never know everything about God.
But that isn't meant to discourage us.
The mark of a saint is that he or she is growing
in the knowledge of God. Our highest pursuit is
the pursuit of our Maker. And he will make
himself known to all who seek him. [You Can Count On
God by Max Lucado]
Mind under Matter
When I was deep in the redwoods some time
ago, I lay back and looked up. I mean really up.
It was one of those clear summer nights when
you could see forever. So starry it was scary.
The vastness of the heavens eloquently told the
glory of God. No words could adequately frame the
awesomeness of that moment. One of my mentors used to
say, "Wonder is involuntary praise." That night,
it happened to me.
What boggled my mind as I curled up in my
sleeping bag that night was this: Everything I have
seen belongs to this one galaxy. Perhaps there
are a hundred more beyond our own. Maybe a
thousand. Or a hundred thousand each one much
larger than ours. Who knows?
But let's limit our thinking just to this
one solar system a tiny fraction of the
universe above us. A scientist once suggested an
interesting analogy. To grasp the scene, imagine a
perfectly smooth glass pavement on which the finest
speck can be seen. Then shrink our sun from
865,000 miles in diameter to only two feet and
place the ball on the pavement to represent the
sun.
Step off 82 paces (about two feet per
pace), and to represent proportionately the first
planet, Mercury, put down a tiny mustard seed. Take
60 steps more and for Venus put down an
ordinary BB. Mark 78 more steps put down a green
pea representing Earth. Step off 108 paces from
there, and for Mars put down a pinhead. Then take
788 steps more and place an orange on the glass
for Jupiter. After 934 more steps, put down a
golf ball for Saturn.
Now it gets really involved. Mark 2,086
steps more, and for Uranus a marble. Another
2,322 steps from there you arrive at Neptune. Let
a cherry represent Neptune. This will take 2
1/2 miles, and we haven't even discussed Pluto!
We have a smooth glass surface 5 miles in
diameter, yet just a tiny fraction of the heavens.
Now, guess how far we'd have to go on the same
scale before we could put down another two-foot
ball to represent the nearest star. We'd have to
go 6,720 miles! Miles, not feet! And that's
just the first star among millions. In one galaxy
among hundreds, maybe thousands. And all of it in
perpetual motion perfectly synchronized the
most accurate timepiece known to man. Phenomenal
isn't the word for it.
No God? All by chance? Are you kidding?
Listen carefully: "Since the creation of the world
God's invisible qualities - his eternal power and
divine nature - have been clearly seen, being
understood from what has been made, so that men are
without excuse" (Rom. 1:20, NIV). [Chuck Swindoll
www.insight.org.]
COMMENTARY
Through the creation we are to become
acquainted with the Creator. The book of nature is a
great lesson book, which in connection with the
Scriptures we are to use in teaching others of His
character, and guiding lost sheep back to the fold of
God. As the works of God are studied, the Holy
Spirit flashes conviction into the mind. It is not
the conviction that logical reasoning produces;
but unless the mind has become too dark to know
God, the eye too dim to see Him, the ear too dull
to hear His voice, a deeper meaning is grasped,
and the sublime, spiritual truths of the written
word are impressed on the heart.
In these lessons direct from nature,
there is a simplicity and purity that makes them
of the highest value. All need the teaching to
be derived from this source. In itself the
beauty of nature leads the soul away from sin and
worldly attractions, and toward purity, peace, and
God. Too often the minds of students are occupied
with men's theories and speculations, falsely
called science and philosophy. They need to be
brought into close contact with nature. Let them
learn that creation and Christianity have one God.
Let them be taught to see the harmony of the
natural with the spiritual. Let everything which
their eyes see or their hands handle be made a
lesson in character building. Thus the mental
powers will be strengthened, the character
developed, the whole life ennobled. COL24-25
Theres No Excuse
When Helen Keller was a very young girl,
a disease affected her in a dramatic way. She
lost her sight, hearing, and speech. Essentially
she was isolated from the world.
But Anne Sullivan made it her lifes
purpose to reach Helen. She taught Helen how to
communicate through touch. And when she tried to tell
Helen about God, Helen said she already knew Him,
but she just didnt know His name. Despite the
fact that she couldnt hear or see, God still
made Himself known to her.
All around us is the evidence of God. We
find it not only in our lives, but all through
creation as we see Gods hand at work.
As the apostle Paul pointed out, For
ever since the world was created, people have
seen the earth and sky. Through everything God
made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities
- his eternal power and divine nature. So they
have no excuse for not knowing God (Romans
1:20 NLT).
I read an interesting statement by Robert
Jastrow, an astrophysicist and former director of
NASAs Goddard Institute for Space Studies. He
wrote, It seems as though science will never be
able to raise the curtain on the mystery of
creation. For the scientist who has lived by his faith
in the power of reason, the story ends like a
bad dream. He has scaled the mountains of
ignorance; he is about to conquer the highest peak; as
he pulls himself over the final rock, he is
greeted by a band of theologians who have been
sitting there for centuries.
God will reveal himself to the true
seeker. And the bottom line is this: There is no
excuse for living in rebellion against the God who
loves us. He will make Himself known to every
person who truly wants to know Him. [Greg Laurie
from Harvest Ministries;
https://www.harvestdaily.com]
ILLUSTRATIONS
Blackpoll Warblers
The tiny blackpoll warbler landed
exhausted on the bare spit of rocky sand after a
stormy crossing of Lake Erie. For now it was safe
on Point Pelee, the southernmost point of
mainland Canada. Thousands of migrating birds funnel
through this narrow point, taking advantage of an
important resting and refueling stop on their long
northward migration to summer nesting grounds.
Blackpolls, named for the patch of black feathers on the
top of their head, spend the winter in South
America but migrate back to the spruce forests of
northern Canada where they raise their young.
The crossing of Lake Erie seems to be a
problem only when a storm gives the tiny birds a
strong headwind. Though it is hard for them, these
birds regularly fly across nearly 2,000 miles of
the Atlantic Ocean from the northern coast of
South America to Florida. We know it is hard
because during the journey blackpolls can lose
almost half their body weight. So every chance they
get they take advantage of prevailing winds to
help them on their way.
With one of the highest-pitched songs of
any songbird, the blackpoll's quick tsit tsit
tsit calls have such a high frequency that some
people have a hard time even hearing them.
Blackpolls communicate with each other as they feed on
insects and spiders.
As you can guess, migrating birds face
many hazards. Some predatory birds that catch and
eat other birds time the raising of their young
to take advantage of the increased food supply
as migrants pass through their area. Bright
lights, especially during foggy conditions, confuse
and mesmerize migrants so that they crash into
lighted buildings, towers, or monuments.
Getting enough food along the way can be
a big problem, but birds do not worry - they
simply depend on God to provide for all their
needs. The Bible is clear - God cares for even the
cheap little throwaway birds. But He cares for us
ever so much more. He knows every detail of my
life, and He wants only the best for me.
Creator God, have You really counted all
the hairs of my head? I am confident then that
You know all about me and that I can trust You
to care for my needs this day. [God of Wonders
by David Steen re Matt. 6:26]
Gecko's Feet
A side from the little bright-eyed,
green, smart-talking model on Geico Insurance
advertisements, have you ever seen a real live gecko? If you
have spent much time in the tropics, you probably
have. Geckos are small lizards known for their
ability to scamper up a glass surface and run at top
speed across a smooth ceiling. Until recently it
was a mystery how they could do that.
Many of the couple thousand species of
geckos live in houses, and their occupants often
welcome them because the lizards are experts at
catching and eating insects, even mosquitoes. If you
watch a Geico Insurance ad, besides talking with
an Australian accent, one of the really cute
things the model does is blink its eyes. Most real
geckos don't have movable eyelids - just a clear
membrane coving their eyes. So you will occasionally
see a real gecko licking its own eyes to get
them clean. But then that wouldn't look good on
TV, would it?
Several scientific experiments have
focused on the interesting ridged design of the
gecko's foot pads in an attempt to learn how they
get such sure footing on smooth surfaces. The
feet are not sticky. They don't have hooks on
them. Experimental results show that each gecko
foot has nearly 500,000 tiny hairlike structures
called setae, a Latin word for bristle or fine
hair. Each gecko setae is only one tenth the
diameter of a human hair. But here is where it really
gets interesting, for each seta terminates in 100
to 1,000 even smaller flattened hairs called
spatulae, which are only .2 to .5 micrometers wide.
When ultrasmall structures such as this come
close to any other structure, weak attractive
forces called van der Waals interactions draw them
together. Scientists have now isolated a single seta
and have determined that it holds 10 times the
weight that they had previously estimated based on
whole animal studies, and that van der Waals
forces are indeed the secret to the gecko's
excellent footing. With five toes on each of its four
feet, geckos have 20 toes. Calculations show that,
with just one toe in contact with a surface, a
gecko can support eight times its own body weight.
Material scientists have now devised
nanofibers that mimic the ultrafine hairs on the
gecko's foot. Using such nanofibers, robots are
climbing glass walls, and high-tech Band-Aids coated
with such fibers now hold wounds together for
healing. They are not sticky, so they don't hurt when
they come off.
Masterful Designer, because You created
systems such as gecko toes, surely You have ways to
hold me and never let me go. Enfold Your arms
around me so that I cannot fall. [God of Wonders by
David Steen re Ps. 119:117]
Flamboyant Cuttlefish
The first time I saw a movie clip of a
flamboyant cuttlefish I could not believe my eyes.
First, a cuttlefish isn't really a fish at all -
it's more like an octopus with really short
tentacles. Octopi, squid, nautilus, and cuttlefish are
all a type of mollusk in the class Cephalopods
(meaning head foot, because they have feet on their
head). It gets better. Cephalopods have a powerful
water jet that they power up when they need to
escape quickly. When they blast off, they leave
behind a cloud of black ink to make it appear as if
their body just went poof and disappeared. But
wait, it gets even more weird. The flamboyant
cuttlefish is only three inches (eight centimeters)
long, and its name is what it is: flamboyant.
This little guy looks like a neon sign
competition in Las Vegas. You-Tube archives several good
video clips. The best as of this writing are
"Underwater Studios" and "Cuttlefish Catching Dinner."
What you will see are clips of this small critter
looking - at times - very dull and camouflaged and
"walking" along the sandy seafloor using two of its
eight tentacles and two underbelly skin flaps. Two
tentacles extend straight ahead, two feel the sand for
food, and two wave above the body. When the
flamboyant catches dinner, it looks almost as if a
slow-motion frog tongue comes out (actually a modified
tentacle with suckers on the end) and suddenly grabs
shrimp, small fish, worms, and other crustaceans.
Because this small cuttlefish is extremely
poisonous, it advertises that fact so that it will not
be mistaken for some tasty morsel by a hungry
fish or other cephalopod. And what an
advertisement. Here is where the "flamboyant" part of the
cuttlefish name comes in. Within seconds the
dull-brown, mottled, sandy color turns to a pale white
with a bright-yellow fringe or skirt pulsating
and waving around the edge of the underbelly.
The upper tentacles turn white, with a brilliant
pink on the ends. The lower tentacles can go to
black and yellow. The most amazing part is a
rhythmic flow of dark diagonal chevron stripes that
seem to sweep the cuttlefish body from front to
back. Pink, yellow, and red stripes show up
frequently too. The best analogy that I can come up
with would be a gaudy Las Vegas sign with moving
lights and changing colors.
Creator of the flamboyant cuttlefish,
yes, I know that it is just one of Your many
wonders. You are a truly amazing God. There is none
like You. [God of Wonders by David Steen re Ex.
15:11]
CLOSING THOUGHT
"Look For Signs Of Me In Your World."
Do you ever long for a sign from God? The
direct approach - like a neon light, a highway
billboard, or even a "We interrupt this broadcast"?
Anything that helps us to know what he's telling us.
Anything to quell our anxious search for guidance.
Believe it or not, God sends us signs all
the time. He makes himself obvious through his
Spirit's nudges when we pray and read the Bible, with
peace that assures us, in the wonders of creation,
through godly leaders, and in countless other ways.
Whether we notice him depends on how
attuned to him we remain. It's one thing to think
about him vaguely now and then; it's a whole other
habit to actively look for him to communicate. He
has a personal language with each of his
children, unique between him and that person. We can
hear and be encouraged by his work in others'
lives, but eventually that excitement won't be
enough. We need to experience him for ourselves.
Keeping in touch with him requires our
sensitive effort - a discipline we often forgo in the
rush of our days. He'd probably love to shake us
to get our attention because he knows we'd
function better if we'd listen for him more closely.
Noah not only listened to God, but he
listened for God. He proactively pursued God. We saw
evidence of that in Genesis 8 when he repeatedly sent
a dove to see whether God had dried the land.
It was his way of saying, "God, let me know
when and where to land this ship."
And in Genesis 9, we see God giving him -
and us - another sign. Rainbows aren't a
haphazard reaction to rain. Every time we see one, God
is communicating. He's reminding himself and us
that he'll never again destroy the earth with a
flood. But rainbows also remind us that God is as
present and mightily involved with us as he was with
Noah. And he wants us to search earnestly for him
as Noah did.
Never doubt; he will guide you. But maybe
he's waiting for a sign from you that you're
looking for him. [The Daily God Book By Erin Keeley
Marshall re Genesis 9:13]
ONE LINERS
I love to think of nature as an unlimited
broadcasting system, through which God speaks to us every
hour, if we will only tune in. [George Washington
Carver]
People see God every day, they just don't
recognize him. Pearl Bailey
Men have no excuse for not knowing about God
because He has revealed Himself in man's conscience
and in the physical world (Rom. 1:19, 20; 2:15).
[MacArthur Daily Bible 2003 re Acts 17]
LINKS FOR FURTHER STUDY ON THIS PASSAGE
Romans 1:18-20 - The Revelation of God in
Creation.
http://www.abible.com/devotions/2015/20150719-1023.html
Romans 1:18-20 - God Has Revealed Himself
Plainly!
http://www.abible.com/devotions/2007/20070830-2315.html
Romans 1:18-20 - THE MAJOR REVELATIONS OF
GOD!
http://www.abible.com/devotions/2008/20080714-1534.html
YOUR COMMENTS
If anyone has a paraphrase, commentary or
testimony on this passage of Scripture, either
personal or otherwise, I would be interested in
hearing from you. Thanks in advance and let's keep
uplifting Jesus that all might be drawn to Him. Fred
Gibbs
LINKS WORTH CHECKING OUT
Most Important Decision in Life:
http://www.youtube.com/embed/WGnEuGwvXqU?rel=0
A Man without Equal by Bill Bright:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NiVa7UoruIo
Steps to Peace by Billy Graham:
https://stepstopeace.org/
Seeking God Made Real:
http://vimeo.com/31489782
Prayer Made Real:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tc8VdMV26VE
LINKS FOR BIBLE STUDIES
Lifting Up Jesus Bible Studies:
http://www.liftingupjesus.net/
Amazing Facts Bible Studies:
http://www.amazingfacts.org/bible-study/bible-study-guides.aspx
Voice of Prophecy Discover Bible Study
Guides:
https://www.voiceofprophecy.com/study/discover
Glow Tract Video Bible Studies:
http://www.bibleresearch.info/
LINKS FOR BIBLE PROPHECY SEMINARS
Unlocking Bible Prophecies by Cami Oetman of
Adventist World Radio: https://www.awr.org/bible
Panorama of Prophecy with Pastor Doug
Batchelor: https://www.panoramaofprophecy.com/
Hope Awakens by John Bradshaw of IIW:
https://itiswritten.tv/programs/hope-awakens
Prophecies Decoded by Pastor Ron Clouzet:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL1A435C5373550657
Islam and Christianity in Prophecy, The
Third and Final Conflict by Tim Roosenberg:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHSJB-fuHLU&list=PLWhQIHGTHlkaGg5Cwe3NDzWtFX8vNSpsE
