Evident Within Them

Mark Dunagan
07/07/13 - Sunday Morning

Evident Within Them

In the first chapter of the book of Romans Paul emphasizes that the fact of God’s existence is clearly seen (1:20).  He adds that generations before him knew all about God (1:21), had the truth about Him (1:25), and that His existence was evident even within them (1:19).  There are many lines of evidence for God’s existence, and in this lesson I want us to consider some of the evidences we may not have considered as much.

We Don’t Feel Completely At Home Here

• Jesus spoke of people being weary and heavy laden: Matthew 11:28
• Paul spoke of groaning in this physical world and longing for a better existence: 2 Corinthians 5:2
• Paul spoke of the physical creation longing for release from the bondage of sin, decay, and death:  Romans 8:19-22

“If you are really a product of the material universe, how it is you don’t feel at home there?  Do fish complain of the sea being wet?  Or if they did, would that fact itself not strongly suggest that they had not always been, or would not always be, purely aquatic creatures?  Notice how we are perpetually surprised at Time.  ‘How time flies!  Fancy John being grown-up and married?  I can hardly believe it’.  In heaven’s name, why?  Unless, indeed, there is something in us which is not temporal” (Yours, Jack, C.S. Lewis, p. 156).

Earthly Things Do Not Completely Satisfy Us

• Solomon mentions a grand pursuit of all those things that our culture claims are guaranteed to bring the good life and happiness.  Good food, wine, a nice home in the country, landscaped grounds, excellent music, lots of money in the bank or investments and so on (Ecclesiastes 2:1-10).  Yet at the conclusion of this experiment he said, “Behold all was vanity and striving after wind” (2:11).
• He likewise noted that money and things it can buy cannot bring lasting happiness (Ecclesiastes 5:10).
• Paul in writing to Titus, spoke of people pursuing pleasure—and yet remained quite unfulfilled (Titus 3:3).
• The Roman letter reveals the same truth: A complete abandonment to pleasure (1:26-27), and yet a very unhappy existence (1:29-31).

I find this another proof that we are not the chance product of the material universe.  If all we are is physical, then physical things and pleasures should bring lasting satisfaction, yet they obviously don’t and we long for something that is not physical.  This is evidence that something in us is spiritual and can only be satisfied with spiritual pleasures.

Satan tries to use various physical pleasures to draw us away from God (Mark 4:19).  He always comes along and claims to have what will make us “happy” at a particular moment.  How can you frustrate his plan for your destruction? Instead of believing him, we can simply allow our longings to go to a deeper level than just feeling better at the moment, and instead choose real satisfaction.  We can turn our minds to the One, “the real object of all desire, which is what we are really wanting in all wants” (Lewis, p. 13).  This sentiment is echoed by Solomon when he noted, “For who can eat and who can have enjoyment without Him?” (Ecclesiastes 2:25). And Solomon's father, David, would whole-heartedly concur.  “Whom have I in heaven but Thee?  And besides Thee, I desire nothing on earth” (Psalm 73:25).

The Real Wish is not God

Over the years various people have argued that God does not exist and that man in fact invented the idea of God because man wished for a Creator and a Protector.  Lewis responds this way to such a claim: “What I think you can say with certainty is this:  the notion that everyone would like Christianity to be true, and that therefore all atheists are brave men who have accepted the defeat of all their deepest desires, is simply impudent nonsense.  Do you think people like Stalin, Hitler…would be pleased on waking up one morning to find that they were not their own masters, that they had a Master and a Judge, that there was nothing ever in the deepest recesses of their thoughts about which they could say to Him, ‘Keep out.  Private.  This is my business?’” (p. 153).  Lewis is right.  There are many wonderful and amazing blessings and promises in the Bible, and there are many amazing things about God—yet the Bible also contains many things that a person would never wish. Anyone who claims that God is simply the product of human wishful thinking has a very shallow view of God and what is in the Bible.    For example, the reality that most will choose not to serve God and thus will end up lost (Matthew 7:13-14) is something that one would never wish.  The reality that we have all sinned and betrayed our Creator (Romans 3:23) also takes much courage to come to terms with, as is the truth that you and I have acted so selfishly that Jesus had to die for our sins (Galatians 2:20), the reality of the final day of Judgment at which there will be no second chances, that I must answer for myself (2 Corinthians 5:10), and the fact that God is holy, and will only accept loving obedience—are all harsh realities that few have the bravery to look straight in the eye.

How We Respond to Suffering

If we are just the product of billions of years of Evolution, involving a constant cycle of suffering, struggle, decay and death, then why does suffering even bother us?  Animals are not bothered by the existence of suffering.  One in the pack is eaten and the rest, more often than not, move on.  The fact is that suffering deeply bothers most people, even to the point to writing many books about it that ask such questions as, “Why doesn’t God do something about it?”  Or, “Why did God let that happen?” The existence of suffering has even upset some people to the point that they have used it has an argument against the existence of God, stating that if God is indeed all good and all-powerful then suffering should not even exist, and that since it does, God cannot not exist.  Think again. For the fact that it unnerves us so much, is proof that we are not the product of Evolution, but rather we are the Creation of a God of justice and compassion, and One who Himself despises seeing the innocent suffer (Matthew 9:36).

Thoughts on Suffering

• Suffering is obviously never pleasant (Hebrews 12:11), yet we need to be thankful that it is not optional.   “How terrible it would be if all suffering, including death itself, were optional, so that only a very few voluntary ascetics ever even attempted to achieve the end for which we are created” (Lewis p. 149).  The fact that suffering is experienced by all men (Ecclesiastes 9:11) means that all are given an equal chance to grow and that there isn’t any room for self-pity, seeing that we are all in the same boat.
• Yes we live in a world where we suffer because of the sinful choices of others, even others we have never met (Ecclesiastes 9:18), yet we also live in a world in which we benefit by the good choices of others.
• There are times when God allows suffering just like a mother allows a small child to walk on its own instead of holding he or she by her hand.  She knows the child may fall, but learning to walk on one’s own is worth a few falls.
• The devil can trap us with worries about the future.  And he does not mind in the least it he traps us with true or false pictures of the future.
• “What we call hindrances are really the raw material of spiritual life.  As if a fire should call the coal of hindrance.  One can imagine a little young fire, which had been getting on nicely with the sticks and paper, regarding it as a mere cruelty when the big lumps were put on; never dreaming what a huge steady glow, how far surpassing its present crackling infancy” (Lewis p. 20).
• There are legitimate things to be concerned about—but certainly worrying is not the right way to handle such things.  God has given us a productive outlet for our worries.  We get to talk to Him (1 Peter 5:7) and lean on His power to accomplish what we of ourselves cannot.  Indeed, it would be dangerous to have no concerns.  As C.S. Lewis puts it — what God is after in this area is a peaceful heart trusting not in our own strength or skills, but in His— a sort of "cheerful insecurity".

Mark Dunagan | mdunagan@frontier.net
Beaverton Church of Christ | 503-644-9017
www.beavertonchurchofchrist.net