“Blogging the Institutes” is my on-going attempt to paraphrase John Calvin’s work, the Institutes of the Christian Religion. You can find out more about the series in the Introduction. For all the posts in this series, check out the Master List.
We Know God Through His Creation
There is one God who governs over all things. He wishes that we respect Him and make Him the object of our faith, worship, and adoration. There is nothing worse than enjoying all of God’s good gifts given to us—our natural talents, our bodies, etc.—but neglecting the Giver of the gifts.
With respect to His power, it is so glorious! Through it, He urges us to contemplate what He is like. His power will work effectively in us, unless we pretend not to know whose energy sustains the universe:
At one time, God makes the skies reverberate with thunder and sends forth the blinding lightening, which lights up the whole atmosphere. At another time, God stirs up raging storms on the seas and yet, in an instant, can make it perfectly calm. He keeps the sea at bay even though it seems to swell and rage and threaten to engulf the dry land. He even lashes the sea into a fury by the wind and yet appeases its rage and stills the waves.
I could go on and on about God’s power with glowing descriptions. His power can be illustrated through many natural events, many of which are recorded in the Bible, especially in the books of Job and Isaiah. I won’t talk about them here, however, because I want to wait to introduce them in another chapter on creation. I just want to make one more observation: it’s common practice both within and outside the Church to learn about God by studying His creation. If we first begin to contemplate the power of God, we’ll be lead to think about God’s forever existence because any created things, which were made by God’s power, must necessarily be dependent on a God who is self-existent and eternal.
Now, some people may wonder why God even chose to create anything in the first place. There’s really no other reason other than this: His own goodness. Furthermore, if God’s own goodness is the reason He made anything at all, this reason alone should be enough to draw our love towards Him. Every person already participates in His mercy, as the Psalmist says: “His tender mercies are over all His works” (Psalm 145:9).