Question 10: What do we mean when we say that all truth proceeds from God?
Answer. All truth proceeds from God means that the created order, being God’s natural revelation of his own glory, was made by him, is sustained by him, and is designed to conform to his purposes.
Question 11: How did God create all things?
Answer: Through Christ, who is the Word of God and the very word of his power, God created all things and upholds them continually for his good pleasure.
As we’ve been studying the doctrine of the Truth of God, we have been building on the following definition of truth: truth is that which exists in, and proceeds from, the mind of God. In that word “proceeds”, the universe itself is contained. Perhaps the most natural idea of truth that we are familiar with is truth as we see it in the world around us. For example, we cannot doubt, except perhaps by terminal and extreme unbelief, that the tree outside of our window actually exists. If someone came up to you and tried to convince you that the tree wasn’t there, you’d laugh at their attempt (I hope!). As we consider the concrete reality of the world around us, however, we must recognise that through Christ, who is the very word of his power, God created all things and upholds them continually.
When we look at the world around us, one thing that we must learn to see by faith more and more is that the world in which we live, and even we ourselves, are all sustained by God through Christ. God is not some far distant entity who set creation ticking like a clock and now has little to do with it. He is imminent. As we look at that tree, as we see it’s movement and hear the sound of its leaves, we are watching God at work. Everything in the world is a revelation of God’s mind in some way or another (theologians call this idea “natural revelation”). He is the Creator, and works all things according to the counsel of his will (Eph 1:11). Creation is his masterpiece. All the principles of knowledge that we find in the created order, then, are gifts of knowledge from God. Revelations of his mind are embedded into the very warp and woof, the architecture of his grand creation, and he is directing it all at every point.
This revelation of God in creation (Ps 19:1) encompasses everything we experience. Everything we know about language, food, the natural sciences, music, sex – all of it is a revelation of God’s mind imbued into the very fibre of creation. We “unpack” these principles and revelations of his knowledge as we explore, engage with, and serve in his creation. In a sense, we “exegete” his natural revelation by trial and error as we experiment and play with what he has given us here. As the Belgic Confession beautifully puts it, nature is a “book” to be opened and read by all God’s creatures.1 I also really like the way Schultz describes it:
“Why did God make boys so that they like to climb, dig, camp, hike, and explore? He wanted boys to discover Himself in the middle of His grand book. Instead of sitting at a desk reading about the world, He gave them the energy and will to swim in it, crawl under it, and jump around on it. He gave boys the desire to turn over rocks, pick up bugs, and catch fish. Boys like to build forts, net butterflies, and wade through creeks… Don’t let this world around you squeeze you into buildings or books. Buildings are good. Books are good. There are times to be in both. But God created the heavens and the earth to be experienced, not just read about or lectured upon.” (Schultz, Boyhood and Beyond, p.12, 14).
At the risk of labouring the point too much, let me go on. Every chemical compound we’ve concocted, every pigment on the palate, every reverberation of musical resonation, every mathematical musing – all have been laid out for us by God in natural revelation. Creation is matter formed by Christ, the Word of God, in accordance with his knowledge and wisdom, and which is to be unpacked, discovered, and used in God’s service. This is why, when we see the glory and beauty of everything this world has to offer, what we are really seeing is the glory of God revealed to us. We are seeing the brilliance of his mind on display. It is in this sense that Psalm 19 says: “The heavens declare the glory of God.” Likewise Paul said to the men of Athens that God is “not far from each one of us,” and that “in him we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:27-28). The work and knowledge of God is at hand everywhere we turn, even as we turn inside ourselves and examine the functions of a rational mind. His knowledge and imprint is inescapable at every point.
It is through Christ that God the Father is unfolding this grand design of creation. Few passages present this more clearly than Colossians 1:15-17: “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.” So also in Hebrews 1:1-2 we read: “Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.” Through Christ, God created all things and upholds them continually for his good pleasure.
I don’t know about you, but I find that for myself so often I am looking at the world around me with such dull eyes. I get into the car, my mind occupied with trivialities and complaints about life, and all the while give no thought to the body and health with which I’ve been provided, the gifts of technology with which I’ve been furnished, the beauty of the world in which I have the privilege of driving, the miracle of children sitting in the back seats, the goodness of a wife with which I’ve been favoured, and the list goes on and on into eternity. Worse yet, I find myself often reverting to the worldview of our surrounding culture – that being a view which sees the world in purely mechanical, chemical, biological, and – ultimately – in merely physical ways. I can relate to the man who saw people dimly, as though they were “trees as walking” (Mark 8:24-26). Jesus began to open his eyes, but all was blurry and bleary, and so Jesus laid his hands on his eyes a second time – then he saw clearly. Sometimes I sense with deep conviction my need for Christ to lay hands on me a second time! Sometimes heart renewal is not as fast a process as we might wish it to be.
What then can we do that we might overcome the monstrous malady of naturalistic eyes? In Romans 12:2 we read: “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind”. Our eyes will not see anew except our hearts be transformed anew. As Christ washes the mud from his bride, he does so “by the washing of water with the word” (Eph 5:26). Our minds must be continually renewed by consistent meditation on God’s word given to us in scripture.
“Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked,
nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers;
but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night.
He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season,
and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers.” Ps 1:1-3.
SDG.
1 BC Art. 2.
Q10&11. Christ and Natural Revelation.