But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, “Why have you made me like this?” Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use? What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory | Romans 9:20–23
My kids were studying Galileo recently and we were having conversations about how hard it was for the people of the time to accept the heliocentric model of the universe. The greatest problem for Galileo, was that it looked like the planetary bodies orbited the earth. The sun rose in the morning and set in the evening. Even his fellow scientists pointed out that there would be evidence (like stellar parallax) if the earth were orbiting the sun along with the other planets.
Without getting into too much of the science behind these arguments, or the role that the church played in opposition, the problem for Galileo is that people trusted what seemed obvious to them. In this case, they could not understand the movement they were seeing because they were moving themselves. Movement plays games with your mind.
I was reminded of this the other day sitting in the car with my kids. We were in a parking lot and, all of a sudden, I felt our car rolling backwards. I panicked. It took me a moment to realize that what had happened is that the car parked next to me had slowly pulled forward, giving the impression that I was moving backwards. This is the opposite of what Galileo dealt with; in my case, I was still and the movement of the other car tricked my brain into making it feel like I was moving.
Either way, it is important to know whether you are moving or staying still. While Galileo moved us from the geocentric model of the universe to the heliocentric model, he also played a role in rooting proof into human observation. This idea, that the ultimate judge of what is real and true is empirical evidence, has led us to a human-centric view of the universe. The earth may not be the center of orbit, but human logic is the central, unmoving force that will judge everything else. CS Lewis references this change when he says:
The ancient man approached God (or even the gods) as the accused person approaches his judge. For the modern man, the roles are quite reversed. He is the judge: God is in the dock [place of the accused in the British court]. He is quite a kindly judge; if God should have a reasonable defense for being the god who permits war, poverty, and disease, he is ready to listen to it. The trial may even end in God’s acquittal. But the important thing is that man is on the bench and God is in the dock.
What this reversal has done is not only changed the way we approach God, but also what we see when we look at Him. If we believe that we are still, then God seems to be moving. If we are the measure of what is, then the otherness of God becomes unstable.
This Sunday, our sermon was on God’s immutability. The fact that God does not change is a grounding reality for the Christian. Too often, people don’t rest in this because it looks like God is changing. From where we stand, God seems to: change His mind (Genesis 6:6), change His covenant (Jeremiah 31:31-32), and even change His people (Romans 10:12). This God seems anything but unchanging. The reason for this is not that God is changing, but humanity is. What seems to us to be alterations in the nature of God is perfect consistency applied to a continually changing creation. Allowing Him to take His rightful place in the center – as the constant, the measure of what is – allows us to see the changing nature of the world we live in. To do this, we must admit that we are horribly inconsistent, and that our experience and knowledge are not a valid basis for truth. The author David Foster Wallace made this point in his famous graduation address at Kenyon College stating:
Here is just one example of the total wrongness of something I tend to be automatically sure of: everything in my own immediate experience supports my deep belief that I am the absolute centre of the universe; the realest, most vivid and important person in existence. We rarely think about this sort of natural, basic self-centredness because it’s so socially repulsive. But it’s pretty much the same for all of us. It is our default setting, hard-wired into our boards at birth. Think about it: there is no experience you have had that you are not the absolute centre of. The world as you experience it is there in front of YOU or behind YOU, to the left or right of YOU, on YOUR TV or YOUR monitor. And so on. Other people’s thoughts and feelings have to be communicated to you somehow, but your own are so immediate, urgent, real.
In order to rest in God, we need to admit that we are not the center of the universe. More than that, we need to acknowledge that humanity is not at the center. Human logic gives us the ability to study the creation of God, but it does not place us in the mind of the Creator. We can make scientific discoveries, but we cannot write the laws of the universe. We are prone to distortion, bias, and erroneous conclusions; we are constantly moving. God does not change.
This should change how we approach Him. He is the means that we know what is true and how far humanity has strayed from His center. He is worthy of all honor and worship. He is the source of all things and the purpose that all creation exists. The more we embrace this, the more accurately we can see the world around us. A theocentric (God-centered) perspective is necessary for us to have any sense of assurance as shifting people in a shifting world. Stop trying to be a little god and place yourself under the care of your Heavenly Father.
Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!
“For who has known the mind of the Lord,
or who has been his counselor?”
“Or who has given a gift to him
that he might be repaid?”
For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen. | Romans 11:33–36