“The knowledge of God is the cause of things. For the knowledge of God is to all creatures what the knowledge of the artificer is to things made by his art.” – Thomas Aquinas
The Apostle Paul affirmed in Romans 1 that God has revealed Himself through creation. He also tells us in Ephesians 3 that God has revealed Himself through His Word (Scripture). And the author of Hebrews began his masterpiece asserting that God has revealed Himself to us in the Incarnation. It’s the first of these revelations that theologians call natural theology, and is where we’ll start in this final post on the Kingdom of God.
Interesting fact (for you nerdy types) …in the ancient Near-East, kings would have statues of themselves erected in the far-off regions of their empires in order to provide a visual reminder of that king’s dominion over the land. And how much of the earth does God rule over as King? All of it. And what has He placed in every part of His earth? Humans! We are made in His image (Genesis 1-2) and scattered over the face of the earth. This means that humanity’s rule over the planet is to mirror God’s rule over humanity.
When humans govern the earth the way God intended, in relationship with Him, it advances His reputation. But humanity is fallen, and thus, those of us who have been redeemed are to advance His reputation before a non-believing world. And our Lord’s redemptive plan for sinful humanity involves His redeemed people advancing His Kingdom in the here and now—not escaping the planet to somewhere better while the world goes to Hell.
“And besides the pious opinion concerning the Father and the Son, we confess to one Holy Spirit as the divine Scriptures teach us; who hath inaugurated both the holy men of the Old Testament and the divine teachers of that which is called the New.” – Alexander, Bishop of Alexandria
But back to natural theology. When we don’t understand the goodness and importance of creation we can easily slip into a mindset of thinking that the world is pointless, it’s all going to burn, and so let’s just get out of here. But that kind of mindset negates the entire Kingdom-paradigm that is replete throughout Scripture.
God has revealed Himself through creation. The Psalmists unanimously proclaim that creation declares His glory (read Psalm 19). When we see the orderliness of creation, we can extrapolate something regarding God’s nature—that He is a God or order. When we see the raw power in creation (think Niagara Falls, for instance), we get a glimpse of God’s unimaginable power. You get the idea.
So then, when we labor for the salvation of our fellow human beings, we bring glory to our Triune God. The enemy has invaded and brought sin, death, and chaos to God’s good world, but God has destroyed the work of the devil through the cross and the resurrection. Now as His children and ambassadors we’re called to “bring the world back” to God, the way things were originally intended to be. Or, as Paul said in 2 Corinthians, we’ve been given (by God) the ministry of reconciliation. All of this is part of the biblical paradigm of God the King reconciling His creation back to Himself.
As Christians, it’s of the utmost importance that we pick up on these themes and understand them, lest our reading of God’s Word be truncated and distorted, and we miss a huge part of God’s story and will. May His Kingdom come on earth as in Heaven, and may we all play our part in fulfilling our Lord’s words. For the glory of the only true God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.
“Wake up, O human being! For it was for you that God was made man. Rise up and realize it was all for you. Eternal death would have awaited you had He not been born in time. Never would you be freed from your sinful flesh had He not taken to Himself the likeness of sinful flesh. Everlasting would be your misery had He not performed this act of mercy.” – St. Augustine
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