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The Glory of God as the Scope of the World and the Word 201
Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs—
Because the Holy Ghost over the bent
World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.
The words “dearest freshness deep down things” points to the other
fact, besides revealing the majesty of God, that the world reveals the
beneficence of God. God expects us not only to glorify him, but to
thank him (Rom. 1:21). Whatever sustains and pleases us comes ultimately
from his hand (even if we have made a God-replacing idol of it,
Ps. 36:7–9).
But the effect of sin is to make us resist glorifying and thanking
God (v. 21). Deep down in our souls, there is a rebellion against the
majesty of God and his all-sufficiency. We do not like to be utterly
subject to his power or utterly dependent on his mercy. Deep down we
also perceive that our resistance to God is so damning that we cannot
live with the consciousness of it. The result is that we “suppress the
truth” (v. 18) and become futile in our thinking and dark in our hearts
(v. 21). We either deny the existence of God, or distort his majesty to
make him tolerable.
What Do I Know from the Natural World?
What Paul teaches in Romans 1:18–23 is profoundly relevant to how
we know the truth of the Scriptures. Let me take you with me on
the path that I have walked in my own experience of the world and
the word.
When I come to Romans 1, I am confronted with the stunning
truths that what can be known about God is plain to John Piper, and
that God has manifested himself to John Piper (v. 19); and that John
Piper has clearly perceived, by the workings of his mind and by the
things that are made, the power and deity of God (v. 20); and that
therefore, at the root of his being, John Piper knows God (v. 21) but
has failed to glorify God and thank him in anything like the measure
God deserves.
Confronted with these staggering truths about myself, I have tried
to honestly take stock of what I know of God from the natural world.
Here is my best effort to discern the knowledge of God in my own mind