September 11 Daily Devotional

Bible Reading:

Romans 1:20:

²⁰For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:

Devotional:

From of old the question, from what source the knowledge of God flows out toward us, has been answered by the Church of Christ in this twofold way: from nature and from Scripture.

This points to the knowledge of God which comes to us from without; which can be expressed in an abstract idea; and which, therefore, has a place in the Creeds of the Church. But this does not include experimental knowledge of God which comes to us personally from spiritual experience, from the communion of saints, and from the hidden walk with God.

Meanwhile there is majesty in this first knowledge of God which comes to us from without; and in order now to confine ourselves to what nature brings us, it is so beautiful and so true that as one Confession of Faith declares, the whole creation round about us is as a living volume in which individual creatures are the letters. Yet, the book of nature brings us no nearer than the recognition of the attributes of God, His Almightiness, His Wisdom, His Goodness, and so on. Of a life in the spiritual Kingdom, of a being driven by the Holy Ghost, of an entrance with our will into the will of God, of a being filled with love by which to come closer to Him Who Himself is Love, even of mystical contemplation, it has nothing whatever to say.

The Creed of the Church is a banner, with a clear inscription, lifted up before the world, by which to declare what Divine glory full of majesty we worship; but it is not the more intimate expression of the knowledge of God as far as this has come to us from self-knowledge, from one's own soul's experience.

In these meditations we have placed this more intimate knowledge of God in the foreground, since devotional writings do not address the world, but speak from the midst of and to the fellowship of the saints, out of experience of soul, to those who themselves have enjoyed like experience, or at least know the home-sickness.

But we have sounded again and again the note of warning in this sanctuary of mysticism not to lose ourselves in sickly emotionalism; and, therefore, we now come to the knowledge of God from nature, not in order to take it objectively, but rather to weave it into our spiritual life.

Here, too, the wandering soul not infrequently impoverishes itself in a pitiful way.

It is then said: "I have learned and have given consent to the fact that in the works of nature the Attributes of God express themselves. I can infer from it that God is great in power, in wisdom and in goodness. But now that I know this, I am through with the book of nature. The sum of the knowledge of God, which comes to me from this, is made up." So the book is closed, and there is no personal, deeply penetrating impression that nature gives us of God's Majesty. One does not look for it. One takes no further count of it. And one almost feels a sense of anger, when, in behalf of their superficial religion the people of the world by preference appeal to nature.

It truly gives offense to hear it said, with a certain kind of exaltation, that the Church has served its day and that the Word has lost its significance, and that there is far richer religious enjoyment "in the temple of uncut wood."

But the faithful too are here at fault.

However praiseworthy their appreciation of Christ's Church is, and however rich the treasure that comes to them from the Word, they should not forget that it is equally bound upon our heart that "the invisible things of God from the foundation of the world are clearly seen and understood from the creatures (from nature), even His eternal Power and Godhead" (Romans 1:20).

Here we observe three stages in the progress of the knowledge of God.

There is a knowledge of God which begins with nature, but which afterward advances to man as created after the Image of God, and which at length reaches its zenith in Christ, since He is the express Image of God's Person.

This knowledge of God begins with nature, expands itself in man, and is perfected in the Messiah; and these three do not stand loosely side by side, but form, if we may so express it, a rising pyramid. Nature forms the broad ground level, it ascends in the rich unfolding of human life, and reaches its highest point in the Incarnation of the Eternal Word.

The Christ is not clearly seen nor understood apart from the knowledge of man, and man is not clearly seen nor understood apart from a sympathetic touch upon unconscious nature. If then things are to be right, believers must ever be aware of God's Majesty in nature; believers must feel the life or history of mankind live itself over again in themselves; and so only can they attain unto that clear, full, living impression of the Christ, who in the riches of His grace reveals God unto them.

That this should be the case with believers, rests upon the fact that thus it went on from God's side in His Self-revelation, and still goes on.

God Almighty began to reveal Himself in unconscious nature. Only when that revelation was completed, did He create man after His Image and Likeness as a richer Self-revelation; and only when man had corrupted his way and nearly destroyed it in sin, did God send us as His richest Self-revelation the Christ.

And now see how these three links of the sacred chain fit into one another.

First there is the material world. Then from the dust of this world man is created. And only afterward comes as Man, in our flesh and blood, the revelation of the Son of God. The starting point here is that God is invisible.

Understand us well. In Himself the Eternal Being is not invisible, and we are definitely told, that some time we shall see God face to face; yes, that we shall know Him, even as we are known.

Not intellectual, nor even spiritual knowledge is the highest. The highest is vision—clear, immediate sight. Seeing without intermedium; even without mirror. Seeing into essential Being itself.

How this shall be made possible for us, is the mystery of eternity, though it is certain that, however dormant, the organ for this is even now present in the soul.

But it is equally certain, that in this dispensation it is not given us to use this organ. This is the dispensation of limitation, of the finite, and of that which is bound to form, color and dimension. And since God the Lord has neither boundary nor end, form nor dimension, He is in this dispensation to us the Invisible.

We do not come to a clear vision of God in this life.

Hence the question was, how God in His Majesty could, nevertheless, in this life so reveal Himself, that at length we could come to a clear, fixed impression of His Being. And God has reached this end, first, by revealing to us in nature the working of His Almightiness and Divinity in dimensions which make the impression upon us of the infinite, although we know that they are finite. This is what we call the sublime. And in the second place, by putting a pattern of His personal life in the personal existence of man, creating him after His Image. And thirdly, in the end by fully restoring this Image, corrupted and broken by sin, to its original purity, and showing it to us in Christ.

But then, in and behind nature is God Himself.

Hence nature is not a completed work of art which, outside of Him and without Him, exists by itself; but it is God Himself Who shows you every night His starry heavens; and every day, His majesty in the colors of the light, in the wonders of the plant and animal world, in the glory of the sea, in the roar of the hurricane, even causing you to hear it sometimes in the rolling of His thunder.

In all this, is and lives the God of your worship. In the thrill of the life of nature, His own Divine life thrills. Whatever stirs in this Creation, whatever courses through it, whatever wells up from it toward you, is the inner motion of God's own life. Yea, all nature is nothing else than a living throbbing veil, behind which God hides Himself, and yet in whose folds and undulations He reveals Himself to you, clothed with Majesty.

The Apostle puts it so profoundly when he says that in nature the Invisible God is not only understood, but clearly seen.

And this clear sight is the main point. Through this screen, through this veil, through this investiture of nature, you must see your God in His Almightiness and Divinity.

Not to gaze at nature as at a dead palace with its vast variety of lines and forms, but to feel and to know that, standing before the firmament and the cloudy hosts and before the creation here on earth, you stand before God; that it is He Who, in all this, presses in upon you; in all this, addresses you; and, through all this, lets the fingers of His Majesty work before your eye. It is God who causes the lark to sing for you. It is God who cleaves the sea so that its waters foam. It is God who calls the sun from his tent, and at eventide directs his return thereto. It is God Who, every evening, lights the twinkling fires in the stars. It is God Whose voice rolls down upon you in the thunder. And only he who in all this feels the life of God, and in all this clearly sees the Divinity of His Almightiness, understands the glory of the Invisible.

This devotional classic offers 110 meditations on a single thought from Psalm 73: "As for me, it is good to be near to God." The author states, "The fellowship of being near unto God must become reality ... it must permeate and give color to our feeling, our perceptions, our sensations, our thinking, our imagining, our willing, our acting, our speaking. It must not stand as a foreign factor in our life, but it must be the passion that breathes throughout our whole existence."

The meditations reflect the blending of spiritual vigor with doctrinal loyalty so consistently expressed in the life of Abraham Kuyper. These are devotions with true substance, avoiding the extremes about which Kuyper adds a word of caution: "Stress in creedal confession, without drinking from the Living Fountain, runs dry in barren orthodoxy, just as truly as spiritual emotion, without clearness in confessional standards, makes one sink in the bog of sickly mysticism."

Abraham Kuyper (1837-1920) was a Dutch political leader and Calvinist theologian. Elected to parliament in 1874, he became Prime Minister in 1901 and served in that capacity until 1905. As a theologian, he revived a systematic, orthodox Calvinism. He founded the Free Reformed Church and the Free University of Amsterdam. His other works include Principles of Sacred Theology, Lectures on Calvinism, and The Work of the Holy Spirit

Further information about Abraham Kuyper's life can be seen in the translator's "Biographical Note"; further information about To Be Near Unto God can be Abraham Kuyper's "Preface" to that book.