Why Did God Make Us, His Creatures, As He Did?
Why Did God Make Us, His Creatures, As He Did?
(An excerpt from a recent Midweek Discipleship study)
God is our Creator; we are his creation. We are creatures of his making according to his design. His design is not arbitrary, but, like all of God’s works, his design is purposeful and perfect. Therefore, it is right for us to ask, “Why did God design his creatures as he did?”
For one ready example, let’s consider our five senses: Seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, touching. Though diverse, what do all five of these senses have in common? They are receptors, not producers; they are ways in which human beings receive information which is then processed into knowledge. By God’s design, human beings are born with very little knowledge, yet they have powerful senses designed to abundantly receive knowledge. Why do you think that is?
The biblical answer is that the world which God has made—(out of nothing, by the Word of his power, in the space of six days, and all very good)—is an enormous classroom of his own eternal glory, (Ps. 8:1-2; 19:1-6; I Cor. 8:6). Every molecule is a purposefully crafted signpost to God’s infinite majesty and wisdom. Like a masterful professor, creation tutors the unskilled eye, ear, nose, hand, and tongue in the immeasurable wonders of God’s own unique glory. Yet, there are many who reject the lessons they are offered. Not least because they mistakenly assess themselves as more learned than the Teacher himself. Yet we can readily observe that this can never be called wisdom.
To illustrate, imagine that we were able to take apart a Swiss watch right now and look inside. Within this watch we would see numerous parts, some large, some small, some of precious material, some of common material. Yet, in each of the parts we would see a unified precision as each of the individual parts work together in a profound unity; the motion of each component benefiting the function of the others and enabling the watch to keep time flawlessly.
Now imagine that I told you that this watch which we have just examined was not created by anyone; that there was no intentional design to it and no craftsmen who assembled it. Imagine that I told you that this watch was nothing more than the result of a chaotic, mindless, purposeless, and eternally inconsequential series of random events which, by sheer chance generated each part, united each part, empowered each part, and produced the consistent (and astonishing) effect of keeping time with the earth’s celestial rotation. What would you think?
We see the numerous, uniquely and purposefully crafted parts of a watch in which each component is set in its proper place and accomplishing its proper function in conjunction with the overarching purpose of the whole and we do not think like atheists, we think like theists. We do not see a watch and say, “What a wonderful accident!” No, much to the contrary we see the beautiful, intentional craftsmanship of the watch and we immediately find our minds turning to acknowledge the skill and artisanship of the watchmaker.
We know that where there is design, there is a Designer. Where there is purpose, there is a Purpose-Giver. We know that where there is a unified function of many diverse parts, there is one who uniquely fashioned, organized, and empowered those parts. To suggest otherwise is truly irrational; it is not intellectual or scientific, but embarrassingly neglectful of the obvious facts and of all sound reason. For we see throughout all creation a design far more diverse, complex, and unified than any mere wristwatch. We see plants, animals, insects, seeds, stars, sunlight, gravity, and seasons, all governed according to a beautifully repetitious cycle which nurtures and sustains an astoundingly complex array of life.
To suggest that this world has arisen from meaningless chaos is akin to asserting that a puzzle made up of 100,000 unique pieces could be arbitrarily thrown off of a cliff and somehow land in perfect order, all connected one to another upon the ground. (To make this point even more clear, this illustration actually falls dreadfully short because the 100,000 piece puzzle would first have to create itself, the cliff, air, gravity, and the ground—all out of nothing—before it could proceed with the experiment).
Far from the claim of being wise, logical, and based solely on the facts, atheism remains to be precisely what the Holy Spirit declared in Psalm 14:1, foolish. It is “the fool,” who “says in his heart, ‘There is no God.'”
The world which God has made and the way in which God has made us, mankind, have been purposefully crafted to set us in the theater of God’s glory as perpetual students. Through the instruction of all creation we are to continue growing to know God, love God, enjoy God, and serve God more and more unto all eternity, (Jn. 17:3; Eph. 2:7). This is why it is right that Jesus calls every person who turns away from their sin and places their trust in him for salvation to “follow” him as “disciples”, (Matt. 28:19). For the very word “disciple” means “learner” or “student”, and this is what God intentionally created us to do from the very beginning, (Eph. 1:17).
“God hath so settled himself in the reason of man, that he must vilify the noblest faculty God hath given him, and put off nature itself, before he can blot out the notion of a God.”