This Chapter is composed of 15 sections, so I am going to break it into two or three sections. This morning I will read sections 1-5, as these form a unity in which Calvin discusses our knowledge of God coming from his creation.
Section 1: The Clarity of God's Self-disclosure Strips us of Every Excuse.
Here Calvin argues that God not only reveals himself through the implanted seed of religion, but also "daily discloses himself in the whole workmanship of the universe. As a consequence, men cannot open their eyes without being compelled to see him."
Section 2: The Divine Wisdom Displayed for All to See.
Not only are we able to know God through his creation, but we can see his divine wisdom as well. Calvin uses the stars as an example, and also the human body, saying that their organization and structure reveal clearly the wisdom of their creator: "Even the common folk and the most untutored, who have been taught only the by the aid of eyes, cannot be unaware of the excellence of divine art, for it reveals itself in this innumerable and yet distinct and well-ordered variety of the heavenly host." "Likewise, in regard to the structure of the human body one must have the greatest keenness in order to weigh, with Galen's [an ancient Greek physician] skill, its articulation, symmetry, beauty, and use. But yet, as all acknowledge, the human body shows itself to be a composition so ingenious that its Artificer is rightly judged a wonder-worker.
In this section, Calvin suggests that while even unlearned people can see these things, those who study have even less excuse, for one cannot learn more about the heavens or the human body and still be blind to God's wisdom: "Indeed, men who have either quaffed or even tasted the liberal arts penetrate with their aid far more deeply into the secrets of the divine wisdom."
Section 3: Man as the Loftiest Proof of Divine Wisdom.
Man is a microcosm of the universe, "because he is a rare example of God's power, goodness, and wisdom, and contains within himself enough miracles to occupy our minds, if only we are not irked at paying attention to them." If there is no reason to look further than ourselves to see God's glorious attributes, it is sheer laziness that men do not see God in this way. "Indeed ... infants, while they nurse at their mother's breasts, have tongues so eloquent to preach his glory that there is no need at all of other orators." It is only pride that causes men to blind themselves to this revelation.
Section 4: But Man Turns Ungratefully Against God.
Here is a section which seems timely even now. Calvin speaks about those people who see these wonders, and yet do not attribute them to God but to nature itself. "How detestable, I ask you, is this madness: that man, finding God in his body and soul a hundred times, on this very pretense of excellence denies that there is a God? They will not say it is by chance that they are distinct from brute creatures. Yet they set God aside, the while using 'nature,' which for them is the artificer of all things, as a cloak." In this they "shamelessly wage war on God."
Section 5: The Confusion of Creature with Creator.
Calvin now turns his attention to those who argue that the soul is only concerned with the body--they body and the soul are an organic unity and so the soul cannot exist without the body. Calvin points to the works of the soul in knowledge and understanding which far surpass mere organism to show that this is absurd: "Why is it that the soul not only vaguely roves about but conceives many useful things, ponders concerning many, even divines the future--all while man sleeps? What ought we to say here except that the signs of immortality which have been implanted in man cannot be effaced?"
Calvin continues to make his point in a series of rhetorical questions, showing, I think, both his intelligence and his craft in writing: "Shall we, indeed, distinguish between right and wrong by that judgment which has been imparted to us, yet will there be no judge in heaven? Will there remain for us even in sleep some remnant of intelligence, yet will no God keep watch in governing the world? Shall we think ourselves the inventors of so many arts and useful things that God may be defrauded of his praise even though experience sufficiently teaches that what we have bas been unequally distributed among us from another source?" In their view, the universe is its own creator--they confuse God and his creation.
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Reflection: While in the midst of Calvin's argument it is hard to consider the whole, here there is enough to reflect well on. Currently I am working on a speech about our Christian involvement with culture. I am using the concept of worldview to suggest a way in which we, as Christians, can interact with the culture around us and see how we can live in its midst in a God-glorifying way.
Reading this from Calvin concerning how there are those people who blind themselves to God's wisdom in creation suggests to me the great importance of the issue of worldview. Those who know God, who have their eyes opened by the work of his Spirit for the sake of his Son Christ Jesus see the world properly--not as its own creation, but as the work of a wise and powerful God. Those who do not have their eyes so opened cannot see this, but are still without excuse since it was in the fall into sin that we lost this sight along with our excellent abilities to do God's will. Thus Christians are fundamentally different than others--where is any common ground on which we stand?
I used to think that Christians, when doing apologetics, could find some common area of understanding, some common thinking, and then build from there a case for God. I have since grown to understand that this cannot be. There is no common ground for there is no common understanding. Even when a Christian and a non-Christian look at the same facts, they see them differently, for the fundamental religious allegiance is totally different. For who cannot look at a newborn infant and not see the wonders and wisdom of God? Only those who do not want to see God in the first place.
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