Today we are continuing in our apologetics series on: “What do you believe?” We have been looking at the world and universe from a logical or philosophical perspective and about the evidence for the existence of a Creator God. We will be looking at two passages of Scriptures. One in Isaiah and the other in the Psalms. Let’s start by turning to Isaiah 44:24:
This is what the Lord says, He who is your Redeemer, and the One who formed you from the womb: “I, the Lord, am the Maker of all things, Stretching out the heavens by Myself, And spreading out the earth alone.
We have been talking about how the universe and life began which answered the question of our origin. Where did we come from? We not only talked about where we came from but why we even exist in the first place. What is our purpose for being on this earth?
Last week we talked about how finely tuned the universe and the earth is, making it possible to sustain complex life. When we talk about the universe being finely tuned, we mean that out of the 100 trillion possible outcomes for the beginning of the universe which are for the most part life-prohibitive, somehow our universe is able to sustain life as we know it. It’s like the Apollo 13 flight where so many things went wrong (including the O2 tanks exploding in their space module) and their lives were hanging by a thread. After aborting the mission and they were on the way back to earth, with a failed computer and navigation system, the astronauts had to reenter the earth’s atmosphere through such a narrow corridor that it could be compared to the width of a piece of paper. People around the globe were watching and praying for the astronauts’ safe return and it was a miracle they made it back alive.
This is just an example of a situation where it was necessary for every condition to be so exact for the astronauts’ survival. Even more so, the conditions necessary for life to exist as we know it is so narrow that the fact that we are here today is mind boggling. As Richard Dawkins put it, “however many ways there may be of being alive, it is certain that there are vastly more ways of being dead.”
In an interview with a physicist by the name of Leonard Susskin, he described our universe as so complex that we live on a knife's edge so if you would change the laws of physics in the slightest the world as we know it would not exist. Susskin asked the question: How is it even possible that we live on a planet that has the right temperature that liquid water can exist? What about the necessary preciseness of the gravitational pull, the precise distance of the earth to the sun, so that we don’t either burn up or freeze to death? When we speak about the fine tuning of the universe - there has to be a logical explanation for why it is this way. The question is: Why, given the infinite possibilities, does the universe take the exact shape that allows us to exist?
There could be three possibilities:
? Physical necessity
? Chance or
? Divine design
Is it by physical necessity? Sir Martin Reese, a cosmologist, said there is no natural explanation for the universe to exist in this form. In other words, there is no physical necessity for the universe to be the way it is. We could easily imagine a universe governed by other constants that would make life impossible.
Is it by chance? What is the likelihood of a universe supportive of life coming into existence by coincidence? Roger Penrose calculates the probability as 1x10 to the 10th to the 123 power. This number tells us that the “accidental" or "coincidental" creation of our universe is an impossibility.
This leads us to the last option, if this universe is not here by necessity, if it does not exist by chance, then there must have been a creative mind behind the design. As Nobel Laureate Arno Penzias, co-discoverer of the radiation afterglow, put it this way:
Astronomy leads us to a unique event, a universe which was created out of nothing and delicately balanced to provide exactly the conditions required to support life. In the absence of an absurdly-improbable accident, the observations of modern science seem to suggest an underlying, one might say, supernatural plan.
Science is showing us, like at no other time in history, that this is a universe of incredible design and complexity. According to the Christian worldview, God is the ultimate reason we are alive on planet earth. Isaiah 44 tells us that God is the Maker of all things - He is the One who stretched out the heavens and spread out the earth Himself. Psalm 19 tells us that the heavens proclaim the glory of God and the expanse of heaven is declaring the work of His hands, His craftmanship. Day after day and night after night they speak and make Him known. Yet they speak without a sound or word, their voice isn’t heard yet their message in quiet evidence has gone out through all the earth, their words to all the world (1-4).
Today many scientists believe the heavens have no limits because they will infinitely expand. This points to God and His greatness - He has no limits. God is the unlimited limiter—the uncreated Creator—of all things. God who is the maker of all things who alone stretches out the heavens and laid the foundations of the world. He’s the self-existing, infinite Being who created this vast and beautiful universe out of nothing and who holds it all together by the word of His power. His is the controlling, cohesive force of the universe (Col 1:17 AMP).
Last week Rob highlighted God’s amazing intricate creation, just the variety of birds alone that exist speaks of God’s incredible creativity as the Designer. Now whether you believe in a literal translation of Genesis 1 & 2 or that it is a more figurative description of the beginning we have some clear principles that God is teaching us about creation of the universe, the earth, and especially the pinnacle of God’s creation which is you and me. God is intimately involved in His creation, and intricately created life, the laws of nature, and all the processes that are involved in the earth. So…
1. We know that the universe was designed for life and
2. We as human beings are designed for life
When we better understand who God is, how and why the universe was designed, then we will better understand ourselves, where we came from, our destination, and how and why we were designed. If we know who He is, we will know who we are and our purpose in the story of creation and redemption.
In Genesis 1:26-28, 9:5-6, and James 3:9, we see that male and female were created in the image of God. We were made to reflect God spiritually, morally, and socially. Today's culture thrives on gender uncertainty or fluidity and so people are struggling with their image. This gender dysphoria is a real problem, and we should be compassionate with those who struggle with identity issues. Yet the only way we can think rightly about ourselves, about what it means to be human is when we think rightly about God according to His Word. I don’t have to be unsure about who I am, I am not the one who has to create my own identity or image because God is the one who created my identity.
David recognized this and wrote in Psalm 139:13-17:
For You created my innermost parts; You wove me in my mother’s womb. I will give thanks to You, because I am awesomely and wonderfully made. Wonderful are Your works, and my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from You when I was made in secret, And skillfully formed in the depths of the earth. Your eyes have seen my formless substance; And in Your book were written all the days that were ordained for me, when as yet there was not one of them. How precious also are Your thoughts for me, God! How vast is the sum of them!
God, You formed my innermost being. V. 13 reveals that from the moment of conception the Lord was actively involved in fashioning our lives (cf. Isa 44:24). God wove us together in the womb. We aren’t, therefore, a product of randomness but of God's all-powerful handiwork and plan. We do not create ourselves; it is God who crafted each person in his or her mother's womb to be a distinct individual. We owe our existence to Him and not to happenstance. You knit me together in my mother’s womb (cf. Job 40:22). The word knit gives the image of embroidery - it is a poetic picture of the intricate artistry entailed in crafting the psalmist’s life. Our bodies are literally knit together in a marvelous way with bones, sinews, and veins. This verse suggests the mysterious way this process of growth happens inside the mother’s womb.
The Psalmist’s understanding of the human body is perfectly consistent with what we now know from modern medical research. With the discovery of DNA Francis Collins said,
We have caught the first glimpse of our own instruction book, previously known only to God.
We are awesomely and wonderfully made. Wonderfully made means that God made you like a master architect,
to be unique, wonderful, and miraculous…The Lord’s powerful work in your life extends beyond its beginning to include your whole development because when you were conceived the Lord could envision your frame, your total physical being.
You were made on purpose, for a purpose, and your existence is an extraordinary gift.
Secular humanism views people as no more valuable than other living animal. In fact, some secular ethicists such as Peter Singer claim that some intelligent animals, like pigs and crows, may have more value than disabled humans. But God created us as human beings in His image as the crown of creation (Gen 1:26-27). He gave us authority, responsibility, and stewardship as His image-bearers (v. 28-30).
Do we see ourselves as image-bearers? We are like God in many ways: we think, reason, love and are creative. For example, most scientists spend their lifetime studying and learning from the wisdom displayed everywhere in creation. In a paper published by biologist, Jerry Bergman, he writes about Swiss engineer, George de Miestral, who got the idea for Velcro from observing the burrs that stuck to his dog’s fur. Using a microscope, he discovered the little hooks on the burrs that attached to the dog’s fur and invented Velcro. He talks about “lessons from nature” that have inspired an academic discipline called bioinspiration, meaning gaining inspiration from the natural world, or biomimetics, mimicking the natural world, often shortened to bionics. In short, bionics is the study of God’s design in order to solve scientific and engineering problems. We have used the designs found in nature that God created as the source of many of our achievements and should give Him the credit.
Not every human being is destined to be a scientist or someone who will revolutionize society but since everyone is made in the image of God, everyone is equally precious to God. We do not determine the value of a human , God does. Your life and my life are worth living. All human lives are equally valuable and worth protecting. The person sitting next to you or near you is a gift. Every soul brought into existence has a unique ability and possibility to be in relationship with his or her Creator (Isa 44:24).
God loved you into existence, He loved you for Himself, saved you for himself, took you to himself and has given you Himself forever (Mathew Mason, Keswick Convention 2023).
When the Psalmist said, “In Your book were written all the days that were ordained for me, when as yet there was not one of them” (Psalm 139:16), there is a sense in which the person’s shaping in the womb also determines the person’s life. The One who knows everything, knows how each person will turn out and how long the person would live. We do not make the decisions about our days, about when we are born and when we die; God makes those decisions (Job 14:5). The psalmist was so overwhelmed with how much the Lord thought about him, knew about him, and loved him and in vv. 23-24 he prayed that the Lord would search his heart to make sure there was nothing that came between him and the Lord, nothing that would keep him from following Him. He did not want to waste his life.
This is why Moses asked God to teach him to number his days, to be wise with his time, and to live in a way that God created him to live, in a way that would bring God glory (Psalm 90:12). This is the chief end of man: to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. God chooses the day we are born and the day we die but like the psalmist, we decide what we will do with our allotted time.
How are you stewarding your time? Are you getting to know the One who created you? Are you living according to your design and purpose? Is the glory of God being manifested in our lives, in our church? Are we enjoying our Creator? Do we view ourselves as awesomely and wonderfully made by God? Do we view our brothers and sisters that way? What do you think would happen if we expressed the same value to others that God expresses to us?
