Romans 9
In the first half of the seventeenth
century there was a mathematician and philosopher by the name of Rene
Descartes. He spent a lot of time thinking about how a person can know reality.
How do we know we exist? His solution to the dilemma, and what is probably his best
known philosophical line, was “I think, therefore I am.” In this little
statement he laid a foundation that put the ultimate authority for determining
truth and reality in the human mind. This inspired a series of scientific
breakthroughs and was instrumental in establishing many of the rules of
science. However, it also had the effect of opening a line of thought which
rejected God, placing human knowledge over Him.
Rejecting God and His wisdom really wasn’t
anything new. People have done that ever since Adam and Eve sinned in the
Garden of Eden. The difference in the wake of Descartes’s philosophy and “Cartesian”
thinking was that human ideas had been given almost divine authority.
Paul asks a series of questions in
Romans 9 that should make those of us who are used to Cartesian thinking a
little uncomfortable. He queries, “But who are you, O man, to answer God back?
Will what is molded say to its molder, ‘Why have you made me like this?’ Has
the potter no right over the clay…?”
We should be clear; God gave us our
intellect and He wants us to use it; to know and understand, to question and
discover. He does not want us, however, to use it as an excuse to not trust in
Him, nor as our god to proclaim a personal form of truth to ourselves.
Our sin has broken that relationship with
our Creator and left our understanding of what it means to be a created being
deeply marred. This is why God intervened in our lives by giving Jesus to be
born and to live as both creature and deity – true Man while being true God.
It is Jesus, the God/Man knows that existence
goes far beyond our ability to think and extends into our essence as an
immortal being. (We all live forever, but we don’t all go to heaven.) He
restores our relationship to our Creator and is our Redeemer through faith. Now
we can say, “I am, for God has made me, and Jesus has saved me.”
Lord, help me know my “being” in relationship
to You as my Savior and God, and let me use my “knowing” to Your glory. Amen.
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