God Is Beautiful
For many years (a phrase which seems to introduce almost everything I say or write these days), I have thought about and preached on the subject of the beauty of God. I have never heard anyone teach on the subject, but I did through the decades come across two written sermons on the topic, “The Beauty of the Lord” by J. D. Jones and “Are There Shortcuts to the Beauty of Holiness?” (the short answer is “No!”) by A. W. Tozer. More recently, I read a review of a scholarly article about the American preacher Jonathan Edwards (of “sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” fame) that mentioned in passing that the beauty of God was one of the great themes in his preaching. I was thus encouraged that I have not headed off on an unprofitable tangent. In simple terms, beauty is that which attracts, causes a favorable interest, and creates an affinity. Such real, eternal beauty is found in our God. (I will be using this opening paragraph for each of the brief messages in this series. The following material will change daily.)
For the last two weeks, we have been studying the beautiful implications of John 6:44: “No man can come to Me, except the Father Which hath sent Me draw him, and I will raise him up at the last day.” Certainly God provides powerful, logical reasons to attract us to Himself. The more we learn, the more facts we find that lead us to the indisputable truth of God’s existence. Back when I was a boy, I remember being taught in school about the “simple cell.” Perhaps you remember having to color and label the parts of the cell. Even as a youngster, I wondered how anyone could not see the creative work of God at the sub-cellular level, for if even one of a cell’s component parts fails the cell cannot survive (thus disproving the co-option hypotheses). In other words, for a cell to exist even for a moment, it must have all of its parts intact simultaneously, including an information system. We know that DNA is made of proteins and tells RNA, which is also made of proteins, what to do with proteins within the cell. (The actual process is far more intricate than my summary.) DNA without RNA is useless; RNA without DNA is likewise useless; proteins without both DNA and RNA are useless in supporting life (the so-called biological predestination hypotheses has been debunked by one of the scientists who first proposed it). The question is not which came first; no, all of the components of the cell’s information system must be fully in place, operational, and integrated for life to be possible – and, remember, this information system is only one component of a cell. This concept, labeled irreducible complexity by Behe, is logically and scientifically irrefutable. Some evolutionists have “answered” Behe, but their presentations reveal either a misunderstanding of his work, a calculated mis-statement of his work, or some combination of both. We know, of course, that science cannot prove God, for He is an infinite, transcendent spirit. However, genuine science, such as this concept of irreducible complexity, points us unerringly in the direction of God. Psalm 139:13 assures us that we are “fearfully and wonderfully made.” Each one of our approximately 37 trillion cells contains several billion non-living molecules. Each one of these irreducibly-complex cells directs us to our Maker.