Articles
“Facing the Reality of God”
Imagine arguing with someone who said, “I don’t really believe in gravity. It’s fine with me if you believe in gravity. It’s fine if you want to order your life around your notions of gravity, but what I just can’t stand is people imposing gravity on me.” Initially, we might think they weren’t playing with a full deck—imposing gravity? gravity just is—but we would be compelled to correct them (Prov. 26:4-5). How would we persuade this imaginary person to believe in gravity? We certainly wouldn’t argue from the subjective, that is, arguing why gravity is true for us and therefore may also be true for them. We would more likely focus on establishing the existence of gravity in a more objective, fundamental way. We might ask what they think is holding them to them to the ground.
Let’s hold that thought and return to it later.
In Acts 17, when Paul enters Athens he sees that the city is “full of idols” (16) so he begins to “reason” with the citizens (17) until he catches the attention of the local philosophers (18). They bring him to the Areopagus (19), a prominent outcropping across from the Parthenon that served as a place of public discourse and legal hearings. Two kinds of philosophers were present. The Epicureans attacked superstitious, irrational belief in the gods, expressed in idolatry, while the Stoics stressed the unity of mankind and our kinship with God, together with man’s moral duty. In a masterstroke, Paul manages to agree with aspects of both philosophies while demonstrating their insufficiencies. He expresses the gospel in terms his audience would understand while turning their ideas inside out.
Paul begins his message by referencing their altar to the “unknown god,” using it as a starting point to introduce them to the one true God (22-23). The altar was not a concession to the possibility that there might be one God but rather a display of their ignorance. Notice how Paul unfolds his message. He doesn’t say, “Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. Let me present an alternative way to think about the world…” Rather, he says, “Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription: ‘To the unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you,” and proceeds to tell them about the reality of this God.
He makes three basic claims that have unavoidable consequences.
God is Lord of creation (24-25) — Since God is the Creator of all things, he doesn’t need humans to provide him with room and board in the form of temples and sacrifices. He “does not dwell in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything.” As created beings, it is we who are contingent and dependent upon him, not the other way around. He “gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.”
Humanity is God’s creation (26-27) — Paul underscores his first point by repeating that we are God’s creation and that we are all related through a common ancestor (“one man” = Adam). God exercises his rule by establishing certain limits over humanity throughout history so that we would “seek” him and find him, “yet he is actually not far from each one of us.” He describes humanity’s universal search for the divine while also implying that though God is near he remains out of their reach to those who try to find him on their own terms. God can be known and found relationally only when he reveals himself to us.
God and humanity are related (28-29) — He strengthens his argument by quoting their own poets, emphasizing two ideas: first, all people depend on God for their very existence (“in him we live and move and have our being”), and second, all people share a deep connection with God as his creatures (“for we are indeed his offspring”). Since we originate with God, it is foolish to think that he could ever be represented by idol statues of “gold or silver or stone” that we design in our minds and make with our hands.
Conclusion: call to repent (30-31) — In light of this reality, Paul concludes by urging the Athenians to abandon idolatry and worship this God: “The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.”
Let’s return to our imaginary gravity-denier. Such a person would be clearly out of touch with reality. Naturally, we would worry for such people because sooner or later, they will be forced to learn the reality of gravity the hard way. Sometimes, little boys think they can fly like Superman until gravity brings them down to earth—their parents hoping that the cost of such a lesson isn’t too damaging. Compassion would compel us to say to such people, “One day, you will come face to face with the reality of gravity so you need to recognize it now. If you don’t, you might fall and never recover.”
We need to think this way about God. The next time we speak to others about him, regardless of how it is received, we should never feel like we are imposing our beliefs upon them. Rather, we should think of it in terms of explaining reality, explaining what is. The way Paul preaches in Athens indicates he was not simply sharing his view with them. He was making bold assertions about the way the world is and ended by calling them to change their lives completely. Yet, he managed to do all this with tact and love.
People may not like the consequences of such a reality, namely, that we are answerable to this God in judgment (24:25), but that is beside the point. God is. And though God has allowed people to walk in ignorance in the past (“the times of ignorance God overlooked”), now that Jesus has come, “all people everywhere” (including God-deniers) must turn from falsehoods to reality. There’s urgency here because God has “fixed a day” when there will be no more second chances. Would that we shared Paul’s conviction!
Every time we take a breath or move our bodies, we are reminded that we live and exist only because of the reality of this wonderful, terrifying, patient, just, lovely God. His divine nature can be discerned by the beautiful, ordered world he created (Rom. 1:18-20; Psa. 19:1-6), but his mind and will for us is revealed through the gift of his word (1 Cor. 2:6-13). In that word we meet Jesus, God’s final Word, the definitive revelation of God, the “exact imprint of his nature” (Heb. 1:1-3; cf. Jn. 14:9), “the image of the invisible God” (Col. 1:15). God sent his Son to this earth because he wants to be known and found by us. It is only in Jesus that we can “know” God (Jn. 1:18; 17:3) and find God (14:6; Acts 4:12). God has assured us that judgment will come “by raising him from the dead.” Jesus is now in heaven awaiting his return and awaiting the lost to face the reality of God and turn to him.
