Taking every thought captive for obedience to Christ (2 Corinthians 10.5)

Disciplines
Creational Theology
The theme of creational theology comes up with some regularity in this and other spaces at The Fellowship of Ailbe. Creation is just that, God’s handiwork, and we should therefore expect that it can reveal Him to us in ways to help us know, enjoy, love, and serve Him better.

Creational theology is just the study of creation and culture with a view to discerning God, His wisdom, or His will in the things we encounter every day. The psalmist explains that we won’t take up the discipline of creational theology if we don’t love and delight in the works of God (Ps. 111.2). But we’re not likely to find the works of God pleasing and delightful if we don’t begin to pay more attention to them with a view to hearing or seeing the Lord there.

Creational theology cannot bring lost men to salvation. Those who have turned away from God, being ungrateful to Him, have embraced false deities and false hopes, and no amount of rational appeal to the revelation of God in creation will be able to convert their rebellious hearts (Rom. 1.18-23).

Of what use, then, is this discipline?

First, with respect to the lost: there appears to be some value in pointing out the works of God as a kind of reminder of a distant country they know but have thus far refused to visit (Acts 14.17; 17.19-34; see also Jesus’ many parables). While such appeals have no power to convert, they do seem to be able to strum a resonate chord in the souls of men, as if playing a familiar but neglected tune. The effect of this can be to harden further the hearts of some, who hold down the lid on such rising sentiments, but to soften the hearts of others, who seem to sense the truth of the appeal.

Second, for the believer, creational theology can enhance the knowledge of God and fit us for a closer and more intimate walk with Him, and more effective and consistent witness to Him, as we see in Jesus, Paul, and even Peter.

See, for example, what we can learn about the lovingkindness of God by contemplating the creation, as in Psalm 36.5-7: David’s meditation here seems to have been spurred by contemplating the sky, mountains, and deep sea. The beauty, enormity, interconnectedness, majesty, and mystery of these led him to contemplate the lovingkindness of God, and to draw some remarkable conclusions.

God’s lovingkindness extends throughout the vast cosmos, reaching to and sustaining every part of it and all of it together. He never fails in His upholding and sustaining love for His creation, in maintaining all its wondrous diversity, intricate functioning, strange beauty, startling vibrancy and vitality, frightening power, mystifying complexity, and mysterious greatness.

God loves what He has made, and He is faithful in sustaining it in whole and in part. In this He reveals His righteousness, which is high above us, fearsome and foreboding, yet beautiful and beckoning. We are drawn to it in fear, and we seek to surmount it with joy and anticipation.

In God’s lovingkindness we learn something of His judgments, which, like the sea, we may see and use and derive great benefit from, but which we can never fully fathom.

In the witness of His lovingkindness we also see the hope of salvation. He preserves (“saves”) men and beasts.

His lovingkindness is precious, or should be, for what it says to us about Him and what we can learn from it about our place before Him and among His creatures.

Our calling is to shelter in this lovingkindness, to rest in the shade of God, to be nourished in Him so that we might participate as His offspring in caring for and restoring the world, and thus in magnifying the lovingkindness, faithfulness, righteousness, and salvation of God. All this is ours as His children, adopted by grace through faith in Jesus Christ.

Practicing creational theology can remind us throughout the day how much we are loved by God, how special we are to Him, and how confident we can be in His sustaining and providing grace. And contemplating such matters as we reflect on the world around us, surely we will know more of God’s pleasure and joy in all the circumstances of our lives.

For reflection
1.  Today, jot down aspects of the creation you encounter – a tree or bird, the sky, a beautiful landscape. Just make a list, and as you write each one down, give thanks to God for it.

2.  At various times during the day, pull out your list and review it. Why did you jot this down? What stands out in your mind about this? Does it make you think of any Scripture?

3.  At the end of the day, review your list. Pray through it with thanksgiving, and make a point of praising God for whatever He reveals to you about Himself through your observations of these aspects of creation.

Next steps: Encourage a fellow believer to do this exercise, then share together what you’ve learned about God from the works of creation.

T. M. Moore

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