So, how do we know there is a God? The light of nature in man [conscience], and the works of God, plainly declares that there is a God; but His Word and Spirit only, do effectually [in a saving manner] reveal Him unto us for our salvation. The Scriptures that teach this rather plainly are Romans 1:18-21; Romans 2:14-16; Psalm 19:1-2; 2 Timothy 3:15; 1 Corinthians 1:21-24; 1 Corinthians 2:9-10; Matthew 11:27.
Again we see two answers given in the response to this question, because there are two different types of knowledge of God. One is natural, one is supernatural and saving in nature.
- The light of nature in man [conscience], and the works of God, plainly declares that there is a God.
- God's Word and Spirit only, do effectually [in a saving manner] reveal Him unto us for salvation.
First, the light of nature [conscience], and the works of God, plainly declares that there is a God. The statement here is that all men that have ever been born have been able to see that God exists in two different ways, the first one that is given here is the conscience.
Conscience simply means with knowledge. The understanding is that when anyone sins they sin with knowledge of God and His law. That is what we see taught in Romans 1:18-21 and Romans 2:14-16. God has implanted in us all this knowledge. The knowledge of God and His law are written on our hearts. We, by nature, know right from wrong.
Why do we see in all of humanity that lying, theft, and murder are wrong? I would propose to you that we are simply seeing what Paul says here, that God's law is written on the hearts of all men. We know right from wrong. We know good from evil, yet we choose to sin and rebel against God anyway. What a devastatingly bad situation we are in. We sin against God with full knowledge that we are doing so. The consequence of this is that we are held accountable before God, we have no excuses before Him. We have sinned and rebelled with knowledge against our creator, the King of the Universe.
We also know that there is a God by seeing the works of God. I love nature and have loved to be in the outdoors quite often. And as we are out in nature we notice quickly the magnificent work of God in His creation. This is the other way that we know God exists. We know God exists by simply seeing the glorious work of creation that exists all around us. We see the vastness of creation and the great attention to minute detail that God has paid attention to throughout the world, and we see that God exists and also learn a lot of things about Him (Romans 1:20).
People today try to explain God away in both of these areas by saying that the human conscience and the Universe evolved, but Scripture and plain reason help us to see that God has shown us that He exists through our conscience and through His work in creation. God and His commands have been made plain to us, this is not good news for humanity.
We now stand guilty and without excuse before the throne of God. God's "invisible attributes, namely, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse." (Romans 1:20) We can see through God's creation that He exists and is ruling over the Universe (Psalm 19:1-2), and we also know that we have rebelled against Him. The point is we stand guilty before God without anything to excuse our guilt. We sinned against God with knowledge, and will be held accountable for this.
God has not left us in this state, He has made a way for us to be placed in a right relationship with Him and that is through His Son Jesus Christ. God sent His Son to earth who lived a perfect life, fulfilling all righteousness, and was placed on a cross dying in our place. He was our substitute. Our sins were placed upon Him. Every sin of everyone who would ever believe was placed upon Him. Every lie, every theft, every lustful thought, every murder, every adultery, every rape, and every other sin that would ever be forgive was placed upon Christ. In turn we are given His righteousness. We are credited with the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ who committed no sin and fulfilled all righteousness while He was on the earth. In response to this message we repent and believe the gospel. We acknowledge that God is correct about our sinfulness and our depravity and we turn to Christ in faith. We submit our lives to Christ and His Lordship.
That is the good news that God has brought to us, but can we know it by looking at nature and from our conscience? The answer is no. That is why we say that, God's Word and Spirit only, do effectually [in a saving manner] reveal Him unto us for salvation.
The only way we can find this message of salvation is through God's Word. In fact, this message of salvation that is written here is simply a summary of what Scripture teaches. Does a person have to read it from the pages of a Bible? No, a proclamation from someone's mouth of the teaching of Scripture is an acceptable means of getting the message of salvation from one person to another. The point is we can't look at a tree and know that Jesus Christ is "the way, the truth, and the life" (John 14:6), and our consciences do not bear witness to this either.
The way that God has made for our salvation can be found through the message of His Word. Paul writes to Timothy and tells Him that it is the Scriptures that are able to make a person wise for salvation (2 Timothy 3:15). The way of salvation is made known to us through the pages of Scriptures. The problem is we as human beings are so marred with sin that we need more than just the Scriptures to accept the message.
If we were not marred by the affects of sin we would be able to see the message of Scripture and be saved, but this is not the case. We stand condemned before God and are def, dumb, and blind. We don't have the ability to find the way on our own. We need help. The result is that though the Scriptures show us the way to a right relationship with God, we are not able to accept that message without the work of the Holy Spirit. That is why we say that God's Word and His Spirit reveal God to us for salvation.
Paul says that the message of the cross is "foolishness to those who are perishing" (1 Corinthians 1:18), that natural man does not "accept the things that come from the Spirit of God" (1 Corinthians 2:14), and that natural man cannot submit to God (Romans 8:7). We understand that no matter how much the message of salvation is presented to us from the Scriptures, we do not have within ourselves the ability to come to Christ on our own. We do not have the ability to trust in Him and Him alone for salvation. We do not have the ability to change our minds about how wicked and evil we are and turn to Christ for salvation.
Both the Word of God and His Spirit only, do savingly reveal God to us for salvation. That is what we find in 1 Corinthians 2:9-10. Our glorious salvation can only be revealed to us through God's Word and as we see here the work of the Holy Spirit.
All of mankind can see that God exists through creation, which surrounds him. Every human being has God's law written on their hearts. Yet, this is not enough. Mankind has rebelled against their natural light. Mankind has rebelled and acted as if God is not there to submit to, but putting on a blindfold and sticking your fingers in your ears does not make the situation change. God is real and has shown us that He exists through His Creation and His law written on our hearts (the conscience).
God has made a way for us to be brought back into right relationship with Him. He has given up His Son as the ransom to be paid for our sin, yet we cannot and will not submit to this way of salvation unless the Holy Spirit first works in us first. The Holy Spirit makes us able to see the truth of God's Word and able to submit to it.
So, how do we know there is a God? The light of nature in man [conscience], and the works of God, plainly declares that there is a God; but His Word and Spirit only, do effectually [in a saving manner] reveal Him unto us for our salvation.
R. Dwain Minor
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