"The Uncaused Cause"

"The Uncaused Cause"  

  

    God exists as the only uncaused reality - "From everlasting to everlasting, Thou art God" (Psalm 90:2).  All other things exist and consist either as the direct creations of the Lord, or as the indirect result of the things, forces, and laws He made.

    Human beings do not create.  We rather serve as stewards of that which the Lord hath made despite the bluster of some who think quite highly of humanity and its capacities.  We make things by using other things, many of which exist only through God's creative fiat.  The proud fail to see this, as in the case of the young scientist who blithely confronted the Lord.

   "God, we don't need you any more!" boasted the scientist.  "Science has brought us to the place where we can harness the powers of nature, transplant organs, and even clone human beings.  Why, I can even create a man from dust, just like that Book of Yours mentions."  The Lord responded, "Is that so?  Why don't we have a contest then.  Let's see who can make a human being, and I'll let you go first."  The scientist laughed and quickly said, "You're on, God.  Watch and weep."  The man then knelt down to scoop up a handful of dirt.  "Whoa, young man!'  The man looked up, and in a tone of exasperation exclaimed, "What's the problem, God?"  The Lord looked at the man, paused for a moment, and then quietly but in no uncertain terms declared, "Young man, get your own dirt!"

    We use that which God made, even if we refuse to believe He exists.  We do not create, but rather implement the Divinely formed law of causality, namely, that all things and events have a cause.  The baker does not create cakes, but rather uses already existing components to combine and reconstitute flour, eggs, butter, sugar, and appropriate additions into a different form and structure.  The cake, delicious as it is and perhaps beautifully decorated, exists as a caused reality.  It came from something rather than nothing.  God, conversely, came from nowhere and from nothing.  He didn't come at all.  He simply was, is, and always will be.  "I AM" He declared His name to be, or "I AM THAT I AM" (Exodus 3:14).  Children wonder about such things, and ask the question, "Where did God come from?".  We need to wonder also, but not to ask questions.  No, we rather fall to our faces in worship of One beyond understanding, imagination, and awareness.  "Who is like unto Thee, O LORD, among the gods?  Who is like Thee, glorious in holiness?" (Exodus 15:11).

    In Christ, God draws the believing heart so near that He indwells it.  Never, however, do we fail to remember the infinite otherness of God, as it were.  He exists as the uncaused Cause of all things, the first Mover, and the Word that merely required utterance to create all things (John 1:-3).  He works to conform Christians to His own spiritual and moral likeness, and one day "we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is" (I John 3:2).  We shall not be like Him in the eternal infinity of His being, however.  No one is, and no one can be.  We reserve forevermore in our hearts the wonder of One who had no beginning, and will have no end.  We kneel in complete and utter awe, fear, and reverence.  Or, as the poet expressed so beautifully, "Shoreless Ocean, who can sound Thee?  Thine own eternity is round Thee, Majesty divine!"

"Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen."

(I Timothy 1:17)

"Thou art from everlasting!"

(Psalm 93:2)

Weekly Memory Verse

    Even a fool, when he holdeth his peace, is counted wise: and he that shutteth his lips is esteemed a man of understanding.

(Proverbs 17:28)