In Praise of God, Pt. 2
Romans 11:36
August 2, 2020
In an article entitled, “How Big is God?” David Coppedge, a scientist with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory writes that a manned flight to Pluto going at the maximum speed of Apollo astronauts, would take 17 years before it could park in a hangar at the Pluto Interplanetary Airport. And as far away as Pluto is, consider this — if the distance between the sun and Pluto (17 years away from us) were represented by a one-foot ruler, the distance to the nearest star to us would be over a mile away (more than 5000x as far)!
…[Further] if [our] galaxy were represented as the size of North America, our entire solar system would fit in a coffee cup somewhere in Idaho.
Astronomers estimate that there are as many galaxies outside the Milky Way as there are stars in it. The Hubble Ultra Deep Field, taken in 2004, imaged 10,000 galaxies in a cone of space so slim you could cover it with a grain of sand held at arm’s length. Integrated over the entire sky, that would mean there are more than 100 billion galaxies in the visible universe, many with more than 100 billion stars each.
And, as Coppedge notes, “God gives names to all of them” (Ps. 147:4). The vastness of God is incomprehensible. A reasonable question, then, is “How do you ‘synthesize’ God?” How do you summarize the infinite? How do you condense the nature and actions of God into a book, or chapter, or paragraph? Paul actually finds a way to speak about the nature of God in a concise sentence: “From Him and through Him and to Him are all things.” Those three statements provide a framework for understanding God.
As Paul concludes his explanation of all the doctrinal truths he has explained in Rom. 1-11, he explodes in a benediction of praise in Romans 11:33-36 that we summarized this way:
Let the revelation of God’s salvation lead you to praise God.
Last week we noted that verses 33-36 are likely a hymn that Paul wrote in four parts — an exclamation, a question, an affirmation, and an ascription. This morning we look more carefully at the last two parts of that song, considering the character of God that makes Him glorious and praiseworthy:
- Because God is God… (v. 36a)
- God is the source of all things
- God is the sustainer of all things
- God is the goal of all things
- …Give Him Glory (v. 36b)
- What is God’s glory?
- What does it mean to glorify God?
- Why should we glorify God?
Download the rest of this sermon on Romans 11:36.
The audio will be posted on the GBC website by tomorrow.
Words of Grace 