Romans 1:19-20 — “because what may be known of God is evident among them, for God has shown it to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse.”
There’s the physical realm and the spiritual realm. The physical realm is visible to us, the spiritual realm is invisible to us. God designed our physical realm to teach us how the spiritual realm works (which we cannot see or hear).
About His attributes
- The vastness of our world
It shows His immense power to create all these things, as well as His size. - The beauty
Albeit in a cursed state, this world is still beautiful. And its beauty shows His creativity and design skills. - The wisdom
The fact that all of nature is alive – from the trees to the animals that live in them – along with the fact that the world is so vast and how everything works perfectly together – the sea, the earth, the sky – shows the immense amount of knowledge and wisdom it takes to develop such a system. - The power
The sheer power of God can be felt in weather phenomena like booming thunderstorms, hurricanes, tornadoes, etc.
Day cycles
God designed our world to go from night to day, dark to light on a daily basis. Light symbolizes truth, godly knowledge and wisdom, goodness, joy and holiness. Darkness symbolizes foolishness, uneducatedness, sadness and evil. Day after day, the physical realm is teaching us that our spirit needs to go from darkness to light.
Daily bodily functions to stay alive
In the physical realm, in order to stay alive and healthy, God designed us to need to: eat and drink, wear clothes, clean ourselves and rest. This whole process of taking care of ourselves teaches us the spiritual truths of how to be saved:
- Eating
Bread is food and keeps our physical bodies alive. The Bible says Jesus is the “bread” of life, and that we must eat of Him. This simply means that we must believe in Him to stay spiritually alive (salvation). - Drinking
We must drink water to keep our physical bodies alive. For the spiritual: the Bible tells us that water is a symbol for the Holy Spirit. Once we “eat” the “bread” of Jesus (believe in Him), we “drink” (receive) of the “water” of the Holy Spirit which gives us eternal life. - Clothing ourselves
We must clothe our physical bodies to “hide the shame of our nakedness”. For the spiritual: the Bible tells us that white robes are a symbol of righteousness, and that we can only get those robes from Christ. This teaches us that we need to clothe our spirit man with the imputed righteousness of Christ that we can only get from believing in Christ alone, to hide the shame of our sins. - Clean ourselves
We must clean our physical bodies or else they can feel gross and get infected and fall ill, and sometimes even die. For the spiritual: this teaches us that we need to keep our ourselves clean and pure from the filth (sin) that is in the world – not for salvation, but because it brings true peace and joy, and when we’re filthy with sin, we feel emotionally gross and infected and ill with depression, anxiety, stress, fear, nervousness, panic, worry, anger, hatred, bitterness, etc. Some sins can even kill us. - Rest (sleep)
We need to rest our physical bodies so they don’t burn out and die. This teaches us in the spiritual realm, for salvation, we must rest from our works for salvation, and trust in Christ’s finished work on the cross alone for salvation, and not in any of our own works: Ephesians 2:8-9 — “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.”
The agricultural cycle
The agricultural lifestyle is: planting a dead seed, giving it light and watering it, the seed sprouting and up growing into a big tree, the tree producing useful fruit and providing comfort and shelter to animals, and the ability to be pruned in order for it to grow bushier and produce even more useful fruit. This cycle that repeats itself year after year in the physical realm teaches us about the journey of an unsaved person to a saved believer, who grows up into a perfect man/woman of God and does many good things:
- The dead seed is our spirit – we are born spiritually dead. Someone needs to “plant” us by giving us the “light” (knowledge) of the gospel, and when we understand it and believe it, we become saved and receive “water” (a symbol of the Holy Spirit that comes into us and gives us life – just like watering a seed).
- We then become alive and sprout (a symbol of us becoming spiritually reborn and made alive in the spirit).
- Then as we continue to have light and water poured out on us (the knowledge and wisdom of God taught to us), we soak it up and grow up into a big, beautiful tree, being firmly rooted and grounded in the soil and built up tall and strong, so as not to be tossed about and knocked over by all of the storms (all of this teaches us that our spiritual journey is one of growth, where we need to be taught the ways of God, and as we’re taught we grow and become strong, firmly rooted and grounded and built up on the foundation of Christ and His ways, so we’re not “tossed about and knocked over” by all the storms of life, whether it be false gospel teachings for salvation, or discernment in the ways of the world vs the ways of God).
- Now, once the tree grows up, it starts producing useful fruit for others (this teaches us that a mature and strong believer will produce useful “fruit” for others – the fruit of faith by which others can “eat of” and be saved, the fruit of good works that benefit others, the fruit of love towards others which brings them peace and joy, and the fruit of godly knowledge and wisdom that can teach others the ways of God vs the ways of the world).
- And finally, there’s the ability for the vinedresser to be able to prune the tree so that it grows bushier and produces more and more useful fruit – and pruning can be a painful process, but later yields much benefit (this teaches us that the Vinedresser – our Father – can lovingly “chastise” and correct us, as well as make changes in our lives and circumstances (pruning can sometimes be painful) in order to help us grow and abound in producing more and more fruit that’s useful for others).