The Theatre of God’s Glory

The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork. PSALM 19:1

Calvin is often imagined as a man who could see nothing but sin. Anyone who reads the early chapters of the Institutes will find a very different writer, one who looked at the world with something like wonder. Again and again he calls the creation a theatre — a dazzling stage on which the glory of God is displayed for all to see (Institutes 1.5.8; 1.14.20). God, he says, has not only planted in our minds the seed of religion, but has so revealed Himself in the whole workmanship of the universe that we cannot open our eyes without being compelled to see Him (Institutes 1.5.1).

The seed of religion

Calvin begins with what he calls a sense of divinity. There is, he says in Institutes 1.3, an awareness of God engraved on every human mind by natural instinct. God has implanted it, so that no one can plead ignorance. Even the most distant peoples have some religion; even those who deny God most loudly are haunted by Him and tremble at the thought of judgement. The seed can be choked, but it cannot be pulled out.

Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them. ROMANS 1:19

This is a remarkable conviction, and a humane one. It means that when a Christian speaks to an unbeliever about God, he is not introducing a foreign idea. He is speaking to something already there. Every person is made for God and knows, somewhere beneath the noise, that he is answerable to Him. Calvin’s sermon God Will Have All Men to Be Saved makes the same point from another angle: we must not forget that God has made us all in His own image and likeness, and that we are the workmanship of His hand.

Every corner lit with glory

From the inner sense of God Calvin turns outward, to the world. And here his prose becomes almost lyrical. The fabric of the heavens and the earth, the order of the stars, the structure of the human body with its countless marvels — all of them are marks of God’s wisdom and goodness. We do not need learning to see it. The most unlettered peasant, looking up at the night sky, cannot but see the handiwork of God, though the astronomer, Calvin says, sees more of it and has more reason to praise.

O LORD, how manifold are thy works! in wisdom hast thou made them all: the earth is full of thy riches. PSALM 104:24

He is especially struck by the human person, whom he calls, with the ancient philosophers, a little world, a mirror of God’s works. There is no need to look outside ourselves, he says; each of us carries within himself a sufficient proof of God’s power and kindness. And in the chapter on creation (Institutes 1.14) he urges believers not to hurry past the world as though it were beneath notice, but to take a pious delight in it, to contemplate God’s works with thanksgiving, and so be moved to trust, pray and praise.

I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well. PSALM 139:14

A factory of idols

Yet the theatre has an audience that will not watch. Here is the tragedy Calvin sets beside the glory. We see God’s works and we do not see God. Instead of rising from the works to their Maker, we worship the works, or worship ourselves, or invent gods in our own image. In one of his most famous observations he says that the human mind is, so to speak, a perpetual factory of idols (Institutes 1.11.8). We manufacture gods as easily as we breathe.

Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things. ROMANS 1:22–23

Calvin meant this about the images and relics of the church of his day, and he was fierce against them. But the principle reaches much further. Every heart has its workshop. We shape a God who approves what we want, who asks nothing hard, who looks rather like ourselves. The glory of creation leaves us without excuse, but it does not by itself save us. That is why, as the last chapter said, we need the spectacles of Scripture, and why Calvin moves from creation to the Word.

Creation for our sake

One more strand of Calvin’s teaching on creation deserves to be heard. He loved to point out, following Genesis, that God prepared the world before He made man, as a father furnishes a house before his children arrive. Everything was ready — light, land, plants, creatures — before Adam opened his eyes. This, Calvin says, shows God’s fatherly care: He meant us to find the world full of good things, and to receive them from His hand.

And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. GENESIS 1:31

It also means that the right use of creation is thankfulness. Later in the Institutes (3.10.2) Calvin rebukes those who would allow themselves nothing but bare necessities. God did not create food only for need, he says, but also for delight; He gave flowers their beauty and scent, and wine to gladden the heart of man. To enjoy these gifts with gratitude is not worldliness. It is to use the world as God meant.

And wine that maketh glad the heart of man, and oil to make his face to shine, and bread which strengtheneth man’s heart. PSALM 104:15

An honest word

Calvin’s picture of creation is rich, but it is not complete. He was a man of the sixteenth century, and his understanding of the natural world was that of his age. He also wrote of the created order within a strongly ordered view of society, in which each rank had its place, and not all of that belongs to the gospel. The modern reader need not share his science or his social assumptions to receive his main point: that the world is God’s, that it speaks of Him, and that we who live in it are without excuse if we do not give Him thanks.

The earth is the LORD’S, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein. PSALM 24:1

Calvin’s invitation is simple. Look up. The theatre is lit. The play is being performed. Do not stare at the stage lights, and do not build your own idols in the aisles. Look to the One whose glory fills the house.

FOR REFLECTION AND ACTION

1. Spend ten minutes this week outdoors, looking deliberately at one part of creation. Let it lead you to praise the One who made it.

2. Consider your own body — breath, sight, the beating of your heart — as Calvin did, a little world. Give thanks for it specifically.

3. Name one idol your heart has been manufacturing: a God made to your own liking. Bring it into the light of Scripture.

4. When you next share a meal or a glass of wine with others, receive it deliberately as a gift for delight, not only for need.

5. Remember that every person you meet today bears God’s image and carries the seed of religion. Let it shape how you speak to them.

A PRAYER

Creator of heaven and earth, the whole world is the theatre of Your glory, and I have walked through it with my eyes half shut.

Open my eyes to see Your wisdom in the stars and Your kindness in my daily bread.

Break down the idols my heart keeps making, and teach me to worship You as You are, not as I would have You be.

Let me enjoy Your gifts with thankfulness, and in every gift see the Giver. Amen.