May 12

You were hardwired to live for God, so even though you may not be aware of it, every good thing or bad thing you do today has verticality to it.

In the physical realm, you were hardwired to breathe. You do it constantly, even though you are most often unaware of it. You are always inhaling oxygen and exhaling carbon dioxide. You don’t have the option of saying, “I’m tired of breathing, I think I’ll just stop.” You don’t have the option of denying that you are a breather. You were hardwired to breathe. It is an inescapable part of your physicality.

In the same way, you were made for relationship with God. This means that everything you do and say, every choice you make, and every decision that shapes your life is somehow, some way done in reference to God. You may ignore his existence, you may think theologically that there is no God, but you cannot escape that you were crafted in his image and connected to him by means of creation. This means that all your life is spiritual. Religion is not just an aspect of your being; you and I are by nature religious beings. We all come from God, we all exist through God, and all that we do is meant to be done for him.

Now, to help us retain our recognition of the inescapable verticality of our existence—that is, to help us remember his existence and our place as his creatures— God has done something wonderful for us. He purposefully created the physical world in such a way that it points to his existence and his character. God is the environment in which we live. I like to think of it this way: you can’t get up in the morning without bumping into God. The psalmist writes: “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above declares his handiwork. Day after day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge. There is no speech, nor are there words, whose voice is not heard” (Ps. 19:1–3). And Paul says: “For his 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” (Rom. 1:20).

The radical truth of the existence of God isn’t just preached to us on Sunday; it’s preached every day through the beauty of the sunset, the power of the storm, the inexhaustible wings of the hummingbird, the hugeness of the mountain, the whisper of the breeze, the smell of the sizzling steak, the beauty of the petal of a rose, and so on. The power and clarity of creation’s message leaves no human being with an excuse. You have to work to deny God’s existence because it is so readily visible everywhere you look. God did this because he is a God of grace. He did this so that we would run to him and not from him. He did this so that we would recognize our position as his creatures and bow to his glory. He did this so that we would live in recognition of him

For further study and encouragement: Romans 1:18–25

Taken from New Morning Mercies: A Daily Gospel Devotional by Paul Tripp, © 2014, pp. 132-162. Used by permission of Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers, Wheaton, IL 60187, www.crossway.org.