Written into Nature

Date: Sunday, September 20, 2026

Get ready for a theology lesson! Romans is big and powerful, so you might want to prepare your mind by watching this introduction to the Book of Romans from the Bible Project.

Readings: Romans 1 | Psalm 69:19-36

Today we move into a new section of the Bible; a sequence of letters written to the Church by the Apostles, beginning with Paul’s letters. They are organized according to their length, not their date of writing. It begins with Paul’s theological masterpiece to the Church in Rome. Romans is often called the “constitution of the church” by theologians and Bible teachers because it provides a comprehensive summary of Christian doctrine, justification by faith, and the foundational logic God’s plan for all people.

Paul opens his masterwork with a bold claim: the gospel is “the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes (trusts)” (Romans 1:16). But before he unpacks that gospel, he makes an even bolder claim; that God has already been speaking, all along, through creation itself. “Since the creation of the world His invisible attributes…have been clearly seen” (1:20). Creation is where the whole biblical story of revelation begins: general revelation in the skies and seasons, pointing forward to special revelation in the Torah and prophets, culminating finally in the Word made flesh, Jesus. Creation was never meant to be the destination, only the doorway. And yet Paul says humanity keeps stopping at the doorway, “suppressing the truth” and swapping the Creator for the created.

There’s so much I could say about caustic Christians all around us; well intentioned, but spiritually lost: the social activist Christians on the far left, or the moral legalist Christians on the far right, both blind to the magnitude of God’s majesty all around. But I won’t waste your time, or mine.

Instead, let’s focus on Francis Collins, the geneticist who would go on to lead the Human Genome Project. He spent years as a committed atheist, convinced that hard science had no room left for God. Then, on a hike in the Cascade Mountains, he rounded a bend and came upon a frozen waterfall split into three streams that rejoined at the bottom into one, and something in him simply gave way. He later said it wasn’t a proof or an argument that finally undid his resistance; it was beauty he couldn’t explain away. Here was one of the sharpest minds in modern science, fluent in the language of DNA, brought to his knees by a waterfall doing exactly what Paul says creation has always done: quietly, relentlessly testifying to its Maker.

You don’t need a mountain hike to see it. It’s in the ordinary sunrise you almost didn’t notice this morning.

Devotional Prompts:

• Where have you recently encountered something in creation that stirred you to worship God’s majesty?
• Paul says people habitually “suppress the truth.” What modern distractions make it easiest for you to skip past wonder and reverence?
• How is the gospel more than intellectual agreement? What does it look like for the “power of God” to actually change a life, including yours?

Prayer: Creator God, You have never stopped speaking through what You have made. Open my eyes to see what has always been in front of me, and let wonder lead me all the way to worship. Let the gospel be power to change me, not just data to inform me. Amen.