Natural laws point us to God.
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| Joshua Earle |
WHEN GOD CONFRONTED Job, he used rhetorical questions to reveal his omnipotence. He spoke of the sea, of rain in the desert, and of mysteries beyond the grave. Toward the end of the chapter 38, God also asks Job about the stars and the sky, saying:
Do you know the ordinances of the heavens?
Can you establish their rule on the earth?
Job 38:33
In using the word ordinance, God reminds Job that the universe doesn't spin by accident. The galaxy rotates on purpose at the command of the creator. In fact ordinance, as defined by Merriam Webster, means, "a law set forth by a governmental authority."1
This is an important distinction, because laws—whether natural or not—point to a lawgiver. Consider what physicist Isaac Newton had to say about natural laws:
"I have explained the phenomena of the heavens and of our sea by the force of gravity, but I have not yet assigned a cause to gravity."2
Science helps us see cause and effect, but ultimately we will arrive at a phenomenon which we cannot explain. Contrast Newton's statement with that of another physicist, Stephen Hawking, who wrote (in conjunction with co-author Leonard Mlodinow) that "Because there is a law such as gravity, the universe can and will create itself from nothing."3
How could a brilliant man like Hawking craft such an obtuse argument? Here he invokes the law of gravity as the reason the universe exists, but doesn't ponder how the law of gravity came to exist. This is like saying a tree creates itself from a seed without stopping to ask where the seed came from!
(We don't do this with anything else, by the way. Imagine finding a copy of the US Constitution and assuming the United States created itself from nothing. Or imagine seeing a stop sign and thinking that roads and cars built themselves.)
Gravity didn't invent itself; a higher authority exists. Hawking himself used the word "law." The introduction of a law requires a lawgiver. Such is the problem with any claim that the universe came to exist ex nihilo—out of nothing. Theists and atheists can agree on one point: the universe had a beginning. But the problem for the atheist is explaining the cause of the birth of the universe, because everything that has a beginning must have a cause. Who or what is responsible for the beginning of the universe? If you say "gravity" then you must ask, who or what established gravity?
To reinforce this point, consider God's response to Moses when Moses asked him his name. Remember what God said? "Tell them I AM sent you" (Exo. 3:14).
In English, this passage loses some of its force. Biblical Hebrew verb tenses relied on context rather than referencing specific time frames. So the verb I AM here also means I was and I will be. He is Yahweh: an ever present, always extant being. Unlike the universe, he has no beginning. He is uncaused. We can point to a beginning of our lives, the origins of our parents' lives, and even the genesis of the earth—however controversial its age may be. But God has no cause. No one created him. He is eternal, the great I AM.
With this in mind, you can understand the intense reaction of the Pharisees to Jesus's claim he predated Abraham. In response to the Lord's teaching on slavery to sin, the Pharisees invoked their Abrahamic heritage as evidence they were a free people. Jesus said they belonged to the devil because they did not listen to the truth. Abraham, Jesus said, looked forward to the Christ's coming because he would bring victory over death. Incredulous, the "Jews said to him, 'You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?'" (John 8:57). Remember what Jesus said? "Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am." (8:58)! Jesus equated himself with God, and the Pharisees weren't having any of it. They picked up stones with the intention of killing him. But Jesus, as the second person of the Trinity, has indeed always existed. No one can point to any being or phenomenon that brought about God.
And this is God's message to Job. Unlike gravity, a natural law that has a cause, God is uncaused and eternal. Such a reality demands a response from humanity. Rather than taking for granted the miracle of gravity and the delicate balance of the solar system, we should response with awe and praise. But even beyond that, the very nature of God invites us to believe—not simply an intellectual assent but rather a transformational faith in the creator and sustainer of life.
Belief in God is both rational and relational. He has given us enough evidence for faith to be reasonable, but in those gaps where we don't (or can't) understand everything, we must place our trust in God and submit to his authority. Unfortunately, pride often gets in the way of this type of faith to the point that, rather than acknowledge a higher power, we would rather believe that the universe created itself.
Why is this our inclination? Because we want to be our own authorities. If the universe is one cosmic accident, we have no responsibility and no accountability. We can live our lives however we want, decency be damned! We can eat that apple, because God didn't really say we would die. Did he? God would never do such a thing. On second thought, is God even real?
Meanwhile, acknowledging God as the designer of natural laws requires that we submit to a higher power, and who wants to submit? But in an odd twist, it is through submission that we gain freedom. By humbling ourselves and bowing to Jesus, he will lift us up. While Satan would love to bind you to the earth and keep you enslaved to sin, Jesus offers heaven to those who believe in him.
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Notes:
1. “Ordinance,” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, accessed October 9, 2025, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ordinance.
2. Paraphrased from Isaac Newton, Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica, 2nd ed. (1713), General Scholium, trans. Andrew Motte, rev. Florian Cajori (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1934); wording as quoted in “Isaac Newton — Cause,” Today in Science History, accessed October 9, 2025, https://todayinsci.com/N/Newton_Isaac/NewtonIsaac-Cause-Quotations.htm.
3. Stephen Hawking and Leonard Mlodinow, The Grand Design (New York: Bantam Books, 2010), 180.
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