Acts 17:29
Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man’s device. Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man’s device.
On Mars Hill Paul declared to the ignorant, idol-worshipping Athenians the Unknown God as Maker and Lord of all, and closed by calling all to turn from idols to repent before the coming judgment by the risen Man. Because men are God's offspring, His children made in His image who live and move and have being in Him, He is the infinite Father. His divine nature therefore cannot be like gold or silver or stone shaped by human art, skill and contrivance. Such images have no life or breath and must be moved by human hands, so their worshippers are in every way greater than what they worship, and they cannot in the faintest sense represent the glory of Jehovah whom even the heavens cannot contain. The living God in contrast made heaven and earth and gives life and breath to all, dwelling in no man-made temple and needing nothing from human hands, yet sin has so darkened vision that men cannot read nature rightly to find Him unless He is declared and the Spirit gives power beyond human wisdom to convict and convert.
Setting at Athens
Paul's conclusion on Mars Hill at the Areopagus was spoken before the Athenians, including Epicurean and Stoic philosophers and other great and learned men. He used his intellectual acquirements and oratorical style, fitted for speaking before kings, to meet them with reasoning suited to his audience.
Athens was a proud, self-sufficient people, possessing knowledge, refinement, and art, yet sunken in vice. In ignorance of the true God they had erected altars for the worship of nature to an unknown god. It was to turn them from their gods to the true God whom they did not know that the argument was made.
Leading to this conclusion, the Unknown God whom they ignorantly worshipped had been declared as the God who made the world and all things, Lord of heaven and earth who dwells not in temples made with hands. He was declared as One who is not worshipped as needing anything but who gives life and breath and all things. He was declared as having made all nations of one blood with appointed times and bounds so they would seek and find Him who is not far from any, and in whom we live and move and have being, as their own poets had said.
Their paganism, false philosophy, eloquence, logic, science, and philosophy were met not with a direct attack on their gods and great men, but with tact born of divine love. A direct attack would have irritated the listeners and put the speaker in danger of the fate of Socrates. Instead false philosophy was met with true philosophy, eloquence with eloquence, and logic with logic, by argument suited to proud philosophy.
By this reasoning idolatry was exposed as false, drawing proud, self-sufficient minds away from heathen deities to the true God who was unknown to them. All men everywhere were called to repent because God has appointed a day to judge the world in righteousness by the ordained Man whom He raised from the dead.
Offspring and True Godhead
Because human beings are the offspring of God, He is the infinite Father and they are His children, living and moving and having their being in Him. They were created in His image and given intellect and well-formed bodies. Because they are His offspring and depend on Him for life, the Godhead must not be imagined as gold or silver or stone shaped by human art and device, skill and contrivance and planning. To do so is to treat God as an idol fashioned by people, which the verse rejects.
Graven images and statuary of human devising cannot in the faintest sense represent the glory of Jehovah, the infinite God, and cannot even represent human beings. God is too great to be contained even by the heavens, much less by temples built by human hands, and the true Deity is beyond the limits of false religion. Idols have no life or breath but are controlled by human power, depending on human hands and moving only when the hands of men move them. Those who worship them are therefore in every way superior to that which they worship.
In contrast, the living God is the Creator and Sustainer who made heaven and earth. He dwells not in temples made with hands nor is worshiped as needing anything, but gives life and breath and all things. He is independent of humanity and needs nothing from human hands to add to His power and glory. The verse exposes the inefficiency of depending on human wisdom and the sure failure of human efforts to read nature correctly. Sin has obscured vision, so that man of himself cannot interpret nature without placing it above God and cannot discern in it God or Jesus Christ whom He has sent, showing the need for the true God to be declared.
Preaching and Its Fruit
On Mars Hill Paul confronted heathen idolaters not with human invention but with evidences from God and of heavenly origin, bearing heaven's light that no earthly power could quench. He brought his intellectual acquirements and an oratorical style fitted for speaking before kings, meeting false philosophy with true philosophy, eloquence with eloquence, and logic with logic. In this way he challenged proud philosophy and proclaimed the divine character of the Christian faith.
The argument rebukes idolatry by drawing proud, self-sufficient minds away from heathen deities to the true God who was unknown to them. It sets the majesty of the living God in contrast with idolatrous worship. It teaches the most difficult and humiliating lesson of human inefficiency in depending on human wisdom and the sure failure of human efforts to read nature correctly apart from God.
Some hearers were silenced and astonished, yet few accepted the gospel. The effort failed to bring the success hoped for and produced little fruit. The result disappointed Paul and showed that human wisdom even of learned men is not enough.
Something above the world's wisdom must come into the work. Preaching must receive power from a higher source, with the Spirit sanctifying every intellectual development in order to convict and convert sinners. Faith must stand not in the wisdom of men but in the power of God, received by eating the flesh and drinking the blood of the Son of God as eternal life to the receiver.
Afterward Paul set aside elaborate arguments about natural religion and philosophy. In Corinth he focused his preaching in simpler terms on salvation through Christ. He pointed people simply to Christ.
His labor at Athens was not wholly in vain, for Dionysius, one of the most prominent citizens, and others accepted the gospel message and united themselves fully with the believers. His words remain a treasure of knowledge for the church. They bear witness of unshaken confidence and courage in loneliness and adversity and of victory gained for Christianity in the very heart of paganism.
The contrast between idols made by human hands and the true God who made heaven and earth makes God's works in nature the most effective way to teach those who do not know God to see the difference between their idols and the true God. Lessons drawn directly from nature carry simplicity and purity that give them the highest value not only for the heathen but for children, youth, and students of every kind. They lead the soul away from sin and worldly attraction toward purity, peace, and God.