Bavinck’s Wonderful Works, Ch. 1 — “Man’s Highest Good"

We feel a persistent pull toward something beyond ourselves, an insatiable itch that the material world cannot scratch. We chase comfort, status, and experience, yet the satisfaction we seek remains just out of reach. This tension is the starting point for Herman Bavinck as he begins The Wonderful Works of God. He sets before us a foundational truth: God, and God alone, is man’s highest good (our summum bonum). While God is the source of being and life for every creature, only humanity has the capacity to recognize, enjoy, and find rest in Him.

The Image of God and the Yearning for Eternity

To understand why we are so restless, we must first look at how we differ from the rest of creation. Inanimate objects simply exist. Plants possess life but lack awareness. Animals enjoy a sensuous awareness of the physical world, recognizing what is useful or pleasant, but they cannot rise to the spiritual order. They do not ponder the true, the good, or the beautiful.

Human beings are different. We are created in the imago Dei—the image and likeness of God. Although sin has defaced this image, stripping us of our original knowledge, righteousness, and holiness, it did not destroy our underlying humanity. Small remains of our original endowment persist as vestiges of our creation. These remains leave us without excuse before God, but they also serve as persistent reminders of our heavenly calling. They prevent us from ever being fully satisfied with what the earth offers.

Even as we live in a physical order, we raise our eyes to a supernatural one. We possess reason and a will, both rooted in the heart—the spiritual and moral center of our personality. According to Proverbs 4:23, the heart is the spring from which the issues of life flow. In Ecclesiastes 3:11, we learn that God has set the world, or eternity, in the human heart. This desiderium aeternitatis, hardwired yearning for an eternal order, means that history and nature are not just random events to us; they are theaters of divine counsel. Because we are built for eternity, the temporal cannot satisfy us. Gaining the whole world at the cost of the soul is a tragic, bankrupt trade. The redemption of a human soul is too costly for any earthly treasure to buy.

The Limits of the Ideal: Science, Art, and Culture

Many readily admit that material riches fail to satisfy, yet they turn instead to higher, ideal values: science, art, and culture. They treat these pursuits as if they could serve as our ultimate home. But these, too, belong to a passing world.

Science and philosophy are good gifts from the Father of lights. Scripture highly honors wisdom, reminding us that God established the world by it and that in Christ are hidden all the treasures of knowledge. The Bible is no friend to anti-intellectualism. However, true knowledge must begin with the fear of the Lord. When science cuts itself loose from this foundation, it degenerates into a worldly wisdom that is foolishness to God.

An independent science or philosophy fails to satisfy the human heart for three reasons:

• It is exclusive: High academic study is the domain of a select few. Even the most brilliant minds can master only a tiny sliver of knowledge, leaving the rest untouched. It cannot meet a universal human need.
• It leads to disillusionment: Every intellectual renaissance begins with the high hope of solving the riddle of the universe. Yet, as investigation deepens, problems multiply rather than diminish. The end of all raw human knowledge is the sober confession that we walk in a world of mysteries.
• It lacks a moral engine: Knowledge without love or virtue simply equips a depraved heart to execute more sophisticated evil. As the Apostle Paul warns, to understand all mysteries and have all knowledge without love is to be absolutely nothing.

Art is a divine gift, too. The Holy Spirit equips craftsmen and artists with skill, and art helps disclose the beauty of God’s name scattered across creation. Art constructs an ideal world where the discords of our fallen existence are resolved into harmony, offering comfort and hope to the weary. Yet art operates only in the imagination. It cannot bridge the chasm between the ideal and the real. It shows us the glory of Canaan from a distance but cannot usher us across the Jordan. It cannot pay the debt of sin, cleanse our moral pollution, or dry our tears when real tragedy strikes. To make art a religion is to ask it to perform a salvation it was never designed to deliver.

Culture, civilization, and humanitarian progress also fail as the highest good. We can be genuinely thankful for historical progress in how we care for the weak, the sick, and the poor. Yet this progress is continually shadowed by the gruesome vices, greed, and brokenness of our age. More fundamentally, love for our neighbor is not a self-sustaining human instinct. Humans are not naturally so easy to love. True, self-sacrificing neighbor-love requires immense willpower against our own self-interest. It can only survive when it is anchored in the law of God and fueled by the grace that He supplies.

The Restless Heart and the Restored Image

Augustine famously observed that our hearts were created for God, and they remain restless until they find rest in Him. We are all searching for
God, but we look in the wrong places. We look down on the earth for what can only be found in heaven. We pursue Him in wealth, status, or momentary
pleasure, yet He dwells with those who are humble and contrite in spirit. We run from Him, yet we cannot live without Him.

Blaise Pascal described this state as the paradox of human greatness and misery. We long for truth, yet we are prone to falsehood. We yearn for
rest, yet we throw ourselves into one distraction after another. We are like a hungry man who dreams he is eating, only to wake up empty and faint.

No human science or philosophy can resolve this contradiction. They either puff us up by focusing solely on our potential, or drive us to despair
by focusing solely on our brokenness. They do not know our divine origin, nor do they understand the depth of our fall. Only the Scriptures hold
these two realities together. By revealing both our creation in the image of God and our ruin in sin, the Word of God makes sense of our divided
hearts.

For the Christian, this diagnosis changes how we look at our daily struggles. The persistent sense of dissatisfaction we feel in this life is not
an indication that something is wrong with our circumstances, but a reminder of what we were made for. It frees us from demanding that our
relationships, our work, or our achievements give us a peace they were never meant to provide. Instead of trying to satisfy our souls with the
temporary goods of this world, we are invited to bring our restlessness directly to the Father, who has reconciled us to Himself through Christ.