Ptolemy dominated the scientific world up to the sixteenth century. He insisted that the earth was the center of the universe and all the planets and stars rotated around us. We, on earth, were the center of the universe. It was all about us! But then a rebel named Copernicus came along and showed that the movements in the skies do not support his ideas. Rather, the truth is, that it was the sun that all the planets revolved around. The sun, not the earth, was the center of the universe. If you look up “the Copernican Revolution” in Google, you’ll find hundreds of thousands of articles about it. Many people still subscribe to the Ptolemaic theory of the universe; everything revolves around them. The world needs another Copernican revolution where we all learn and live out the truth that it’s not really about us, but rather it’s about God! We’re not the center of the universe, God is!

In Genesis 11:1-4, we read about the descendants of Noah living on the plains of Shinar and deciding together to build their lives around themselves. They say “let us make…” or “let us build…” and “let us make a name for ourselves.” The construction of the tower of Babel proceeded out of a self-centered focus of making life all about “us.” God told Noah and his descendants to “be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.” But nooooooooo! We’d much rather make our own little hovel where we can simply sit back and relax and feel good about ourselves! They weren’t interested in doing what God had instructed. Instead, they said, “Let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth.” But that was exactly what God wanted! He had a plan and purpose for his people, but they choose a different path.

Please notice that when God called Abram to leave his family and move on to a promised land he said to him, “I will make you a great nation! I will bless you and make your name great. And you will be a blessing to others.” The call of Abram was the Copernican revolution! It’s the call to leave the geocentric world view where everything is all about me, to a heliocentric world view where everything revolves around God. With nearly 42,000 religions in the world, each with their own instructions on building a tower of babel, there is still only one Son! There is still only one righteous and just and still only one “name under heaven given by which we may be saved!” It’s not our works, it’s not our righteousness, it’s not our religion, it’s not our efforts of any kind. It’s not a religion at all. It’s a person who saves us! He exchanges our sinful rags for his glorious robes of righteousness. It is by grace we are saved through faith in the Son of God: Jesus Christ. Paul summed up His centrality for us in Romans 11:36. He writes, “For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.”