If we are to know God,
God must reveal himself to us. The prophet
Isaiah declared, “Truly, you are a God
who hides himself, O God of Israel, the Savior” (Isa. 45:15). Paul cried
out, “Oh, the depth of the riches and
wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how
inscrutable his ways” (Rom.11:33). Scripture is God's revelation to us. The
psalmist pronounced, “For the word of the
Lord is upright, and all his work is done in faithfulness. He loves
righteousness and justice; the earth is full of the steadfast love of the Lord.
By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and by the breath of his mouth
all their host. He gathers the waters of the sea as a heap; he puts the deeps
in storehouses. Let all the earth fear the Lord; let all the inhabitants of the
world stand in awe of him! For he spoke, and it came to be; he commanded, and
it stood firm” (Ps. 33:4-9).
To learn about God and his works, we must turn to
the Scriptures.
Paul in writing to Timothy said, “All Scripture is breathed out by God and
profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in
righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for
every good work" (2
Tim. 3:16-17). Scripture must be placed side-by-side with the general
revelation.
Special
revelation, unlike general revelation, finds its manifestation in the Bible and
in the Person of Jesus Christ who is the most complete revelation of all. Paul
Enns writes, “Special revelation involves a narrower focus than general
revelation and is restricted to Jesus Christ and the Scriptures. Of course, all
that is known of Christ is through the Scriptures; therefore, it can be said
that special revelation is restricted to the Scriptures. Special revelation as
reflected in the Scriptures is given in propositional statements; in other
words, it comes from outside of man, not from within man.”[1]
I
state in my book that “because of the fall of man, special revelation was
necessary to provide man with the way of salvation and reconciliation. Special
revelation expands and completes general revelation. It finds as its essence
the message of salvation and at the core of that message, the Person of Jesus
Christ. The Bible is clear in teaching that Christ is the One who explains the
Father (John 1:18 ) through
His words (John 6:63) and His works (John 5:36 ).
The
Word of God can be trusted precisely because it was God-breathed (2 Tim. 3:16 ) and because the authors of
both the Old and New Testament books were carried along by the Spirit of God (2
Pet. 1:21 ). The living
written Word (the Bible) and the living incarnate Word (Christ) together are
God’s special revelation to mankind.”[2]
Have you ever asked yourself why the existence of
God is assumed and never sought to be proved in Scripture? Because, the writers
of Scripture had a very simple philosophy: why endeavor to prove the obvious?
It would make no sense to try to prove that the sun existed. That would be
rather foolish. All we would need to do is open the window and let the sunshine
in. The biblical writers felt no obligation to prove the existence of God. To
them, God was a living, vital reality. Therefore, there is no attempt in the
Scriptures to prove that God exists.
Four
pictures of God in Scripture:
First, the Bible
pictures GOD AS THE CREATOR. “In the beginning, God created the heavens
and the earth" (Gen. 1:1). In Isaiah 45:12 God declares, “I
made the earth and created man on it; it was my hands that stretched out the
heavens, and I commanded all their host." God is viewed throughout the Word of God as the Creator. This
world is not simply something that happened through a cataclysmic collision of
forces in nature. It is a result of the
guiding, creating, purposeful hand of God.
Second, the
Bible pictures
GOD AS THE LORD OF THE UNIVERSE. Isaiah
continued, "’I will raise up Cyrus to fulfill my righteous purpose, and I will
guide his actions. He will restore my city and free my captive people—without
seeking a reward! I, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, have spoken! This is what the
Lord says: ‘You will rule the Egyptians, the Ethiopians, and the
Sabeans. They will come to you with all their merchandise, and it will all be
yours. They will follow you as prisoners in chains. They will fall to their
knees in front of you and say, ‘God is with you, and he is the only God. There
is no other.’’ Truly, O God of Israel, our Savior, you work in mysterious ways”
(Isa 45:13-15 NLT).
Everywhere
the Bible speaks of God as the Lord of the universe. Exodus 15 calls God one
who is greater than all gods. Deut. 10:17 calls him "God of Gods, and Lord of
Lords.” 1 Chron. 16:15 declares he is to be "feared above all gods.”
Ps. 95:3 reveals him as the "great King above all gods.” The Bible pictures God as the moving,
ruling Lord in the universe.
Third, the Bible
portrays
GOD AS THE SUSTAINER OF LIFE. In Gen. 1 we
read that God turned to Adam and Eve and said, “…Be fruitful and multiply and
fill the earth and subdue it…"
(Gen. 1:28). Then God said, “And God said, ‘Behold, I have given you
every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree
with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food. And to every beast of the
earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the
earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant
for food.’ And it was so. And God saw everything that he had made, and behold,
it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day” (Gen. 1:29-31).
God
provided for them everything they needed. God was not only Creator; he is
Sustainer. Paul, as he stood on Mars’ Hill in Athens, said, "In
him we live and move and have our being" (Acts 17:28). He is
everything.
Fourth, the
Bible pictures
GOD IS THE REDEEMER. He is the one
who loves us and provides for every spiritual and physical need we have. As
early as Gen. 3, God promises to send the Messiah, who will come to save the
people from their sins, “And I will cause hostility between you and
the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will strike your
head, and you will strike his heel” (Gen. 3:15). God is our
Redeemer.
Unless
otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations are taken from the English Standard
Bible.
[1] Paul Enns, The Moody Handbook of Theology (Chicago:
Moody, 1989), p. 158.
[2] Miguel J.
Gonzalez, An Introduction to the Essential Doctrines of Christianity
(Parker, Outskirts Press, 2007), p. 45.
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