Skip to main content

The Revelation of God (Part 3) - Revelation and the Christian

God has revealed himself through the Bible and through the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, and he takes that revelation and makes it experiential, personal to his children. Being saved is not simply saying that certain things are true and accepting certain doctrine as being correct. Being saved is “knowing” God. God’s revelation becomes experiential in the life of every believer. Notice Job’s reply to God, “I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted. ‘Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?’ Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know. ‘Hear, and I will speak; I will question you, and you make it known to me” (Job 42:2-4). He was saying that there were many things he knew about God and many things he did not understand.
Now notice verse 5: “’I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you.’ Once he had simply heard of God but now he has experienced his presence.”

When Isaiah was confronted by his call to be a prophet, he cried out, "And I said: ‘Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts’… And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?’ Then I said, ‘Here I am! Send me’” (Isa. 6:5, 8). God had become very personal to Isaiah. God was not just an abstract concept. God was not simply a great moving force in the universe. God was a personal God to him. There is a general revelation of God and there is a special revelation of God, and to the child of God, that revelation becomes experiential, personal, in his or her heart and life (not subjective, but objective).

God reveals himself to us personally. When we are saved, Jesus Christ plants his life in us through the Holy Spirit. Paul exclaimed, “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me" (Gal. 2:20). God is everybody’s God, whether they realize it and acknowledge it or not, but in salvation he becomes ours and we become his in a personal way, meaning, when born again (John 3:3-6; 1 Pet. 1:3), we enter into a personal and dynamic relationship with him. As Christians, we are in Christ (Eph. 1:3-14), have become “a new creation” (2 Cor. 5:17), and we are now “partakers of the divine nature” (2 Pet. 1:4).  There are many people who have spent their lives in church, they see the general revelation of God and have heard biblical revelation of God, yet they don’t “know” him, more importantly, they are not known by God in a personal, relational way.  It is only when he is received into our hearts, that God’s revelation becomes personal and experiential. More than that, is when we receive forgiveness of our sins. The guilt that drives, the sin that hounds and haunts us is cleansed, "But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin" (1 John 1:7). He transforms our evil tendencies. "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come" (2 Cor. 5:17).

Now, let us not miss this vital truth concerning the revelation of God. We cannot fully understand the general revelation of God and we cannot experience the personal revelation of God without the biblical revelation. The biblical revelation explains it to us. There is not much we truly and fully understand unless we see them in the light of God's revealed Word.


Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations are taken from the English Standard Bible (ESV).

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Inspired, Infallible, and Inerrant Word

  All Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work (2 Timothy 3:16).   Our primary and final safeguard against false teaching is the Word of God. Verses 16 and 17 of 2 Timothy 3 are among the most important and significant in all the New Testament. They clearly declare the Source of Scripture and thus the Scripture’s authority. Second Timothy 3:16-17 and 2 Peter 1:21 for the basis for our conviction that the Bible is the inspired, infallible, and inerrant Word of God. Paul points out three important truths here: First, all Scripture is God-breathed. When Paul writes in that all Scripture is inspired , he is saying that the entire Bible and every word in it originates with God. Tom Constable correctly states that the Bible “does not merely contain the Word of God or become the Word of God under certain conditions. I...
Post a Comment
Read more

Key Figures in the Tribulation (Part 3)

  His Career      The career of the Antichrist can be broken down into four stages. These stages or phases characterize his progression and ultimately his demise. Prior to the Tribulation     According to Daniel 7, the Antichrist ( “ little horn” ) will come out of the revived Roman empire which means that he is coming from the West. At this stage, he will most likely be the political leader of a powerful western country, powerful enough to enter into a covenant with Israel and guarantee her safety. The restored Roman empire will result from the coming together of a western federation of nations, which appears to take place after the beginning of the tribulation. We may very well be witnessing the initial stages of this prophecy as we witness the coming together of many western European countries who have forged a federation or union socially, politically, and economically.      According to Revelation 6:2, early in the...
Post a Comment
Read more

Her Past, Present, and Future: Understanding the Role of Israel in History (Part 4)

  The Palestinian (Land) Covenant      Four crucial aspects of the covenant amplify the land aspect of the Abrahamic covenant. First, from the beginning of the covenant relationship, God promised Abraham land (e.g., Genesis 12:1; 13:14-17; 15:7; 17:7-8). The land covenant not only reaffirms God’s commitment to give Israel the promised land, but it develops and adds important truths related to the land (e.g., Numbers 34:1-12; Deuteronomy 30:1-10). Second, the land covenant is an unconditional covenant since it is an elaboration of the land aspect of the Abrahamic covenant. Nothing, not even Israel’s rebellion and disobedience could nullify the covenant. Yes, Israel’s sin caused them to lose the right to live on the land, but the covenant has not been set aside. Any conditions were connected to the receiving or losing of blessing, not the fulfillment of the covenant promise.      Some argue that Deuteronomy 30:1-3 makes the covenant conditi...
Post a Comment
Read more