Summer in the Systematics: Theology Proper (Part 1)

Transcript

JRS 11
06/26/2022
Summer in the Systematics: Theology Proper, Part 1
Selected Scriptures
Jesse Randolph

Well, welcome everybody, to our first installment of “Summer in the Systematics.”
Which is going to be our summer-long study of the topic of Theology Proper, also known as the Doctrine of God. I’m grateful that each of you has carved out some time from your summer evening, summer evenings if you’re here for the whole study, for this very important topic and this very important study.

As I’ve mentioned before, if the Lord allows, this will be the first of many lessons, not only over the next many weeks, but hopefully over the next many summers, and over the next many years. And these lessons will be taught behind this pulpit on Sunday evening on the subject of theology. In these lessons what we’ll do is cover each of the traditional categories of Systematic Theology including our topic for this summer of 2022, the topic of Theology Proper. Now, I’ve already used a few terms, Theology, Systematic Theology, and Theology Proper, which are interconnected but at the same time distinct. And therefore require defining. So, we’re going to start our time for this evening defining those terms right up front. What is theology? What is systematic theology? What is theology proper?

Let’s start with theology, what is theology? I’m going to try and run slides up here. Forgive me if there are any malfunctions, it’s not anybody back there’s fault, its all mine. But I’m going to give it a shot. What is theology? Well, the word “theology” is a compound Greek word, that comes from the two Greek words, “theos” and “logos.” Theos, you see there, is the Greek word for God. And the meaning for the word logos, is word. So, you put the two terms together, you have theology, or if you want to say it very woodenly, a word about God. Or as we would put it in the modern vernacular, the study of God. Or as some of the older theologians have put it, the science of God. In reality there are as many definitions out there of theology as there are theologians. So, it really is a tough task to pick just one or a couple of definitions of theology, but I’ve tried none-the-less.

My favorite definition, as I’ve scoured all the systematic theologies on my shelves, comes from David Wells. David Wells writes this, “Theology is the sustained effort to know the character, will, and acts of triune God as He has disclosed and interpreted these for His people in Scripture. . .in order that we might know Him, learn to think our thoughts after Him, live our lives in His world on His terms, and by thought and action project His truth into our own time and culture.” I love that. I love that definition, it is clear and concise, yet at the same time its comprehensive. A comprehensive definition of what truly is a massive undertaking. . .the study of God.

So, the simplified definition of theology, is just that, it’s the study of God. But as Wells’ more robust definition brings out here, theology requires effort, he calls it here “sustained effort.” Theology has a target, meaning the “character, will, and acts of God.” Theology is distinctively trinitarian, you note he says, “the will and the actions of the triune God.” And theology has a source, “Scripture,” the inspired, God-breathed, 66 books in our bibles. And last, theology has a purpose, he writes, “in order that we might know Him, learn to think our thoughts after Him, live our lives in His world on His terms, and by thought and action, project His truth into our own time and culture.”

My contention this evening is that everyone in this room, if you’re a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ, is called to be a theologian. Now, when I say that, you might be tempted to recoil a little bit. Your mind might go in the direction of the academic realm. You’re thinking of dusty old books. Written by dusty old professors in tweed jackets and patches on their elbows. Who sit in some ivory tower, devoting their time to splitting hairs that no one cares about. To writing journal articles that nobody reads and speaking at conferences that nobody attends. That’s not what I mean when I say each of you, followers of Christ, is called to be a theologian. I’m not saying that every Christian is called to be an academic. I’m not say that every Christian is called to be a scholastic. I’m not saying that every Christian is called to parse Hebrew verbs. To memorize the names of the Cappadocian Fathers. To write term papers or deliver lectures. There are professional theologians who do those things, but those tasks do not mark of define what it means to be a theologian.

No, to be a theologian simply means this: you know God and you seek to know Him more. A theologian is somebody who knows God and seeks to know Him more. That’s it. Now, for sure, knowledge can, 1 Corinthians 8:1, under the wrong circumstances, “puff up.” But that does not mean that all knowledge of the divine is to be avoided.

Think about it. Knowledge of God ultimately is what divides believers and unbelievers. Scriptures characterizes unbelievers as those who do not know God, or those who lack knowledge of God. Look at 1 Thessalonians 4:3-5, “For this is the will of God, your sanctification; that is, that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each of you know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, not in lustful passion, like the Gentiles who do not know God.” Or Titus 1:16 speaking of unbelievers here, “They profess to know God, but by their deeds they deny Him, being detestable and disobedient and worthless for any good deed.” In contrast, Christians are characterized as those people who do know God, and who are growing in their knowledge of God. Jot this one down, Colossians 1:10, “so that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.” What these passages teach us is that if Christ has saved you, growing in your knowledge of God is not optional. It’s mandated. Indeed, Christ gave as His first commandment that, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind,” Matthew 22:37. Loving God with all of our minds certainly means more than theological study, but it doesn’t mean less than that. Theological growth for the believer is mandatory.

So, those are some of the basic terms and definitions up front about the term “theology”. Theology is simply, stripped down, the study of God.

What about systematic theology? What is systematic theology? And what makes it systematic?
Well, systematic theology, what it does is bring together what scripture teaches about God, related to His intrinsic being, and His relation to mankind and His relation to the universe. And classifies or systematizes what the bible teaches about God in an organized fashion, for us to more readily understand. Charles Spurgeon said something very helpful, I think, in describing how we are to think of systematic theology. He wrote, “Systematic theology is to the bible what science is to nature.” You get what he’s saying? He’s saying, in the natural realm, nature is the revelation and science is the study which seeks to categorize and organize what nature reveals. In the theological realm, the bible is the chief source of revelation. More on that in a minute. And what systematic theology is, is the method of classifying what God has revealed about Himself in the bible. So, with that, what’s a good working definition of systematic theology? How do we define this term, systematic theology?

I appreciate how Wayne Grudem has defined the term, he says, “Systematic theology involves collecting and understanding all the relevant passages in the bible on various topics and then summarizing their teachings clearly so that we know what to believe about each topic.”
John Frame gets even more to the point when he says, “Systematic theology seeks to apply scripture by asking what the whole bible teaches about any subject.” By the way, I will cite up here in this study, theologians whom we might disagree on other points, John Frame would be one of them, just so you know. But I would say, there are theologians who do really good work on ‘theology proper,’ that come from different camps than ours. Not that traditional dispensational camp that we might find ourselves in. My challenge to us would be, well, if we want to do better theology proper, better systematic theology, as dispensationalists, well, let’s do better theology, and remain in our lane. But I digress.

Our working definition of systematic theology for this study will be what John Frame gives us here. That field of study that “seeks to apply scripture by asking what the whole Bible teaches about about any subject.” Well, whoever you get your theology from, your systematic theology from, if its John Frame or Wayne Grudem or Herman Bavinck or Louis Berkhof or John Calvin or Lewis Sperry Chafer, each of them would recognize that there are ten traditional categories of systematic theology. They may teach them in a different order, according to a different outline, than what we will present up here, but each would recognize these categories of systematic theology.

First there’s theology proper. What we’re studying this summer, the doctrine of the existence and being of God. Then there’s Bibliology. This is, by the way, the order I plan to go in over next ten years, Lord willing. Bibliology, the doctrine of the inspiration, inerrancy, authority, and canonicity of the Bible. Christology would be number three, the doctrine of the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Pneumatology, the doctrine of the person and work of the Holy Spirit.
Anthropology, the doctrine of man. Hamartiology, the doctrine of sin. Soteriology, the doctrine of salvation. Angelology, the doctrine of angels, holy and fallen, and Satan. Ecclesiology, the doctrine of the church, universal and local. And Eschatology, the doctrine of last things or end times.

Does that mean we are not going to talk about theology except when we get into these categories each of these summers? No. I hope you’ll see through the preaching that happens on Sunday morning and Sunday evening we are going to hit theological topics all the time. We are forced to do that as we reckon with what the bible teaches. But in terms of the systematically teaching, that’s going to happen in these classes, these modules over the next many years, Lord willing.

In the remainder of this lesson and in each of the remaining lessons this summer we’re going to be covering that first topic I listed there, “Theology Proper, the Doctrine of God.” In subsequent lessons we’ll get through all the other categories unless the Lord returns first and gets us and takes us home before then. All that to say, I recognize as I think you do, that we have a long voyage ahead. I do pray that it’s going to be a fruitful voyage and God-glorifying voyage as we get deeper into the things of God, as we see how He’s revealed Himself in these ways, in His word.

So, we defined theology. We defined systematic theology. Now we want to look at what is theology proper, our category, our topic for this summer. Theology proper is the doctrine of the existence and being of God. That’s what we’re going to be learning this summer in these systematic lessons. They are all going to be about the existence of God and the being of God.
And we’re going to see this summer there are a variety of subtopics that fall under this heading of “Theology Proper.” Things like the names of God. The attributes of God. The simplicity of God. The triunity of God. But at its basest level, everything that will be taught in this class on Sunday evenings can be boiled down to the two things I’ve just mentioned. The existence of God and the being of God.

Now, as we move past our initial definitions and terms and as we move into the substance for our study this evening I want to be fair, and I want to lay all of my cards on the table for you. I want you to understand that as we go into this study I will bring certain presuppositions to the table as we explore this topic of “Theology Proper, the Doctrine of God.”

Here are the presuppositions that are going to inform the entirety of our study of theology proper this summer. Here’s number one, presupposition number one, God exists. God exists. I know it. You know it. And even atheists know it. But what does Romans 1 tell us? That they suppress the truth, the knowledge that they have of the God that they stand in opposition to in unrighteousness. So, presupposition number one, God exists.

Presupposition number two, God has revealed Himself. As we’re going to see in just a few minutes, that is actually the title of this first lesson, “The Revelation of God.” God has revealed Himself in nature, history, and in our conscience. But He has revealed Himself with utmost clarity through His Word. More on that topic in just a bit.

Presupposition number three, man, having been created in the image of God, is a rational creature who is able to receive, understand, and communicate language. And, specifically, man is capable, he’s capable of receiving and understanding the language that God has chosen to communicate with mankind on the pages of Scripture. In other words, we don’t have an excuse that when we see a bible we can’t understand what it says.

But, presupposition number four, because of the fall of Adam, and its effects on all of mankind, what we know of as the noetic effect of sin, we are unable to fully grasp, appreciate, and systematize divine truth from Scripture. That is, without a renewed mind, Romans 12.

Presupposition number five, man is totally depraved in his natural, unregenerate state. He not only has a fallen mind, but a spiritual dead heart, and he is unable to formulate a comprehensively accurate view of God when dead in his sin.

Presupposition number six, true theological understanding can only arise from a person who has a renewed mind, which is the product of a renewed heart. So, these are the presuppositions that undergird this material.

These presuppositions are held unapologetically by yours truly because number one, each of these are biblically supportable. And number two, the reality is everybody has presuppositions. Even the unbeliever. Mine just happen to be right.

“The Revelation of God” is the title for tonight’s lesson, “The Revelation of God.” Now when we say “the revelation of God” we are referring, quite simply, to the fact that God has revealed Himself. God has not kept us enshrouded in darkness concerning His existence, His character, or His works. No. Sort of like we went through this morning in Revelation 1, God is a communicative God. He’s a revelatory God. He has revealed Himself. The word “revelation” as we saw this morning literally means “to uncover” or “to unveil.” As one commentator has noted, the idea of “revelation” “involves removing a cover from something that is concealed.” It carries with it the idea of pulling back a lid or pulling back a curtain in order to reveal what is behind or underneath. When we study theology and specifically theology proper we are studying what God has revealed about Himself. We are unveiling truth God has revealed about Himself which man would otherwise have no way of knowing.

Think about this. Had He not revealed Himself, and He surely had the ability to do so had He so chosen, we’d be fumbling in the darkness because man cannot know God in and of himself, in his spiritually dead condition. Louis Berkhof said it that way. He said “Man could not possibly have had any knowledge of God, if God had not made Himself known. Left to himself, he would never have discovered God.” Rather, man can only know what God reveals to him.

And God, as an extension of His character, as an extension of His love for His creation, as an extension of the men and women created in His image has, in fact, revealed Himself. And over the centuries, theologians, who by definition like to categorize things, have traditionally categorized these two areas in which God reveals Himself and they call them “general revelation” and “special” or “specific revelation.” We are going to look at those terms next as we continue on with our study. We’ll first look at general revelation.

What is general revelation? General revelation refers to the ways in which God has revealed aspects of His person, nature, and character to all of humanity so that they will, in turn, have an awareness of His existence and His being. Why is this means of revelation called general revelation? There really are two reasons. Number one, it is more general in its content. Number two, it has been revealed more generally to a wider audience, to the entire world. What does general revelation consist of? How does God reveal Himself in a general way? There are three categories of general revelation that we need to go through tonight. As I list these out, I want you to note that these categories are not man-made. They are actually supported and revealed in Scripture.

The first category of general revelation is this, nature, or you could say creation, God’s creation. Scripture testifies repeatedly to the fact that God has revealed Himself in nature. Psalm 19, verses 1 and 2, “The heavens are telling of the glory of God; and their expanse is declaring the work of His hands.” For any of you who have marveled at the design of a cloud, or the uniqueness of a snowflake, or the beauty of the rhythms of each day from sunrise to sunset you know exactly what is being said there in Psalm 19. That Psalm is not saying that these natural wonders are the product of some random collision of molecules billions of years ago. No, what they are saying is that each and every beautiful thing or event we witness in creation has been intricately and intimately etched by the divine finger of God.

Or consider Isaiah 40, verse 12 “Who has measured the waters in the hollow of His hand, and marked off the heavens by the span, and calculated the dust of the earth by the measure, and weighed the mountains in a balance and the hills in a pair of scales?” It’s the same thing. The majesty of the natural world, whether it be the sheer volume as Isaiah 40 here says, of all the dust of the earth, or the ragged beauty of mountains and hills, or the stunning resplendence of the stars above. They don’t testify to some evolutionary event. They don’t testify to some series of evolutionary processes that are reported in modern, secular science textbooks. To the contrary. Each of these testifies to what Isaiah 40:26 says. They testify to the “greatness of His might and
the strength of His power.” “His” of course, being God’s. Or consider Acts 14:15-17 where it says, “Men, why are you doing these things? We are also men of the same nature as you, and preach the gospel to you that you should turn from these vain things to a living God, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all that is in them. In the generations gone by He permitted all the nations to go their own ways; and yet He did not leave Himself without witness, in that He did good and gave you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness.”

Did you catch it? God not only “made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all that is in them,” verse 17 of Acts 14 says, He “gave [us] rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying [our] hearts with food and gladness.” That’s another way of saying He fills our stomachs. He sustains us. The raindrops He causes, lead to plants growing, which produce both oxygen for us to breath, food and grain for us to eat, and food for the animals that we eat. That delicious steak that you enjoyed a few weeks ago, has at some level, a connection to the rain that God has allowed to fall on the earth. That savory Runza that you had a couple of weeks ago, has some connection to God allowing rain to fall on the earth.

Another key text on this subject of God’s general revelation in nature is, Romans 1:19-20 says this, “because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.” This passage, Romans 1, is so important. Did you catch what it said? It said, not only has God revealed Himself through nature. Not only is nature a witness of God’s existence and His power and His limitless ingenuity. But nature renders us without excuse for denying that God is and denying who God is. Did you see the logical progression of these verses? Look what it says. “That which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them.” In other words, they’ve seen the evidence. It’s right there in front of them. Their eyeballs have beheld it. Their ears have heard it. Their tongues have tasted it. And he goes on and says, “For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen.” God hasn’t left light fingerprints all over His creation. No, He’s left deep and obvious imprints on the world. They are, it says, “clearly seen.” Just think of the irony of this statement. And this statement: the human eye, with all of its intricacy and its power and its built-in processing speed, is right at the top of the list of the evidence. Not only of God’s existence, but His incredible creative power. And yet, having been blessed with such an amazing instrument, their eyeballs by God, those who languish in unbelief are failing to see the obvious that their eyes were designed to actually see. They fail to see that their eyes were designed by an all-wise, all-powerful, all-holy God who they reject and stand in opposition to. So, there is one aspect of general revelation: creation.

Next would be category two, would be providential control or history. The testimony of scripture is clear that God reveals Himself through the ordering and sequence of events in history and in our lives. These verses are familiar, I’m sure, Proverbs 21:1, “The king’s heart is like channels of water in the hand of the Lord; He turns it wherever He wishes.” Or Psalm 75:7, God “puts down one and exalts another.”

We see this in the life of Ruth, the Moabite widow, who through a series of events laid out in the book that bears her name, ended up not only gleaning in the fields of the Israelite Boaz, but she ends up marrying him. Has a son named Obed with him. And Obed becomes the grandfather of King David, through whom the Messiah, Jesus Christ, would come.

We see this in the life of Esther, the beautiful Jewish teenage girl who was living in captivity in Persia. Who we see in the sequence of events laid out in the book which bears her name, ends up, with the assistance of her relative Mordecai, thwarting the plans of an evil man named Haman to extinguish the Israelites, and is spared. God is never mentioned, famously, in the book of Esther. But you know who is clearly and prominently working through the events delineated in the book of Esther? God.

Last, we see this in the life of Paul, who testified boldly to how God has revealed Himself in history, in that famous interaction that he has with the Athenian philosophers at the Areopagus, Mars Hill. In Acts 17:26-27, Paul says this, “and He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation, that they would seek God, if perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us.” And of course we know this experientially, do we not? How many times have you looked back on your life, with 20/20 clarity, as you look back on the hand of God? How God sovereignly and providentially worked, in bringing you through whatever He brought you through, to allow His perfect plans to come to pass? Whether it’s through the joys of life, or through the difficulties associated with trials, everyone of us could testify to how, through the hidden hand of God’s providence, He’s revealed Himself through our personal testimonies and circumstances.

The testimony of scripture is clear. Just as God reveals Himself through nature, through His creation, He reveals Himself through history and though various providential encounters and circumstances of various kinds. Whether global in nature or personal in nature.
There’s a third way that God reveals Himself though, generally, which is through the human conscience. We would all have to acknowledge that we have been wired with a conscience. Deep within us, there is an inherent knowledge of the existence of right and wrong. It marks the feeling you get, deep down, when you know you’ve told a lie. It’s the reason anyone of us would even consider, even if unregenerate, to go out of our way to jump into harms way, to spare someone who might otherwise get hurt. It’s the reason David, after his sin with Bathsheba, said that the weight of his sin was crushing him. It’s the weight that Judas felt when he betrayed our Lord. In each case, it’s the conscience. The conscience also reveals itself through the deep-seated recognition we each have of what is just and what is unjust. And when some form of justice needs to be meted out. It’s the feeling of revulsion we all get, when horrific crimes get committed against children. It’s the feeling of offense that we feel when somebody steals our wallet. It’s the feeling of injustice an employer feels when he learns that his employee has been altering their timecards. The conscience is one of the ways that God reveals Himself to His creatures, to each one of us. That’s what Romans 2:14-15 says: “For when the Gentiles who do not have the Law do instinctively the things of the Law, these, not having the Law, are a law to themselves, in that they show the work of the Law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness and their thoughts alternatively accusing or else defending them.”

See, there is not such thing as an atheist. Atheists are mythical. Atheists aren’t real. How can I say that? I can point to passages like Romans 2:14-15, which point to the reality that the law of God has been impressed on the hearts of all men. Which suggests the existence of a divine Lawgiver that has impressed His law on the hearts of everybody. We see that picked up in other passages as well. Such as Ecclesiastes 3:11, which says that God has “set eternity in [our] heart.” Or Psalm 14:1, says, “The fool has said in his heart, ‘There is no God.’ ” What these passages teach us, is that everybody, at some deep-down level, acknowledges and believes in the existence of God. The problem is, as Romans 1:18-20 says it, is that we in our natural, unregenerate state, “suppress the truth” that we know about God, “in unrighteousness.” And we do so, so that we can go ahead and live however we want, embracing and loving our sin, disregarding what we know to be true about the existence of God.

So, taking this altogether, we’ve seen that God reveals Himself through creation and nature. You don’t have to convince a child of the existence of God. Why? When a child sees an eagle fly, or the height of a mountain, they inherently know that was created by God. We’ve also seen that God reveals Himself through history, as He providentially causes all things, globally, and personally and individually in our lives, to come to pass. And last, we’ve seen that God has revealed Himself through our conscience. Through our innate perception of His existence. Our own sense of right and wrong. Our innate sense of having fallen short of His holy and righteous standards.

Now, an important and often asked question to address is this: (I put these on this slide.)
Can a person be made right with God through God’s general revelation? Or to put it another way, can a person’s sin debt be cancelled based on God’s revelation of Himself through nature, history, and conscience? And the answer, as I’ve already given you here, is “no.”
While God does give us a great amount of knowledge about Himself through His general revelation. And while His general revelation, as the book of Romans 1:20 says, leaves everybody “without excuse” for failing to acknowledge God, their Creator. General revelation is not the way that God has provided for us, as fallen, depraved human beings, to be reconciled to this same holy Creator.

To the contrary. God has revealed His appointed path to reconciliation and redemption and salvation through another means, namely, special revelation.
I appreciate what John MacArthur and Richard Mayhue have said about general revelation. Its limitations and what it ultimately points to, meaning “special revelation. “They say here, general revelation points to a higher power, while special revelation personally introduces the higher power as the triune God of scripture, who created the world and all that is in it, and who provided the only redeemer in the Lord Jesus Christ.” With that, lets jump into our topic of special revelation.

Special Revelation. We’ve covered general revelation. What is special revelation? Special revelation is God’s disclosure of Himself in more detailed, specific, and personal manners, for example, how He reveals Himself through general revelation.
There are various ways that God has provided special revelation of Himself over the course of history. These include direct acts, dreams, the incarnation of Jesus Christ, and last but not least, through scripture. We’re going to go through these now.

Let’s start with special revelation category number one, Direct Acts. One form of Gods special revelation would be His direct acts. And what do I mean by that? This would have included God speaking audibly to various people in various places in history. You know, for instance, God spoke to Adam in the garden, Genesis 2:16-17. And with Moses in the wilderness at Sinai, Deuteronomy 34:10-12. There are many other examples in the Old Testament of course. And this continued on in the New Testament era, before the canon of scripture was closed. For instance, we see three different instances in the gospels, of God audibly confirming Jesus as being His Son. Matthew 3:17, Matthew 17:5 and John 12:28. We also see God performing various types of miracles. Its not just audible speech. But miraculous acts through the ministries of men like Elisha and Elijah. Raising people to life, causing axe heads to float, multiplying oil, calling fire down on an altar to defeat prophets, cleansing lepers. The list goes on and on and on. Each of those miraculous acts would be another form of direct revelation. And a last means of direct revelation would be things like the casting of lots. Proverbs 16:33; Acts 1:21-26. Or the Urim and the Thummim, or ‘divine dice’ that we see in Exodus 28:30; Deuteronomy 33:8. The point here is, that there was a period in time during redemptive history where God revealed Himself more directly, through His speech and certain miraculous acts.

Dreams and Visions. We also see God uniquely and specially revealing Himself through dreams and visions. He revealed Himself in a dream to the pagan ruler, Abimelech, in Genesis 20. To Joseph, of course, in a dream in Genesis 37. To Moses at the burning bush in a vision in Exodus 3. And He gave visions to various Old Testament prophets like Isaiah. Isaiah 1:1, Ezekiel 1:1. And of course, He revealed Himself in the person of the ascended and glorified Son of God, Jesus Christ, to the apostle John as we saw this morning, on the isle of Patmos. Revelation 1. And note, that none of these were mere phantasmic appearances. These weren’t dreams and visions that were given by God to men, to give them a funny or a great story to tell. No, to the contrary. In each of these instances of dreams and visions, God was revealing something about Himself. Specially and specifically about His person, His character, His will and His aims.

The Incarnation of Christ. God has also uniquely revealed Himself through the incarnation of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. That’s exactly what Hebrews 1:1-2 says, “God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways.” That’s referring to the direct revelation and dreams and visions that He gave during the Old Testament times. It goes on to say, “in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world.” Now we can fairly say that the incarnation of Jesus Christ and His earthly ministry was the pinnacle of God’s special revelation. Through the act of His incarnation, the second person of the trinity took on human flesh, added a human nature, and dwelt among humankind. John 1:14, “And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.” That’s highly significant! Because John 4:24 says, that “God is spirit.” Meaning He is incorporeal, He does not have a body. That God put on flesh. That’s why John says in John 1:18, that “No one has seen God at any time.” But then that same verse continues to say, “the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He [Christ] has explained Him [God].” Meaning, by coming to earth, Jesus made visible the otherwise invisible God. Jesus revealed physically the God who is spirit.

So that’s three forms of special revelation so far, direct communications from God, dreams or visions from God, and now the incarnation of the Son of God. Which brings us to our fourth and final category.
Scripture. The last means of God’s special revelation is the book you are holding in your hands, the 66 books of the bible. The inspired words of scripture. Think about this. How do we know about the ways in which God spoke directly to the prophets of old? How do we know about the dreams and visions of God, that previous generations experienced? How do we know about the life and ministry of Jeus Christ our Lord? How do we know about His parables and His promises? How do we know about His death and burial and resurrection and ascension? How do we know He’s coming back? It’s all revealed to us on the pages of scripture. The incarnation did not occur during our lifetime, and so we are in a very real sense, dependent on the transmission of some sort of record, and specifically, a written record of the Lord’s life and ministry.
Why a written record? Because oral tradition simply would not have worked for such a purpose. And why? Well, think of the game of telephone. How many of you here know what what you had for breakfast last Tuesday? How many of us could rely upon a purely oral account of what the Lord came to accomplish on our behalf 2,000 years ago? The answer is, we couldn’t. And that’s where scripture comes in. Scripture originates with God, 2 Timothy 3:16-17, all scripture is ((breathed out) inspired by God.” And thus, it can rightly be called “the word of God” as 1 Thessalonians 2:13 refers to it. And scripture has been sent out to accomplish God’s purposes and will. In fact, do so, as Isaiah 55:11 says. And that includes revealing the life and the ministry of the Son of God, and the truth that eternal life is found only in His name. John 5:39, “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; it is these that testify about Me.”

So, to bring it back to the main point of tonight’s lesson. God is a revelatory God, and a revealing God, and a God who has revealed Himself. And He has done so in two basic ways, through means of General Revelation -- nature/creation, history/providence, the human conscience. And Specific or Special Revelation -- direct acts, dreams/visions, the incarnation of Jesus Christ, and scripture.

As we close, what are some of the key differences to go home with, between general revelation and special revelation? Well, there are a few worth noting that I highlight here.
General revelation is temporal, while special revelation is eternal. Isaiah 40:8, “The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God endures forever.” Matthew 24:35, “Heaven and earth will pass away,” the Lord says, “but My words will never pass away.”
Here’s another one. General revelation is affected by the course of sin, while special revelation is perfect. Creation is cursed, it groans. Genesis 3:1-24, Romans 8:20-23. But by contrast, special revelation, and specifically scripture, is perfect, inerrant, infallible, and indestructible. Psalm 19:7-9, Psalm 119:140.
Here’s another one. General revelation cannot bring about salvation. We talked about this earlier. While special revelation, specifically scripture, can. General revelation can only get a person so far. It is a revelation of God by which people can come to a greater knowledge of God. But ultimately, all it does, in and of itself, is condemn as it leaves sinful human beings like you and me without a reason to reject God. It leaves us dead in our sin, and under judgement, facing God’s deserved and divine wrath. Special revelation, by contrast, and specifically special revelation given to us from God’s word, brings about knowledge of Jesus Christ, and the realization that salvation only comes through faith in Him. Romans 10:17, “faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.” Only scripture, the chief form of special revelation in our day, provides us with those truths.
Praise God! Praise God for providing us with these truths. Praise God for revealing these truths about Him through His Son. Praise God for revealing these truths about Him through His word. Praise God for being a God who has uncovered, or revealed, so much about Himself, His plans, His purposes, His ways. And the only way that a sinner like you or I, could be reconciled to Him, through the gospel of Jesus Christ. Psalm 145:3, “Great is the Lord, and highly to be praised, and His greatness is unsearchable.”
Let’s pray. God, You are great! And Your greatness is unsearchable. We give You thanks and praise this evening for the ways in which You have chosen to reveal aspects of Yourself, aspects of Your character, and Your nature, Your glory, Your purposes, Your plans, to fallen sinful human beings like us. We thank You that You have showcased who You are in creation and nature and history and providence. And we are grateful that You have seen fit to go further, to reveal to us especially the love that has been offered to us, through the cross of Jesus Christ. That’s revealed ultimately, on the pages of scripture. We wouldn’t know these truths about Christ and His glory and His incarnation and His humiliation and His crucifixion and His resurrection and His ascension if we had not seen them in the pages of Your words. So, we simply praise You for being a God who reveals. A God who reveals truths specially and perfectly in Your word. And that we can know that we know You through the cross of Christ. Thank You for everybody here, for taking the time to study these deeper topics. I pray the remainder of our study would be profitable, edifying and would bring You much glory. In Jesus name. Amen.