04.03 - God as Revealer and the Revealed
(3) God as Revealer and the Revealed
God as Agent and Object, as Spirit and Word, as the Eternal Reason and Spirit of truth is the Source and Substance of Revelation: the Revelation is from God and of God, and is most aptly phrased as “ the Self-revelation of God to man.” It is God Himself who is revealed, and not some particular truth about God. God is not revealed as a mere postulate whether of faith or reason. The God of revelation is not a practical idea realised in moral consciousness; still less is He an idea which the individual or the race has reached as a product of thought. The rather has God revealed Himself as the personal, living God governing all things, who sustains a personal relation to the children of men, is deeply concerned for their welfare, who comes near to them in making Himself known, to the intent they may know, love, serve Him, and do His will.
Professor Sanday speaks of God “ the living God, as a postulate that lies at the back of all belief in inspiration and revelation.” It is more than that, it is the essential fact of revelation” itself. The revelation is God manifesting Himself, a revelation of the personality of God as Creator, Sovereign, and Father; of the official relation of God to the race as Redeemer, Saviour, and Judge; of the nature of God as Spirit the Spirit of holiness and truth; of the character of Gocl as righteous and true, gracious and merciful, Who by His Incarnation and self-sacrifice has given Himself for men that He might redeem and save them. This is the revelation of God as love self sacrificing, self-communicating love whereby “He loved us and gave Himself for us.” God would not be revealed as love, if we had nothing but the mere statement, however authoritative, that “ God is love.”
Hence revelation is not a truth about God, not a doctrine of God, however sublime and true; God comes to us, not as doctrine and truth but as a Person, as a concrete, spiritual presence, what the Ritschlians call a “spiritual magnitude,” which authenticates itself as Divine. Hence the highest and fullest revelation of God is in Jesus Christ. In Christ we meet with God, or rather God meets us, to la}- His hand upon us, and lift us into a life of fellowship with Himself. It is through the revelation God has given us by His Son, that we come to the knowledge of God Himself. That we might “know Thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent.” 1 This is the specific purpose of all divine revelation to man in the written word, the moral consciousness and the personal, living Christ, “ that we might know God,” know Him in His spiritual and saving relations to men, in His gracious purposes for the race, and all those great spiritual realities revealed in Jesus Christ
1 John 17:3. and the religion of Christ, and which man as a religious and spiritual being most needed to know.
These truths relate not only to God’s nature, character, government, and truth, but to those truths which concern the moral and spiritual condition of man as a sinner before God, and to His gracious purposes of redemption by Christ Jesus. This is that knowledge of “ the true God and eternal life “which the Scriptures specially teach: Christ says, “ Ye search the Scriptures, because ye think that in them ye have eternal life; and these are they which bear witness of Me.”: Paul also says, “ which Scriptures are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.” 2 The special purpose of every inspired Scripture is to make known the salvation that is of God through Jesus Christ. Speaking of Himself Christ says “ I am not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.” 3 “For verily the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for many.” 4 The Gospel Christ preached, the Kingdom of Heaven He proclaimed, the miracles He wrought, the cures He effected, revealed Him as the Saviour and Healer of men. The preaching and writings of the Apostles were given to the proclamation of the same Gospel of redemption and salvation.
3 Luke 5:32.
4 Mark 10:45.