God’s Personal Self-Disclosure of Himself Through the Ages
To truly know and understand anything about God, it has to come from God. The infinite has to break into our time and place. We are not talking about ‘effects of’ but rather relationship and covenant. Since the beginning of time the Bible gives us various covenants.
· Adamic covenant
· Noahic Covenant
· Abrahamic covenant
· Mosaic covenant
· Davidic covenant
· Christ’s covenant.
Before writing there was God
Our God is a personal and living God. We see this through various visitations of God through the centuries. John Owen in his Biblical Theology (Historical theology) goes into detail on these aspects, and this was before the new learning that brought Hegel, Kant et al to the fore.
Herman Bavinck the Master Theologian gives us some collecting points about God’s revelation of Himself: The basic ideas are listed below from pages 33 to 34 of his Reformed Dogmatics:
2. God can reveal himself in certain localities.
3. In both the prophetic and pre-prophetic eras God’s disclosure of himself is preparatory.
4. “The revelation of God in the Old Testament, accordingly, does not exhaustively coincide with his being”.
5. God who limits himself at certain times, he is actually limitless, and he is above and beyond his creation.
6. “In the New Testament we encounter the same combination”.
In the first point God is personal and Creator. The same God who created the heavens and the earth also walked in the garden with Adam and Eve in a personal manner. Even when he kicked them out of the garden, he clothed them with animal skins. (Point 1)
God in the past revealed himself to Moses and various places such as the Tower of Babel, Mount Sinai, Jerusalem, Mount Zion et al. (Point 2)
He reveals himself through Urim and Thummim or as an ‘Angel of the Lord’. These records then get written down and become part of history. (point3)
There have been physical sign and pledges of God that do not correspond to his being, but we know He visited us such as:
· The stone at Bethel
· Pillars of fire and smoke at Sinai
He dwells in darkness: clouds and darkness are the sign of his presence (Exod. 20:21; Deut. 4:11; 5:22; 1 Kings 8:12; 2 Chron. 6:1). (Point 4, page 33)
The same God who in his revelation limits himself, as it were, to certain specific places, times, and persons is at the same time infinitely exalted above the whole realm of nature and every creature. Even in the parts of Scripture that stress this temporal and local manifestation, the sense of his sublimity and, omnipotence is nor lacking. The Lord who walks in his garden is the Creator of heaven and earth. The God who appears to Jacob is in control of the future. Although the God of Israel dwells in the midst of his people in the house that Solomon built for him, he cannot even be contained by the heavens (1 Kings 8:27). He manifests himself in nature and sympathizes, as it were, with his people, but he is simultaneously the incomprehensible One (Job 26:14; 36:26; 37:5), the incomparable One (Isa. 40:18, 25; 46:5), the one who is infinitely exalted above time and space and every creature (Isa. 40:12ff.; 41:4;)” (point 5, It continues into page 34)
“In the New Testament we encounter the same combination. God dwells in inaccessible light. No one has seen him or can see him (John 1:18: (1:46; 1 Tim. 6:12»). He is above all change (James 1:17), time (Rev. 1:8: 22:13), space (Acts 17:27—28), and creatures (Acts 17:24). No one knows him except the Son and the Spirit (Matt. 11:27: 1 Cor. 2:1 1). But God has caused his fullness to dwell in Christ bodily (Col. 2:9), resides in the church as in his temple (1 Cor. 3:16), and makes his home in those who love Jesus and keep his Word (John 14:23). Or to put it in modern theological language, in Scripture the personality and the absoluteness of God go hand in hand”. (Point 6, from page 34)
Reflection
The God of the Old Testament and the God of the New Testament is the same God. I used ‘is’ rather than ‘are’ in a theological way to say that the same God worked in both Testaments.
There were movements at the time and after the creation of the New Testament that certain heresies threatened the true teachings of the Church. For example, Irenaeus spoke against the Valentinians and other gnostic groups that only saw the divine through emanations. Or some writers wanted to ditch the Old Testament altogether (Marcion).
So then Bavinck reminds us that:
God is a personal being and he wants a close encounter with us in a filial relationship. God in the past has disclosed Himself in certain particular localities. In the past through the prophetic and pre-prophetic eras he has been preparing a holy people for Himself in love (The Church). The Old Testament does not exhaustively coincide with his Being, God who limits himself at certain times; God is actually limitless, and he is above and beyond his creation, In the New Testament too we encounter the same combinations as in the Old Testament. In Bavincks last point the Master Theologian gives us a list of Scriptures that proves this:
No one has seen him or can see him
18 No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him. John 1:18
46 Not that anyone has seen the Father, except the One who is from God; He has seen the Father. John 6:46
16 who alone possesses immortality and dwells in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see. To Him be honour and eternal dominion! Amen. 1 Timothy 6:16
He is above all change
17 Every good thing given, and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow. James 1:17
time
8 “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.” Revelation 1:8
13 I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.” Revelation 22:13
space
27 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; 28 for in Him we live and move and exist, as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we also are His children.’ Acts 17:27-28
creatures
24 The God who made the world and all things in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands; Acts 17:24
No one knows him except the Son and the Spirit
27 All things have been handed over to Me by My Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father; nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son wills to reveal Him. Matthew 11:27
11 For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so the thoughts of God no one knows except the Spirit of God. 1 Corinthians 2:11
But God has caused his fullness to dwell in Christ bodily
9 For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form, Colossians 2:9
resides in the church as in his temple
16 Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? 1 Corinthians 3:16
and makes his home in those who love Jesus and keep his Word
23 Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him. John 14:23
This is the Monotheistic, Trinitarian God though the father by the Son in the Holy Spirit, whom we serve. There is only One God the Creator. We are so blessed. Bavinck reminds us about the God in Jesus Christ who we serve. At this moment in time the war drums are beating again, and one nation will attempt to overthrow another nation. We have seen all this before. We need to be reminded that the state can only destroy the body, but God is greater, His kingdom will never end. Let us pray for peace in the world and remember all those who are in conflict against their will. We have all been created in the image of God the sinners and the redeemed who now walk by faith and by grace.
Bibliography
Reformed Dogmatics; Herman Bavinck, edited by John Bolt; translated by John Vriend; pages 33-34
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