THE REVELATION OF GOD TO MAN
‘No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him.’
What is meant by Revelation.—Etymologically the term means the drawing aside of a veil.
I. Christians believe that all knowledge is revelation, or the drawing back of the veil. The worldling speaks of invention and discovery, but the God-fearing man calls it revelation. The worldly man would speak of radium as a discovery, but we speak of it as revelation, seeing it has been hid in the secrets of the mountains all the ages and is no secret, and never has been to God, and that God has revealed it to crown the efforts of man’s research. So when I speak to you of Divine revelation I speak of the revelation of God, and not of His essential Being which only God knows; I speak of His relationship to us men for our salvation. You might say, ‘Is it possible that God could reveal Himself to man?’ If it were not possible that God could do it, it must either be that God could not do so, or that men could not perceive the revelation. But God can do it because He is Almighty, and man can receive it because God has created him with capacities of perception, for God is Life and Truth and Power, and man is created to receive life and truth and power. It is possible. But is it necessary? Yes; it is necessary, because, as St. Augustine says, God has created all men for Himself. Our beginning comes from God, and our end is God. Just as yonder streamlet bubbles on and on through many twists and curves till it reaches the ocean from which it originally came, so man progresses onward and onward through many twists and curves till he reaches back to God from Whom he came.
II. Without revelation.—But suppose you will not have the revelation and reject it altogether, what then? There remains but one thing open to thinking man—for it is only the fool that says in his heart, There is no God—the speculative. And the gods of speculation are many. The God we worship to-day is the God of revelation. No man by thought hath found out God, lest any flesh should ‘glory in His Presence.’ God, then, has discovered Himself to us.
III. God’s revelation in Nature.—In Nature we see, if we believe in God, God’s power, His might, His wisdom, ah! and to a great extent His mind. But it is quite obvious that Nature by itself is too limited. So God has revealed Himself to us in human nature, that we may learn of Him of the very nature which He gave us; and His revelation of Himself to us in human nature is in three stages.
(a) In the primitive stage.—St. Paul tells us that all men have enough light to enable them to walk by, that no man is without witness of God. John tells us of the ‘Light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.” And the Saviour tells us that before Him He will gather all nations—by which He does not mean believers. He will count the following of their light as actions done to Himself.
(b) In the progressive stage.—As you know from your Bible history, God chose a family, a nation, to which to commit His Truth, through which He might commit it to the world, which we have.
(c) In the perfect stage.—Here we approach God manifest in the Flesh, the one perfect ‘sacrifice, oblation, and satisfaction for the sins of the whole world,’ Christ our God Who showed us how God would live if He came down on earth and lived amongst us men, Who showed us how God could love, could suffer and die for those He loved. And the revelation of God, perfect in Christ, has the force of perfection, and whosoever believeth in Him shall be justified, and he who is justified is sanctified, and whom God sanctifies God perfects. That is the perfect revelation in Christ. ‘No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son which is in the bosom of the Father He hath declared Him.’