Ps. 119:73-80, Special Revelation (2)

Let’s begin by meditating on some of the ways God’s “special revelation” (the Bible) reveals the attributes of God.

·       God's grace, mercy, compassion.  GR leaves man without excuse.  SR is "remedial" or redemptive.  GR as a witness of God is not strong enough to overcome the sinfulness of the human heart. Man needs a remedial revelation and Scripture is that special, remedial revelation of God.  Redemption is gracious, merciful, compassionate

·       God's personality.  God is a person.  Persons are known only as they choose to be known.  As man stands before the Person of God, he discovers he cannot open up the discussion.  If there is to be a conversation this Person must initiate it.  God has done this, thereby making Himself known to man.

·       God's incomprehensibility.  The incomprehensibility of God is a direct teaching of Scripture (Job 36:26; I Tim. 6:15-16; Psalm 139:6).  The incomprehensibility of God means that man's knowledge of God is at best fragmentary and limited. The incomprehensibility of God sets the limits to discourse about God.  The point is this: the mystery and wonder of grace is that the transcendent God has willed to reveal himself.

  Here are a couple of doctrinal definitions of “special revelation.”

    Miller: "the communication by God to man, of those truths concerning Himself, His plans, and His will, and concerning man and his redemption, which could not have been known through nature, nor by intuition, nor by any process of reasoning, apart from supernatural aid."

    Horne: "the discovery afforded by God to man of Himself, or His will, over and above what He has made known by the light of nature, or of reason."

These definitions are fairly basic.  Lord willing we will give more detail in the next post.  For now, however, Heb. 1:1-2 gives us the essence of “special revelation” as it speaks of various ways God has spoken, and then the supreme method of God’s speaking:

God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds.