Did you know that God reveals Himself to us in two ways? The first is natural revelation. (Psalm 19:1) says: “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.” In other words, you can’t look at the beauty and vastness of our universe and not conclude that there must be somebody who made all of this.
In addition (Romans 1:18-20) states: “The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.” Thus, God’s magnificent creation speaks of His eternal power and divine nature. But the question that you now may be thinking is can man just accept natural revelation and be saved?
The simple answer is no. As Christians we know that Jesus says in (John 14:6): “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” And we also read in (Acts 4:12): “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.” My friends we need to know Jesus to be saved and that’s why God has given us this second form of revelation called special revelation. Special revelation today consists of the 66 books of the Holy Bible and it is a written revelation. Not only is it written but it is complete. Ever since the fall of man in the garden, sin has entered the world and sadly has clouded man’s mind and alienated him from God. As a result, natural revelation is not enough because man is now spiritually dead to God.
According to John MacArthur: “Now man still had the consciousness of God, but that was only to lead him to the Word of God. It isn’t enough just to know that God is, unless you know who He is and what it is that He desires. So, the consciousness of God is to lead men to find the revelation of God that is specific. By gradual steps, God revealed Himself in special revelation.”1 But why did God choose to write down his revelation to us in a book. Couldn’t He have done it in some other way? Yes, and He did in the past before the Scriptures were complete through such means as prophecy, dreams, visions, directly speaking to man, and even miracles. But now that His revelation is complete, He chose to have it written down for several important reasons.
First, written revelation is much more efficient than oral and once it is written it can’t be changed. Second, a written record groups all the messages from God together and makes it much easier to refer back to. Third, God wanted His revelation written down because in this way it would serve to be independent of the orator or writer. For example, if the writer were to die his words would still live on. Fourth, the Bible could travel throughout time and to every place on earth in written form. In another devotion we will share why you can trust a 2,000-year-old book even today, but for now we should be grateful that the Bible has this quality of mobility. And fifth, a written record allows God to write down and leave us with all the revelation we need to discover that we are sinners and need a Savior – Jesus Christ.
I don’t know about you but I am so grateful that God has left us with the ultimate guidebook on how to lead a godly life, know intimate details about who God is, and shows us the way to find our way back to God. Natural revelation showcases the glory of God but special revelation revives us from spiritual deadness unto spiritual life through Jesus Christ.
1 John MacArthur, Jr., Is the Bible Reliable? (Panorama City, CA: Word of Grace Communications, 1982), p. 26.