Understand How God Reveals Himself

Last week, I was reading Paul Tripp’s Everyday Gospel and read these words:

“It can be a bit overwhelming to think that in God’s world, there is no end to knowing. You and I will never know enough; we will never be able to say, ‘I know everything.’ This is why we must understand what is important and to know what is not. You and I have a limited amount of time and limited mental capacity, so what we commit ourselves to know is significant and life-shaping.”[1]

Everything we learn about God is significant and life-shaping. As Christians, we go to the Bible because it reveals what is important for us to know about Him.

God reveals Himself in specific ways, and it’s essential to understand how the Bible explains this. In this article, we’ll discuss how God reveals Himself and what the terms special revelation, general revelation, and common grace mean.

General revelation and special revelation are two ways in which God reveals truth about Himself. While general revelation emphasizes God's divine greatness, absolute power, and infinite wisdom, special revelation clearly reveals the triune God's distinctions and characteristics.[2]

God’s special revelation is His written Word and is inspired directly by Him to be “useful for teaching, reproof, correction, and training in righteousness, so the man of God is complete, equipped for every good work” (2 Tim. 3:16-17). Scripture reveals God to His Church in order to declare His will and to preserve and propagate the truth for the establishment of the Church against the corruption of the flesh, the maliciousness of Satan, and the sinfulness of the world. Special revelation is necessary for His people to understand who He is and His will for their lives.[3] The Bible contains all the guidance needed for the “continuous living of the Christian life.” If there are rules to be followed that speak to how to glorify God, the Bible states them. If there are no stated rules, the Christian is at liberty to adhere to the general principles that Scripture provides. God does not guide people directly without using the Scriptures.[4]

God explains general revelation several times in the Bible. Psalm 19:1-2 explains, “The heavens declare the glory of God and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. Day to day pours out speech and night to night reveals knowledge.” In Romans, we read, “For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse” (Romans 1:20-21). I appreciate how Author Wayne Grudem explains general revelation. He writes, “For those who have the eyes to see and evaluate the evidence correctly, every leaf on every tree, every blade of grass, and every other part of creation all cry out continuously ‘God made me!’”[5] We can best describe general revelation as God’s declaration to His creation that He exists.

Common grace is a kind and gracious gift of provision from God to all people, believers and unbelievers alike. In explaining common grace, Matthew 5:27 states that God “makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.” Because of God’s common grace to this world, human beings, even those who do not follow Christ as their Lord, can have some understanding of truth and exhibit intelligence and understanding. God has allowed mankind to grow in knowledge, which can be used to investigate the universe and subdue the earth. Common grace allows for discoveries and inventions, the ability to develop the earth’s resources, and the ability for people to have skills in their work.

There is a clear difference between revelation and common grace. While special revelation and general revelation are each revealed truth from God, common grace is not revelation. Common grace is a blessing from God that, among other things, allows for discoveries by both the saved and the unsaved. It is important to reiterate that it is only the truth that is revealed by God that is inerrant. L. Russ Bush writes, “Truth cannot be finally located in the individual human mind. Truth is located in the character of God. Unfortunately, even the superior human intelligence standing alone may fail. Only God and His Word may be properly thought of as infallible.”[6] Discoveries made by man are distorted by his sinfulness and, therefore, are not inerrant or inspired as God’s revelation always is.

 Everything we know about Christianity and living a life that glorifies God has been revealed to us by Him. RC Sproul warns us that it is foolish to have idle speculation about God. The only way to know him in truth, to know Him completely, is to rely on what He tells us about Himself in Scripture.[7]

[1] Paul David Tripp, Everyday Gospel: A Daily Devotional Connecting Scripture to All of Life (Wheaton IL, Crossway, 2024), 33.

[2] Louis Berkhof, Systematic Theology (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1996), 136.

[3] G.I. Williamson, The Westminster Confession of Faith: For Study Classes (Philadelphia: Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing, 1964), 1.

[4] Paul Woolley, “The Relevancy of Scripture,” N.B. Stonehouse and Paul Woolley eds. The Infallible Word: A Symposium by the Members of the Faculty of Westminster Theological Seminary 2nd ed., (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing, 1967 &2002), 199-200.

[5] Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2000), 142.

[6] L. Russ Bush. “Understanding Biblical Inerrancy,” The Southwestern Journal of Theology 50.1 (2007): 30.

[7] R.C. Sproul, Essential Truths of the Christian Faith (Wheaton IL: Tyndale House,1992), 3.