Who has not stood awed by a mountain vista or dazzled by a sparkling sunset? Who has not seen the majesty of God as they cuddled a newborn child or been overwhelmed by the reality of God as they gazed into a starlit sky?
The psalmist knew such feelings. The opening verses of Psalm 19 declare:
The heavens are telling of the glory of God;
And their expanse is declaring the work of His hands.
Day to day pours forth speech,
And night to night reveals knowledge.
There is no speech, nor are there words;
Their voice is not heard.
Their line has gone out through all the earth,
And their utterances to the end of the world.
Voiceless though it may be, His handiwork we call nature declares the glory of God.
Centuries later the Apostle Paul picked up this theme in his letter to the Christians at Rome. In Romans 1:20, he argued, “For since the creation of the world His (God’s) invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made.”
Available to all
The Apostle Paul says God took the initiative to make Himself known in these ways (Rom. 1:19) and this knowledge of God is available to all people everywhere.
In Acts 14:17 the apostle expounds that theme in his sermon to the pagans in Lystra. There Paul declares, “He (God) did not leave Himself without witness, in that He did good and gave you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness.”
When God acts to make Himself known, that is called “revelation,” a word that means “unveiling.” Both the psalmist and Apostle Paul contend God took the initiative to make Himself known (to reveal Himself) through the created order.
Theologians call this “General Revelation.” One can see God’s power and majesty through General Revelation, even God’s artistry and creativity. Some even argue that General Revelation helps explain the worldwide phenomenon of religion and religions.
General Revelation may provide insights into God as Creator and Sustainer but it cannot provide a transforming knowledge of God’s love and grace in behalf of humanity that “exchanged the truth of God for a lie” (Rom. 1:25).
That kind of knowledge can only come from what theologians call “Special Revelation.”
Special Revelation began with God’s choice of Israel through which all humankind was to be blessed. God’s choice of Israel was a particular choice sealed with a covenant although it always looked forward to the eschatological kingdom of God.
The writer of the Book of Hebrews uses a summary statement to gather together the various ways God acted through Special Revelation to make Himself known to Israel. He writes, “In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways” (Heb. 1:1). The Old Testament records the words and deeds of the prophets; the moral mandates of the law; God’s actions in historical events; natural phenomena; divine guidance of individuals and groups, angels, dreams and visions; and more.
God readily disclosed His nature and His will to Israel because Israel was to make God known to all others.
After the summary statement with which the Book of Hebrews begins, the writer declares that God has made an ultimate Special Revelation. The author writes, “In these last days He has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world. And He (the Son) is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power” (Heb. 1:2–3a).
The Apostle John’s Gospel says, “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth” (1:14).
Both writers reference what theologians call “incarnation,” the event we celebrate at Christmas.
In Philippians 2:6–7, Paul defines incarnation when he writes of Jesus, “who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bondservant and being made in the likeness of men.”
Incarnation is the ultimate Special Revelation because the God who has always acted to make Himself known ultimately reveals Himself in human form — in the life of one individual, Jesus of Nazareth who was born in a Bethlehem stable.
Incarnation is not something concocted by the church at some theological council. It is recognition of what Jesus said about Himself. In John 6:46, Jesus declared, “No one has seen the Father except the One who is from God; only He has seen the Father.” Later, in John 10:30, Jesus said plainly, “I and the Father are one.” In John 14:9, Jesus is quoted as saying, “If you have seen Me, you have seen the Father.”
‘God was in Christ’
Is it any wonder that Paul would later write to the Corinthian Christians that “God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself” (2 Cor. 5:19)? Earlier in that same letter he wrote the “knowledge of the glory of God” could be seen “in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Cor. 4:6).
Again, this is the ultimate “Special Revelation.”
During Christmas most of us will talk about shepherds and wise men, about a tired donkey and a town crowded with tourists. We will focus on Mary, Joseph and the infant swaddled and laid in an animal’s feeding trough.
In the midst of the celebration of incarnation — of God coming in human form — let us not forget that it all happened because from the beginning God would not leave Himself without a witness in His desire to make Himself known to all people everywhere including you and me.
Perhaps it is God’s love and grace revealed in the incarnation that should leave us awed and overwhelmed.
Share with others: