God reveals himself in three main ways: through creation, through the Bible, and through Jesus. Creation shows everyone that God exists and that he is powerful. The Bible is God’s inspired, trustworthy Word that tells us who he is and how to know him. And Jesus is God in the flesh, the clearest picture of God we will ever see. We can only know God because he chose to make himself known.
Why Start With Revelation?
Welcome to Sys Theo, a 13-lesson journey through the essentials of systematic theology. Theology is simply the study of God and his truth. Systematic theology organizes what the whole Bible teaches about a topic so we can understand it clearly and live it out.
We start with revelation because everything else depends on it. If God is infinite and we are finite, we could never figure him out on our own. We would know very little about him unless he chose to show us. The good news is that God wants to be known, and he has made himself known in three primary ways.
1. General Revelation: God in Creation
God has revealed himself through the world he made. Theologians call this general revelation, because it is available to everyone, everywhere. You don’t need a Bible to look at the stars and sense that someone is behind it all.
Psalm 19:1-2 The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they reveal knowledge.
Paul says this evidence is so clear that nobody can claim ignorance about God’s existence and power.
Romans 1:20 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.
But general revelation has limits. Creation can tell us that God exists and that he is powerful and wise. It can’t reveal that God is a Trinity, or that he became human in Jesus. Staring at the grandeur of the heavens can’t tell us how to be made right with God. For that, we need God to speak.
2. Special Revelation: God in the Bible
The Bible is called special revelation. Through it, God tells us what we could never discover on our own. Here are nine important truths about the Bible as the Word of God.
Inspiration
Every book of the Bible has two authors: divine and human. God didn’t dictate the words like a boss to a secretary. Instead, he worked through each writer’s personality, intellect, and culture so that every word they wrote was also his Word (2 Peter 1:21). Jesus himself quoted David and said David was “speaking by the Holy Spirit” (Mark 12:36).
2 Timothy 3:16-17 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
Inerrancy
In its original manuscripts, the Bible doesn’t affirm anything that is contrary to fact. It doesn’t speak on every topic, but wherever it speaks, what it says is true. That reflects God’s character, because God cannot lie (Hebrews 6:18).
Authority
Because the Bible is God’s Word, it is our ultimate source of truth and our final authority for what we believe and how we live. To disbelieve the Bible is to disbelieve God (Luke 24:25). To disobey the Bible is to disobey God (2 Peter 3:2).
Reliability
Has the Bible been corrupted over the centuries? We don’t have the original manuscripts, but we have strong reasons to trust the Bibles we hold today:
- Careful transmission. The scribes who copied Scripture held themselves to extremely high standards. The copying mistakes we can find are obvious slips of the eye or pen, and no intentional corruption has ever been demonstrated.
- Consistency over time. When the Isaiah scroll was found among the Dead Sea Scrolls, it was nearly 1,000 years older than the oldest manuscript of Isaiah known before. Yet the two were almost identical.
- Abundant evidence. Thousands of manuscripts exist, some very ancient. By comparing them, scholars can establish a reliable text.
Clarity
Not everything in the Bible is equally easy to grasp. But the biblical authors expected ordinary people to understand and act on their words (Deuteronomy 6:6-7). Everything a person needs for salvation and the Christian life can be understood by anyone who reads the Bible, asks for God’s help, and is willing to follow it.
Necessity
We need the Bible. Without it, no one can know how to be right with God, how to maintain a relationship with him, or what he desires of us. Jesus said we live “on every word that comes from the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4).
Sufficiency
The Bible is enough. It contains everything we need God to reveal for our salvation (2 Timothy 3:15) and for a life that honors him (Psalm 119:9). We don’t need to treat any other source of truth or guidance as equal to the Bible on any matter it addresses.
Efficacy
The Bible has power to accomplish God’s purposes (Isaiah 55:10-11). It’s more than words on a page. Through it, the Holy Spirit transforms the mind and heart (Psalm 19:7-11).
Hebrews 4:12 For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.
Canonicity
Is the Bible we have complete? The word “canon” means a rule or standard. The early church didn’t create the canon. It recognized which books were inspired by God and rejected others, based on five tests:
- Universality. Was it accepted by the whole body of believers?
- Apostolic origin. Was it written by a known prophet or apostle, or a close associate who reflected an apostle’s perspective?
- Orthodoxy. Is it consistent with the rest of Scripture (Deuteronomy 13:1-3)?
- Divine efficacy. Did its message have life-changing power?
- Antiquity. Did it come from biblical times, or was it written long afterward?
3. God Revealed in Jesus
The final and greatest way God has revealed himself is through Jesus Christ. In Jesus, God became human and lived among us.
John 1:18 No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known.
When Philip asked Jesus to show them the Father, Jesus replied, “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14:9). The book of Hebrews explains that God spoke in many ways in the past, but now he has spoken through his Son.
Hebrews 1:1-3 In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom also he made the universe. The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.
So God’s greatest self-revelation isn’t a book. It’s a person. Yet the two work together. The Bible is how we know Jesus, because it reveals his person and his work. And Jesus affirmed the authority of the Bible. That’s why sound theology is built on what the Bible says as the final word on what we believe and teach.
The Takeaway
God reveals himself through creation, through the Bible, and through Jesus. Creation tells us God exists. The Bible, God’s inspired, true, and sufficient Word, tells us who he is and what he has done. And Jesus shows us God’s heart in person. Because God has spoken, we don’t have to guess what he is like. In Lesson 3, we’ll look at what the Bible reveals about God’s nature.
