The Glorious Revealing of our Glorious God: Open Your Bible Week Two

As we are working through the Open Your Bible series, there's one topic that is covered in Week Two that I couldn't let pass by without stopping for a bit to explain. (If you're studying with us, check out page 20.)

I think that we'd all agree that God is pretty mysterious, right? You can live an entire lifetime growing closer to him and you'd only know just a small part of Him. He wants us to seek him and find him and know him more as he reveals himself to us.

First of all, a technical definition of the revelation of God is this:  an uncovering, a removal of the veil, a disclosure of what was previously unknown. More specifically, God’s manifestation of himself to humankind in such a way that men and women can know and have fellowship with him.

In real-life terms, God’s revelation is the way he shows himself to us in a way that we can know Him more and grow in our relationship with him. 

We’re going to go pretty deep for a few minutes, so brace yourselves! 

There are two generally accepted ways that God reveals himself to us. The first is through general revelation, also sometimes called natural revelation. This is when God reveals Himself to us through creation. Psalm 19:1 says “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.” We stand in awe of God’s creation because it is tangible evidence of his existence and his care for us.  Romans 1:20 says “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.” All of creation testifies and proclaims the glory of God.

The other type of revelation is called special revelation. While general revelation through creation is available to all people, God’s special revelation is a bit different. It is available to specific people at specific places and specific times. Let’s think of this type of revelation as having three stages.

The first is Jesus. God revealed himself to a specific group and number of people during a specific time period while Jesus walked the earth. This was very specific revelation. 

The second stage of revelation is Scripture. God has revealed himself through his written word, the Bible. Because Scripture is whole and complete and inerrant, we have everything that God intended to reveal to us at our fingertips on the pages of Scripture.

The third stage of revelation is the illumination brought by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit helps us understand the written words that God has given us on the pages of Scripture. 

Not many of us would disagree with the idea that creation proclaims the glory of God or that Jesus is the perfect revelation of God or that God has revealed himself to us through his Word. It’s that third stage that we tend to have differing views on - the illumination of the Holy Spirit. Here’s what I believe this part of God’s special revelation boils down to.

For Non-Believers: The first thing the Holy Spirit does for the non-believer is bring about a conviction of sin. If you’ve never given your life to Jesus, gotten saved, asked Jesus into your heart…If you’ve never made Jesus your boss, there’s no time like the present. I’d love to talk to you more about that and start with you on your journey hearing God speak to you and following Him in obedience.

For Believers: Have you ever read a passage of Scripture that you’ve read a hundred times before, only to read it the 101^st time and learn something completely brand new? Have you ever had a teacher point out something from Scripture that you’d never realized before? The Holy Spirit opens our eyes to the truths of Scripture in new and fresh ways all the time. Sometimes you read something from Scripture that seems to apply exactly to the situation you are in at the time. This is the illumination that the Holy Spirit brings.

There will surely be those of you that disagree with me on this - and that’s ok! My beliefs line right up with the idea that God has revealed everything He is going to reveal in Scripture. The Holy Spirit illuminates and guides and confirms the Scripture but does not reveal anything new. It’s ok if you disagree as long as you can back it up with Scripture! 

John MacArthur teaches, “The orthodox teaching of Christianity has always affirmed that God’s special, saving revelation to mankind is restricted to the teachings of the Scriptures.” He also says, “Scripture is a closed system of truth, complete, sufficient, and not to be added to (Revelation 22:18–19). It contains all the spiritual truth God intended to reveal.”

I love the quote on page 22 of Open Your Bible by Kevin DeYoung. “You do not need another special revelation from God outside the Bible. You can listen to the voice of God every day. Christ still speaks, because the Spirit has already spoken. If you want to hear from God, go to the book that records only what he has said. Immerse yourself in the word of God. You will not find anything more sure.” 

I also love the Scripture referenced on page 27, 1 John 2:27. “But the anointing that you received from him abides in you, and you have no need that anyone should teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about everything, and is true, and is no lie - just as it has taught you, abide in him.” The question on page 27 says “Is it possible for a person to sit down by herself and be taught the truth from God’s Word?” I hope you answered with a FIRM YES. 

We (as believers) have every bit of God’s revelation at our disposal. We have his general revelation - all of creation. And we have his special revelation - Scripture illuminated by the Holy Spirit. We don’t need any other thing. We don’t need any book, blog, teacher, friend, pastor, article, prophecy or any other thing to help us understand who God is and what He wants us to know. We have everything we need at our fingertips in the complete, perfect Word of God. So I challenge you today to seek him and find him and know him more as he reveals himself to you!

The Surpassing Worth of Knowing Christ Jesus: Open Your Bible!

If you were to take stock of the number of Bibles in my home, I'm sure the number would be at least in the twenties. We've got the ESV, NIV, KJV, NASB, HCSB, The Message, children's Bibles, New Testaments, study Bibles and Bibles on every computer and mobile device. I am a Bible teacher and I am married to a Bible preacher. I was born and raised with a Bible in my hand and could hold my own in any Bible drill or Scripture memory contest. I truly, honestly, totally LOVE God's Word.

So WHY, oh WHY do I fail to read it every day?

Here's the answer I've come up with (and it hurts): I just really don't want to.

I have a feeling I'm not alone here. In fact, I know I'm not. I sat with two other precious, godly ladies in our Bible study group on Wednesday who confessed to the same sin. We don't read our Bibles daily. We had a bunch of reasons, most of which revolved around young children in our homes and busy-ness and exhaustion. One even confessed that she set up a notification on her phone's Bible app that reminds her each day to read her Bible, but she often swipes it away and heads to Facebook instead. She's not alone either. I can relate.

In the interest of full disclosure: I haven't read my Bible today. Right now cartoons are blaring from the tv and with four kids home for the summer, someone keeps needing something every few seconds. Kids. I usually fill my days with appointments and errands and mothering. Busy. I'll go to bed and honestly I'm not sure if I'll read before bed either. Tired.

When you sift through all of the lame excuses and get to the heart of this particular issue, you'll find that the reason I don't open my Bible every day actually has nothing to do with my kids or that I'm too busy or that I'm too tired. It's that I value other things over God's Word. Stupid things like social media and tv and chores and hobbies. Good things like my husband and children and church and home. Remember what Paul says about that?

Did you catch that? EVERYTHING is loss next to Jesus. The bad things and the good things - All are loss compared to knowing Jesus. That means those precious kids He has entrusted to me on this earth are LOSS compared with Jesus. The items on my to-do list are worthless next to Him. Every excuse I can come up with for not seeking to know Him more is absolutely stupid because none of them can explain away the fact that ultimately I just put everything else before Jesus. It kills me to type that out in black and white.

But as they say, the first step to healing is admitting you need help, right? So would you join me in this journey to open the Bible? I won't get it right 100% of the time and neither will you. But if we can begin to take steps that bring us closer to Jesus, we will discover the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus. And just like Paul, I'm convinced that everything else is loss because of the worth of knowing Him.

So guess what I just did? I ignored the cartoons blaring and the steady stream of questions and needs from the kids. I put my to-do list aside for just a minute and I opened my Bible. Technically, I opened another window on my computer, but hey, it's the Bible! Are you on the computer right now? Your phone? Your tablet? I bet if you take just a minute, you can switch over to the Bible too! So, my friend, no more excuses. OPEN YOUR BIBLE!

I'll be blogging through our summer Bible study called "Open Your Bible" by Raechel Myers and Amanda Bible Williams. You can get a book from me any time if you're local or you can order one to be shipped to your doorstep from this link right here! I'd love for you to check out the She Reads Truth page to read an excerpt from this week's group time. It's so so good. Find it here.