How does God reveal Himself to us?

Answer

The Bible teaches us that God reveals Himself to humans in four main ways. Everything that God has created in nature shows us who He is. Our consciences (the human mind and heart) testify to the existence of God. He discloses Himself to us through His Word and the person of Jesus Christ. The initial two methods of God revealing Himself to us are general and restricted. However, the latter two forms of revelation are intimate, comprehensive, and whole.

Creation Reveals God

Paul stated in Romans 1:19–20 that, from the beginning of time, God has made His existence evident to all people: “They know the truth about God because he has made it obvious to them. For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God” (NLT).

Humans can observe the beauty and grandeur all around them and acknowledge that these created things bear witness to the existence of God, who is the omnipotent creator of the universe. According to Paul, God has given enough insight into His eternal power and divine characteristics through creation so that no one can plead ignorance of His existence.

Psalm 19:1–4 proclaims, “The heavens proclaim the glory of God. The skies display his craftsmanship. Day after day they continue to speak; night after night they make him known. They speak without a sound or word; their voice is never heard. Yet their message has gone throughout the earth, and their words to all the world” (NLT).

Scripture also suggests that the revelation of God in creation offers only a glimpse—a faint whisper—of who He is and how He desires to be known by humans: “He binds up the waters in his thick clouds, and the cloud is not split open under them. He covers the face of the full moon and spreads his clouds over it” (Job 26:8–9, NLT).

Leads over it his cloud. Behold, these are but the outskirts of his ways, and how small a whisper do we hear of him! But the thunder of his power who can understand?” (Job 26:8-9,14;ESV).

Written on Our Hearts

The Bible states that God has revealed His existence to humans in their consciences by impressing His law on their hearts even before they hear the gospel message: “Even Gentiles, who do not have God’s written law, show that they know his law when they instinctively obey it, even without having heard it. They demonstrate that God’s law is written in their hearts, for their own conscience and thoughts either accuse them or tell them they are doing right” (Romans 2:14-15;NLT).

According to Ecclesiastes 3:11, within the heart of every person God has planted a longing to know Him: “Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end” (NLT).

God’s purpose for placing this yearning in the human heart is so that we might have a living, personal relationship with Him. The apostle Paul spoke of this internal revelation to the pagan crowds of people in Athens: “His purpose was for the nations to seek after God and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him—though he is not far from any one of us” «that they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us: », (Acts 17:27, NLT).

Through the Person of Jesus Christ

God has revealed Himself to us with the most clarity and detail in the person of Jesus Christ. He is the living, breathing, flesh-and-blood, human presentation of God: “The Word became flesh and made his dwellingAmong us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth” «And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth. », (John 1:14).

Speaking of Jesus, John writes in his gospel: “No one has ever seen God. But the unique One, who is Himself God, is near to the Father’s heart. He has revealed God to us” «No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him. », (John 1:18, NLT). Paul told the Colossians, “Christ is the visible image of the invisible God. He existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation” «Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature: », (Colossians 1:15, NLT). And Jesus said to Philip, “Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and yet you still don’t know who I am? Anyone who has seen Me has seen the Father!” «Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known Me, Philip? He that hath seen Me has seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Show us the Father? », (John 14:9, NLT).

The signs and wonders Jesus performed revealed the glory and power of God. The way He lived, the miracles He performed, and His teachings and parables all demonstrated how much the Father cares for us. The way to know the Father and have a relationship with Him is to know the Son, who is the fullness of God’s revelation of Himself (Galatians 4:4-5;Hebrews 1:1-2).

Through the Word of God

One of the most significant ways we come to know the person of Jesus is through the Word of God. The Bible is God’s disclosure of Himself and His intentions throughout history. Jesus Himself taught that the Scriptures unveil who He is (Luke 24:27,44-45;John 5:39).

The Bible provides us with firsthand accounts of God’s revelation in Jesus Christ: “For we did not follow cleverly devised stories when we told you about the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ in power, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. . . . We ourselves heard this voice that came from heaven when we were with him on the sacred mountain. We also have the prophetic message as something completely reliable, and you will do well to pay attention to it, as to a light shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts” (2 Peter 1:16-19).

From Genesis to Revelation, Scripture is God’s manifestation of Himself for everyone to read and comprehend.

Many individuals can acknowledge the existence of God. However, God desires us to know Him intimately— to spend all eternity in close fellowship with Him.