tohuvabohu

Series | Inside the Walls

Previously I asked, Why does God reveal truth? And what do we learn about authority by how God used His? The answer has far reaching implications.

God used His authority to reveal truth because the essence of authority, the way the Triune God really is, is to expose Himself, share Himself, and invite us into an intimate relationship with Him to share His joy. The truth, as revealed by God, is that true authority gives, overflows, and participates. The essence of true authority, therefore, is not distance, isolation, and demands.

Let’s see if we can blow away some of the smoke and see God’s revealed truth about revealed truth and what authority is good for. Today we’ll look at the first of four aspects of God’s revelation.

Creation

The mere fact of creation shows the reality of God’s eagerness to share Himself, and of God’s giving, overflowing use of authority. As Carl Henry wrote in his work, God, Revelation, and Authority, God gave up His privacy, and the thing He gave most was Himself. Henry’s first thesis was:

Revelation is a divinely initiated activity, God’s free communication by which he alone turns his personal privacy into a deliberate disclosure of his reality. (Vol. 2, 17)

There are things about an infinite God that are mysterious, yes.1 There are things that are above and beyond us because God didn’t make us gods. But He did make us to know Him, learn about Him in creation, learn about Him in providence, learn about Him in His Incarnation, and learn about Him in His Word. Revelation, giving us truth, opens Himself to us.

The way God created and revealed truth also shows the giving nature of authority. His first five and a half days of work prepared a glorious place for the crown of creation. He formed and filled a pristine, lush, and repeatedly “good” home for man. God interrupted Adam, parading all the animals before him, to teach Adam that he was alone. Adam didn’t even know what he was missing because he was busy enjoying all the other good gifts.

God also gave man purpose: to be bear His image in responsibility and in relationships. His authority overflowed as He shared His image; He didn’t distance Himself from men or take things from them to prove His superior position. The way things really are, the truth, is that God shares the best things with His creation.

That includes Himself. The pre-fall relationship between God and man was about sharing fellowship, not filling Adam’s mind with footnotes for a systematic theology book. The serpent’s lie was that God was holding something back with His authority. The truth is, God was giving them life. Disobedience took fellowship and life away.

Knowledge is not enough when it comes to the truth (revelation) of creation. It is inadequate to say that God revealed truth simply so that others could know it. Adam didn’t stop knowing the truth when he disobeyed, he stopped the enjoyment of God in truth. The truth is that knowing truth is not the end. The demons know the truth, things as they really are. More than that, every man knows the truth. According to Romans 1, all men know the truth and “suppress” it (1:18).

For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 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. (1:19-20)

They know who He really is. So what is their problem? It isn’t a knowledge problem.

For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him. (1:21a)

How they responded to what they knew, dare we say, how they felt about the truth, was the problem. Failure to thankfully worship brought the revelation of wrath. What is implied about revelation is that the reality of things is that God is so open and giving that it is totally unacceptable to reject it.

The truth expects the right response. But the expectation is not a taking expectation, it is a giving expectation. It expects us to receive what is given, not that we have to give something. Truth invites life, and life abundant. Creation reveals the truth that God, in His supreme authority, invites us to relationship with Himself and with each other. Sin ruined the fellowship, but God gave His only Son that we might have it again.