However it is assembled, however it reaches us, knowledge of God is never merely discovered or found. Because people are, first, finite and, second, fallen, all true knowledge of God is totally reliant on Divine self-revelation. Until God unveils himself, tells us about himself, we cannot know him. But the purpose of revelation reaches far beyond the mere transfer of information. When God speaks, he does not simply add to the store of what we know; he acts upon us, changing our standing before him and our understanding of ourselves. The impact of revelation may be gathered under three heads: it reconciles, it summons, and it grants us self-knowledge along with the knowledge of God.

Reconciliation

Because we are creatures, and so by definition finite, humanity cannot find God independently, as it were, behind his back or without his allowance. He must find us – or at least decide to be found by us. ‘We do not know God against his will … but in accordance with the way in which he has elected to disclose himself and communicate his truth.’¹Thomas F. Torrance, Divine Meaning, 5. In terms of motivation and means, then, revelation is grounded in God’s very nature.

Because we are sinful, fallen creatures, when God discloses himself, he acts in mercy, graciously, lovingly, and sacrificially. Bound into God finding us by revelation, bound into God’s communication initiative, is God’s work of reconciliation. Revelation is communication of the Divine character and will and, as such, revelation is part and parcel of God’s reconciling and redemptive purpose. Another way of putting the matter is to say that when God makes himself known, offering himself to human knowledge, the kind of knowledge of himself and of his will that he reveals is saving knowledge, knowledge that delivers from evil and its effects. Now, the greatest of evils is fundamental hostility to God, and so to deliver us from such hostility and its consequences, God’s revelation is a saving revelation, a revelation which effects reconciliation. That is how revelation designs to affect us and that is its permanent focus and supreme goal.²‘God has revealed something of himself; but he has not done so to satisfy our curiosity, he has not revealed the whole of his will, and he most certainly has not revealed himself as he knows himself — this is not revealed and is not revealable’ (Helm, Calvin at the Centre, 11). In the Bible, when God provides reliable information about himself, the effect is to grant us knowledge of him as our Creator, as our Lord, and, most importantly, to give knowledge of him as our Saviour. In saving and reconciling, the revelation of God puts one on the path to ultimate perfection.

Command and Summons

Having said this, as much as God’s revelation being his gracious invitation, address, offer, and enabling for endless and exciting new possibilities, it is also effectively God’s call, command, and corrective. Revelation is not a negotiation. We are at his mercy. The framing and sequencing of God’s speech, however conveyed, takes the form of summons. Divine revelation to human beings directs them to faith and repentance, causes trust and obedience, and so summons them into a God-human relationship, for salvation and to service.

Whilst God’s enemies deny and repel God’s call and claim, their eventual overthrow will, regardless, result in obeisance. Revelation effects either repentance (positive reception) or judgment (negative non-reception). The preaching of the gospel brings either ‘to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life’ (2 Cor 2:14-17). Against this background, it is the worship of God that is revelation’s intended effect. Yet the summons to bend the knee in worship of God achieves our highest good — fellowship, relationship – union and communion with God himself.

Knowing God, We Also Know Ourselves

Moreover, when God speaks, when God acts, making himself known, revealing himself, who he is, what he is like, what he has done, at the same time, God reveals who we are and what we are like, what we must do. When God tells us of himself, he by definition tells us of ourselves, about our nature, our status, our powers, our identity, our purpose, and our destiny in relation to him. This is what Divine Revelation does. In generating knowledge of God, God generates knowledge of ourselves. The point is that knowledge of God and knowledge of ourselves is reciprocal. In gaining knowledge of him, we gain knowledge of us. In causing us to know him, God causes us to know ourselves and each other. In coming to a true knowledge of God, a person comes to genuine knowledge of his or herself. As God leads us ‘by the hand to find him,’³John Calvin, Institutes, 1.1.1; Battles, 37. For Calvin, the particular kind of self-knowledge that leads to God is knowledge of our fallenness and, therefore, awareness of profound and pressing need (see Paul Helm, Calvin: A Guide for the Perplexed, 24-25). Calvin likely drew and developed his notion of knowledge of God and ourselves from Augustine, Confessions 10.3.3 and Soliloquies 1 (see Paul Helm, Calvin at the Centre, 6). we are led to know ourselves; and that is certainly no small thing.

Here, then, the impact of Divine revelation shows its full shape. It reconciles what was estranged, restoring hostile creatures to their Creator and Saviour. It summons what was wayward, directing us to faith, repentance, obedience, fellowship, and worship. And it illuminates what was hidden from us about ourselves, so that the knowledge of God and the knowledge of the self arise together. Revelation is never a matter of bare data to be filed away. It is God finding us, addressing us, and — in the very act of making himself known — remaking us into people who can call upon him as Father.

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• 1
  Thomas F. Torrance, Divine Meaning, 5.
• 2
  ‘God has revealed something of himself; but he has not done so to satisfy our curiosity, he has not revealed the whole of his will, and he most certainly has not revealed himself as he knows himself — this is not revealed and is not revealable’ (Helm, Calvin at the Centre, 11).
• 3
  John Calvin, Institutes, 1.1.1; Battles, 37. For Calvin, the particular kind of self-knowledge that leads to God is knowledge of our fallenness and, therefore, awareness of profound and pressing need (see Paul Helm, Calvin: A Guide for the Perplexed, 24-25). Calvin likely drew and developed his notion of knowledge of God and ourselves from Augustine, Confessions 10.3.3 and Soliloquies 1 (see Paul Helm, Calvin at the Centre, 6).