This is some doctrine homework that I was told to blog, so!… here it is folks!

Revelation is a gift of grace. The kind of knowledge that comes with knowing God is not attained through human effort or wisdom. When we sin, our understanding of Him becomes so tainted. “By [our wickedness] we suppress the truth.” (Rom 1:18) All revelation points to Jesus – the living, breathing, talking revelation of exactly who God is.

He is revealed through His acts of sacrifice all throughout the written revelation of Him, the Bible. We must depend on the Lord’s communication for us that lies within the Scriptures. These revelations involve the spilling of blood from white, blameless sacrifices. We know God by speaking to Him, praying, asking Him to work in our lives and asking Him to “transform us by the renewing of our minds” so that we may know Him and that He may reveal Himself to us. To see Him, since He is holy, our hearts and minds must be in a place to see Him. There must be a removing of the veil that has been put there by our choosing sin and there needs to be “the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit” revealed to us through Jesus and justification by His grace alone.

We know Him through using our imaginations and seeing Him in that way while He changes us. We know Him through our communities. Because the Holy Spirit lives in us, we see and know Him as He lives in our friends as they empty themselves of things that are not of Him.

He is revealed in Creation and through people. He first initiates relationship with us, He first initiated with creating us and the world and creates inspiration inside of us. The Word was made flesh in the incarnation and God is shown to us through Jesus, The Son in the Trinity. He then illumines our hearts and minds to know Him more, so that our thankfulness and worship may come from a true place.

We cannot possibly know God exhaustively, for “Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgements and unfathomable His ways! For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has become His counselor?” (Rom 11:33-34) However, we can know some things about Him truly… truly, not fully. We will never run out of things to learn about Him and will never get sick of delighting ourselves in His mysteries! As well, as believers, we are able to know not just facts of God, for anyone can know facts, but we are able to know God, Himself. For He says in Jeremiah 9:23-24: “Let not a wise man boast of his wisdom, and let not the might man boast of his might, let not a rich man boast of his riches; but let him who boasts, boast of this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the Lord who exercises lovingkindness, justice and righteousness on earth; for I delight in these things.”

Our response to His character and what He is like leads us into knowing Him more and more – whole-hearted worship and service to the God who loves perfectly. As we live in community we are able to know and understand the Trinity better. He is revealed through the wonderful things He does and we know Him more as we read about Him: in the Scriptures He heals, delivers and treats His people exactly how they need to be treated.

Sincerely,
“Mercy”