Most Americans still say they believe in God. But which God? The one who has actually revealed Himself — or a god stitched together from personal experience, cultural assumptions, and wishful thinking?
Here’s the problem: we can’t believe in a caricature of God and still understand the gospel. The gospel’s metanarrative is His Story, and it opens with a declaration of who He is — revealed through both general and special revelation.
Postmodernism insists there’s no single story that explains reality, only competing stories shaped by culture, perspective, and power. But if God has actually revealed Himself, then there is an overarching Story, and postmodernism’s central claim falls apart. God’s Story is the antidote to the pathogen of postmodernism.
Christianity is unique among the world’s religions for exactly this reason: it doesn’t begin with humanity searching for God. It begins with God revealing Himself.
The biblical story turns on two great realities: who God is, and what God is doing. These two threads run through every page of Scripture. The Bible wasn’t primarily written as a theological encyclopedia — it’s the unfolding story of God’s self-revelation.
Scripture touches on plenty of topics, but it was never meant to be a textbook on history, science, or philosophy. It was written to tell His Story, so we could answer three questions:
- Who is this one God who created everything? What is He like?
- Why did He create it? What’s His purpose?
- How do we fit in? What’s our place in His story?
The Bible tells us everything we need to know about God for faith and obedience — but not everything that’s true about God. When Scripture speaks to a topic, it speaks accurately and adequately, but not comprehensively. John makes this explicit at the end of his Gospel, admitting that what he’s written about Jesus doesn’t come close to the whole story (John 21:25).
So to understand the God of the Bible, we need both general and special revelation.
General revelation is what we can know about God from what He’s made. Special revelation is what we can know only from Scripture. Think of general revelation as the overture to an opera — it sets the stage, gives everyone a starting point, and special revelation fills in the rest.
David puts it this way in Psalm 19: “The heavens declare the glory of God and the skies display His craftsmanship.” Creation, he says, is God’s universal language — available to every person who’s ever lived. It doesn’t reveal everything about God, but it’s the starting point for what comes next.
Paul makes a similar claim in Romans: “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” (Romans 1:20).
As the biblical story unfolds, we get sharper and sharper clarity on those three questions. Later revelation doesn’t contradict earlier revelation — it deepens it. The Trinity is a good example: what’s only hinted at in the Old Testament comes into full focus in the New.
Think of it like a sunrise. At dawn you can see enough to know where you are, but as the sun climbs, more of the landscape comes into view. Early revelation is true but incomplete. Later revelation doesn’t overturn it — it fills it in.
What Creation Reveals About Its Creator
Creation reflects something of its Creator’s nature — the way any work of art reflects its artist. Stand in front of Michelangelo’s David, and you learn something about the mind behind it. Creation works the same way, if we’re willing to look.
1. God is eternal. Everything in creation had a beginning. The universe points beyond itself to an uncreated Creator. “Before the mountains were born or you brought forth the whole world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God” (Psalm 90:2). Creation tells us God exists outside the universe, independent of it.
2. God is sovereign. Creation obeys God’s command. Throughout Scripture, winds, seas, stars, and seasons answer to Him. The universe isn’t self-governing — it’s sustained by its Creator, who owns it and holds authority over it. Creation is subject to Him, dependent on Him for its very existence.
3. God is immensely powerful. The sheer size of the universe speaks of power beyond imagining — galaxies spanning millions of light-years, energy locked inside a single atom. Creation whispers, and sometimes shouts, that its Maker’s power has no limit. As Jeremiah wrote: “Ah, Sovereign LORD, you have made the heavens and the earth by your great power… Nothing is too hard for you” (Jeremiah 32:17).
4. God is wise. You see it in the beauty of creation. Beauty isn’t necessary for survival — sunsets, flowers, birdsong, coral reefs, snowflakes, butterflies, mountain ranges, galaxies. None of it had to be beautiful. It reveals a Creator who delights in beauty for its own sake. When God finished creating, He didn’t just move on — He called it good, again and again.
You see His wisdom in order, too. The regularity of the seasons, gravity, chemistry, mathematics — all of it reflects a God who delights in consistency, not confusion.
5. He is relational. The climax of creation isn’t a thing — it’s people. Human beings, made in God’s image as male and female, capable of love, fellowship, language, creativity, community. Even before sin entered the picture, God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone” (Genesis 2:18).
Our relationships reflect something true about God Himself. Relationship isn’t something God invented for our benefit — it exists eternally within God.
Where General Revelation Reaches Its Limits
Here’s a shorthand some theologians use: general revelation reveals God’s existence and attributes; special revelation reveals God’s character and redemptive purpose. French theologian John Calvin’s image is a good one — Scripture works like a pair of spectacles, bringing into sharp focus what nature shows us only as a blur.
Nature can tell us a designer is powerful and orderly. It can’t tell us that designer is love — that He pursues covenant relationships, that He’s patient with sinners. Nature tells us God exists. Scripture tells us His name, His heart, His purposes, His covenants, and His Son.
And the final word on God’s nature comes through His Son. Jesus claimed that if you’ve seen Him, you’ve seen the Father.
Jesus didn’t come to replace the God of the Old Testament — He came to reveal Him fully. “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14:9). The God revealed in Jesus is the same God who called Abraham, spoke through Moses, and covenanted with Israel. As Malachi put it, “I the LORD do not change” (Malachi 3:6).
Summary
God reveals Himself because He wants to be known. From creation to covenant, from prophets to apostles, and finally through His Son, God takes the initiative to make Himself known to the people He made.
Creation tells us something real about God — but not everything we need. It reveals His power, wisdom, generosity, and glory. It tells us He exists and deserves worship. What it can’t tell us is that
- God is triune
- the Son became incarnate
- God loves broken humanity
- God’s grace extends to rebellious sinners
- the redemptive love of God is unmerited
The gospel narrative is grounded in the nature of the Triune God. The one God exists as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, as the Apostles’ Creed affirms — the uncaused cause of all things, the source and sovereign ruler of everything He made. Through general and special revelation, we learn He is relational, rational, gracious, holy, and just — His glory magnified most vividly in the life and work of His Son, Jesus.
Redemption isn’t the center of the biblical story. God is. Redemption reveals His glory, displays His character, advances His eternal purpose. The gospel doesn’t begin with our need — it begins with the God who has made Himself known.
For Reflection
- What people, experiences, or cultural influences have most shaped your mental picture of God?
- How does postmodernism’s rejection of an overarching story conflict with the biblical claim that God has revealed Himself?
- Why is it important to begin the gospel with who God is rather than with human sin or need?
- How does Scripture bring greater clarity to what creation reveals?
- What does progressive revelation mean, and how does the sunrise illustration help explain it?
- Why is it important to reject the idea that the God of the Old Testament is different from the God revealed in Jesus?