To know that there is such a Being as God, and to know God Himself, are two things very distinguishable the one from the other. I might say more than this; for the revelation of the existence of God, and the revelation of the character of God, are, apart from a creature's knowledge of the one or of the other, separable.
In the abstract thought of Him as the First, as the alone I AM, God existed, in the full consciousness of His own being and of His own blessedness, when there were none to recognize His being or His blessedness save Himself alone. Revelation, in any sense in which the term may be used, seems to suppose, not only Divine existence, the evidence of itself; and an outshining of that which characterizes the Being so existing, but that there is an evidence or testimony communicable to and intelligible by other subordinate beings; that is, the existence of beings subordinate to God is supposed, directly I speak of revelation. His own being, attributes, and character existed in God before any revelation of them took place.
I need not speak now of other worlds-of angels fallen or unfallen: I would speak of this earth, and of man upon it.
The evidence to man, the testimony upon which man is held responsible to own the existence of a First Great Cause of himself and all around him, is various. He 1,5,-he has power to hold man to his responsibilities, whether man likes it or not, argues thus with man in the book which He has written: First, that creation itself, the works of creation, had at first, and-however they may have been marred-still have, a voice for God. They proclaim, and proclaim in a way that man can understand and has understood, though practically denying it all the while, the eternal power and Godhead. " That which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath showed it unto them. For the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse" (Rom. 1:18-2018For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness; 19Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath showed it unto them. 20For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse: (Romans 1:18‑20)). Man is a part of creation; he was the highest part of this earth's creation; and his existence, one's own very self, is a proof of the being of a God, as much as were man's first circumstances. And the character of his being and of his circumstances spake of goodness and beneficence, as well as of power being in the Creator. Providence, also, and the display which it makes of One who causes His sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust, and gives fruitful seasons, is a second proof which scripture gives to the being- and character, in patience, of God (Acts 14:1717Nevertheless he left not himself without witness, in that he did good, and gave us rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness. (Acts 14:17); Matt. 5:4545That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. (Matthew 5:45)).
And God has power and the intention of forcing man to recognize and to know all this, if not before in grace, then at last in judgment (Acts 17:23-3123For as I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you. 24God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands; 25Neither is worshipped with men's hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things; 26And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation; 27That 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: 28For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring. 29Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man's device. 30And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent: 31Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead. (Acts 17:23‑31)).
That Eden was the proof of eternal power and goodness as to innocent man, is plain. That a creature made to be dependent by God must be so (if God be indeed able to accomplish His own will), is clear also. And if man has renounced that position of dependence upon God, he has not changed the essential law of his being, viz. dependence-nor has he taken from his Maker the claim over him, or the intention to make that claim known; a bad conscience man has won by his revolt, and sorrow, too, in many a way.
Now, the display which God made of Himself in creation, was a display expressing itself in a creation which was all very good-all fit to be blessed by God as such. It had a voice of blessing for man made in the likeness and image of God, while he was innocent and obedient; but it had, it has, no answer to the conscience of man as a rebel-to conscience which thinks God is against man, because man has set himself against God.
Again, the patience of God in providence, and His goodness therein, have no answer to guilt in the conscience; for there is a judgment to follow, when patience has had its perfect work. And how shall I be then, when I have to give account of that which I have done? Neither creation nor providence can satisfy a sinner's conscience, can give it peace before God. And more than that-while there is but one true God (many as are the names and glories by which He displays Himself), no name, no glory of His which does not plainly show that He has stood up for me, undertaken my cause for me as a ruined sinner, ever can give my conscience peace.
Let us look at this in detail. His holiness, in driving out Cain from His presence upon earth, for the murder of Abel, and separating thus the children of Adam into two families-one in the presence of God, the other out-side of that presence-could that give Adam or Eve peace? No. Could, then, the judgment that swept the world with a deluge, saving but one small family, give to Noah peace for eternity? No: -wicked Ham was saved as well as Noah. The salvation was of a family in time, not of individuals for eternity. Could the sword of government, put into Noah's hand, give peace? No: the drunkenness in his own tent, and the rebellion of Babel's tower, proved how incompetent Noah was for the trust-how rebellious man was against the trust of government. And Abram's call out from among idolatries, to be a witness for God, while it showed that Abram had found grace before God, met not the need of his own conscience as to sin as an individual. Nor did Israel's call out of Egypt, or the Gentiles' investiture with power, as seen in the book of the prophet Daniel, or any other thing that God did, either reveal how He could be just while He would Himself justify the sinner, or that which could possibly enable a sinner, as a sinner, to get a conscience purged from guilt.
That God was saving sinners from the moment that man's history outside of Eden commenced; that He never saved but through His own estimate of the redemption by blood, the which He meant to manifest; that the blessing was communicated from God by the Spirit, who, from the beginning, wrought, if He wrought for eternity in any soul, by giving it faith in the word which God spoke-all this is clear, and not called in question. But (and this is an important thing to remark) God had, and was acting upon, plans for the earth, and His open testimony and action was for a present testimony for Himself, showing out what man was, and teaching man to know himself; the renewal of souls was a secret hidden thing, not spoken about though real; and faith had to do with the word of God and the action of God, as set forth at each succeeding period.
The more a man in Old-Testament times reasoned and thought upon the eternity connected with God-that He was from everlasting to everlasting, the more must he have felt that there was some deep enigma to be solved. "Creation is not for eternity," might Noah have said, "for the heavens and earth which were have been destroyed by a deluge; yet God is from everlasting to everlasting: providence will endure with its rain-bow while the earth lasts-but how long will that be?" "The Law," Moses might have said, "is perfect for a man upon earth,-if he can be what God describes,-but God is the God of eternity, and what lies beyond the grave?" The more all that man was, and that which characterized man's circumstances, was seen in the light of the Being of an eternal God, the more enigmatical must everything have appeared until life and immortality were brought to light by the Gospel of a crucified and risen Savior.
God was not, in Old-Testament times, showing Himself forth as a Savior God, as doing those works and accomplishing that righteousness, which at once proclaimed Him as a Savior of sinners for heaven and for eternity; and at the same time, gave a full and perfect manifestation of His character as the God of mercy and of compassion. While His works and revelation of Himself might, through faith and by the Spirit, be blessed unto eternal salvation, the drift and tendency of the revelation was rather to show out what man was-to try him and to prove him, and to make him know himself-than to show out what God was and could be and do in answer to the ruin of a creature.
" The seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent's head," was God's first testimony. It was all that Adam brought with him out of Eden. His faith had no other object to rest upon. Did he, could he, understand all that God meant when He used this enigmatical sentence? Could he even understand all that we have understood and known as true about it? Certainly not. Take but the promise (which is already made good to us) of Christ: " In that day [of His ascension] ye shall know that I am in the Father, and ye in me and I in you." Did Adam know this? No: Christ was not even come-had not died, much less was He risen from the dead and ascended up into heaven; that part of the enigma was not made good; it was not even revealed that such things were to be. Adam could not know it; and in such a vast plan as that little sentence-" the woman's seed shall bruise the serpent's head " contains-how many parts were there! God presented them, as seemed Him good, piece by piece: and, let it be observed, faith could not ever go beyond that part of His plan which God had revealed, though, while faith in man was thus limited to the parts God had revealed, and the part God was revealing, that part derived its value from its being part of the whole plan of God, the part He was revealing, the part which more especially challenged man's faith. Faith's language is uniform: " Let God be true and every man a liar"; but then, be it remembered, faith had to do with a living God, whose testimony, while it all tended to one common salvation and end, varied as to the part of that end to which it was in successive time given (see Heb. 1). Let any one read through Heb. 11, and they will see this. Each individual, almost, who is well reported of for faith-as Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, etc., etc.-had a different word to trust in.
The levity, carelessness and assumptions of which we are guilty in the things of God, are often frightful. One common instance of it has often struck me, in the way that many minds would reduce all to the same level of light and knowledge. Abraham, David, Peter, during the days of the blessed Lord's humiliation, and Paul, after the ascension of Christ, are all supposed to have been on one level as to truth and light. Now it is not much to assume that Peter, who had the light of many prophets, in addition to the light which existed in David's day, was not lower than any Jew in knowledge, and light, and power, for he was instructed, endowed for, and launched in service by the Lord Himself. But how utterly was Peter unable to enter into the most simple truths which we enjoy-the needs be of his Lord's death he could not see (Matt. 16:21-2421From that time forth began Jesus to show unto his disciples, how that he must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day. 22Then Peter took him, and began to rebuke him, saying, Be it far from thee, Lord: this shall not be unto thee. 23But he turned, and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art an offence unto me: for thou savorest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men. 24Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. (Matthew 16:21‑24)); and if His death was not seen, then surely not His resurrection either. To forego Jewish hopes of the kingdom to Israel also, even after his Lord's resurrection, he was unable (Acts 1:66When they therefore were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel? (Acts 1:6)), though the teaching of his blessed Master had been plain enough (John 14-16) about the Church which was to take Israel's place as a witness upon earth. Another thing of interest, in this connection, is the way that in. John 17 the blessed Lord, in speaking to His Father about the disciples, speaks, not according to what their measure of intelligence was, but according to that which He and His Father saw to be involved in their faith, little as it might be, and feeble as it most certainly was. (Comp. John 13; 14; 15, with John 17).
I have passed by one point to which I would return, namely, the distinction between revelation in the more general sense in which I have used it above, and the more limited and popular sense connected with the Scriptures (or written standard) of truth. Properly speaking, whatever reveals God is revelation—whatever makes known, to intelligences around and below Him, what and who He is, I should call revelation. Psalm 19 thus refers to various witnesses to Him and His glory. Creation, providence, His own conduct and words, received by living men, and handed down from Father to son among men, all revealed God, was all revelation of God and from God, before any part of Scripture was written? Popularly speaking, the term revelation is more restricted in its meaning, and confined to that Written Word which has been given to form and sustain, and be the responsibility of those living witnesses, and that chain of them that God has had for Himself upon the earth, almost from the beginning. The word spoken by God, and the word written by God, were harmoniously one; yet the Word written had peculiarities connected with the gift of it of immense moment. It is important to distinguish and to see how creation and providence are used, throughout Scripture, to convict man wherever and whatever he may be, while it is only the word spoken or written which contains the doctrine of Government and mercy, of redemption and salvation, whether for the earth in time, or for the heavens in eternity. Not that the value of the Book of Revelation is restricted to the light of these things, though that be distinctive to it and to the living witnesses whom God has raised up as depositories of its truth: the value of the book goes much further, for it explains and unfolds, in man's own language, in an intelligible way, and in a way that never varies: -the claims of God as Creator and Upholder of man, and of the earth, in patience and government; -gives the account of man's original state and rebellion against God, so as to explain all that is around and within us, and to enable us to see what God thinks about it and us, and the Power which, through the fall, got the mastery of man;-and does all this in a way divinely perfect. Creation and Providence suffice to condemn man in the arena of God's presence, may suffice to bring man in as ruined in his own conscience. But the Bible gives the Divine analysis of all, of what has been, is, and is to be; of the world, of Providence, of man, of Satan, of angels-and shows how these things, having been created for God, cannot escape from Him: but it does infinitely more-it shows how through the Second Adam, the Lord from heaven, all these things sink into and arrange themselves in one vast plan for the glorifying of Himself by redemption through His Son, and affording thereby a perfect exhibition of who and what He is-an exhibition of it to and in the joy of poor sinners saved by grace. May the Lord enable us to know the unspeakable value of the Written Word—and may He show us, not only that there is such a thing as truth; but may the Holy Ghost, Spirit of the living God, bring to bear upon our hearts individually, the truth of the person and glory of Him, who being Son of God is now also Son of Man, and is in heaven at the right hand of the Majesty on Highest—in the glory too of the Father, glory which He had with Him before the world was.
The Son of Man glorified in heaven—as Son of God and Son of the Father—and God the Holy Ghost come down here—the Church being the participant of heavenly and Divine blessing, is not twilight portion, but is as the beauty and brightness of the brightening dawn of a morning without clouds—as the clear shining after rain—if I may use the expressions figuratively, and in connection with the revelation of truth.