Self-Revealing

Self-Revealing

The Law shows us a God Who makes Himself known.

The LORD passed before him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty….” Exodus 34:6, 7

God’s plan for His people was for their good (Gen. 1:31; Jer. 29:11), that is, that they might recover a measure of what had been lost at the fall (Gen. 3) and enjoy the good blessings He intended for them from the beginning.

But none of this would be immediately evident to Israel because sin had blinded them to God’s purposes. If God wanted His people to know His will and blessings, He would have to make Himself and His purposes known to them.

Thus, as God revealed Himself to Moses from out of the burning bush, so He made Himself known to His people, in manifestations of glory and power, in His clear and undeniable presence in their midst, and in His spoken and written Word. The God of the worldview of God’s Law is a self-revealing God. He does not leave us to our own wits and wiles, to grope and guess about His being or purposes. He reveals Himself in things and words; He tells us about Himself and His will, and He displays His being and attributes through the things He has made.

The vehicles of divine revelation, as revealed in His Law, are varied: He makes His glory known through created things. He reveals His will through divinely sent spiritual messengers. He communicates to His chosen people in dreams. He instructs them to create artifacts and institutions of culture which reveal His character and will. He speaks to and through His prophets. He encodes His purposes and will in written words.

The worldview which begins to unfold in God’s Law instructs us to look to God, through all His means of revelation, but fundamentally, through His Word, so that we might know Him and His will and, knowing Him, might fear, obey, love, serve, and glorify Him in all we do.

Because the worldview of blessing God has promulgated in His Law depends, for its realization, on knowing Him, God has abundantly accommodated to our sinful and helpless estate by making Himself known to us through words and deeds. We can know God, and knowing Him, we can enter into His Covenant and worldview, so that we may know and enjoy His blessings and live in His goodness all our days.

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In the Gates is a devotional series on the Law of God by Rev. T. M. Moore, editor of the Worldview Church. He serves as dean of the Centurions Program of the Wilberforce Forum and principal of The Fellowship of Ailbe, a spiritual fellowship in the Celtic Christian tradition. He is the author or editor of twenty books, and has contributed chapters to four others. His essays, reviews, articles, papers, and poetry have appeared in dozens of national and international journals, and on a wide range of websites. His most recent books are The Ailbe Psalter and The Ground for Christian Ethics (Waxed Tablet).

Scripture quotations in this article are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, (c) copyright 2001, 2007 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.