Romans - Part 5: ELECTIONSample

Who Can Know God?

“The Christian looks around him, forwards, backwards, and to all sides. And if, in doing so, in the light of the knowledge of God, which he owes to Christ, he lets his eyes linger on nature and on history, on heaven and on earth, then he discovers traces everywhere of that same God whom he has learned to know and to worship in Christ as his Father.” - Herman Bavinck, The Wonderful Works of God

In today’s passage, Paul quotes Psalm 19:4. In order to get a better sense of what Paul is talking about here Psalm 19 1-4 says:

1 The heavens declare the glory of God,

and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.

2 Day-to-day pours out speech,

and night to night reveals knowledge.

3 There is no speech, nor are there words,

whose voice is not heard.

4 Their voice goes out through all the earth,

and their words to the end of the world.

What King David is talking about in this Psalm is what theologians often refer to as General Revelation: the revelation of God through creation and through normal events. Special Revelation, on the other hand, is revelation through miracles, prophecy, and other sorts of unusual means. Israel, for much of her history, had been the bearer of Special Revelation. They had crossed the Red Sea; they had been given the law; they had seen peoples far mightier than they defeated; they had witnessed Elijah call down fire from heaven; they had received prophecies and watched them come to pass; they were His people and He was their God. In this section of Romans, Paul is pointing out the tragedy that those who should have been best equipped to hear the gospel and respond are failing to do so, and, as a result, the Gentiles are putting them to shame. The Gentiles, who for the most part, until then, had only been given General Revelation. When they hear the gospel, they more readily accept it because the God they now know in Jesus makes sense of the reality they are living in. General Revelation, alone, is not enough for us to know God (Romans 10:14), but as the gospel is preached, those things we have always known begin to make sense.

“I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.” - C. S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory

So, now that Christ has been raised from the dead, Jews and Gentiles alike can know God because He is the God of all peoples (Romans 10:12). If He is the God of all peoples, and you are a person, then you can know God, too. Pay attention to the General Revelation of His world and the Special Revelation of His Word and let Him make sense of your life.

-Wesley Viau