The Cloud

"Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race set before us". Hebrews 12:1

This verse has become a great encouragement to me. The writer of Hebrews had just got done writing about many important, faithful, and active children of God. Hebrews chapter 11 is a long list and description of many different individuals from the Bible that played an important role in the history of God's people. Then beginning chapter 12, we have the verse listed above. The writer is making it known to the reader that they are in a long line of faithful people of God, and they must not only live in view of the history of God's people, but they must also let the history of God's people impact and drive them today. And the writer is making an important point still today in the 21st century. Not only does the church in 2016 have important Biblical people like Abraham and David, but there is still history since the book of Hebrews was written, important historical figures like Athanasius and Martin Luther, that are the cloud of great witness. The church today still must be encouraged, driven, and learned by the cloud of witness, both Biblical figures and more modern figures. And this is a great encouragement to me.

But this was not always the case for me. The third hurdle I had to get over was the hurdle that history and what it teaches is critically important and still vital for me today. So I came face to face with this reality at the same time I came face to face with the hard things I had to swallow and the truth about the community of saints.

I was 25 and I had just lost my job. The economy was starting to slow down and the construction company I was working for began to get slow. So on Halloween that year, I found out I no longer had a job. I had recently began serving in my church in leadership and had in fact preached my very first sermon in the church the summer before I lost my job. So there I was having a growing family, beginning to discover my gifts in the church, and now out of employment looking where I could turn. I began to look to God at this point, but I had no real depth of knowledge about God. I was asking God why did this happen, I began to get angry at God for letting this all happen, and I started to wonder what was next. That Christmas I received 2 gifts that would forever change my life, perspective of God, and understanding of history. I received a book entitled, "Knowledge of the Holy" and another book that was filled with sermons by Jonathan Edwards. As I sat around Christmas day, I soon discovered, from both of these historical works, that I had much to learn from God and much more I needed to learn about God. Through the writing of A.W. Tozer and Jonathan Edwards, my mind was blown wide open about who and what God is. I came face to face that winter with the reality that church history and works in Church history still had much to teach me today. Because of both of these works, my growth and journey has forever been changed.

And as a response to reading both of these works, I soon began to get a hold of anything I could find from the history of the church. I began to read Martin Luther, Augustine, more Edwards, Martin Lloyd Jones, the Puritans, and John Calvin. I studied men like Athanasius, John Knox, and Polycarp. I read about the Reformation, the Great Awakening, and the Missionary Movement of the last 200 years. Coming face to face with the history of the church, I soon discovered I had a lot to learn from men who were dead centuries before I was born. These were movements that are still felt today. These are theological struggles that are still around today. These are teachings that still matter today. And most important, these are men living in a world that I am still living in, dealing with the same sin and brokenness that I still deal with, and are teaching from the same Bible that I still read today. I soon discovered that my greatest teacher, outside of the Bible, was what Church history taught me about the Bible. And I had to clear this hurdle.

9 years later I no longer have to clear the hurdle of getting into, understanding, and loving what the history and cloud of witness teach me. I know turn to history as my greatest teacher. I use Calvin every week as I study the Bible. I turn to Athanasius when I need help on the Trinity. I look to Augustine to understand sin better. I read Edwards when I want to drink deep from God's depths. I let Luther speak into theological truths. And the Puritans make life with God that much more clear. Thanks to getting over this 3rd hurdle, I now love history more than ever. And History loves me more than ever as men and times still speak and teach me today. So the writer of Hebrews is right. We do live in view of a cloud of great witness, men who were faithful in some serious unfaithful times. The question that I have truly and deeply answered a yes on, is, do we let history still teach us today? If we don't, not only are we not clearing a hurdle that will drive our growth, but we are rejecting a Biblical truth from God Himself.

Human Creation

So if God created the human body at creation in the form of Adam, and that physical form is conceived at conception by the parents what does that mean for the soul and spirit? Are the soul and spirit created by God at conception or are they passed along by the parents at conception along with the body? God created only once at the beginning of time with the seven days of creation and He will recreate a new heaven and new earth at the end of time as well but He does not create every time at the conception of new babies. So does that mean that the parents can create a soul and spirit every time they conceive a new child? Psalms 51:5 supports the idea of parents passing everything to their children in stating, “Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me”.  This would explain how and why every human being is born in a sinful state. It would show that Adam’s sin is imputed to his ancestors and that no one excluding Jesus Christ can escape the penalty for being born sinful. Jesus Christ was conceived by the Holy Spirit with Mary so that is how Jesus was not born sinful or with a sin nature. That is why Jesus was the only one who could ever die for sin and the penalty for that sin.

To know that all men are sinful and have fallen is the more important truth to gather and to see how far men have fallen is the much better understanding to have when it comes to the soul. All men’s souls are totally depraved and fallen and a need for something is where the focus needs to be on, which brings us to the fall and the realization that all men are sinful and ugly in God’s sight. To understand the fall and how far humans have fallen is a great truth to focus on in respect to mankind and the relationship to God. As was established earlier, man was made in the image of God. This means in respect to the fall of man many things were lost or distorted. First the fall of man from its perfect state must be confirmed as an actual historical event, not some mere mythological story. Genesis 3 records the events of man and woman failing their first test from the serpent to challenge God. Genesis 3 also records man and woman playing the blame game then to pass the fault and guilt to someone else. Jesus confirms this event as actual history when He talks about the creator stating, “That in the beginning the Creator made them male and female” (Matthew 19:3). So the historical event of the fall is recorded and proves that mankind actually fell from the perfect state to a marred sinful state.

But what exactly was the fall, what took place and what were the results of the fall of man? The first step in the fall came in the form of a test from the serpent, filled with the devil, to Eve. The serpent says, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’”. The serpent is testing Eve and leading her down a path that leads to ruin. After Eve’s response the serpent then questions God, stating, “You will not surely die”. Eve then falls for the three lusts in the sin nature, the lust for the flesh, “Saw the fruit was good for food”, lust of the eyes, “pleasing to the eye”, and the lust of pride, “Desirable for gaining wisdom”. Eve falls to her temptations and Adam joins her when he also eats some of the forbidden fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. A direct disobedience of the will of God takes place. A fall from the perfect created state ensues, and there are many results of this fall. First and foremost is a spiritual separation and break from a direct relationship with God the Creator, a break in the fellowship. Another major result of the fall of man is a physical death and spiritual death. God realized He could not have a sinful fallen man living forever in the world that He created, so God let a physical death come to mankind. (Genesis 3)

Each participant of the fall also received consequences from God for their actions. The serpent was punished by having to crawl on his belly for the rest of time. The devil will ultimately be sent to hell and was punished by having his head crushed by Jesus Christ’s death on the cross and the defeat of sin and death. The woman will experience pain in childbirth, and her heir, Jesus, must die for the salvation of all man because of the fall and entering of sin into the will and plan of God. As for Adam, first he must work for his food and weeds will spring up in nature so that toiling and work are now required. Death and the curse to all of creation were given to Adam. Romans 8:19 tells us, “The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed” and later in 22, “We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time”. All of creation has suffered because of the fall of man, not just mankind.

But what does the fall mean for mankind today? How does Adam’s sin and stumble affect us in the world today, and what sort of results has it given us besides the results given by God in Genesis 3? Romans 5:12 reminds us, “Therefore, just as sin entered the world through man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned”. So all men have sinned, because it has been imputed to us through Adam, which means all men are separated from God because of that sin. All men have sinned though Adam and that first sin in the Garden of Eden. All men are fallen and separated from God. All men are totally depraved and lost without hope. Ephesians 2:1 reminds us, “As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sin”.  Mankind chases after their sin nature and desires rather than chasing after a relationship with God. Man can do nothing on their own because they are all lost and need God’s help. Man is sinful in all of its being and nature because of the fall. Romans 7:18 reminds us again, “I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature”. Every single ounce of the human being is pushing away from God and racing head long into the lust of the flesh and sin nature. Titus 1:15 clarifies it again even more sating, “But to those who are corrupted and do not believe, nothing is pure”. The fall and entry of sin into the perfect existence ruined everything, especially man in God’s eyes. Man needs help from our Creator to get back in a right standing relationship. God must first call us back so that man can chase again after God and His perfect will and decrees.

Humans are amazing creations by God. Creatures that if left perfect could do mighty and creative activities to worship the Creator. But mankind could not stay in this perfect state. Even with the moral code and the image of God as part of us we still made mistakes. So the sin nature infiltrates every human down to the core and flows through every aspect of man, the body, soul and spirit. Man is fallen and needs to get back in that right standing with God. But man, cannot in his own will or desire, he still needs God and depends upon God. Romans 3:10-12 needs to remind us again and again, “There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one” (NIV). The human mind body and soul are amazing but still depraved. The question then is are you letting God call you and run from the sin nature or are you letting the sin nature control you. Romans 8:8 remind us nicely, “Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God”. 

Sin pt. 3

But just because one understands this gap and fallen state, and accepts God’s extended cross to them does not mean they can leave the sin nature behind and became a perfect creature again. Christians still must deal with the sinful nature and the war against the flesh and the world. The Christian now has a conflict and battle inside as we try to follow the laws and precepts of God, yet struggle with the old self, the sin nature as it tries to lure us to not obey the commands of God. The Christian now must battle three different evils and enemies as we march on in the life that God has called us to.

            

The first pull is from the world and the sinful influences around us. I John 2:15 tells us “Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him”. The world and its culture, philosophy, and trends try to pull the Christian farther and farther from God and His love. The world is evil and is trying to seduce the nature of the old selfish sin nature. John reminds us also that the world is under the control of Satan and he is the ruler of this world and is trying to drag the believer away from the calling of God (John 5:19). Paul truly understood how to beat the world when he states in Galatians 6:14 “May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world”. The world is the first enemy the Christian battles and a realization of the world and the power it can have over our sinful nature is important.

            

But the world is not the only enemy that the Christian battles. It is the starting point but just the beginning. The flesh or sin nature is still there inside all Christians and it must be dealt with properly. The flesh is our inner selfish nature, which is the second enemy. It is the nature that rebels against God and it is the nature that was the root of Adam’s sin of pride. Timothy Keller even expands upon the nature and sin that the flesh can cause us to do. He states, “Sin is not simply doing bad things, it is putting good things in the place of God” (171). Paul explains in Ephesians 2:3, “All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts”. The flesh is the original enemy and the root of the battle of Christians as they fight against the power of sin in their lives. Paul even takes the flesh one step farther and states that it is a decision that needs to be made. Either the Christian is for the flesh or for God. He tells us in Romans 8:5, “Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires”. The Christians must deal with the sin nature and this enemy and seek God and the Spirit to beat back the temptations of the flesh, so that the third enemy of the Christians when it comes to sin may be confronted.

            

The third enemy and struggle when it comes to sin is the devil or Satan. Satan is a real being, not some made up character in fiction. Satan is focused on stopping the Christian work and spreading of the gospel. Satan is a great manipulator. He can use the world and the flesh and go after the believer to distract and bring them down away from the work of God. Peter reminds us that the devil is a lion and ready to devour the Christians at any chance he gets (1 Peter 5:8). James reminds us what a believer must do to succeed against the devil and his mighty attempts to bring us down when he states, “Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you” (4:7). The three levels or enemies of temptation are tough. From every angle the Christian is bombarded with sin, temptation, and struggle as they travel along on the journey God has for them. But, God has also provided a way to escape and not sin if only the Christian will turn towards Him.

            

God has provided three ways also to combat the three enemies of sin. First and foremost God has provided His word. The Bible is God’s first gift to the believer as they struggle along in this life. The Bible is the living word of God that can help the believer to grow, understand, remind, and refresh the believer of the truths form Him. The Bible can even rebuke the believer when he has struggled or sinned.

            

The word of God is not the only gift for the sin struggle that is provided. The gift of Jesus Christ as our intercessor is there also. 1 John 2:1 reminds us of this truth, “My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense-Jesus Christ”. This is a great truth because it helps us understand first a great action and gift that Jesus has given us, but it also gives us hope. Hope in knowing that we can never be perfect and sinless because Jesus is there to pick up the pieces and make us right in the eyes of the Father. This is a gift that the believer has nothing to do with or an involvement with. This gift is all about Jesus and God.

            

The third gift is a great power given to the believer, the gift of the Holy Spirit or God living in the believer. God’s power lives in us and can aid the believer in his struggle against the flesh and world. The power of God is even greater than anything the devil can do also. Galatians 5:16 reminds us, “So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature”.  The power of God, as the Holy Spirit can do anything in the lives of the believer. This is a great comfort to know that the believer has a power greater than anything in the universe or flesh and it will help us over come all temptation, as long as it is sought after and used to fit it. God has provided a way for the true believer in Him to escape the temptation and sin and with Jesus Christ, He has even provided a way when we do struggle and sin and fall. God provides for the believer in his struggle and will ultimately help him win the war at the end of all time.

            

Sin is like disease. It is a killer. But with more drastic results than physical diseases; it kills the soul and spirit. The physician that can prescribe medicine for the disease is God. The Bible tells us what the disease is and where it is infecting us spiritually. Then it prescribes a cure and treatment for the disease. The difference here is that the physical disease may have many cures while there is only one cure for the sin problem, the grace of God. The grace of God heals all sin, and even though the believer deals with sin in life, there is not an eternal death from the results, just broken fellowship. This biggest aspect of sin and the cure of grace is that the patient can do nothing on their own; they need the physician and cure to do all the work on the patient. Oh what a mighty physician and cure has been blessed to the patient of the sin disease.

Sin pt. 2

But if human beings have this sin nature and depraved state, how did we get there and where does it come from? Genesis 3 tells us about the first sin of Adam. The curse because of this sin brings about the sin nature to Adam and the rest of his descendants. This sin nature then is passed down to every human that has lived or will ever live except the person of Jesus Christ. The sin being passed on to the future descendants is called imputed sin. Romans 5:12 shows us this concept, “Therefore, just as sinned entered the world through on man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned”. Sin then because of Adam’s fall from perfection, is imputed onto all of his descendants.  Adam sinned, so all humanity became sinful because of it. But Adam cannot be totally blamed for the sinful state that we are in. All humanity was there with Adam and through Adam and all humanity sinned with Adam. Adam alone did not make the choice because all of humanity and the bad choices with them were there present with Adam helping him make the first sinful pride filled choice not to listen to God. Hebrews 7:9-10 shows us that even if a person is not physically born yet, they are still there in the ancestors and involved with them to some extent. Hebrews tells us, “One might even say that Levi, who collects the tenth, paid the tenth through Abraham, because when Melchizedek met Abraham, Levi was still in the body of his ancestor”. This truth then shows that all mankind was “seminally present” in Adam and that he cannot be blamed for the state of the sinful and fallen person. God then holds all humanity guilty because humanity was there with Adam when he sinned against God for the first time.

           

So how can all this talk about imputed sin and a sinful nature passed down from Adam apply to the life of a human today? This has huge implications for mankind in the world today. In the culture today, weakness is looked down upon. A sense of self awareness and self-focus and self-sufficiency is pushed upon man. This is completely against what the Bible shows us. What matters is a self awareness in that we are fallen and a focus on the deep dark ugliness of what mankind is truly deep down inside. We are disgusting and prideful and selfish. Just like Adam thought he was like God, we today think the same thing and that we do not need Him for anything. Many people do not want to even recognize that God exists and is there to have a relationship with them. God does desire the relationship and His love yearns for communion with His creation. So first we as humans need to understand our place in creation. We as humans are fallen and despicable. But more importantly we humans because of our state cannot do it on our own. The application then is to understand the depth and gap between the creator God, and His fallen creation, man. Man cannot cross that gap on our own will or desires or works. Romans 5:18 reminds us, “Consequently, just as the result of one trespass was condemnation for all men, so also the result of one act of righteousness was justification that brings life for all men”. That is salvation. This gap can be cross back to a relationship with God, by Him extending the cross of Jesus Christ to us over the gap. Only through a realization of how the gap cannot be crossed except by God extending His redemptive cross can a reliance and faith in God be succeeded. Then one is a Christian and a follower of Jesus and His grace. That is why it is so important to understand the sin nature and the imputation and depravity that come with it. To understand where we stand in reference to God and how amazing God is, this understanding to can bring a thankful heart towards God.

Sin pt. 1

*This is the first in a series of post on sin, since i have been reading on this topic, this month from the Bible.*

Diseases are devastating. Diseases are ugly. Diseases are putrid. They are organisms’ that can affect only one person but also have an effect on a large group of people, like a plague. Diseases can take many forms and have different effects, but in the end they bring corruption of the human body. Diabetes is a powerful disease that destroys a person if unchecked. It has no direct outward signs telling that a person has the diseases. Shingles is a disease that is revealed in a physical symptom, red bumps on the surface of the skin that itch but it also includes a hidden pain inside the nervous system. Shingles, when treated can be taken care of, but if left untreated shingles can have very drastic effects. Cancer is another type of disease. Cancer is a spreading disease that can travel throughout the body and slowly kill a person from the inside out if not dealt with. Cancer can be a killing disease even with treatment. Sin is just like a disease. Sin is a killer that can have physical signs or be more internal. Disease can spread slowly, killing us that way, or it can be fast paced and kill us right away. Sin is much worse though. Sin can kill us spiritually and eternally if not dealt with properly with the only true cure, the grace of God.    

            But what is sin? How can we define what sin is or what it has done? The first place to begin the definition of sin is to explain what sin is not. Sin is everywhere and is consumed in every human from birth. So to show what sin is, the human race must not be used because humans are filled with it. The sinless state then is the Holiness of God. Holiness is the absence of sin and the imperfection of the sinful curse. God is Holy because He is perfect, has no blemish or spot of sin or selfish state. God hates sin and the imperfection that it brings. His holiness declares to the universe that He hates sin. Man in his sinful cursed state cannot even fathom the holiness of God. A. W. Tozer explains, “He [man] may fear God’s power and admire His wisdom, but His holiness he cannot even imagine” Tozer adds later, “God is holy and He has made holiness the moral condition of necessary to the health of His universe…. Whatever is holy is healthy; evil is a moral sickness that must end in death”. So holiness is the opposite of sin which means God is the opposite of sin. That means that anything that goes against God or is put before God is sin.

            Sin then is a rebellion toward God and His laws. 1 John 3:4 states clearly, “Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness”. Breaking the laws of God then is sin, and putting yourself before God is sin. Romans 3:23 sets it out from the beginning, “For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God”. If God and His holiness is the standard, then not meeting that standard is sin and falling short. Putting God first in all actions, words, and thoughts is what sin is not. Putting yourself first in actions, thoughts, or words is sin. Timothy Keller explains this concept further stating, “It [sin] is seeking to establish a sense of self by making something else more central to your significance, purpose, and happiness than your relationship to God”. Sin is pride, thinking of yourself better than you should and not thinking of God first. Sin ultimately then is not meeting the standard of God or what is called “missing the mark” and falling short of what God desires. Romans 14:23 reminds us, “… and everything that does not come from faith is sin”. Keller gives a nice simple definition of sin saying, “Sin is seeking to become oneself, to get an identity, apart from him [God]". We must realize that sin is separate from God.

            But where did sin come from, and what is the original sin and how does that affect the human race? Genesis chapter three talk about the first sin in the Garden of Eden. It tells us about the pride of man and the selfish nature that thought it could be just like God. Because of the first sin of Adam and Eve, all of mankind for the rest of time will be born with a sin nature and a fallen state from the created perfection. All men are born with a sin nature. Galatians 3:22 states, “But the scriptures declare that the whole world is a prisoner of sin…”.Everyone suffers from sin in their life. Sin is with mankind from the very first breath, and it cannot be escaped. This is the original sin or the original state of mankind at birth. Simply put all men sin in their lives because of this sin nature. “Original sin…is humanity’s inherent pride and self-centeredness”. This sin or pride about oneself infiltrates every aspect and part of a person. The sin is in our mind and thoughts, our will and drives, our conscience, our heart and emotions, and in the whole of a person. The sin nature is innate in our being. Romans 7:18 tells us, “I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature”.

            This sin nature then, leaves all mankind totally depraved of all good or any actions in doing what is right in the eyes of God. Even actions by humans that are deemed good in the human eyes can never be good in the eyes of God because God is holy and we as humans can never have a perfect loving motive behind our best actions. Even with the good actions man still does them with a depraved, sinful and sometimes selfish motive. Genesis 6:5 reminds us of this truth, “The LORD saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only of evil all the time”. Yes, this verse is talking about before the flood of Noah, but the same truth about man is still applicable today.  The entire human race is totally depraved in the sight of God. This means that human beings can do nothing in and of themselves to get in right standing with God. Humans are born with the sinful nature and die with the sinful nature. Human beings are even slaves to sin as Paul reminds us in Romans 6:17, “But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin… ”. Every person then is “spiritually dead” as Ephesians 2:1 states, “As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sin”.  Another great verse talking about the totally depraved and sinful state is Psalms 14:3, “All have turned aside, they have together become corrupt; there is no one who does good, not even one”. Everyone is lost and in the dark because of sin. Man can do nothing on his own, whether it is works or actions, man can never get away from or leave behind the sinful nature. It is there with us all the time. Only by the works of Jesus Christ and the saving grace and mercy of God the Father, can a person escape the depraved and sinful state. But even then, a saved and forgiven person cannot escape the human sin nature; they just escape the eternal punishment for the sin nature. So even Christians, who are saved from eternal punishment through Jesus Christ blood, still have a sin nature and will continually sin throughout their saved and forgiven life. 

I hate suffering!

"In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed."

1 Peter 1:6-7

I have been rolling these verses over in my head all week. The purpose of Peter writing his first letter was to encourage and strengthen the members of the church as they faced trials and suffering in this life. So these 2 verses are important to the flow of Peter's thought and letter as they give encouragement but also to challenge the church to a stronger faith.

Everyone that is alive will at some point in this life face suffering and troubles of some sort. If we are true lovers of Jesus and telling others about Jesus we will also face some persecution to go along with our suffering and troubles. So what is it that challenges us, is it money problems, health problems, family issues, work issues, or even church problems? We all have some things that give us frustration, if we are not facing anything right now, I can guarantee that sooner rather than later something in this life will creep up. So how do we look at these trials? Do we cry out to God in pain or do we bury our feelings deep down inside? How we view our trials I have discovered says a lot about who we are as a person and who we are in Jesus. 

What if we never faced a single trial in this life? These verses in 1 Peter show us that trials and suffering in our life make our faith genuine and true. So if we had life always going our way could we actually say we have faith? I do not think so. The faith we have is strengthened and made genuine by the facing of trials and sufferings. God walks right beside us as He allows us to face these trials. God is holding our hand because He know that as we face trials in this life and overcome them in Him our faith is made true. Jesus death and our faith in Him is what saves us. But how can we know we have faith in God without it ever being tested and made genuine by trials. So I would say that the trials and suffering we face in this life proves our faith and is part of our salvation in God. 

So next time you think about the suffering you are in the middle of or the trial that is right around the corner, realize that these things make our faith genuine before God and hold us fast into His hand so our future salvation in Him is true and secure. That is why it is called perseverance of the saints.

Reason and Faith

The Apostle Paul stated, “For what can be known about God is plain to them [the people in the world]. For his invisible attributes, namely his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world” (Romans 1:19-20). He also made clear, “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness” (2 Timothy 3:16). In these 2 quotes Paul understands that God can be discovered and known through science and the human mind in the general way God reveals Himself, but to truly know God in a deeper more intimate way, a person must come to know God’s written word, His special revelation.

As Paul points out in the verse above and as King David also points out in many of his Psalms, God can and will be known through his creation. This means that humanity can discover and come to know the things about God through the study of the sciences, both in nature and social fields. As human’s reason or as Webster’s defines, “exercising the faculty of logical thought”, mankind can come to a logical conclusion that God is real and is active in the world.  Reason and the study of God in a logical way is also very important in the field of apologetics. As William Craig asks in his early thoughts on the topic of apologetics, “what rational warrant can be given for the Christian faith”. Craig is pointing to the fact that God can and will be known through rational thought.

But human reason and the general revelation of God is not enough for salvation. Yes, human thought and logic can lead to a knowledge and understanding of God, but without the Word of God made known and His special revelation, humanity can’t know the saving and graceful work of God. As Paul also says in 1 Corinthians 2:9, “what no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him” . This means that man will never know or come to have a heart that understands, the work that God is doing for the salvation and reconciling of the world to Himself. Only special revelation, through the word of God, will do this, not simple rational thought or reason.

Special revelation is the revelation of God that He gives in a special or unique way. The special revelation of God in all history has been through miracles, visions, dreams, His audible Word, and special messengers. In the church and world today 99.9% of God’s special revelation is through His written Word to His people. So when God specially reveals Himself through His Word, then and only then can humanity and the hearer come to know what God is intimately, lovingly, and graciously doing in the world, especially in redeeming a people to Himself. A person needs this true knowledge of faith found in the Word of God. This special revelation of God gets beyond thinking logically and rationally and comes to feel and sense the true nature of God.

Jonathan Edwards said, “There is a difference between having an opinion that God is holy and precious, and having a sense of the loveliness and beauty of that holiness and grace”.  Edwards makes the point then that having reasons and knowledge of God is nice, but without the special knowledge and faith of God, a person cannot taste and see that the Lord is good. So Christians must come to realize that reason and logic, especially in apologetics, is a good thing and can lead others to God. But without the special revelation and true faith of God, God will never be fully discovered. A Christian must use reason to introduce others to God. But to fully lead others to a saving, knowing, and sensing of the beauty of God, a Christian must use the special revelation and faith that God brings in clear ways outside of reason and the general logical understanding of God. This is why Christian need to understand the relationship between reason and faith.