Understanding God: Revelation, Humility, and the True Gospel

 

Summary

In our exploration of the doctrine of God, we begin with the fundamental question: Who is God? This inquiry is not just academic; it is deeply personal and transformative. Understanding who God is directly informs our understanding of who we are. We start with Christ's view of God, as revealed in the Gospels. Jesus points to nature, the moral law, and Scripture as revelations of God's character. Nature reveals God as the Creator, the one in whom we live and move and have our being. The moral law reveals God as just, providing a standard of righteousness and justice. Scripture, the special revelation, reveals God as our Redeemer, the triune God who orchestrates the work of redemption through the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Machen contrasts this understanding with the liberal view, which often reduces God to a mere feeling or experience, lacking the specificity and revelation found in Scripture. Liberalism also promotes the idea of the universal fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man, which Machen argues is a misunderstanding. While God is the Creator of all, the special fatherhood of God is reserved for those who are in Christ. This distinction is crucial because it underscores the necessity of faith in Jesus for salvation.

Furthermore, Machen emphasizes the transcendence and immanence of God. God is both beyond our comprehension and intimately involved in our lives. This duality is essential to a proper understanding of God's nature. Liberalism, however, often emphasizes God's immanence at the expense of His transcendence, leading to a diminished view of God and an inflated view of humanity.

The Christian view of man, as Machen explains, is one of humility before a holy God. Recognizing our sinfulness is the first step toward receiving God's grace. A flawed view of God leads to a flawed view of man and ultimately a flawed understanding of the gospel. The modern church, Machen warns, is in danger of preaching a message that flatters rather than convicts, calling the righteous to repentance rather than the sinner. This is not the gospel of Jesus Christ, which calls us to humility and repentance, recognizing our need for a Savior.

Key Takeaways:

1. The Revelation of God: God is knowable through nature, moral law, and Scripture. Nature reveals God as Creator, the moral law as Just, and Scripture as Redeemer. This comprehensive revelation provides a foundation for understanding God's character and our relationship with Him. [01:43]

2. The Danger of Liberalism: Liberal theology often reduces God to a feeling or experience, lacking the specificity of revelation. This view leads to misconceptions about God's nature and our relationship with Him, emphasizing universalism over the necessity of faith in Christ. [09:21]

3. Transcendence and Immanence: God is both transcendent and immanent, beyond our comprehension yet intimately involved in our lives. This duality is essential for a proper understanding of God's nature and our accountability to Him. [17:01]

4. Humility Before God: Recognizing our sinfulness and humbling ourselves before God is crucial for receiving His grace. A proper view of God leads to a proper view of ourselves, acknowledging our need for a Savior. [21:05]

5. The True Gospel Message: The modern church must resist the temptation to preach a message that flatters rather than convicts. The gospel calls sinners to repentance, recognizing our need for salvation through Jesus Christ, not affirming our inherent goodness. [22:43]

Youtube Chapters:

- [00:00] - Welcome
- [00:24] - The Study of God
- [01:07] - Christ's View of God
- [01:43] - Nature and Moral Law
- [02:34] - Theistic Proofs
- [03:28] - Moral Law and Justice
- [04:14] - The Concept of Evil
- [05:51] - God as Creator and Redeemer
- [06:50] - General and Special Revelation
- [08:27] - Rational Theism
- [09:21] - Liberalism vs. Revelation
- [10:18] - Universal Fatherhood of God
- [11:07] - Children of Wrath
- [12:49] - Election and Humility
- [14:29] - The Awesomeness of God
- [16:17] - Transcendence and Immanence
- [18:40] - The Hidden and Revealed God
- [20:19] - The Flawed View of Man
- [22:43] - The Modern Church's Challenge

Study Guide

Bible Study Discussion Guide

Bible Reading:
1. Acts 17:28 - "For in him we live and move and have our being."
2. Ephesians 2:3 - "All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath."
3. Isaiah 6:5 - "Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty."

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Observation Questions:

1. How does nature reveal God's character according to the sermon? Consider the examples of the lilies and the sparrow. [01:43]

2. What does the moral law reveal about God, and how does it relate to our understanding of justice? [03:28]

3. How does Machen describe the difference between the liberal view of God and the Christian view of God? [09:21]

4. What is the significance of the distinction between the universal fatherhood of God and the special fatherhood of God in Christ? [11:07]

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Interpretation Questions:

1. How does the understanding of God as both transcendent and immanent affect a believer's relationship with Him? [17:01]

2. In what ways does the sermon suggest that a flawed view of God leads to a flawed view of humanity and the gospel? [20:19]

3. How does the sermon challenge the modern church's approach to preaching and the message it conveys to its congregation? [22:43]

4. What does the sermon imply about the role of humility in receiving God's grace, and how does this contrast with a prideful heart? [21:05]

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Application Questions:

1. Reflect on your understanding of God as both Creator and Redeemer. How does this understanding influence your daily life and decisions? [05:51]

2. Consider the sermon’s critique of liberal theology. Are there areas in your faith where you might be reducing God to a mere feeling or experience? How can you seek a deeper understanding of God through Scripture? [09:21]

3. How do you balance recognizing God's transcendence with His immanence in your personal prayer life? What changes might you make to ensure both aspects are honored? [17:01]

4. The sermon emphasizes humility before God. Can you identify a recent situation where pride may have hindered your relationship with God or others? How can you approach similar situations differently in the future? [21:05]

5. The sermon warns against preaching that flatters rather than convicts. How can you ensure that your personal study and sharing of the gospel remain true to its call for repentance and humility? [22:43]

6. Reflect on the concept of the special fatherhood of God for those in Christ. How does this understanding impact your identity and interactions with others? [11:07]

7. Isaiah's response to God's holiness was one of humility and repentance. How can you cultivate a similar response in your own spiritual journey? [15:25]

Devotional

Day 1: God Revealed Through Creation, Law, and Scripture
Understanding God begins with recognizing His revelation through nature, moral law, and Scripture. Nature shows us God as the Creator, the one who sustains all life and existence. The moral law reveals God as just, providing a standard of righteousness and justice that guides our conscience. Scripture, as the special revelation, unveils God as our Redeemer, the triune God who orchestrates the work of redemption through the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This comprehensive revelation forms the foundation for understanding God's character and our relationship with Him. [01:43]

"For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse." (Romans 1:19-20, ESV)

Reflection: How can you intentionally observe God's presence in nature today, and what does it reveal to you about His character?


Day 2: The Pitfalls of Reducing God to Mere Experience
Liberal theology often reduces God to a mere feeling or experience, lacking the specificity and revelation found in Scripture. This view can lead to misconceptions about God's nature and our relationship with Him, emphasizing universalism over the necessity of faith in Christ. It is crucial to recognize that while God is the Creator of all, the special fatherhood of God is reserved for those who are in Christ. This distinction underscores the necessity of faith in Jesus for salvation. [09:21]

"For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths." (2 Timothy 4:3-4, ESV)

Reflection: In what ways might you be tempted to prioritize personal experience over the truth of Scripture, and how can you guard against this?


Day 3: Embracing God's Transcendence and Immanence
God is both transcendent and immanent, existing beyond our comprehension yet intimately involved in our lives. This duality is essential for a proper understanding of God's nature and our accountability to Him. While liberalism often emphasizes God's immanence at the expense of His transcendence, a balanced view acknowledges both aspects, leading to a deeper appreciation of God's majesty and closeness. [17:01]

"Can a man hide himself in secret places so that I cannot see him? declares the Lord. Do I not fill heaven and earth? declares the Lord." (Jeremiah 23:24, ESV)

Reflection: How can you cultivate an awareness of both God's majesty and His intimate presence in your daily life?


Day 4: Humility as the Path to Grace
Recognizing our sinfulness and humbling ourselves before God is crucial for receiving His grace. A proper view of God leads to a proper view of ourselves, acknowledging our need for a Savior. This humility is the first step toward receiving God's grace and understanding the true nature of the gospel, which calls us to repentance and transformation. [21:05]

"For thus says the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: 'I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite.'" (Isaiah 57:15, ESV)

Reflection: What specific area of your life requires you to humble yourself before God today, and how can you take a step toward doing so?


Day 5: Upholding the True Gospel Message
The modern church must resist the temptation to preach a message that flatters rather than convicts. The gospel calls sinners to repentance, recognizing our need for salvation through Jesus Christ, not affirming our inherent goodness. A flawed view of God leads to a flawed view of man and ultimately a flawed understanding of the gospel. The true gospel message is one of humility, repentance, and transformation through faith in Christ. [22:43]

"For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified." (1 Corinthians 2:2, ESV)

Reflection: How can you ensure that your understanding and sharing of the gospel remains true to its call for repentance and transformation?

Quotes


The answer to the question, "who is God" has everything to do with understanding who we are; and once we understand who we are, we look back to understand who God is, so these two go together. Machen starts with Christ's view of God. Again, he's understanding where the liberals are coming from, and they're always talking about Christ and they're always talking about Jesus. [00:00:58]

What do we learn from nature? Well, we learn from nature that God is creator. God is creator. What does Paul say? "But in Him, we live and move and have our being," and there he is pointing to that statue "to the unknown God," "I am here to declare to you who that is." Where did all this come from? What is the cause of this? [00:02:15]

So, nature points us, the theistic proofs point us to see that there is a creator. Machen also talks about how Christ speaks of the moral law, that sense of righteousness, that sense of right and wrong, that sense of justice. How do we account for justice in the world? You hear sometimes of the argument for evil against God or the argument from suffering against God. [00:03:37]

And so, we have God who is creator, we have the God who is just. Now what does that mean, right? That means fundamentally that we are now accountable to this God, that we are accountable to this God for our very existence and our being and our life. It also points us to learn more about this God which we learn in Scripture and ultimately now we learn that God is not only creator but God is redeemer. [00:05:33]

Machen is going to have a very succinct sentence. This comes early on in the chapter on God and man and he says this, "Rational theism," right? So, by that he means not some abstracting thing but a God who is knowable and known, a God who exists, a God who is demonstrable and arguable through the theistic proofs. [00:07:54]

The God known through revelation has particulars, has elements, specificity to it. The God felt, there is ambiguity there, there's an opaqueness there. The second thing of liberalism concerns this fundamental teaching, if you will, of liberalism, of the universal fatherhood of God, and while we were on the subject of man, the universal brotherhood of man, the universal fatherhood of God. [00:09:32]

This leads to what we sometimes call "universalism" or the view that everyone is saved, everyone is a child of God. Now we need to sort through this in the Christian view, in a general sense, in a very general sense, it is proper to speak of the fatherhood of God of all people. It is okay to speak of the universal fatherhood of God in this sense that God is the creator of all. [00:10:18]

This is to humble us when we understand that through Christ we are the children of God. It's never a source of pride or we are in the exclusive club because we are better than that other person. Jesus dealt with those kinds of people in the Gospels. He didn't deal with them kindly. So, this is a mistake, this is an error, this is a deadly error, a heresy to speak of the universal soteric, salvific fatherhood of God and the universal soteric brotherhood of man. [00:12:49]

So, the awesomeness of God is truly an awful experience for us. The awesomeness of God is actually a horrible experience for us when we truly realize what we're talking about here. Now a vivid example of this happens back in Isaiah chapter six where Isaiah is confronted with the awe-someness of God and he's stopped in his tracks. He's undone, right? [00:15:07]

Now theologians will talk about the transcendence of God which is above and beyond, right? To be transcendent is above. There is Mount Everest and then there is beyond Mount Everest. That's transcendence. The other side to that is immanence. Immanence is the idea of, sort of, permeating and within. Transcendence is beyond, immanence is permeating. [00:16:04]

Liberals only want an immanent God and here's why, because now what does that mean about me? If God is transcendent and I am the created, then I am accountable to Him. But if God is not transcendent and He's just immanent, well, as Machen is going to say and what I think is a brilliant quote that, "This is the bright side of God." [00:18:22]

Man should humble himself before God, not exalt himself. Humble himself before God and see himself as a sinner. What is Isaiah's first word of response, "Woe. I am in big trouble. I am in huge trouble because I am a sinner." But then Machen says, it's only from that vantage point that we can see grace. [00:21:05]

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Transcript
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