The Divine Self-Revelation and the Work of the Reformed Theologian

 

Our activity as public theologians fundamentally depends on theological work. This work, in turn, originates from the hermeneutical perception that God communicates with His moral creation made in His image (imago Dei), meaning the understanding that God has spoken to His creation. This speaking is obviously mediated (Vermittelte); it does not come to us in a literal divine discourse but is instead unveiled, adapted, and contextualized to our condition as creatures, to our essential limits and frailties—namely, understanding, imagination, and perception. As R.C. Sproul explained: God addresses us on our terms, and because He made us in His image, there is an analogy that provides a means of communication with Him (Sproul - 2017).

 

This means used by God to reveal Himself to His creation is designated by theology as revelation (g’lâh, apokalypsis, phanêrosis). Revelation is, therefore, the way God unveils or reveals Himself (epistemology) to His creation in what it can know of Him as a divine being (ontology), of His creative action (cosmology), and of His interaction and redemptive work. Within this concept, Reformed theology encompasses divine revelation within an ambivalence: natural and supernatural revelation. The former testifies to the indisputable presence of the divine being in its creative and providential face and is foundational for cosmic accusation (Rom 1:18-23), as Thomas R. Schreiner noted: The natural world, as a whole, testifies to God through its beauty, complexity, structure, and utility (Schreiner - 2018).

 

Supernatural revelation, on the other hand, is the divine self-communication through the supernatural means of language (revelatio verbalis), that is, the Word (d’barim), which communicates in a peculiar way with humans (Gen 1:28; 2:15-17; 3:15; 2 Kings 17:13; Ps 103:7; Heb 1:1-2; John 1:18, among others) and is established as the executive and instrumental means of the redemptive covenant, being salvifically experienced only through faith. Louis Berkhof wrote about these characteristics of verbal revelation:

 

Special revelation is rooted in God’s plan of redemption, is directed to man as a sinner, can be adequately understood and assimilated only by faith, and serves the purpose of ensuring the end for which man was created despite all the disturbance produced by sin (Berkhof - 2000).

 

This revelation through language reaches its pinnacle in the incarnation of the Word, so that there is no decisive knowledge of God apart from the revelatory communication of Christ. On this matter, Calvin is instructive: After the fall of the first man, no knowledge apart from the Mediator has the power to save (Calvin – 2018).

 

Thus, the entire superstructure of salvation depends on this divine revelation of His redemptive will and the theological, historical, existential, and eschatological paths that this will has determined and that are made accessible to us through His self-revelation, making it the first task of theological construction. SDG.

 

Rev. Dr. Marcus King Barbosa 

Reformed Baptist Pastor, Public Theologian, and Philosopher of Subjectivity