A trinity of revelation IV. How it works!

I am a saint, I am, and I will go to heaven when I die.  Does it sound a little overconfident, even  a little arrogant?  Let me explain this in the context of the trinity of His revelations.  I hope this will make it clear how the “unity in diversity” of this trinity works. So then to start with, my Heavenly Daddy has assured me that before the bar of God I am justified by the blood of Jesus Christ, and that He remembers my sins no more.   So what medium has He used to bring this assurance?  My contention is that it is all three forms (the whole trinity) of His revelations. That is together creation, the Bible and His Spirit confirm and reinforce it. I need to unpack this.

 In “A trinity of revelations I”, I explained that the arguments about the existence of God from the order (design) in creation are hollow to the unbeliever, but are compelling to the one who believes.  You see as part of this, the revelation of God through creation will, if we let it,  touch much much more than the intellect, it will touch the soul. We have free will, we choose how we respond to “general revelation”.  I already mentioned that sunsets touch me, but they do not touch everybody. Part of the problem is that we have lost our ability to wonder,  to be amazed. Remember in order to enter the Kingdom, we are to become as little children. Observe their wonder and joy at all that is.   The heavens declare the glory of God, but our ability to see that glory is diminished by our man made “towers of Babel”, our concrete jungles, our apparent self sufficiency,  our arrogance and the suppression of truth in unrighteousness (see 'General revelation').   God's revelation is also undermined by the lies of the enemy.  God will not force His revelation on us, but for those who have eyes to see, and ears to hear, His creation speaks into our soul that He is,  and that He is wonderful.  And with these eyes and ears Science, rather than telling me that God does not exist (see “I know too much Science to believe in God) fascinates me with  its  complexity and intricacy. It leads me to ask “Who is He,  who created and designed all this?”   When I come away from the shallow (but powerful) lusts that war against the soul and draw me into bondage, I find within my soul a longing to know the One who made  it all. We see reflections of this in our desire to know and connect with those in the here and now,  whom we admire. 

There is another side to this I want to explore in the next post.  But what I am saying here, is that for the one who has eyes to see and ears to hear, creation provides a kind of backdrop,  a canvas upon which further compatible revelations in His Word, and by His Spirit can be written.  When Satan and the World whispers into our ears that God does not exist, and it's all a figment of my imagination (Satan speaks his lies in the first person), the heart of the believer answers back “The heavens declare the Glory of God, Creation speaks to me that He is, and that He is wonderful”.  This, however, is but one strand of how I know.

 That He is wonderful is also confirmed by His Word. In fact “Wonderful” is one of His names (Isaiah 9:6).  Part of the wonder of who He is, is that He loves me (John 3:16), and that when I repent and receive His forgiveness, He leads me into fullness of life, and assures me of a place by His side when I die. So as I say,  He calls me a saint.  Am I saintly? I am less confident about that, a lot less confident. You are a saint too, if you have received Him as Lord and Savior and received His forgiveness for your sins.  And you may not be any more saintly than I am. On the other hand He has qualified us to be inheritors of the saints in light (Colossians 1:12). We passed! And He has told us in His Word that He wants us to be confident in these things.   In I John 5:13 He says “These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life.”  Notice the tense “have”, it is a present possession. It is a gift, it is not of works (Ephesians 2:8). Is He not indeed wonderful as creation reveals?

 And all this is confirmed,  reinforced and made real, by the witness of His Spirit. In Romans 8:16 we read  “The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, ... ”. So here is another place where we are meant to experience Him. The assurance His presence brings will not always be 24/7, but then we have the other strands to fall back on. It is in the dark times we learn to trust Him and His Word.  His Word is sure.

So then the three strands of His revelation agree and reinforce one another. But at other times, the three strands of revelation keep us in balance. The problem of balance is a major problem for humankind, for we far too easily loose it. Some groups,  for example, emphasize the revelation of God by the Word, others emphasize the revelation of God by the Spirit. There is a well known saying  that is designed to correct this (and it too is Biblical). The saying is “The Word without the Spirit we dry up (the letter of the law kills), the Spirit without the Word we blow up (we need the Word for correction II Timothy 3:16), but with the Word and the Spirit together, we grow up”.  Its a trinity, unity in diversity, confirmation and reinforcement. I like to insert “in the fellowship of the saints”  after 'together' in the above saying. We need each other. In the fellowship of those who believe in space (God is at work in Africa),  time (the saints of old) and theology (listening to each other), we are to exhibit unity in diversity (and balance).  When we do, we  reflect Him (Trinity) in our cooperate witness.  As iron sharpens Iron, so man sharpens man!  As I hinted at in the last post, this is a furnace, and it is meant to refine us and bring us into balance, and unity!   Trinity is three in one, it is not one period (unity in conformity), it is not three separate things (diversity without unity) it is three in one (unity in diversity). They will know we are Christians by our love.  We have a ways to go!