The Triune God & Revelation
First, God reveals (makes known) what can be known by human persons about His nature. This is called “General Revelation” (rf Romans chapter 1). The highly regarded Reformation era theologian, John Calvin (the namesake of our school), said this about God’s General Revelation:
“God’s essence, indeed, is incomprehensible, utterly transcending all human thought; but on each of His works His glory is engraven in characters so bright, so distinct, and so illustrious, that none, however dull and illiterate, can plead ignorance as their excuse” (Institutes 1.5.1).
God reveals Himself as the Creator of order, of profound design and beauty, of goodness and of truth. God created, ex nihilo, all that exists. His creation (i.e. nature) itself reveals that it could not have created itself, and that there is ubiquitous and complex intricacy, which is itself a revelation which defies the capacities of human persons to fully comprehend all that God has declared in His glorious creation (Psalm 19).
Second, in addition to General Revelation, God has provided “Special Revelation,” In this professor’s words,
“General revelation, whether immediate or mediate, is directed to all men. It is, however, “not sufficient to give that knowledge of God, and of His will, which is necessary unto salvation” (Westminster Confession of Faith, I.1). General revelation does not reveal Jesus Christ or His work of redemption for sinners. Thus there is a need for what is called “special revelation.” Special revelation is the revelation of the way of salvation.” (from an article titled “General and Special Revelation” by Professor Mathison, Ligonier Ministries).
God’s Special Revelation is His Holy Scripture, and in it He reveals His Triune nature – God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit, i.e. one God with one nature revealed in three persons. Pastor Sinclair Ferguson offers this remarkable description of the Biblical Trinity: “The triune One is greater in glory, deeper in mystery, and more beautiful in harmony than all other realities in creation.” (Union with God the Trinity, Ferguson, Ligonier)
In addition to being Triune, God reveals Himself as Sovereign, existing eternally with no beginning and no end.
God’s Word also reveals that human persons are made unique among all of God’s creation:
26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. (Genesis 1:26-27)
All human beings bear the image of God. This revealed truth from God’s Word, also resonates with Natural Revelation, and thus why people across cultures and history recognize the sacredity of human persons. John Calvin wrote,
“That there exists in the human mind and indeed by natural instinct, some sense of Deity [sensus divinitatis], we hold to be beyond dispute, since God himself, to prevent any man from pretending ignorance, has endued all men with some idea of his Godhead… this is not a doctrine which is first learned at school, but one as to which every man is, from the womb, his own master; one which nature herself allows no individual to forget.” (Institutes of the Christian Religion, 16th century)
Calvin is saying that our very image bearing nature (i.e. the very nature that a young image bearer goes to school with all day long, from the youngest to oldest), is God’s revelation to us. Exploring this God revealed nature is fundamentally what a child does at Calvin Christian School.
God’s Word also reveals the fallen nature of all image bearers and their desperate need for redemption, where both God’s perfect justice can be met in the atonement of sin which separates human persons from their Creator, and, where mercy is extended freely. This is the miraculous notion of God’s Grace.
Jesus, who is God the Son, is revealed to us when He took on flesh and became fully man in His Incarnation – the embodied Word of God (John 1). The Scriptures reveal that Jesus, who is fully God and fully man, is the only one who can be the Savior, the Redeemer, of image bearers who are dead in their sins (Ephesians 2:1; Romans 8:10). Jesus is our Savior because He who knew no sin died willingly in our place, so that God’s wrath was satisfied when image bearers sin was imputed to Jesus, and His righteousness was imputed to the redeemed image bearer, making him a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:11-21). And because Jesus rose bodily from the grave, so will His redeemed rise from the dead and be united with the Triune God for eternity. This is what the Triune God has done, and thus what He has revealed in His Divine Revelation. This is the Good News of God redeeming sinful image bearers unto Himself, for His glory and our good. In Jesus and only in Jesus, justice and mercy are in perfect harmony. This is why in Jesus, the Christian enters God’s glorious shalom – rest! (Ps 91:1) And this is why the critical words of our Missional Deep Hope graphic artwork read, “Inviting students to be formed by God’s Love in Christ, for a life of wonder, worship, work and wisdom.”
This is the glorious Gospel of Jesus Christ, soli Deo gloria!
