Gods general revelation I was recently asked by a friend how God could be merciful if there are people who have never heard the gospel of Jesus Christ, presuming that this means they were never given the opportunity to trust God in faith. In Romans 1:20, we read For since the creation of the world Gods invisible qualities--his eternal power and divine nature--have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse. This is part of what is referred to as general revelation, or Gods way of showing us that He indeed exists, whether we have read His word or not. Our universe, world and even right down to what we consider a simple organism are so immensely complex that they scream of an intelligent Creator. Even professed atheist and evolutionist Richard Dawkins said in an interview that the complexity of organisms speaks of intelligent design, he simply refuses to give credit to the Lord for His handiwork. The other most basic and universal revelation we can observe is the human conscience. Every person that has ever and will ever exist has a basic understanding or a desire to define what is right and wrong, something exclusive to humans (because, despite our fallen sin nature, we were originally created in Gods image). Certainly we can choose to ignore it and over time we dull its sensitivity like a deadened nerve that no longer registers pain, as those described in 1 Timothy 4:2, those whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron. We also long to know our creator on some level, whether we realize it or not. Consider all of the philosophers throughout the ages that pondered the meaning of life, or wondered if there is more to life than what we can perceive with our natural senses. Even in our fallen state, we were created with a basic deficiency: to know our Creator personally and live to glorify and serve Him. This is initially how God draws us to Him! A person will respond to Gods general revelation in one of 3 basic ways: 1. Outright denial, ignoring the conscience and the incredible creation that is far too complex to have come about randomly and without an origin. Supposedly using science, which is the study of what God has created, in a twisted perversion of truth to try and convince themselves there is no Creator so they dont have to be accountable for their sins. 2. Ignoring the conscience but concocting an explanation involving a higher power of their own imagining, one that is most suited to their assumptions of what God should be, and makes them feel justified in their desired way of living. This is idolatry and sadly accounts for pretty much every major religion in our world. What they all have in common is that a person can be good enough to merit Gods favor and that you can work your way to righteousness, or some how cancel out bad deeds with good ones ( which ultimately makes your good deed self motivated, thus rendering it evil). 3. Heeding the cries of the conscience that tells you something is very wrong both in your heart and your actions (the conviction that invites Gods Holy Spirit to draw you to seek His truth and repent), and recognizing that there must be a higher power, wanting to know the truth rather than inventing one that most pleases them. #3 is the only proper response to Gods general revelation. Just as Gods word says in Jeremiah 29:13 You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. and as the Lord Jesus said seek and you will find. The Lord will reveal the gospel to them through His servants. This explains not only why missionaries go where they do specifically (they dont just throw a dart at a map :) ), but why so many times the people they reach there will exclaim the very things that I described in #3, how they longed to know and praise their Creator. This is no coincidence, but rather Gods providence. God is omniscient, or all knowing, and in this knows who will receive the Lord in truth and who will outright deny Him, possibly with great hostility. This explains why the gospel hasnt been preached to every single person since Christs resurrection. Between Gods omniscience, general revelation, and the fact that ultimately we all deserve hell because of our sins; Not only is God merciful for saving those who would choose to bend the knee to Jesus Christ and repent, He is also fair and just in His wrath for those who do not or would not.
Posted on: Wed, 28 May 2014 22:48:52 +0000
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