WORTHINGTON — You’re religious, no matter what you profess to — or even not to — believe. That’s what we concluded last time in this space: that the word ‘religion’ simply signifies your relationship to God.
Since everybody relates to God in one way or the other, then even the person who feels far from God or who denies his existence altogether is every bit as religious as one who lives in the closest communion with him. It’s just that the latter relates to God much more closely than the former.
But we need to back up half a step. Too often people express themselves religiously based on their perceived relationship to God, not how they actually relate to him. You might feel close to God, but in reality be far from him, or vice versa. Since your religion (relationship) controls the way you think, feel and act — in other words, everything about you — basing your religion simply on how you feel will likely have disastrous effects on both you and those around you.
So it’s critical to understand your religion (relationship) according to what God has said about himself, not on what you’d like him to be, or even on how you’ve heard others describe him.
So you very much need to know what God has said about himself, which he’s revealed in two ways.
First, God has revealed himself broadly and generally through his creation: in the facts, the forces, and laws of nature. Even the fact that you could read and mentally process that last sentence reveals quite a bit about the God who created you in his image with the ability to think!
David explains how God generally reveals himself in Psalm 19:1-2, “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.” The creation demonstrates the genius of its creator for all to see!
But sin blurred our perception of what God revealed about himself in his creation. Now what you can know about God simply by looking at the universe he spoke into being has become hazy and indistinct, sort of like a Midwestern landscape during the Canadian wildfire season.
So just making your own conclusions about what you see, feel and hear from this world about who and what God is will not provide the trustworthy foundation on which you can build an eternal future. Since our sin obscured and corrupted God’s handwriting in nature, we need God to tell us more in order to practice pure religion.
And in his grace God has revealed more! We call this aspect his special revelation. It’s been compared to a pair of eyeglasses; it corrects our misperceptions about God from our sin-flawed view of his creation. More importantly, God’s special revelation helps us clearly see our redemption and salvation in Christ.
God has specially revealed himself to us in all sorts of ways. Sometimes he just shows up — a phenomenon we call a theophany — like how he did to Moses in the burning bush or when he spoke to Elijah in a “still small voice.” Other times his voice thundered down from heaven, like when he gave the commandments to the Israelites or when he announced that he was pleased with his Son at Jesus’ baptism.
The greatest theophany of all is when Jesus took on flesh, for in him the whole creation of God is being restored and brought back to its original beauty. John tells us that “In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”
Miracles are another way God has specially revealed himself. They’re not just meant to dazzle and amaze, but rather to demonstrate God’s sovereign power over creation, symbolize spiritual truths and signify the coming of his Kingdom. They’re meant to point us to Jesus.
Of course the most important example of God’s special revelation is his Word, the Bible. Lord willing, we’ll unpack why it’s such a critical factor for you to build your religion upon in a few weeks.
Rev. Chad Werkhoven pastors Worthington Christian Reformed Church. This article is the first in (hopefully) a series adapted from The Summary of Christian Doctrine, written a century ago by theologian Louis Berkhof.