How Does God Make Himself Known? | Doctrine of God, Part 1

Doctrine of God · Week 1

Many people believe in “God,” but that does not always mean they know the God who has revealed Himself in Scripture.

Some imagine God as a distant power, a source of comfort, a moral rule-giver, or a spiritual force. Others reject God because of a distorted picture inherited from culture, family, politics, or painful church experiences.

That is why the doctrine of God must begin with revelation rather than imagination.

Opening Scripture Readings

Read these passages aloud before beginning:

• Genesis 1:1 — God is the Creator of all things.
• Psalm 19:1–4 — Creation declares the glory of God.
• Romans 1:19–20 — God has made Himself known through what He has made.
• Hebrews 1:1–3 — God has spoken most fully through His Son.
• John 1:18 — Jesus makes the Father known.

Christian doctrine does not begin with human speculation. We do not decide who God should be and then ask whether the Bible agrees with us. We listen to Scripture and allow God to tell us who He is.

God is beyond our full comprehension, but He is not beyond true knowledge. We cannot know Him completely because He is infinite and we are finite. But we can know Him truly because He has chosen to make Himself known.

The Bible begins, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1, NIV).

Scripture does not treat God as a theory to be tested. It begins with God as the living Creator of all things. Before creation, before our questions, and before our doubts, God is.

God is not made by the world or dependent upon it. The world exists because He created it. Yet God has not left Himself without witness.

God Reveals Himself Through Creation

Psalm 19 says, “The heavens declare the glory of God” (Psalm 19:1, NIV). The order, beauty, power, and existence of creation bear witness to the One who made it.

Romans 1 teaches that God’s eternal power and divine nature can be understood from what He has made. This is often called general revelation because it is given broadly to all people.

Creation tells us that there is a Creator, and conscience reminds us that we are morally accountable. But general revelation is not enough to save us.

Creation does not tell us the gospel. Conscience reveals our guilt, but it does not explain how sinners can be forgiven. For that, we need God’s Word.

God Reveals Himself Through Scripture

Scripture is special revelation. In His Word, God tells us who He is, what He has done, what sin is, what He requires, and how sinners can be reconciled to Him.

Without Scripture, people may use the word God while filling it with their own meaning. We may keep the parts of God that comfort us and avoid the parts that confront us.

But Scripture does not allow us to edit God. We do not let the Bible merely influence our thoughts about Him. We let it govern them.

God Reveals Himself Through His Son

God’s revelation reaches its fullest clarity in Jesus Christ.

Hebrews 1 says that God spoke through the prophets, but in these last days He has spoken through His Son. Jesus is “the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being” (Hebrews 1:3, NIV).

John 1:18 teaches that the Son has made the Father known. Jesus is not merely a teacher who explains God. He is God the Son made flesh.

In Jesus, we see God’s holiness and mercy, His authority and compassion, His opposition to sin and His love for sinners. Christ corrects our vague and distorted ideas about God by revealing the Father.

He calls sinners to repent, gives His life as a ransom, rises from the dead, and reigns as Lord.

So the proper response is not invention, but reception:

• We listen to what God has said.
• We trust what God has revealed.
• We obey the God who has spoken.

Core Statement

We do not define God. God reveals Himself, and we respond.

Discussion Questions

1. When people say they believe in “God,” what assumptions or experiences might they be bringing into that word?
2. What can creation teach us about God? What can it not teach us?
3. Why is it dangerous to believe in God without allowing Scripture to define who He is?
4. How does Jesus correct vague, distorted, or self-made ideas about God?
5. Where are you tempted to treat God more like an idea to manage than the living Lord to trust and obey?

Study References

• Primary passages: Genesis 1:1; Psalm 19:1–4; Romans 1:19–20; Hebrews 1:1–3; John 1:18.
• Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine, 2nd edition, Zondervan Academic, 2020, especially his discussion of the knowability of God, general revelation, special revelation, and Scripture.
• Scripture quotations are from the New International Version.