Progressive Revelation: June 2025
Table of Contents
Progressive Revelation
There was no revelation before the fall — no need of one, nor knowledge of good and evil. By the fall man acquired the knowledge of good and evil, and a revelation of the seed of the woman was added in the judgment of the serpent. Noah's position was different. There was the knowledge of good and evil, and horrible evil and monstrous evil already experienced, revelations and judgment executed on evil. What the law given through Moses requires is the maintenance of the relationships in which we are according to God, according to the tenor of them. And gradually some glimmerings of clearer revelation came in, but the counsels of God in Christ, and eternal life and incorruptibility, were reserved for revelation, when righteousness, the foundation of glory, and accomplishing the counsels were accomplished in the cross by the coming of the Second Man. The first was the responsible man; the Second connected with counsels and promises. The cross made all righteous. “After I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and love unto all the saints, cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers; that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him: the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of His calling, and what the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints” (Eph. 1:15-18).
J. N. Darby (adapted)
Progressive Revelation
Dispensations
The Bible consists of two parts, Old Testament and New Testament, and in these it is possible to see the general progress of God’s revelation of truth. The former indicates Law, and the latter Grace. The one deals with rules suited to moral childhood; the other, with principles applicable to moral maturity.
But within these two main divisions there are still further and fuller instances of progress. God has revealed His will to man in many parts and in many ways (Heb. 1:1), and it is usual to speak of these as dispensations, meaning certain periods of time when God offers blessing to man on certain conditions. While in general we speak of the Jewish and Christian dispensations, we can and must go into further detail and notice, both in the Old Testament and in the New, the different yet connected stages of God’s revelation to man. Some students suggest seven of these dispensations: the Edenic (innocence); the Antediluvian (conscience); the Governmental (human government); the Patriarchal (promise); the Mosaic (law); the Christian (grace of God) and the Millennial (righteous government). Even these are capable of fuller division, for the Mosaic dispensation can be distinguished as the Theocracy (the time from Egypt to Samuel), the Monarchy (from Saul to the Captivity), and the Return (from the restoration to Malachi). The Christian dispensation can be similarly divided into the times before and after Pentecost.
Now in these various divisions it is often possible to distinguish God’s manifestation of Himself and of His truth at different stages. There was a gradually increasing manifestation of the divine character and will at successive periods, just as the people were considered ready to receive it. This means that while the revelation at every stage or dispensation was perfect for its own time, it was not necessarily suited for a following stage.
However we may divide the periods, it is clear that a distinction of this kind has to be drawn. Thus, when Christ said, “I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now” (John 16:12), He was indicating what I am now emphasizing, that truth was progressive in the sense that it was not all delivered at once, for, as the Lord went on to say, “Howbeit when He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth” (John 16:13).
Gradual Unfolding of God’s Revelations to Man
Other proofs of the same gradual unfolding of the complete revelation of God for man can be seen in these two instances. In the Sermon on the Mount, Christ first declared the Old Testament truth, and then supplemented and deepened it by adding, “Verily I say unto you” (Matt. 5:17-48).
In Mark 16:17-20 five miraculous signs are said to “follow them that believe.” They refer to that transitional period when the gospel was being offered to the Jews to repent and accept the Christ they had crucified (Acts 3:12-26) and until they refused it (Acts 7) and the Roman general Titus sacked Jerusalem and the gospel of the grace of God went out to the nations.
No Repudiation of Past Revelations
But in all this progressiveness of revelation, it is necessary and important to remember that it did not involve any repudiation of what had gone before. Like the repealing of a law which is in force up to the time of the repeal, the teaching for each stage was valid and obligatory until supplemented and thereby supplanted by fresh and fuller instruction. But repeal of a law never means repudiation, only a “disannulling” because of a more complete provision (Heb. 7:18).
A striking proof of this has been shown in the fact that there are traces in Scripture of later portions carrying an endorsement of previous stages. Joshua confirms the law of Moses (Josh. 1:8). The first Psalm emphasizes the value of the law (vs. 2). Acts refers back to the third Gospel. The Old Testament is frequently referred to or quoted in the New. These references often give further light on understanding of the truth until the Word of God was complete. All this attestation of one part of Scripture by another is a proof at once of its unity and its progressiveness. Then, in the New Testament in the “dispensation of the fullness of time,” we have the full, complete revelation of the purposes and counsels of God.
Trinity—An Example of Progressive Revelation
Out of many examples of this progressiveness of revelation, two will be adduced. The first is the doctrine of God. In the Old Testament emphasis is rightly placed on the unity of the Godhead as against the “gods many” of heathenism. But in the New Testament there is the additional revelation of the Trinity, which is not contradictory of the unity, but is based on it and developed out of it. The Christian doctrine of the Trinity never had the slightest connection with polytheism, but grew out of Jewish monotheism. It is significant that with all the Jewish objections to Christianity in Paul’s time, no trace can be found of any opposition to his doctrine of a distinction between the deity of the Father and the deity of the Son, which was the germ of the fully-developed doctrine of the Trinity.
The explanation of this was that the Jewish believers, having been led by experience into an acceptance of Christ as a divine Redeemer (and thereby to a distinction in the deity), found in their Old Testament anticipatory hints of the Trinity. They realized that the unity of the Godhead was compound, not simple, as the Hebrew words for “one” clearly indicate (Deut. 6:4; Ex. 26:6-11; Ezek. 37:16-19).
Morality—Another Example
Another illustration of the progressiveness of revelation is seen in the difference between the morality of the Old and New Testaments. This doctrine of the progress of revelation helps us to distinguish between God’s temporary and permissive will and His absolute and inflexible standard. The former is seen in the Old Testament and the latter in the New Testament, and as we study the first-named we can see in it clear indications of its temporary character. Thus, while permitting slavery, restrictions were imposed, and cruelty was prohibited (Ex. 21:16-27). Many of the Old Testament difficulties can be solved, or at least relieved, by the consideration of this purely temporary and merely permissive character of the morality at that time. Christ referred to this when He distinguished between the original, essential divine command about marriage and the Mosaic toleration of divorce (Matt. 19:8).
Principle of Progress of Great Practical Service
This principle of progress in God’s revelation is of great practical service in meeting certain current objections to the Old Testament. There are those who reject it because of its alleged cruelties, such as the slaughter of the Canaanites, or because of certain manifestations in individual life and practice not consistent with New Testament principles. Now, while we are not to be guided today by many of the examples of the Old Testament, it is equally true that insofar as what they said and did was due to a revelation of God, that revelation was perfect for that time, whatever additional truth came afterward for newer needs. We say insofar as what they said and did was of God, because not even in the Old Testament are we to understand that God necessarily approved of all that His servants said and did, even when they thought they were doing Him service. But if this were the place to do it, the instance of the slaughter of the Canaanites, already referred to, could be justified without much difficulty, in the light of the divine judgment on the awful depths of sin to which they had descended (Gen. 15:16).
Gradual Development and Deterioration
There is another point that is also apt to be overlooked, namely, that side by side with the gradual development of God’s revelation there was an equally gradual deterioration of Israel, so that they in their degeneration failed to realize and respond to the ever-enlarging disclosure of God. It has been well pointed out that “there are no setbacks in the revelation made to Israel, but there are many setbacks in the religious history of Israel.” It is the failure to recognize this distinction between the divine and the human that has caused people to regard Old Testament morality as low and unworthy of God, when all the time the explanation has been in the failure of the people to accept the growing revelation of the truth of God.
And so God revealed Himself. He taught men as they were able to bear it. He led them step by step from the dawn of revelation up to the fullness and splendor of His manifestation “in these last days ... by His Son” (Heb. 1:2). A knowledge of this principle of progress in God’s revelation of Himself will enable us to avoid a twofold error. It will prevent us, on the one hand, from undervaluing the Old Testament by reason of our fuller light from the New Testament; on the other hand, it will prevent us from using the Old Testament in any of its stages without guidance from the complete revelation in Christ. We shall thereby be enabled to obtain the correct spiritual perspective from which to study the Old Testament and to derive from it the wealth of spiritual instruction it was intended to convey to all ages (Rom. 15:4).
Temporary Teaching and Permanent Truth
We have thus to distinguish carefully between what may be called temporary teaching and permanent truth in the Old Testament — that is, between what is written to us and for us. All Scripture was written for our learning, but not all was written to us directly. Much of it was not addressed to Christians but to Jews and was primarily and often exclusively for them; it is useful for us today only by way of application. This distinction will solve many a difficulty, for the progress of doctrine is one of the master keys of the Bible.
W. H. G. Thomas (adapted)
What Progressive Revelation Is Not
In this issue of The Christian we are looking at the subject of progressive revelation and how God has gradually given more light to man in His ways with him. However, it is important to realize what progressive revelation is not. Over the centuries of man’s existence in this world, and particularly during the Christian dispensation, both men and women have attempted to add to divine revelation in a wrong way. Some of this has been undertaken under the umbrella of the profession of Christianity, while others have done so under the guise of false religions. Much harm has been done when people have accepted these false writings as if they were inspired, and, to use a scriptural phrase, “many [have followed] their pernicious ways” (2 Peter 2:2).
The apocrypha books were written between 200 B.C. and 100 A.D., and later a number of so-called “other gospels” were also written, such as the gospel of Philip, the gospel of Thomas, the gospel of Peter, and several others. Most of these were eventually rejected as not being part of the canon of Scripture. Then, during the seventh century A.D. the Koran was written by Muhammad, again purporting to have divine authority, to the point of founding a new religion — Islam.
More recently, during the nineteenth century, a number of people claimed to have had a vision from the Lord and were supposedly led to write things that were alleged to be “on par” with the inspired Word of God. Notable among these are the writings of Ellen White, who founded Seventh Day Adventism, and the writings of Joseph Smith, who founded Mormonism. Throughout its history, the Roman Catholic Church has claimed the right to add to the Word of God. One blasphemous example is their claim that the virgin Mary ascended to heaven, body and soul, at the time of her death. This was called her “assumption” and was adopted into Roman Catholic belief in 1950 by the late Pope Pius XII.
Paul Completed the Word
In assessing the claims of these authors and what they have written, we must remember several things. First of all, we read in Colossians 1:23: “I am made a minister, according to the dispensation of God which is given to me for you, to fulfill [or complete] the word of God.” Paul is speaking here of himself and the revelation God gave him of the truth of the assembly. All is displayed in the revelation of this truth; Paul completed the Word of God. Yes, details were added by what was written later by John, but no new truth was brought out. Anything since Paul that claims to be new truth cannot be inspired.
Second, new revelations that are given of God never repudiate or teach something contrary to what was given before. Rather, the new revelations build on what was given before and expand on them. For example, the Koran claims to be a new revelation, yet it rejects the deity of Christ and, in many cases, teaches the opposite of what He said.
In summary, we can trust what the Word of God says, for it “hangs together” in a way that no human book ever could. There are hints of New Testament truth in the Old Testament, without the actual revelation of that truth, and the New Testament writers constantly refer to the Old Testament. All is in perfect unity while also being progressive. For this reason, a solemn warning is given at the end of the book of Revelation, regarding those who might add to or take away from the inspired Word. “Forever, O Lord, Thy word is settled in heaven” (Psa. 119:89).
W. J. Prost
The Dawning Light of Prophecy
Among the various prophetic predictions of the Old Testament, the introduction, by a crisis of mingled mercy and judgment, of the universal reign of a king appointed by Jehovah is the grand feature of them all. But there is a mystery yet hidden behind all this. This king is to have a heavenly bride, as well as earthly subjects. This the Old Testament does not reveal. For this wondrous thought we must proceed to the New Testament. The church — the body of the saints of the present interval, between the departure and the return of the Lord Jesus — was not the subject of Old Testament predictions. The saints of that past dispensation shall sit down in the heavenly places of the future kingdom in the presence of the king as His friends, the “friends” of the bridegroom, and they shall rejoice to see Him take His bride, but they shall not be of the bride. The saints of the future period shall be reigned over by the King, but they shall not reign with Him, as the bride shall.
There are spheres of glory; there are gradations in the kingdom. The “heavenly things” were subsequent revelation. Earthly things shall be the portion of Israel and the nations. Heavenly things, as well as royalty over earthly things, are the portion of the bridegroom, of the bride, and of their “friends.” “That in the dispensation of the fullness of times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth, even in Him”(Eph. 1:10).
The day succeeds the dawn. The dawning light brightens into noon-day splendor. We direct attention onwards to that “completion” of the Word of God which was vouchsafed to the apostles, especially to Paul. And we conclude these very hasty sketches of a few leading features only, of God’s progressive revelation, in the words of that highly favored Apostle: “Whereby, when ye read, ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ; which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto His holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit; that the Gentiles should be fellow-heirs, and of the same body, and partakers of His promise in Christ by the gospel; whereof I was made a minister, according to the gift of the grace of God given unto me by the effectual working of His power. Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ; and to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ: to the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God” (Eph. 3:4-10).
“Now unto Him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, unto Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen” (Eph. 3:20-21).
E. J. Thomas
Six Precious Revelations From Christ in Glory
1. The Believer Justified From All Things
The first time we hear the inspired voice of Paul preaching is in Acts 13. In verse 39 Paul reached beyond that which had heretofore been preached and communicated the precious truth that “in Him [JND] all that believe are justified from all things.” Paul alone teaches that the believer is “in Christ” (Rom. 8:1). Peter tells us of forgiveness of sins and coming glory, but Paul tells us that Christ is our life (Col. 3:4), that Christ is our righteousness (1 Cor. 1:30), that we are “risen with Christ” (Col. 3:1), and that even now we are made to “sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (Eph. 2:6). In a future day, we shall also be “glorified together” with Him (Rom. 8:17).
2. Truth of the One Body
There was no revelation of the church as the body of Christ in the Old Testament. The church as the body of Christ was formed at Pentecost, when by one Spirit all believers were baptized into one body (see 1 Cor. 12:12-13). The word “church” simply means “called-out ones,” and in that sense all believers in every dispensation were “called-out ones” (Acts 7:38), but when the church is viewed as the body of Christ, we must always remember that it was formed as such at Pentecost. Paul received this wondrous revelation from Christ in glory (see Eph. 3:1-6). The other apostles doubtless learned it from Paul.
3. Special Significance of the Lord’s Supper
Previous to Paul’s revelation, they were breaking bread, thus commemorating the Lord’s death (Acts 2:42). Now Paul gives them the added blessedness of the truth that the one loaf is a precious symbol of our oneness with Christ. He received it “of the Lord” — that is, by revelation (see 1 Cor. 10:15-17 and 1 Cor. 11:23-26). The first day of the week (the Lord’s day) is the Christian’s day, for it is the sign of new creation, and we are part of that new creation (2 Cor. 5:17).
All believers are now members of the body of Christ, and before the loaf is broken it symbolizes this precious, glorious truth, so that we (if intelligent) do not break bread just as forgiven sinners, or even as saints, but as members of the body of Christ. After the loaf is broken, it speaks to our hearts of His death. Oh, how it touches our hearts as we think of the Lord of glory in death for us!
4. Coming of Christ for His Bride
The coming of Christ for His bride, in its proper Christian character, is given us only in Paul’s revelation. Every time the Lord’s coming is spoken of in the Old Testament, it is His coming in judgment and for the setting up of the kingdom on earth.
The first intimation of His coming in its proper Christian character (the rapture) is in John 14:1-3. Now note there is nothing said there about war, pestilence or famine, for these things precede the Lord’s coming to earth to set up the kingdom, but they are not mentioned as preceding His coming for His heavenly saints.
Now Paul tells us in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 that he had received this precious truth from the Lord. These verses give us the Christian’s present hope. We wait for God’s Son from heaven and seek, by spreading the gospel, to save sinners from the judgment that will follow His coming for His heavenly saints and from the everlasting punishment that awaits all who have not believed the gospel.
5. Absent From the Body ... Present With the Lord
Previous to this precious revelation given by Paul, there was no scriptural light as to the interval between death and the resurrection of the body (see 2 Tim. 1:9-10 JND). Here Paul tells us that life and incorruptibility have come to light by the gospel.
The dying thief was the first believer to have the revelation of this precious truth, that to depart from this life is to be “with Christ.” This was an individual revelation for himself alone, but now Paul has given us this glorious truth in Philippians 1:23 and 2 Corinthians 5:8 for all saints. In Luke 16 the curtain is brushed aside a little, but “Abraham’s bosom” is the figure used, and we are not told where Abraham was.
6. Resurrection Body of Glory
Paul alone gives us the precious revelation that in resurrection we shall have bodies of glory, like Christ (see Phil. 3:21 and 1 Cor. 15:51-54). Those departed to be with Christ wait, in a brighter waiting room than we here on earth, for the glorious resurrection morning, when “the dead in Christ shall rise first; then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air” (1 Thess. 4:16-17). Then we shall be escorted by the Lord Himself to the Father’s house and introduced there with these words: “Behold I and the children which God hath given Me” (Heb. 2:13).
H. E. Hayhoe (adapted)
Abraham and Moses
It is fitting that we consider Abraham and Moses together, as they are both intimately connected with the nation of Israel. In both cases we can consider divine revelation to them as individuals, and also in the larger sense as they relate to God’s purposes with Israel.
Abraham and his family stand out clearly as the foundation of the nation of Israel, but within the family there is progress in God’s revelation. In Abraham we see calling, in Isaac sonship, in Jacob discipline, and in Joseph, glory. In each family member we see a type of New Testament truth. Space does not permit us to enlarge on all the cardinal members of the Abrahamic family; we must be content to consider Abraham.
As the first member of the family, Abraham exhibits amazing faith, for God called him as an idolater (see Joshua 24) to leave his home in Ur of the Chaldees, “not knowing whither he went.” What characterized Abraham at the beginning, and indeed all his life, was his steadfast faith in God. It is true that he occasionally failed in this, but it is noticeable that there is no direct rebuke from God for these failures. Communion with the Lord settled the matter in each case. He enjoyed a relationship with God that few others had in the Old Testament, and he was called “the friend of God” (James 2:23). It is true that he became a rich man, but he never owned any land except a burial plot, and although he interacted occasionally with others in the land of Canaan, he lived a separated life in fellowship with God. He fully embraced the promises God made to him and was content to live a simple life in this world, counting on God for future blessing.
Promises to Abraham
These future blessings included not only Israel, but also the Gentiles, for God said to him, “In thee shall all families of the earth be blessed” (Gen. 12:3). This brings us to New Testament revelation, for when the question of keeping the law became a problem among the Galatian assemblies, Paul wrote to them, using Abraham as an example of faith without works. In this way even those who are saved in this dispensation of grace are “the children of Abraham,” and “they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham” (Gal. 3:7,9). It is true that after Abraham, the law was brought in as a test for man, but it was always God’s purpose to bless man through grace that was appropriated by faith. This we see exhibited first in Abraham, and it would be embraced by others in years to come.
More than this, Christ was brought in as the source of these blessings, for God said to Abraham, “In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed” (Gen. 22:18). This is explained in Galatians 3:16: “He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ.” It is noteworthy that this promise was not made to Abraham until after the (figurative) offering up of Isaac, a type of Christ in death and resurrection.
Further Revelations to Moses
When we come to Moses, we see further revelation of God’s way with man, and again, particularly in connection with Israel. As a man, Moses too was outstanding, for he knew God face to face. David records that the Lord “made known His ways unto Moses, His acts unto the children of Israel” (Psa. 103:7). He was the first of the inspired writers of the Bible, and by inspiration he says of himself, “There arose not a prophet since in Israel like unto Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face” (Deut. 34:10). He is the first one in Scripture to be specifically designated as “the man of God.”
Moses’ history was an unusual one, for as a baby he began his life under the condemnation of death, yet in God’s providence ended up being raised in Pharaoh’s court as the adopted son of Pharaoh’s daughter. Yet he gave up all this, only to be left to keep sheep for 40 years—a truly humbling experience. But all was ordered of God, so that when he was called upon to lead God’s people out of Egypt, he had learned to rely on the Lord and not on himself. In spite of his failure toward the end of his life, he never wavered in his love for the Lord, and also his love for God’s people. In this Moses stands out as perhaps no other Old Testament figure does.
God Revealed as “I AM”
In the larger sense, it was to Moses that God first revealed Himself as “I AM”—the covenant-keeping God. It was under Moses that Israel became a sovereign nation, and under him they received the law—a law given directly from God. While we, in this day of God’s grace, are no longer under law, yet the law of Moses gives us many important principles relating to God’s ways with man on this earth and how a nation should be governed. “What nation is there so great, that hath statutes and judgments so righteous as all this law, which I set before you this day?” (Deut. 4:8). From Moses onward, as regards God’s government of and relationship with the earth, His name—that by which He is to be continually remembered—is the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob. This gave, and continues to give, the nation of Israel an important and peculiar place, for Israel will forever be the center of and the key to God’s purposes on the earth. It is at this time that we are told that God had set other nations in their places in reference to Israel. “When the most High divided to the nations their inheritance, when He separated the sons of Adam, He set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel” (Deut. 32:8).
It was also through Moses that God first began to dwell among His people collectively, first in the tabernacle, then later in the temple under Solomon. It was through Moses that the specific sacrifices were given, and while they were surely not completely understood by Israel at that time, yet they prefigure in detail the various aspects of the work of Christ.
In short, we see in Moses how Israel, as God’s chosen people, is set in its place and is seen as a redeemed people too. It is significant that the first occasion of singing recorded in the Bible is after Israel’s deliverance from Pharaoh’s army at the Red Sea. Truly we are led to say of God, like the Apostle Paul, “How unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out!” (Rom. 11:33).
W. J. Prost
Progressive Ways of God in the life of Abraham
Abraham marks an important phase of the progressive revelation of God, for with him begins the dispensation of promise. But my purpose in this article is to present, on the smaller scale of Abraham’s personal life, the progressive way in which God was pleased to reveal Himself to this most blessed saint. From this point of view, his life is full of precious practical instructions for the personal life of each one of us.
The Almighty
Abraham was called out of his kindred and country to go into a place completely unknown to him and where he was not given as much land as to place his foot upon. He was called to abide in that country (in which he failed at first, going down to Egypt for a while) and to resist the different temptations connected to his position of stranger and pilgrim. For this, God revealed Himself to him as the Almighty, the Possessor of heaven and earth, which made him conscious of his high position and the blessings he was enriched with. Having the Most High as his God, the Possessor of everything in heaven and earth, anything that the world, in the person of the king of Sodom, could offer lost its value for Abraham (Gen. 14:18-24).
Thy Exceeding Great Reward
In chapter 15:1, God speaks to Abraham in a vision: “I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward.” This fresh revelation of God to him implied the coming of the heir, as the answer of Abraham clearly shows. But the man of God was old, and so was his wife, so how could that happen? Now God reveals Himself to him as the One “who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were” (Rom. 4:17). Abraham believed God, for in spite of all that, the natural eye was so obviously against the promise of God. Therefore “sprang there even of one, and him as good as dead, so many as the stars of the sky in multitude, and as the sand which is by the seashore innumerable” (Heb. 11:12).
His walk now was to be marked by and in full accord with that fresh revelation of God: “I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect.” One remark here as to walking would be in order. Our walk should be both before God and with God. Walking before God is walking according to the revelation God has made of Himself and of His will in any given dispensation. Walking with Him is walking according to His character and moral traits, which never change and are common to any dispensation. These two principles should be distinguished, but not separated, and kept in proper balance in our life as believers.
The God of Glory and Resurrection
Nevertheless, in order for this progressive revelation to be taken one step further, God needed to reveal Himself to Abraham as the One that not only can bring fruit from what naturally seems dead and barren, but as the One that can bring life out of death, as the God of resurrection. This is beautifully illustrated in the well-known chapter 22 of Genesis. There the heir is figuratively passing through death and, also figuratively, is received back as risen from the dead. Abraham learns the capital truth (so hard to learn and so easy to forget) that there could be no blessing whatever for man except through the death and resurrection of the blessed Substitute that God Himself provided.
In his inspired account, in Acts 7:2, Stephen tells us that “the God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham, when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Charran.” We see that his history as a believer begins with the God of glory and ends, so to speak, with the God of resurrection. The purpose of God for Abraham, and for us too, is “the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ” (2 Thess. 2:14). But this glory was not possible for us without the death and resurrection of His Son, according to the order we find in Romans: “All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God. ... [He] raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification. ... [We] rejoice in hope of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23; 4:24-25; 5:2).
Now We Know God as Our Father
It is wonderful to witness the patience and loving-kindness of God in carrying Abraham through all these various experiences, making Himself known to him in a progressive way and filling his soul with confidence, peace and adoration. This is what He desires today for each of us too, and He is certainly able to do it. Only we must keep in mind that, in contrast with Abraham, we have Him fully revealed as our Father, and this through His beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. We do not look forward to any further revelation in this sense. But there will always be room for knowing Him better and getting closer to Him in our personal experience. We need, according to Abraham’s example, to trust and obey God, to separate from evil and to cultivate communion with Him, so that we may “grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 3:18).
E. Datcu
God's Ways With Isaac
The Child of Promise
I desire to consider what scripture gives us to learn of Isaac. (Genesis 21-28). It is true that much less is said of him than of Abraham on the one hand or of Jacob on the other, even less than of Joseph among the many sons of Jacob. Yet there is much in the spiritual account of him who came between the two chief fathers, distinguished by his own equable, retired, and peaceful way, and indicative of great principles in God’s Word and ways.
Isaac was the pattern of sonship, the child of promise, as Abraham was its depositary, elect, called out, blessed, and to be a blessing universally for the earth at the end, though himself looking higher by faith. Sovereign grace wrought as to both father and son. “For the promise that he should be heir of the world was not to Abraham or to his seed through law, but through righteousness of faith” (Rom. 4:13). Thus only could it be, according to grace, that the promise might be sure to all the seed, not to that only which is of the law.
But the progress of revelation as to this is as interesting as instructive. It was when Lot’s choice of the well-watered plain of Jordan severed him from the one to whom all the land was promised that Jehovah renewed the assurance of it all, not only to Abraham but to his seed (Gen. 12:7; 13:15). Still the patriarch had to wait, and later, when he lays his childlessness before Jehovah, the word came that he that should come forth out of his own bowels should be his heir—seed numerous as the stars. Then after the episode of Hagar in chapter 16 comes the revelation of God Almighty, El-Shaddai, in chapter 17, and under the outward rite of circumcision, death to the flesh imposed on him and his seed, with a new name to his wife as well as himself; for she too has the promise of the son, whose name was given. Thus however great and fruitful He would make Ishmael, His covenant was to be established in Isaac, whose birth had a time set for it.
The exceptional interest Jehovah took in the birth of Isaac has a still more striking witness in Genesis 18. There in the guise of man He Himself appeared with two angels to Abraham, and deigned to partake of the meal he prepared and set before them. Then He specified the precise certainty of the time when Sarah should have a son. For the difficulty lay, humanly speaking, yet more in the wife than in the husband, and her unbelief was reproved. But Abraham as the “friend” of God heard, not of his son’s birth only but of the world’s judgment, which drew out his soul in intercession for his righteous kinsman and his house in ungodly and lawless Sodom. If his advocacy stopped short, “God remembered Abraham and sent Lot out of the overthrow” (Gen. 19:29).
In chapter 21 Jehovah visited Sarah as He had said, and Jehovah did to Sarah as He had spoken. For Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age at the set time of which God had spoken to him. Sarah’s laughter was now of overflowing joy and gratitude. But the great feast on the child’s weaning drew out Ishmael’s mockery, and the expulsion of the bondmaid and her son on Sarah’s remonstrance, an allegory to which Galatians 4 gives us the key.
The great change is then faintly brought out. For instead of Abimelech reproving Abraham justly, Abraham now reproved the Gentile king, who with the chief captain of his host owns God with him in all that he does. Yet Abraham swears to show him kindness, and they make a covenant. And as the well of the oath was not without significance, so neither was the grove planted there, or the calling on the name of Jehovah, the everlasting God. The day was anticipated when “in the wilderness shall waters break out,” and “the glory of Lebanon shall be given to it” (Isa. 35:2, 6). The blessedness of the coming age for the earth is thus typified.
The Son Given as a Sacrifice
After these things, and quite distinct from them, God tried Abraham. It is the picture of the only-begotten Son given, of the Lamb which God would provide Himself for a burnt offering. Here Isaac gave himself up to die, as Abraham was ready at God’s word to sacrifice his beloved son— the sign of a far better thing.
But Jehovah arrests his hand when his heart was proved, and confirms to the son raised from the dead in a figure, that in Christ, the antitype, should all the nations of the earth be blessed, as the apostle reasons in Galatians 3.
Then after the passing away of Sarah (the covenanted mother of the child of promise), we have the call of the bride for the bridegroom and heir of all. Yet we may notice here the “moderation” of Isaac made known to all men in the question of the wells his servants found (chap. 26); and the crisis of his ways when his foot had well-nigh slipped in the matter of his two sons (chap. 27). Grace here overruled, and he was saved yet so as by fire. How striking it is that such a scene should be singled out to his praise in Heb. 11:20! “By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau even concerning things to come.” Isaac lived many years after this, but Scripture records only his death and burial.
W. Kelly
God's Ways of Revelation
Α revelation gives the perfect presentation of the divine mind on the subject of which it treats to one who is spiritually capable of understanding it. But in doing this, it gives us a true picture of what man is, and this not merely by a dogmatic statement, but by a large historical development of what man has done — what he has been in various stages of progress through the revelations afforded him. If the Bible had merely given us God’s judgment, we never should have had the same testimony to conscience as we have, by its affording us man’s actual history under the various dispensations of God towards him. But to do this, we must have man as he was, his feelings expressed as they were in him: whether without God, or under the influence of piety, or animated as to his heart by God’s Spirit. Otherwise, it would not have been the true and needed account of man, nor even a divine one.
Positive Revelations
In this process we get positive revelations from God, given in order to act upon men according to their state. We also get the inspired testimony of what God’s own mind is. Yet even here God’s grace has adapted it to the conscience and spiritual information possessed, and His dealings with men in such a time or such a state. If He deigned to deal with them, He has done it in condescendence for their blessing. He leads them up and onward; indeed He is the one leading. A gracious father speaks to his child according to what suits it, yet never what is at the same time unworthy of Himself. So has God dealt with men. How else could He have dealt with them, if He meant them to be morally developed?
God’s Picture of What Man Is
Thus, in the Old Testament, we have a perfect, divinely-given picture of man, under this gracious process, in the various relationships in which God has placed him, so as to get his whole condition fully brought out. Thus by a divinely-given history we may know ourselves, and at the same time the whole course of God’s dealings, and what man was under them, until the time for the manifestation of His perfect and supreme grace. This God manifested in Christ as the supreme grace which man needed, and man and God get into the relationship which was His full purpose according to the security which flows from the unchangeableness of His nature and the perfection of His love. “When we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly” (Rom. 5:8). Hence it is said, “For the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; to declare at this time His righteousness” (Rom. 3:25). He dealt with them for the full development of His ways. He received them according to His knowledge of the perfect work to be accomplished in Christ.
No Progression Beyond Christ
The effectual means of all grace was Christ from the beginning. “God’s righteousness was declared at this time.” The Apostle John wrote, “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life” (1 John 1:1). That is, he calls back to what was from the beginning as the safeguard against all seduction. There is no progressive development since Christ. To suggest otherwise is a blasphemous arraignment of the perfection of God Himself manifested in Christ, fully revealed by the apostles. “Whosoever goes forward and abides not in the doctrine of the Christ has not God. He that abides in the doctrine, he has both the Father and the Son” (2 John 9 JND).
Now God has given us a perfect revelation of all this, but we never could have had the knowledge either of man or of our God Himself, and of His wondrous and all-perfect and patient ways with us, if we had not been shown exactly what man was along each step of the way. The statement of morality simply by God would, no doubt, have shown what man ought to be. That we have in the law. But it would not have shown us what man is — what he is under the various dealings of God. Now we have this, and, moreover, we have it under the influence of God’s Spirit.
The Key to Spiritual Understanding
Now in New Testament times I pass a moral judgment on many things in the Old Testament, because God has given us the true light, and the darkness is now passed. I judge them in the perfect light. But it is He who is light who has given me the history to judge of and the light by which to judge. God means to inform my spiritual judgment and to reveal His ways to me, to show me that He has never ceased dealing with men — that the world has not gone on without His knowledge. He has given me the key to everything, and therefore He has afforded me all these elements with divine perfection, on which and by which my judgment is to be spiritually formed and my senses exercised to discern good and evil, as man has learned it through past ages. Now Christ has given the perfect key by which to judge it all. Hence Paul says that the scriptures are “able to make [us] wise unto salvation, through faith which is in Christ Jesus” (2 Tim. 3:15). And so, when poor Peter would have put Moses and Elias in the same rank with Christ, they disappear, and a voice came from heaven, saying, “This is My beloved Son: hear him. And ... Jesus was found alone” (Luke 9:35-36).
The Conscience
Then, besides these historical pictures of God’s ways and of their effect on man, I also get direct addresses to the conscience at the time in the prophets, and when suffering under the evil state of God’s people, the eye of the saints is directed to that better day which the Christ who should visit them as the dayspring should bring in, setting all things right. They looked on to it and were saved by hope, as we are; if not so clear a hope, yet as true, and indeed the same, though only partially revealed, and in its earthly part, yet so as that heaven was necessarily brought in by it. Abraham rejoiced to see Christ’s day; he saw it and was glad, and he lived as a stranger in the Canaan which had been promised him. He looked for “a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God” (Heb. 11:10). In the glory of all this he will enjoy the blessings of the inheritance of his children in a better and sweeter way than those who shall actually possess them. The Old Testament is gained, not lost, thus; we have it from our God’s own hand to instruct us. What happened as proofs of God’s present interference in a temporal way to them — which suited their state and God’s government of the earth — is spiritual instruction for us, written for our learning, which is what we want. It is that by which we can more fully know God: All He teaches in it is perfect, and from that I learn His ways. This does not depend on “my powers” save as God may use them, nor on “my scientific knowledge.” I have the perfection of Christ by which to judge. It does depend on my spiritual progress, my moral state, as to being able to use the Word, and this is exactly what ought to be.
J. N. Darby (adapted)
Christianity - Christ
What do we see when Christianity, that unspeakable gift of God, was introduced into this world? We see in Jesus, that Man who did not lift up His voice in the streets! A testimony which was His, purely and profoundly moral and divine, in the midst of a world which had its own ways; a testimony, a life, a person, introducing into this world the light of God Himself, the consolation, the brightness, the power morally independent, which proceeded from Him; and that in a humility which made them penetrate in love wherever there was a broken heart, degraded perhaps in men’s eyes, which had need of it; a humility which opened the road to a love before which nothing was found too low for God to descend to it in grace. Oh what need this poor world had of it!
Did He borrow anything from the circumstances which surrounded Him? No, the contrary was the entirety of His life. He came into the midst of these circumstances to reveal God there, because all was opposed to Him, and because, consequently, all was miserable. God in love came to them there in that grace which much more abounds where sin abounded. Did Jesus meet with the concurrence of helpful circumstances? Certainly not. “His timing” was when man was “ungodly and without strength.” This work must have been the work of God.
O how happy are we to have a work which is a manifestation of Him in this poor world! God has made these circumstances fulfil His plan. Yes, all conspires after its way: not that He arranges circumstances to falsify the character of the testimony, as if this testimony were not of God, or as if man were not opposed to Him. Whatever might have been the height of the wall that man opposed to His entrance, to Him, Jesus, the porter opened, and the sheep heard His voice.
J. N. Darby (adapted)
New Revelations Never Contradict Old Ones
A great principle of Bible interpretation — that Bible students would do well to observe — is that new revelations never contradict revelations previously given. A concept in the Old Testament cannot be taken to be the opposite in the New Testament; otherwise the Bible would be filled with contradictions. As Scripture was written, God gave additional light on certain subjects, but those new revelations do not contradict previous ones. Scripture unfolds truth like a building being constructed: a foundation is laid, and then a framework is added. One thing is built on another, and any new thing added does not tear down a previous thing.
B. Anstey
Revelation and Inspiration
Revelation is the substance of God’s truth, the what; inspiration is the expression of that truth, the how. We can see this in 1 Corinthians 2:10-13, where we have revelation in verse 10 and inspiration in verse 13. And so, not all the Bible is revealed, because much of it is history and refers to all sorts of men. But all in the Bible is inspired, because the record is given at every point in words that are trustworthy. This distinction helps us to understand how it is that the Bible, while fully inspired, is not of the same spiritual value at every point. The revelation of truth is, as we have seen, progressive, but the record is accurate throughout.
J. L. McLaughlin
Divine and Human Ways of Teaching
The presentation of truth in the holy books is in a manner which, while foreign to human methods of instruction, is characteristic of much of the divine teaching from the earliest times onwards. God reveals His fundamental truths like the breaking of the dawn, not with a sudden blaze like the switching on of a great searchlight.
Divine and human ways of teaching are in striking contrast. In the theological schools of men, subjects, however profound, would be defined, summarized, and reduced to a series of propositions stated in the briefest possible terms. Such statements, purged of all that is deemed extraneous, and duly formulated to suit the memory and intellect of the average person, would constitute the approved articles of faith. Evidence of the disposition of the human mind to place Bible teaching within certain well-defined limits which all are prepared to accept, even if all do not profess to understand, is provided by the existence of the numerous and varied creeds of Christendom.
A different plan of teaching altogether is adopted in the Scriptures. God educated before He instructed. Truths were gradually revealed to Noah, to Abraham, to Moses and to others in successive ages from Eden onwards, while the record itself of this revelation was made in many guises. It follows that only by patient comparative study of the whole field of revelation from first to last can the general scope and particular bearing of a given subject be discerned. And when truly discerned, it is perceived that divine truth, like stellar space, is in its full extension utterly beyond the comprehension of the human mind, though, as with the natural light of sun and stars, atoning grace brings life and beauty with a divine fulness to an otherwise dark and cheerless world.
W. J. Hocking
The Book of Books
Within this ample volume lies
The mystery of mysteries;
Happiest they of human race
To whom their God has given grace
To read, to fear, to hope, to pray,
To lift the latch, to force the way;
But better had they not been born
Than read to doubt, or read to scorn.
W. Scott