There are several words or concepts that we must look at in order to grasp a full understanding of the nature of the scriptures. These being:

Revelation: Means to uncover bring out into the open, place in plain view. Plato asserted that the uncaused cause, (God), would reveal Himself to His creation in a revelation of Himself through a Logos, (Word), God has revealed Himself to His creatures in two distinct ways, General Revelation, and Specific Revelation.

 

1.      In creation (the natural worlds), If we have eyes to see we can behold God’s hand in every aspect of the natural world. Only an all wise all powerful God could have formed, ordered, and created all the wonder that we behold in nature. Ps 19:1 “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork”.

 

2.      Through Man’s conscience. Being created in the image of God we all have deep within our selves a knowledge of right and wrong. Nobody has to teach us that it is wrong to murder, or lie, or steal;. We know some things instinctively.Ro  13,14,15 “(For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified. For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves: Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another;)”.

 

 

Because of the human condition these first two means of revelation are greatly flawed. Primarily because men are generally blinded from comprehending God and it is possible to condition our conscience to be so dead as to justify any kind of ungodly behaviour.

 

 When a man who knows God views the heavens he says in his heart, “what a wonderful God I have!”, when a man who refuses to know God views the heavens he says in his heart, “how wonderful evolution is!” Men who harden their hearts to God are “self blinded”, and being blinded by their unbelief they are blinded by the “god of this world”, thus they are twice blind. So God’s revelation of Himself is lost to them.

 

 

In Christ we have the Father’s perfect revelation of Himself. For as stated in the scripture above, (Heb. 1:3) Jesus Christ “is the express image of His person”. The Apostles testified to the fact that they were eye witnesses to the glory that pertains only to God, (Heb. 1:3 “Who, Christ, being the brightness of [His], the Father’s, glory”. John. 1:14 “And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.”  The unity of the Triune God head is so strong that it is impossible to know one without knowing the other two. John. 14:9-12 “Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father? The man who rejects Christ rejects the Father also, because they are one divine essence with the Holy Spirit.

 

 “Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works. Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me: or else believe me for the very works sake. Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father”. All that we need to know about the Nature and Character of the Father we can learn from studying the Son.

 

                2. The written Word Jesus Christ is the living Word of God, and we find Him in the written Word of God. All we know of God, Christ, and the Holy Spirit all that can be known of Him is found in the divinely inspired Word of God. The Bible is God’s revelation of Himself to us. It is the foundation of our faith. It is the source of all godly knowledge. It is the fountain head of all wisdom. Without the inspired, inerrant, infallible scriptures we have no faith, no knowledge of the living God, no wisdom save the wisdom of this unregenerate world. It is life to us. [Ph 2:16 ] It is light to us. [Ps.119: 105]; It is bread to us. [Matt. 1:4] It is drink to us. [John 4:10]

 Ps 40 “Then said I, Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of me, Lu 24:44 And he said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you,”; “while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me.” John 5:39 “Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me. Lu 24:27 And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.

The Scriptures are a progressive Revelation, in that the Holy Spirit did not provide any one writer with the total sum of any subject discussed in the Word, but gradually over time added information until in the New Testament we have a complete revelation of God’s purpose, and will in all the matters taught in scripture.

 

For example in Gen 3:15 we find the beginning of the doctrines of Christ dieing for our sins, the virgin birth, the Atonement, final defeat of Satan, and much more.” And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.” As we read through the Bible we find more and more truth concerning these divinely ordained events. If Gen 3:15 is the photograph of Christ dieing on the cross it would measure 1’’ X 1’’. If Isaiah 53 is the photograph of Christ dieing on the cross it would measure 12’’ X 12’’. If Matthew 28; Mark 15; Luke 23 and John 19 are the photographs of Jesus dieing on the cross they would all measure 20’ x 20’. In a steady progression in each instance the photo is enlarged until every minute detail can be clearly seen. The Old Testament saint’s knowledge was limited to the extent of the revelation given to them. Though incomplete it was sufficient to provide salvation to all who embraced it, and looked forward in faith to the day when the knowledge of the saints would be made complete by the Word of God.

The biblical meaning of ‘mystery’ is to uncover or reveal. In the biblical since a mystery is a truth or concept that was hidden in the past but now is uncovered or brought out into the open.  There is no “new truth,” Much of the truth revealed to us in the New Testament is hidden in the Old, being illuminated by the indwelling Spirit we are helped to grasp the deep things of God concerning this age.