The only way we know anything about God is through His gracious revelation of Himself. Last time we ended with how God revealed Himself between Creation and the giving of the Law. The next installment is through:

The Law. This is the beginning of recording God’s revelation of Himself in written form (Exodus 34:27). This revelation is based on commands, which when obeyed, would result in God’s pleasure and man’s blessing, and when disobeyed, would result in God’s displeasure and man’s punishment. The Law was never intended as a path to forgiveness and salvation. Rather, the Law condemns sinners because despite one’s best efforts, no one has ever, or will ever, keep God’s law perfectly—except Jesus, of course. When one is aware of his hopeless condition of sinfulness before God and His law, the correct response is to cry out to God for mercy. This cry for mercy is mixed with faith in God’s promise to send a Deliverer, who was yet to come.

The next installment of God’s revelation of Himself was through the Prophets. Many, but not all of the messages given to man from God by prophets were recorded in writing. The prophets instructed God’s people, called them to repent, warned them of Judgment—and most importantly, foretold the promised Deliverer, Jesus Christ.

All that the prophets said or wrote had to be consistent with everything God had revealed earlier, or else the prophet had to be judged as a fraud (Deut. 13:1-5, 18:18-22, 1 John 4:1-6).

Then God’s Revelation through the prophets fell silent at the conclusion of Malachi’s prophecy. This pause lasted four hundred years, during which some were desperately expectant of the Messiah’s appearance. This silence was broken by the message of John the Baptist, the forerunner of the Messiah (John 1:6-8).

The next installment of God’s revelation is Jesus, the promised Deliverer.