Sabbath: Revelation, and the God Revealed in It
Read for This Week’s Study: 2 Pet. 1:19-21; 2 Tim. 3:16-17; Deut. 6:4; Matt. 28:19;Heb. 11:6; Exod. 3:1-14.
Memory Text: “God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds” (Hebrews 1:1-2, NKJV).
Key Thought: However important it is to understand the way in which biblical inspiration works, it’s more important to know the God revealed to us through that inspiration.
The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork” (Ps. 19:1). That’s so true. What they don’t declare, however, is that our God loves us, died for us, and is actively working to save us from the consequences of our sinful choices.
The bottom line is that, whatever we can learn about God from other sources, the key source has to be the Bible. There are great truths, especially about the nature of God and His activity in this world, that we would know nothing about were they not revealed to us. As we have seen already, while people can sense something of a battle going on between good and evil, how else would they know of the great controversy were it not taught in the Scriptures?
This week we’ll focus on two things: first, we’ll look at what the Bible says about itself and how it was inspired. Next, we’ll see what it teaches us about the God who inspired it.
Study this week’s lesson to prepare for Sabbath, October 13.
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Perhaps we are not able to understand what inspiration is and how it works until we know what kind of God inspired the Bible? If the Bible is truly from God, then it will reveal him as a God of love and grace. There may be times when that is more or less clear, but always it will be there if we look for it. The God who inspires Scripture and reveals himself in it is the same God who loved us enough to die with and for us. If our understanding of inspiration hides that about God, or focuses on other things, then perhaps we need to rethink our understanding of inspiration.
Sabbath's lesson makes the comment, "God...is actively working to save us from the consequences of our sinful choices." Yes, but He doesn't stop there. The inspired word of God makes it plane that He loves us too much to leave it at that. Matthew 1:21 says, “And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins.” That word translated as "from" is apo in the original language. It means "of any kind of separation of one thing from another by which the union or fellowship of the two is destroyed." He is also actively working in us to keep us from making those sinful choices. “Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.” Titus 2:14 That word translated "redeem" is lytroo in the original language. It means "to deliver: from evils of every kind, internal and external", and the word translated "iniquity" is anomia in the original language. It means "contempt and violation of law." In other words, He gave Himself to us to deliver us from our contempt and violation of the law. Compare scripture with scripture by reading Genesis 3:15, Philippians 2:13, Colossians 1:27, John 12:32, and John 3:19-21.