How does God reveal Himself to Us?


“In his goodness and wisdom God chose to reveal Himself and to make known to us the hidden purpose of His will by which through Christ, the Word made flesh, man might in the Holy Spirit have access to the Father and come to share in the divine nature.” Pope Paul VI, “Dei Verbum” (“Word of God”), 1965 AD

How can limited, finite human beings, trapped in space and time, come to know God, eternal and transcendent?

First through the world around us – humanity and the natural world all proclaim the truth of God when looked at through the eyes of faith. St. Augustine said: “Question the beauty of the earth, question the beauty of the sea, question the beauty of the air distending and diffusing itself, question the beauty of the sky…question all these realities. All respond: ‘See, we are beautiful.’ Their beauty is a profession. These beauties are subject to change. Who made them if not The Beautiful One who is not subject to change?” (St. Augustine, “Sermo 241” (“Sermon 241”), circa 411 AD Do we not see the power of God in the thunder, the strength of God in the redwood, the infinity of God in the night’s sky, and the beauty of God in the sunset? All of these are but pale reflections of the reality of God, the One who created all these things. (Thank goodness for God’s love of variety too – roses, lilies, daisies, pansies, morning glories, etc., etc., and so forth!)

The human person, being open to truth and beauty, the sense of right and wrong, the love of freedom, and longing for infinity and happiness, reflects God as well. All of this leads humanity to quest for something greater, something beyond themselves. We see discernment here – the discernment of the immortal soul housed within the mortal body. Mom and Dad might have combined the genetics to create our bodies, but the soul, the “seed of eternity we bear in ourselves, irreducible to the merely material” can only come from God. (Vatican II, “Gaudium et Spes”, [“Joy and Hope”], 1965)

Humanity can come to know of God’s existence, to know there is a reality beyond themselves and the physical world because neither is the first principle or final cause – instead they participate in Being itself. God must reveal Himself to help humanity move beyond simply knowing of His existence, but the proofs of God’s existence in humanity and the physical world can predispose a person to faith and help one to see that faith is not opposed to reason. “Our holy mother, the Church, holds and teaches that God, the first principle and last end of all things, can be known with certainty from the created world by the natural light of human reason.” (Vatican I, “Dei Filius”, [“The Son of God”], 1870)

Our faith and our reason help us come to know God, but how does God reveal Himself to us?

Divine Revelation is a free gift of God whereby He gives Himself to us. In His wisdom, God does not spill all of His revelation at one time – He gives it to the world in stages. When He began his plan of salvation, the world was not ready for the full revelation – humanity would not have been able to comprehend the fullness of the gift He gave to us. (Much like math – if you do not learn things in the proper order, you will never grasp the fullness of math. You must start with numbers, addition, subtraction, and so forth so that everything builds upon itself until one is able to find a full appreciation for the beauty of math – in engineering, art, etc.) So, God gives us a gradual revelation, building up to the climax of the full revelation brought by Jesus Christ.

We see God’s gradual revelation in the Old Testament. (FYI – no true Christian can ever do without the Old Testament. This is the history of salvation, the roots from which the New Testament sprung. If you cast out the Old Testament, you are chopping down the tree of life itself.) “The Old Testament is the dramatic story through which God reveals to us the truths about creation, the human person, his plan for marriage and family, the first sin and the fall of humanity, and then his merciful response and the unfolding of his plan of salvation.” (Lucas Pollice, Open Wide the Doors to Christ, 2008) God’s gradual revelation has a two-fold purpose – 1. The slow revelation of Himself and His plan to the human family and 2. To gather His chosen people, Israel, into a church so that, in the fullness of time, Christ can gather all humanity into His universal church.

Throughout the Old Testament we see God offering a series of covenants which slowly unfold His plan. It is important to understand that while we tend to use covenant and contract interchangeably in our modern usage, this is NOT the meaning the word has when considering Biblical notions of covenant as expressed by the Hebrew word berith or the Greek word diatheke. Biblically speaking, the difference is as wide as between ‘prostitution’ (contract) and ‘marriage’ (covenant). Covenants involve oaths – contracts are promises. Covenants exchange persons – contracts exchange property. It is a major difference – by offering covenants to His people, God is making them His family, not His slaves. The covenants of the Old Testament lead the way to His final revelation and the New Covenant given to us by Jesus.

Jesus is the fullness of God’s revelation – in Him, God has given us everything. “In times past, God spoke in partial and various ways to our ancestors through the prophets; in these last days, he spoke to us through a son, whom he made heir of all things and through whom he created the universe, a who is the refulgence of his glory, the very imprint of his being, and who sustains all things by his mighty word.” (Hebrews 1:1-3) Divine Revelation is finished – everything has been revealed. Since then humanity has been attempting to ponder, study, and deepen their understanding of the revelations given to us by God.

The next entry will deal with how Divine Revelation is transmitted and passed on, but for now, here is a brief overview of the covenants of the Bible. More in-depth information would be the focus of a Bible study, and it is something to consider.

Five features are present in all covenants –

1. Mediators and their roles – the ones with whom God makes His covenant
2. Blessings – promises made by God within the covenant – gifts for keeping the covenant
3. Conditions and/or Curses – the conditions for humanity to uphold their side of the covenant, or the curses which will fall on them for their failure
4. Signs – the ways in which the covenant will be celebrated and remembered
5. Forms – the shape of God’s family as a result of the covenant

Adam & Eve – “covenant” is not used here, most likely because it is before the Fall, before the need for salvation. However it is told in ‘covenantal’ language. This covenant is made after the finish of Creation.
1. Mediator – Adam in his role as husband
2. Blessings – Adam & Eve will be fruitful, and their children shall fill the earth and rule over it.
3. Condition – Adam & Eve shall not eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good & Evil. Curse – Death will enter the world.
4. Sign – The Sabbath
5. Form – Marriage bond between husband & wife

Noah – “covenant” is used here. This covenant is made after the Flood when God makes an oath to never again destroy all life by flood.
1. Mediator – Noah in his role as the father of the family
2. Blessings – Noah & his family will be fruitful & once more fill the earth
3. Conditions – They shall not drink the blood of any animal, and they shall not shed human blood.
4. Sign – The Rainbow
5. Form – Domestic household, extended family

Abraham – This covenant is made after the battle of the four kings and the blessing of Melchizedek when God makes an oath to make his descendants a great nation and give them a homeland.
1. Mediator – Abraham in his role as chieftain
2. Blessings – Land & nationhood for the descendants of Abraham
3. Conditions – Circumcision
4. Sign – Circumcision
5. Form – Tribe

Moses – This covenant is made after the Israelites have left Egypt and God makes an oath to be Israel’s God.
1. Mediator – Moses in his role as judge & liberator of Israel
2. Blessings – The people of Israel will be God’s precious & chosen people
3. Conditions – They must keep God’s Law & commandments
4. Sign – The Passover feast
5. Form – Holy nation, kingdom of priests

David – This covenant is made after the Ark is brought to Jerusalem and God makes an oath to establish David’s “house” (“kingdom”) eternally before God.
1. Mediator – David in his role as king (later David’s royal household)
2. Blessings – The house/kingdom shall endure forever and through it wisdom will go to all nations
3. Conditions – To live by the Law of God – though God promises to punish wrong-doing, he will not withdraw his favor from the line of David
4. Sign – The throne and the Temple
5. Form – Royal empire, national kingdom

Jesus – This is the New Covenant established by Christ.
1. Mediator – Jesus in his role as royal high priest
2. Blessings – God fulfills all of the promises made in the previous covenants and His Law is written on the hearts of all people (Jesus, in his humanity, is of the line of David.)
3. Conditions – People believe in Jesus, be baptized, participate in Holy Eucharist, and live by all that He taught
4. Sign – The Holy Eucharist (body & blood of Jesus Christ)
5. Form – Universal Church (in Greek, “universal” is “katholicos” or “catholic”)


“The God who made the world and all that is in it, the Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in sanctuaries made by human hands, nor is he served by human hands because he needs anything. Rather it is he who gives to everyone life and breath and everything. He made from one the whole human race to dwell on the entire surface of the earth, and he fixed the ordered seasons and the boundaries of their regions, so that people might seek God, even perhaps grope for him and find him, though indeed he is not far from any one of us.” Acts 17:24-27


In addition to my main sources (the Bible, the Catechism, and "Open Wide the Doors to Christ"), I also pulled information on the covenants from the St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology - www.salvationhistory.com