You may expect that if God wants us to
believe that He exists, He would reveal Himself to everyone in a
supernatural way. However, if He did that then wouldn't He end up
revealing Himself the same to everyone? Wouldn't it end up looking
natural to many people, just because it would not seem special?
There are three specific ways that God
has chosen to reveal Himself. First, in His Word, God proclaims
that, “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above
proclaims his handiwork.” (Ps
19:1 ESV) Creation cries out that God exists. The greatness of
the universe proclaims the greatness of God just in shear awe. Every
living cell proclaims the amazing creative wonder that God is, by the
complexity that each cell contains. It seems so simple because it is
so small but could a living cell really come about by chance? It has
complexities that make it impossible for it to have come about by
chance. (See The Design
and Complexity of the Cell or
Darwin's
Black Box)
Second, by sending His only Son to
reveal Himself. (John
14:8-11) In sending His Son, the Father not only proclaims His
own existence but demonstrates the love that He has for us sinners.
“For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for
the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though
perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die—but God shows
his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for
us.” (Romans
5:6-8 ESV) That is truly amazing; that while we were still
enemies of God, He sent His only Son to die in our place! Then to
confirm that Jesus really was the Christ, and to give irrefutable
evidence of the resurrection, Jesus was raised back to life on the
third day from His death. (To learn more about the actual evidence of
Jesus' resurrection, see The
Case for Christ.)
Third, He gave us His Word so that we
would have all the information we need to believe. As He tells us in
II Timothy, “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable
for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in
righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for
every good work.” (2
Timothy 3:16-17 ESV) There is nothing necessary beyond the
Scripture. (The Case for Christ looks like it has a good
defense of the reasons Christians believe the Bible to be true, or
see Is
the Bible True … Really?)
In Luke
16 Jesus tells a parable of a rich man and his poor neighbor
Lazarus. The rich man had no fear of God and seems to have only
lived for himself. When both of them died, Lazarus went to heaven
while the rich man went to Hell. In Hell (or Hades) the rich man was
so tormented that he wished for just a drop of water to be put on His
tongue. Finding that this was not possible, he remembered his
unbelieving family, and requested that Lazarus be sent back from the
grave to proclaim their danger to them. Abraham told him that if his
family would not believe the Law and Prophets then they would not
believe a man raised from the dead. (“Law and Prophets” is a way
of saying the Old Testament or the part of the Bible that existed
during Jesus' life time.)
I encourage you to examine the claims
of the Resurrection of Christ for yourself. But at the same time I
encourage you to examine yourself and ask if it is because of pride
or an unwillingness to give up sin that you will not admit that God
has revealed Himself. Jesus wants you to ask Him to pay for your sin
so that you can know God yourself. Do not let your imperfection hold
you back.
