Bavinck’s Wonderful Works, Ch. 3 — “General Revelation”

In the third chapter of The Wonderful Works of God, Bavinck invites us to lift our eyes and see the world as a living testimony of God’s glory. This chapter, titled “General Revelation,” asks a profound question: How can we know God at all?¹

Bavinck’s answer is simple but sweeping: we can know God only because He has chosen to make Himself known.

Knowledge That Begins with God

We often think of knowledge as something we achieve—through study, science, or searching. But Bavinck reminds us that the knowledge of God is not a discovery; it’s a gift. Knowledge of created things—nature, science, other people—comes through observation and exploration, yet even there we meet limits. We may know other humans by perception, but we can only truly know another person if they open their heart to us.

Unlike nature, God cannot be studied or measured by human effort. He is utterly independent and invisible, dwelling in “unapproachable light.” Unless God reveals Himself, humanity remains blind to His being. Even our most brilliant reflections or moral insights cannot reach Him unaided. True knowledge of God, therefore, is not a human discovery but a divine gift—a free and gracious act by which God opens Himself to us.

Revelation, then, is not an optional part of Christianity—it’s the foundation. It’s the way God pulls back the veil and shows himself.

The Nature and Purpose of Revelation

God’s self-disclosure—what we call revelation—is the single, unfolding act by which He makes Himself known in creation, providence, and redemption. Every divine word and work contributes to this great story of God revealing God.

Bavinck notes three key characteristics of revelation:

First, revelation flows from God’s sovereign freedom. It is not the product of human searching but of divine initiative. Only a personal and self-conscious God can choose to reveal Himself; an impersonal force can manifest power but not communicate love or truth.

Second, revelation is self-revelation. God is both its source and its content. Each of His works—whether in nature, history, or grace—displays some facet of His being. None of these reveal Him fully, yet all together form a true picture of who He is: powerful, wise, merciful, righteous.

Third, revelation aims at God’s glory. Though it benefits humanity, its ultimate goal is not our knowledge but His praise. Revelation begins with God, reveals God, and returns to God. It is the means by which all creation is summoned to adore its Maker.

At the center stands Jesus Christ, the incarnate Word. In Him, the infinite God becomes visible, personal, and knowable. In the face of Christ, we see “the light of the knowledge of the glory of God.”

General and Special Revelation

Standing in the light of Christ, the believer begins to see all things differently. Nature, history, and human experience now gleam with traces of the same God revealed in Jesus. The Christian worldview is therefore both expansive and discerning—it sees the whole world as God’s, yet learns to distinguish the genuine from the distorted.

From this perspective, Bavinck distinguishes two kinds of revelation.

• In general revelation, God discloses Himself through the ordinary course of creation and providence. The rhythms of nature, the moral order, and the history of nations all declare His power, wisdom, and goodness.

• In special revelation, God acts and speaks in extraordinary ways—through prophecy, miracle, and supremely in the Gospel—to reveal His holiness, righteousness, and redeeming grace.

The two are distinct but never separate. Both spring from God’s sovereign goodness and serve His redemptive purpose. The eternal Word who created all things (John 1:1–9) is the same Word made flesh (John 1:14). 

“Grace is the content of both revelations, common in the first, special in the second, but in such a way that the one is indispensable for the other.”

The Wonderful Works of God, 22.

Common grace, revealed in nature, restrains sin and sustains life; special grace, revealed in Christ, forgives sin and renews life. Together these two forms of revelation preserve and redeem humanity—and both exist to magnify the glory of God.

Scripture and the Reading of Creation

Both general and special revelation find their meaning through Scripture. Though nature and history reveal God, human sin blinds us to what they declare. The Bible, like a lamp, illuminates creation so we can read it rightly and see the world as God’s handiwork.

Creation itself is revelation—the first act by which God makes Himself known. Every creature, simply by existing, reflects something of its Maker’s wisdom and goodness. To deny this is to deny creation and fracture the unity of God’s world.

Scripture also teaches that God not only made the world but sustains it continually. The heavens, mountains, rains, and seasons are present expressions of His will, not relics of an ancient act. Likewise, in history God orders nations and events toward His redemptive plan, preserving humanity and preparing for Christ.

Nature and history thus form one grand testimony, and Scripture gives us the key to read it: the whole world exists to display the glory of God in Christ.

The Witness of Creation

Bavinck notes that throughout history, people have discerned various signs of God’s being in the world. Theology has grouped these insights into several “arguments,” not as mathematical proofs but as reflections of how creation points toward its Creator.

1. The cosmological argument sees that the world, bound by time and space, depends on an eternal, independent cause.
2. The teleological argument observes order and purpose woven through nature, which reason cannot attribute to chance but to divine wisdom.
3. The ontological argument recognizes in human consciousness the inescapable idea of a supreme, self-existent Being—the highest possible thought, which would be absurd if no such Being existed.
4. The moral argument perceives a universal law of conscience, binding humanity to a righteous Lawgiver.
5. The religious universality argument notes that no people are without some sense of the divine; religion is as natural to humanity as thought or language.
6. The historical argument finds purpose and design in the course of human history, revealing providence behind nations and events.

Yet Bavinck insists these are not coercive proofs. They appeal not only to logic but to the whole person—reason, conscience, and heart. Faith cannot be forced by syllogism; the fool may still say, “There is no God” (Psalm 14:1). But these evidences strengthen faith and bind together what is seen in creation with what is revealed within the human soul. They are the rational echoes of a deeper truth: God has not left Himself without witness.

The Inner Witness

Revelation is not only around us but also within us. The beauty of creation or the moral order of the world could not move us toward God unless something inside us resonated with them. That resonance is the inward testimony of the Creator Himself.

Bavinck explains that God has planted in every person an innate awareness of His existence—a built-in capacity for religion. However far humanity has fallen, people everywhere retain some memory of God, “small remains of the image of God after which he was made.” Scripture confirms this: man is created in God’s image (Genesis 1:26) and remains His offspring (Acts 17:28). Even when alienated, he cannot wholly escape that divine imprint.

This inward revelation is not a separate or independent source of truth but a capacity—an openness that enables us to perceive God’s outward revelation. It is the spiritual faculty that allows us to recognize the divine order in the world, as the eye perceives light or the ear hears sound.

Bavinck identifies two elements in this sense of divinity:

1. A feeling of absolute dependence. Beneath all our thoughts and choices lies the awareness that we are created and sustained by Another. We are dependent not only on the world around us but ultimately on God, the one eternal Being.
2. A moral perception of God’s character. Our dependence is not upon a blind or impersonal force but upon a righteous, wise, and good Lord. This knowledge does not enslave but awakens worship—it is the dependence of a child, not a slave.

This inner sense of God, therefore, is the seed of religion. It drives humanity to seek, serve, and honor the divine, however distorted that search may become. The same God who reveals Himself in the stars and in Scripture also whispers within the human heart, so that no one lives entirely without witness to His reality and grace.

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Footnotes

1. Herman Bavinck, The Wonderful Works of God. (Glenside, Pennsylvania: Westminster Seminary Press, 2019), 16-27. ↩︎