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THE PURPOSE OF DIVINE REVELATION

In speaking of Divine Revelation, whether public or private, it entails something external

and not from the internal workings of grace. “From what is heard” in Romans 10:17 pertains to

revelation as an outward manifestation for it always comes to man from outside.1 Yet the question

regarding revelation is not on the presence of such, rather, it is on the purpose of Divine Revelation

in relation to man as its recipient.

The opening statement of the Second Vatican Council’s Dogmatic Constitution on Divine

Revelation, “Dei Verbum” (DV) gives us the answer as to what the purpose of Divine Revelation

is. It states:

Hearing the word of God with reverence and proclaiming it with faith, the sacred synod
takes its direction from these words of St. John: "We announce to you the eternal life which
dwelt with the Father and was made visible to us. What we have seen and heard we
announce to you, so that you may have fellowship with us and our common fellowship be
with the Father and His Son Jesus Christ" (1 John 1:2-3). Therefore, following in the
footsteps of the Council of Trent and of the First Vatican Council, this present council
wishes to set forth authentic doctrine on divine revelation and how it is handed on, so that
by hearing the message of salvation the whole world may believe, by believing it may hope,
and by hoping it may love.2

It can be deduced that the ultimate reason for God’s self-revelation is his will of salvation for all

mankind. Likewise, the revelation of God in Christ is also pertaining to the intention for all men

to be saved. It is both a possibility and an actuality brought by Christ. In its entirety, God’s

revelation in an encounter of God within the history of mankind. History is essentially made by

human freedom, a real place where the world becomes history. The history made by man is either

a history of salvation or a history of perdition as a consequence of a free choice made by man.3

1
Edward Schillebeeckx, OP, Revelation and Theology Volume 1 (New York: Sheed and Ward, 1967), 5.
2
Second Vatican Council, Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation Dei Verbum (18 November 1965)
par. 1, in Vatican Council II: The Conciliar and Post Conciliar Documents, ed. A. Flannery, OP (Pasay City: Pauline
Books, 1984), 750.
3
Schillebeeckx, OP, Revelation, 4

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The Role of Freedom in God’s Revelation

God bestowed freedom onto his human creation that He himself created the world freely.

Augustine has seen such freedom as being integral to his person as much a part of him as his

knowledge and existence.4 Augustine came to a realization that the will was attracted to God as

metal is to a magnet. He saw the tremendous temporal role of the will that takes delight in the

divine gifts. Free will affirms man in the preference for the infinite when he chooses things that

are not only good in themselves but good for man, as God had intended man to be.5 In this sense

freedom deals with the acceptance or refusal of grace in relation to God’s revelation as a call to

salvation.6 The risk of man’s possession of free choice would be too much if the purpose is

concealed from man. Knowing the glorious reason for free will in relation to God, man, and all

other creation, as well as the dread of its misuse, should direct man towards avoidance of this

power.7 Ultimately, the reason for freedom in man is for man to freely return to God and be saved.

The will, in choosing evil has caused the loss of freedom. Augustine maintains an idea that

free will ought to have been given to man. He says: we would surely not suppose that because a

person also sins, God gave it for this purpose.”8 It must be made clear that the will, as Augustine

would say, is intended for choosing the good. Augustine has written in his De Spiritu et Littera

that God wills all men to be saved and to arrive at the knowledge of the truth, but not in a way that

is deterministic and lacking the will, because man will be justly judged with regard to the good or

evil with which he has used his will. This passage is an indication of one aspect of the divine will,

4
Chase Padusniak, “The Yoke of Liberty: St. Augustine and the Freedom of the Person,” Parnassus:
classical journal (volume 3, 2015), http://crossworks.holycross.edu/cgi
5
Mary T. Clark, R.S.C.J., Augustine: Philosopher of Freedom (New York, USA: Desclee Company,
1958),137.
6
Schillebeeckx, OP, Revelation, 4
7
Clark., Augustine: Philosopher of Freedom, 56.
8
Augustine, On the Free Choice of the Will, ed. Peter king (New York, USA: Cambridge University Press,
2010), 31.

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which is the conditional will of God, which is not realized when free choice is in contrast to it.

Damnation is attributed by Augustine to the human will’s resistance to the salvific plan in the

divine will, but Augustine constantly asserts that each and every man is offered salvation through

grace.9

Revelation was absolutely essential for the redemption of mankind because of an innate

depravity which keeps man blind because of sin.10 Although man was given freedom, sin brought

about blindness that prevents man to respond properly to the revealed call for salvation by God

grace then enters to cure man of his blindness.

The Workings of Grace in Revelation

This salvific knowledge is the goal or quest of all Christian theology, and thus revelation

as an act of grace is central to this task.11 Revelation is in itself a grace and at the same time grace

enables man to recognize and respond this self-revelation of God and his call to salvation. The

grace of God is the necessary key for man’s salvation through Jesus Christ. Knowing God is a

divinely initiated and self-attesting grace.12 To put it simply grace is revelation and revelation is

grace according the patristic thinkers.13 Such understanding of grace by the patristic presupposes

revelation.14 The grace of revelation is God’s overcoming our fallenness and finitude. From the

outside we are unable to break through the creaturely form to see God as he is. In the same way,

man does not have the capacity of attaining that great feat. God’s revelation enables man to respond

9
Clark, Augustine: Philosopher of Freedom, 98.
10
Glenn E. Harris, “Revelation in Christian Theology,” Churchman (Spring 2006), 24.
11
Harris, Revelation, 29.
12
Kevin S. Diller, “The Theology of Revelation and the Epistemology of Christian Belief: The
Compatibility and Complementarity of the Theological Epistemologies of Karl Barth and Alvin Plantinga,” (PhD
Thesis, University of St. Andrews, 2008), 8.
13
Harris, Revelation, 12.
14
Harris, Revelation, 22.

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to him and to know and love him far beyond man’s natural capacity.15 Revelation always requires

God’s action.16 However, it must be taken into account that God’s action is not matter of intrusion

but an invitation where man is free to respond or not.

In as much as God’s revelation is a grace, its efficacy in salvation entails more than just

knowing but believing. According to Dei Verbum The obedience of faith" (Rom. 13:26; see 1:5; 2

Cor 10:5-6) "is to be given to God who reveals, an obedience by which man commits his whole

self freely to God, offering the full submission of intellect and will to God who reveals."17 In

making this act of faith, the grace of God through the interior workings of the Holy Spirit is

necessary in moving the heart and opening the eyes.

The Grace of Faith

Faith is man’s surrender to divine revelation. This presents the necessity of faith for

salvation. God’s universal will to save includes the real possibility that all men may accept

salvation by faith and thus be anonymously confronted with God’s saving revelation.18 The Holy

Spirit brings faith constantly to bring about an ever deeper understanding of revelation. The

catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) explains that faith exists with the help of grace.19 Both

freedom and the grace that is faith enables man to make a free assent to the whole truth of what

God has revealed.20

The propositional model of faith described by Avery Cardinal Dulles is based on the

assertion that it is impossible to believe anything which is not rationally conceivable. In order to

15
Catechism of the Catholic Church, Definitive ed. (Manila: Word and Life Publication), 26.
16
Diller, Theology, 21.
17
Vatican Council II, Dei Verbum, 750.
18
Schillebeeckx, OP, Revelation, 6.
19
CCC, 49.
20
CCC, 48.

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believe anything we must understand what is to be believed. The only access we have to such

objects of belief is propositions. In this model, faith is assent to revealed truth on the authority of

God who reveals.21 St. Thomas Aquinas talks of faith as an assent to which God has revealed and

primarily to God himself as self-revelation. God‘s offer of this grace is, at least implicitly, in the

created world, and created beings.22

The Revelation of God in the Old Testament

In Israel, against the background and in the climate of the universal, anonymous invitation

to communion with the living God, God began to clarify, as it were in an official manner, the

meaning of his saving will, and he did this in the Old Testament.23 In carefully planning and

preparing the salvation of the whole human race the God of infinite love, by a special dispensation,

chose for Himself a people to whom He would entrust His promises. First He entered into a

covenant with Abraham (see Gen. 15:18) and, through Moses, with the people of Israel (see Ex.

24:8)24 as well as with the prophets. It began however, it began with creation with the manifestation

of himself to Adam and Eve, wherein He invited them to “them to intimate communion with
25
himself and clothes them with resplendent grace and justice.” After the fall of man through

Adam and Eve, Divine Revelation was not hampered but instead gave them the hope of salvation

by promising redemption.26 It is safe to say that from the beginning the ultimate end of God’s self-

revelation is salvation. The covenant he made with Noah after the flood exemplified God’s

21
Peter Holmes, “Models of Faith and Reason,” (Master of Theology Thesis, University of Notre Dame,
2010), 2.
22
Stephen Duffy, ―Experience of grace‖ in The Cambridge Companion to Karl Rahner ed. Declan
Marmion & Mary E. Hines (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005), 45.
23
Schillebeeckx, OP, Revelation, 7.
24
Vatican Council II, Dei Verbum, 759
25
CCC, 26.
26
CCC, 27.

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economy or activity in the world towards people separated in their own lands with their respective

languages and families.27 God then continued to form his chosen people as he frees them from

slavery in Egypt. Through the prophets God prepared the people to accept the salvation intended

for all humanity.28

Revelation of an Anonymous and Unseen God

Faith indeed is a necessary means to understand and believe in a God who reveals himself.

DV says that when God Himself spoke to them through the mouth of the prophets, Israel daily

gained a deeper and clearer understanding of His ways and made them more widely known among

the nations.29 In the case of the Old Testament, God has revealed himself through mediums such

as prophets and seers, however, he remains as the unseen if not an anonymous God. Though he

remained unseen in the Old Testament, faith is instrumental for the Israelites to believe in the

divine plan of salvation. Avery Dulles is quick to point out that if revelation did not occur, ‘How

could we obey a God who had not made his will known?30 It is indeed the will of God for all men

to be saved but it is worth asking how about those for whom his message through the prophets has

not reached. Dei Verbum notes, through the centuries from the call of Abraham to the coming of

Jesus Christ, God spoke ‘many times and in various ways’.31 In terms of naming God and defining

God they never really got beyond the encounter of Moses in the burning bush: ‘I am who am’

(Exodus 3:14). On another level, however, perhaps the most important one, the Jewish people

27
CCC, 27.
28
CCC, 28.
29
Vatican Council II, Dei Verbum, 759.
30
Avery Dulles, Models of Revelation (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1983), p. 12.
31
Vatican Council II, Dei Verbum, 751

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became aware that this unnamable God is revealed in deeds more than in concepts. They became

aware of God’s journeying with them in and through their history as a people.32

The Language of the Unseen God

It is said that if God revealed himself in his own language no single human would be able

to grasp it in its entirety. The words of God are always, and above all, time-related they have

always, and above all, a direct meaning. God sees before him, as it were, the one to whom he

speaks, and he speaks because of this in such a way that he can be heard and understood. 33 He

spoke in the Old Testament in human language through humans. Had he not done so, his words

would be comparable to an inaudible sound devoid of meaning to the recipients of his revelation.

It is worth mentioning that the greatest mystery and miracle of the Bible consists of the fact that it

is the Word of God in the language of man wherein it is not diminished as it resounds in this

language.34 The resonance and validity of God’s message in the scriptures epitomizes his

inspiration to the human authors.

Revelation and Salvation beyond the Chosen People and the New People

Outside Israel and Christianity there is an anonymous, and therefore a vague and

ambiguous, though undoubtedly existent “hearing from outside” that is, in the world of creation

as the translation of God’s inward communication to man. Here, natural revelation is a

manifestation of God through the order of nature. Through the order of nature, human beings have

32
Eamonn, Conway, ‘A God ‘embarrassed at the prospect of possession’ Exploring Divine
Revelation,’Exploring Theology: Making Sense of the Catholic Tradition, ed. Anne Hession & Patricia Kiera, (Dublin:
Veritas 2007), 5
33
Georges Florovsky, Revelation, Philosophy, and Theology, in Collected Works of Georges Florovsky
Vol, III Craetion and Redemption, (Belmont, Mass: Nordland Publishinng Company, 1976), 24.
34
Florovsky, Revelation, 21.

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the possibility to know the existence of God through contemplation. However, this is vague,

ambiguous and prone to misinterpretation and has often been so35

CHRIST: THE SUMMIT OD GOD’S REVELATION

Christ: The Fullness of Revelation, Seeing the Unseen

Although God revealed himself in an indirect and mediated manner from creation to the

prophets of old, the self-revelation of God remains obscure and has not reached its fullness. Christ

is the fullness of God’s Revelation because it is God/ Christ himself who announced himself

without the mediation of anyone else. Dei Filius states:

but that it pleased His wisdom and bounty to reveal Himself, and the eternal decrees of His
will, to mankind by another and a supernatural way: as the Apostle says, "God, having
spoken on diverse occasions, and in many ways, in times past, to the fathers by the
prophets; last of all, in these days, has spoken to us by His Son" (Hebrews 1:1-2).36

Christian Revelation can never be called as such without the fullness of revelation in Christ, the

Word made flesh and consubstantial son of God. In him, man might in the Holy Spirit have access

to the Father and come to share in the divine nature (see Eph. 2:18; 2 Peter 1:4) 37 God has fully

revealed Himself. Because “the Christian economy, therefore, since it is the new and definitive

Covenant, will never pass away; and no new public revelation is to be expected before the glorious

manifestation of our Lord Jesus Christ.38 Indeed God speaks and reveals himself in a manner that

can be understood by man. In Christ, it is not only by means of human language that God spoke

but rather, God himself became man so that man may understand and perceive his revelation to

the fullest.

35
Schillebeeckx, OP, Revelation, 5.
36
Vatican Council I, Dogmatic Constitution, Dei Filius, (1870), at the Holy See, http://inters.org/Vatican-
Council-I-Dei-Filius
37
Vatican Council II, Dei Verbum, 750.
38
CCC, 29.

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God Revealed in the Incarnation of Christ

In the Old Covenant, there was an authentic incarnation of God through his involvement

in the life of mankind particularly with that of Israel, his chosen people. However, in affirming

there is one single person in Christ, it has shown us that the incarnation consists in a personal

involvement on the part of God. The incarnation in this sense is the action of a divine person. 39

Christ’s incarnation meant not only revealing a message of salvation but rather the one being

revealed living the life of the one he reveals to – the personal involvement of God is manifested in

an intimate manner.

Among creatures, human beings provide God with the least limited ‘canvas’. Among

human beings, Jesus of Nazareth, being the most fully human of all human beings, whose humanity

is in no way tarnished by sin, is the most perfect self-expression of God’s nature possible in created

reality.40 The Preface of Christmas 1 used in the Catholic Liturgy at captures this well:

In the wonder of the incarnation your eternal Word has brought to the eyes of faith a new
and radiant vision of your glory. In him we see our God made visible and so are caught up
in love of the God we cannot see.

To see Jesus is to see His Father (John 14:9). For this reason Jesus perfected revelation by fulfilling

it through his whole work of making Himself present and manifesting Himself.41 In Christ, man

was able to perceive what was only heard through the words of the prophets, what was seen only

as a pillar of fire or cloud, and understood only through deeds in the Old Covenant. Moreover He

confirmed with divine testimony what revelation proclaimed, that God is with us to free us from

the darkness of sin and death, and to raise us up to life eternal.42

39
Jean Galot, SJ, Who is Christ: A Theology of the Incarnation (Rome: Gregorian University Press, 1980),
255.
40
Conway, ‘A God ‘embarrassed, 3.
41
Vatican Council II, Dei Verbum, 750.
42
Vatican Council II, Dei Verbum, 750.

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Synthesis

God’s initiative to reveal himself to make known his plan of salvation for all mankind.

Strictly speaking, revelation speaks of an outward source of “what is heard.” In no way did God

spoke to man in his own language or manner of communication for it would be impossible for man

to understand his divine message had he done so and his self-revelation would have been

meaningless. Rather he spoke in a manner that can be understood by all for he spoke to man in

human language through the prophets and also manifested himself through his mighty deeds to his

people Israel.

It is worth noting that God’s revelation was delivered to Israel and to Christianity.

However, it cannot be limited to that of Israel and Christianity because his plan of salvation is for

all mankind. Outside Israel and Christianity, his message likewise resounds although in a different

and if not remote manner but nonetheless contains the same message. He revealed himself to those

outside the chosen people and to those unreached by Christianity through nature. However his

revelation in nature is not by mean of human words or from “what is heard” but by way of

contemplation.

One thing is certain with his revelation through the prophets, through nature by

contemplation, and through his mighty deeds – it is an indirect revelation and prone to

misinterpretation as what already happened many times before. The revelation in Christ is far

different because he spoke to man in a very direct manner as he is. He became man that the self-

revelation of God might reach its fullness. His life, death, and resurrection is the paramount of

divine revelation and the plan of salvation is brought to completion.

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For us today, Christian Revelation reminds us that the entirety of revelation and the manner

we accept it is a divine initiative and never from man. Any message that arises outside what Christ

fulfilled is of little or no meaning for us. If it contains anything far different from the saving

message that Christ brought us is difficult to be considered as coming from God but from man

only. What we know of what Christ revealed is our gauge of the authenticity of any sort of private

revelation. As for public revelation, there is no more need for such because Christ is the fullness

of revelation and salvation.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

Church Documents

Vatican Council II, Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation Dei Verbum (18 November
1965) par. 1, in Vatican Council II: The Conciliar and Post Conciliar Documents, ed. A.
Flannery, OP (Pasay City: Pauline Books, 1984), 750.

Vatican Council I, Dogmatic Constitution, Dei Filius, (1870), at the Holy See,
http://inters.org/Vatican-Council-I-Dei-Filius

Catechism of the Catholic Church, Definitive ed. (Manila: Word and Life Publication), 26.
Peter Holmes, “Models of Faith and Reason,” (Master of Theology Thesis, University of
Notre Dame, 2010), 2.

Books

Augustine. On the Free Choice of the Will. ed. Peter king (New York, USA: Cambridge
University Press, 2010).

Clark, Mary T., R.S.C.J. Augustine: Philosopher of Freedom (New York, USA: Desclee
Company, 1958)

Duffy, Stephen. Experience of grace‖ in The Cambridge Companion to Karl Rahner ed. Declan
Marmion & Mary E. Hines (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005).

Dulles, Avery. Models of Revelation (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1983).

Florovsky, Georges. Revelation, Philosophy, and Theology, in Collected Works of Georges

Florovsky Vol III Craetion and Redemption. (Belmont, Mass: Nordland Publishinng
Company, 1976).

Galot, Jean, SJ. Who is Christ: A Theology of the Incarnation (Rome: Gregorian University
Press, 1980).

Schillebeeckx, Edward, OP. Revelation and Theology Volume 1 (New York: Sheed and Ward,
1967).

Journals

Conway, Eamonn. ‘A God ‘embarrassed at the prospect of possession’ Exploring Divine

Revelation.’Exploring Theology: Making Sense of the Catholic Tradition. ed. Anne
Hession & Patricia Kiera. (Dublin: Veritas 2007).

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Harris, Glenn E. “Revelation in Christian Theology,” Churchman (Spring 2006), 24.

Padusniak, Chase. “The Yoke of Liberty: St. Augustine and the Freedom of the Person.”
Parnassus: classical journal (volume 3, 2015). http://crossworks.holycross.edu/cgi.

Thesis

Diller, Kevin S. “The Theology of Revelation and the Epistemology of Christian Belief: The
Compatibility and Complementarity of the Theological Epistemologies of Karl Barth and
Alvin Plantinga.” (PhD Thesis, University of St. Andrews, 2008).

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