Institutes Book 1 Chapter 6: Scripture Is Needed As Guide and Teacher For Anyone Who Would Come to God the Creator.

Section 1: God Bestows the Actual Knowledge of Himself Upon Us Only in the Scriptures.

Even though God reveals himself through his creation and providence, because human beings are fallen their eyes are blinded to this excellent witness. In his grace and mercy, so that we may know him truly, God also provides another witness, the light of this Word. It is only in the scriptures that those whom God chooses can know him truly, that we "might not sink into oblivion." With the scriptures, we can look at creation and see God in it as he has revealed himself, for scripture is, in a sense, spectacles which improve our vision. "This, therefore, is a special gift, where God, to instruct the church, not merely uses mute teachers [creation] but also opens his own most hallowed lips [scripture]."

Section 2: The Word of God as Holy Scripture.

"A firm certainty of doctrine" was placed upon the hearts of the patriarchs, which they in turn handed down to their children, "so that they were convinced and understood that what they had learned proceeded from God. For by his Word, God rendered faith unambiguous forever, a faith that should be superior to all opinion." This teaching he than had preserved on "public tablets," so that all men might read it. Through this Word, God reveals himself and distinguishes himself from all false gods. "Therefore, however fitting it may be for man seriously to turn his eyes to contemplate God's works, since he has been placed in this most glorious theater to be a spectator of them, it is fitting that he prick up his ears to the Word, the better to profit." It is in this that we find true religion.

Section 3: Without Scripture We Fall into Error.

Given that even with the revelation of creation and providence, human beings fell into every kind of error, we see how necessary it was for God to give us his most clear revelation in his Word. "It is therefore clear that God has provided the assistance of the Word for the sake of all those to whom he has been pleased to give useful instruction because he foresaw that his likeness imprinted upon the most beautiful form of the universe would be insufficiently effective." If we get off the path of God's Word, we fall into error. Our only true path to knowledge of God is through the Word, "For errors can never be uprooted from human hearts until true knowledge of God is planted therein."

Section 4: Scripture Can Communicate to Us What the Revelation in the Creation Cannot.

Using Psalm 19, Calvin shows that while creation reveals God, it is, because of our fallen condition, up to the Scriptures to point us in the right direction and show to us what we are seeing. Without the Word, we would "of necessity ... stagger about in vanity and error."

__________________________

Reflection: Here we get into conclusions that many people today do not want to draw. I think a lot of people who look for some sort of spirituality today would quite agree that God can be known from creation, but would not want to say that we need Scripture to see what creation reveals to us. But in the interests of self-reflection, I think that perhaps historically we as Christians have neglected the first revelation.

What I mean is that perhaps we have, through the past, neglected the revelation from creation because it is insufficient. Although we had been given the task to work and subdue the earth, ruling over it, and although we have been placed in this glorious and beautiful world, we have not cherished it as much as we should have. Now, I am no raving environmentalist, but I do think that more could be done in that regard, especially by Christians. We, I would argue, ought to be at the forefront of the environmental movement, not the New Age spiritualists, for we have every reason to preserve and maintain God's beautiful world--it reveals him to us.

I think that we can never neglect one form of revelation for the other, for God has given us both. Even though, because of our sinful state, we cannot see the truth of God in creation without the Scriptures, that does not mean that therefore creation is not a good witness--Creation is an excellent witness, if we have the eyes of Scripture to see it. What we are taught in Scripture about God we are given ample evidence for in his creation and providence. The world around us is, we might say, God's sign to us that what he reveals in his Word is faithful and true, because he has been faithful and true to his creation.