Is God Man’s Highest Good: Herman Bavinck’s Doctrine of Revelation, Christ, and Redemption as a Means of Knowing God

Men and women from every generation have been and are seeking their highest good, whether in fame, money, power, or passion. But what does it mean that people are seeking their highest good? For most, man’s highest good is usually perceived as some physical object that can be recognized and enjoyed in this present life. With such a perception of what is good, God is seemingly not it for many. But God has provided us with all the necessary means to enjoy and see him as he rightly is, our highest good in this present life.

The Westminster Catechism has a grand first question, “What is the chief end of man?’ The answer is to “glorify God, and enjoy him forever.”[1] They have essentially established that man is to make God their highest good. As already stated, all mankind seeks their highest good, but if we are to find our highest good, God, our creator, we must seek him out in specific ways. Put another way, if “God, and God alone, is man’s highest good,”[2] as Herman Bavinck states in the opening words of his work titled The Wonderful Works of God, then we must know God through how he has provided us to know Him, namely his Word, his Son, and his plan of redemption. Since God has provided us with how we can know Him, it is indeed possible to know our highest good and enjoy him forever.  

While in this short presentation, I cannot possibly cover everything Bavinck shares in his works, I will attempt to show this thesis in the following way: 1) Bavinck’s doctrine of general and special revelation is the very words and actions of God leading us to know and enjoy him. 2) Bavinck’s doctrine of Christ, in his humiliation and exaltation, which reveals his glory to all mankind. 3) And finally, Bavinck’s doctrine of salvation as a means of becoming one of God’s own in Christ, receiving justification, sanctification, and glorification.

God is Man’s Highest Good in the Word

General Revelation

For Bavinck, general revelation can be seen in the governance and creation of all things by the One sovereign God who created all things and sustains all things. He says, “God’s revelation began in creation and continues in the maintenance and governance of all things. He reveals himself in nature all around us, displays his eternal power and divinity in it, and in blessings and judgments alternately shows this goodness and wrath.”[3]  This is the essence of general revelation, God revealing himself in and through the things he has created so that we can have, while broken by sin, a general knowledge of the One true divine Author of life. Thomas Aquinas also asserts in his Summa Contra Gentiles that man’s true happiness rests in the knowledge of God through faith. Still, God has also given us general knowledge, or revelation, through creation that draws us closer to Himself.[4]

We see this general revelation in passages such as Romans 1:18, where Paul tells of God’s glory and revelation being clearly perceived by all, and therefore, they are without excuse. In Psalm 67:4 and Psalm 8:3, the psalmist tells us that God judges the people, guides the nations of the earth, and sets everything in its place. Job 32:8 shows us that God works within the hearts and minds of mankind. We can agree with Bavinck as he states, “This revelation of God is general, perceptible as such, and intelligible to every human. Nature and history are the book of God’s omnipotence and wisdom.”[5] But this general revelation, while it can be good and valuable, lacks fullness because of mankind’s fallenness.

Concerning “general revelation,” Bavinck clearly defines its usefulness in the knowledge of God, religion, and its ability to lead man to salvation. He states, “For various reasons, however, this general revelation is not sufficient.”[6] This insufficiency of general revelation results from its inability, for human sinners, to have proper knowledge of grace and forgiveness; it leaves mankind unfamiliar with the person and work of Christ and is often a “revelation of wrath.”[7] But God has not left us alone in this matter and has given us, through faith, another means of knowing him more deeply.

Special Revelation

A general revelation is intended to draw men to seek God in a much deeper way, but it is insufficient because of sinfulness. Therefore, we need a way of coming to know God in a real and objective way. This way of knowing God is through what Bavinck defines as special revelation. To this mode of revelation, Bavinck says, “In it, God seeks man out and Himself tells man who and what He is. He does not leave it to man to deduce and infer from a group of facts who God is. He Himself tells man in so many words: Here and such am I.”[8]

Louis Berkhoff, in his Systematic Theology, agrees that Special revelation is wrought through faith as the very words of God to His people. He says, “Special revelation is rooted in the redemptive plan of God, is addressed to man as sinner, can be properly understood and appropriated only by faith, and serves the purpose of securing the end for which man was created in spite of the disturbance wrought by sin.”[9] Thomas Aquinas even seems to agree that this knowledge takes effort to study and few are willing even though there is a “natural desire for which has nevertheless been instilled into the mind of man by God.”[10]

While general revelation is made known to all people through the natural works of God in creation, and in this sense a spiritual revelation, special revelation is that knowledge which we take hold of by faith in the words of God given to us in specific and direct ways. Through prophets, miracles, and Scripture, we can know God and understand him much deeper. We can fulfill that desire that God has implanted within us to know him and his Son in a way that is glorifying and enjoyable in this present life. To these matters, I turn to next.

God is Man’s Highest Good in Christ

The Humiliation of Christ

When we think of Christ’s work on earth, many of us say that it started with the incarnation of Christ. Bavinck says that would be true, “but it is not the whole meaning, nor the most important meaning of that work.”[11] If the incarnation were the whole of the work, then there would be no need for the deep humiliation of Christ in the life, miracles, and work we see was completed in Scripture. Being born for a little while and ascending back into heaven would have sufficed. But it is seen in Scripture that Christ came for a purpose, commissioned by the Father, to fulfill all righteousness (Matt. 3:15), to be sanctified through suffering (Heb. 2:10), to suffer and die on a cross, and to rise on the third day (Luke 24:46). Christ was in every way like us, except for sin. Yet, he came to serve, humiliate Himself, and be obedient even to the point of death on the cross (Phil. 2:7-8).

Bavinck also sees the three offices of Christ working themselves out in the life and humiliation of Christ. He says, “His public ministry reminds of His prophetic, His last passion and death of His priestly, and His exaltation to the Father’s right hand of His kingly office.”[12] He further explains that these offices did not take place in the incarnation, but from eternity, these offices were established. In other words, Christ did not take these offices after being born in the likeness of man but has always been and will always be the Prophet, Priest, and King. These offices further represent the original calling and purpose of man, which, in Adam, are fallen and sinful. Lastly, these three offices tie in directly with the Old Testament tasks concerning the prophets, priests, and kings.[13]

A third aspect of the humiliation of Christ concerns the death and resurrection of Christ. Bavinck says, “The death is the fulfillment of the life. Jesus came to die. He Himself was clearly conscious of that.”[14] Therefore, Jesus knew of His death, talked about his death, and his death on the cross was witnessed by many. In Bavinck’s estimation, out of all the benefits received from Christ’s humiliation, that of the atonement is the “principal one.”[15] Sacrifices in the Old Testament were not only limited to animals and earthly goods from the land but were also of far less importance than keeping the moral law. Nevertheless, these sacrifices stood in the promises of God. While Jesus came to serve and give His life for many, His death is also a demonstration of His active and passive obedience to the Father.

The Exaltation of Christ

In dealing with the exaltation of Christ, that is, Him being lifted into heaven and given the name above every name, Christ is again taking up that task given to Him by the Father. Bavinck says, “He must do it; it is His work; no one else can do it.”[16] There is also the issue concerning Jesus descending into hell just as he ascended into heaven. Bavinck believes there is no Scriptural justification for this claim of a “spatial descent into hell.” The commonly quoted 1 Peter 3:19-21 refers to “what Christ did through His Spirit before the incarnation in the days of Noah, or of what He did after His resurrection when He was already made alive in the Spirit.”[17] Accordingly, this is why the reformed church abandoned this language. 

Moving from the descent into hell, Bavinck addresses the issue of the resurrection, and that is no mere historical fact; there is much inexhaustible meaning in the resurrection for Christ Himself, the church, and the world. In this matter, Bavinck states, “If He was to prove His strength over sin, He could do so only by bodily returning from the realm of the dead, and so exhibit His spiritual power in the world of matter.”[18] Essentially, if Jesus was to prove his power over sin and death, then a physical bodily resurrection had to take place in precisely the way that it took place. If there is no resurrection, then the end of Jesus is in the grave, and the power of sin and death still reigns. 

Moving from the resurrection is Christ’s ascension and continued work in His heavenly reign. The ascension was not merely spiritual; like the resurrection, it was bodily, so the ascension is bodily. Bavinck states, “In the ascension He becomes invisible not by a process of spiritualization or translation into deity. What happens is an exchange of place. He was on earth and He went into heaven.”[19] As Christ finished His earthly work and was raised by the Father from death, He was also raised and admitted into His immediate presence to continue the work set before Him, remaining active as Prophet, Priest, and King for His people. 

God is Man’s Highest Good in Redemption

Justification

In Matthew Barrett’s massive work on Justification, he says, “A great, marvelous exchange has taken place: our guilt and with it the penalty our transgressions deserve have been transferred to Christ and paid in full; his obedience, that is, his impeccable righteousness, has been imputed to us. As a result, we stand not only forgiven in the sight of a holy God but righteous.”[20] This is the essence of the doctrine of justification; because of Christ’s humiliation and exaltation, we receive the righteousness required to come before our holy God wholly justified. Because God is a perfectly holy and righteous God, who in all things acts justly, no unrighteous or unholy being can come before Him. Herman Bavinck articulates this matter by teaching that all men, without exception, are guilty and unable to go before God because they transgressed the law of God. Therefore, we need an alien righteousness, that is, a righteousness from outside of ourselves, to be given to us. This is precisely what happens to all men who find themselves in Christ. 

Herman Bavinck clearly states, “On the basis of His appointment by the Father and of His own sacrifice He distributed, both before (humiliation) and after his Death (exaltation), all the benefits of the kingdom of heaven.”[21] It is the imputation of Christ’s righteousness that we benefit from and can come before our holy God perfectly justified. But how does the law play into the life of a believer if we are already justified? I believe this is a question that is greatly mishandled today across all circles and denominations, which I will speak more about in the last section. The law is good and holy, but it cannot justify, quicken the heart, nor do away with the effects of sin due to the weakness of the flesh. Instead, Bavinck notes, the law makes us wise to sin; it works wrath within us and places us under the curse.[22]

When dealing with the issue of the issue of justification, therefore, it is essential to understand that we do not bring any righteousness of our own before God, as if we somehow add to the work of Christ. Bavinck notes, “This righteousness of Christ is so perfect and adequate that it requires no completion or supplementation of our own. As a matter of fact, it can in no way be increased or amplified by us, for it is an organic whole.”[23] This is why we can find comfort and rest in the finished work of Christ. This is also why we can see that God is the highest good of all mankind. 

Sanctification

“Justification delivers man from his guilt; sanctification delivers man from the pollution of sin.”[24] Thus far, we have looked at Bavinck’s views regarding general and special revelation, the humiliation and exaltation of Christ, and the benefits of justification. Now, we turn to our last section on the sanctification of the believer in Christ. We see in Scripture that God is holy: His name is holy (Lev. 20:3); His arm is holy (Psa. 98:1); His covenant is holy (Dan. 11:28); His Word is holy (Psa. 105:42); His Spirit is holy (Psa. 51:11) and He desires a holy people (Exo. 19:6; 29:43-46). But how do we reach for sanctification, which we have already received inside Christ?

Christ is the mediator of holiness. Without Christ, there is no sanctification to be had. To this matter, Bavinck says, “By His righteousness, therefore, He not only restores us to the state of the righteous, of those who stand free in the judgment of God, in order for the rest to leave the matter in our own hands, so that, so to speak, we ourselves now proceed to earn eternal life by doing good works and conforming ourselves to the image of God; no, Christ also finishes all of this work for us.”[25] Many Christians today feel that they have to earn their place in the kingdom somehow or somehow complete what Christ has already finished by doing good works and keeping the law. But, if this were the case, and it isn’t, we would not be living under grace but under the law’s curse. 

Lastly, Bavinck sees the issue of sanctification as a Trinitarian action on behalf of all believers.[26] That all good works are prepared beforehand, as seen in Ephesians 2:10, in the good pleasure of the Father, completed in the work of the Son, and applied to the believer by the Holy Spirit. This includes all of the good works of the individual believer and the church as a whole; our good works are purely an act of our Trinitarian God ruling out any glorying on man’s part. While the law is still the rule for life in Christianity, we need only faith in Christ to fulfill it and receive our righteousness and sanctification. In Christ, the work is complete, and we can add nothing to it; this is why we can agree with Herman Bavinck that God is our highest good. 

Conclusion

As we can see, from creation to salvation and sanctification, and everything in between, we can agree with Bavinck as he states, “God, and God alone, is man’s highest good.”[27] For apart from God, mankind is wholly lost, incapable of finding true joy and happiness in this life, and incapable of saving themselves from the sorrows of sin and death. God alone draws us unto Himself through his words and actions in creation, prophets, and miracles. God alone sent His only begotten Son on our behalf to complete for us what we would never have been able to complete on our own. God alone restores, justifies, and sanctifies us all for His glory and good pleasure. Therefore, we can exclaim with great joy that God, and God alone, is man’s highest good. 

[1] Westminster Assembly. The Westminster Confession of Faith: Edinburgh Edition. William S. Young, 1851. 381.

[2] Herman Bavinck and Charles Williams, The Wonderful Works of God: Instruction in the Christian Religion According to the Reformed Confession, trans. Henry Zylstra (Glenside, Pennsylvania: Westminster Seminary Press, 2019), 1.

[3] Herman Bavinck, John Bolt, and John Vriend, Reformed Dogmatics (Grand Rapids, Mich: Baker Academic, 2003), 312.

[4] Thomas and Paul E. Sigmund, St. Thomas Aquinas on Politics and Ethics: A New Translation, Backgrounds, Interpretations, 1st ed, A Norton Critical Edition (New York: Norton, 1988), 8.

[5] Bavinck, Bolt, and Vriend, Reformed Dogmatics, 310.

[6] Ibid., 312.

[7] Ibid., 313.

[8] Bavinck and Williams, The Wonderful Works of God, 50.

[9] Berkhof, L. Systematic Theology. Wm. B. Eerdmans publishing co., 1938, p. 37.

[10] Thomas and Sigmund, St. Thomas Aquinas on Politics and Ethics, 4.

[11] Bavinck and Williams, The Wonderful Works of God, 312.

[12] Ibid., 314.

[13] Ibid., 315–16.

[14] Ibid., 329.

[15] Ibid., 338.

[16] Ibid., 345.

[17] Ibid., 346.

[18] Ibid., 349.

[19] Ibid., 353.

[20] Matthew Barrett, The Doctrine on Which the Church Stands or Falls: Justification in Biblical, Theological, Historical, and Pastoral Perspective (Wheaton, Illinois: Crossway, 2019), 39–20.

[21] Bavinck and Williams, The Wonderful Works of God, 430.

[22] Ibid., 430–31.

[23] Ibid., 435.

[24] Ibid., 451.

[25] Ibid., 455.

[26] Ibid., 461.

[27] Ibid., 1.