“The revelation contained in the Bible is the proclamation of the self-movement of the absolute unchangeable God, the proclamation of the personal, living God, the One who reveals Himself…. Revelation is the coming of God in the Word… The whole of the Old Testament and its revelation is Advent. The New Testament is the Christmas message. The Old Testament is written in the light of the expectation of the coming Word, the New Testament in the light of the Word which has come….

In the Bible, revelation is described as the self-movement of God, as a descent, as an act of condescension. God does not simply wait to be sought, He Himself seeks man….This is the whole point of the Christian revelation, for in every other form of religion the subject is treated from the opposite point of view: how can man come to God? This change of direction also provides the basis for the other characteristic feature of the message of the Bible: that God is central, and not man. For salvation lies in the movement of God, in what God says and does, not in any human activity at all….

Faith is the attitude of those who simply receive. It is the very opposite of all self-knowledge, self-assurance, or self-possession. A man only really believes where everything depends upon his receptivity, where he is utterly dependent and helpless….So long as I still trust in my own knowledge, in my natural knowledge of God, I do not wish to hear about revelation. Hence I am far from faith….Faith is therefore the very opposite of proof….Faith depends on the Word of God alone. He who does not trust this Word, does not see it as God’s Word and does not believe. It is impossible to believe and at the same time to ask for proofs. Faith is pure dependence upon revelation….Faith means standing still on the edge of the abyss because it is impossible to walk any further; and it means standing still before the self-movement of God… Therefore faith only exists where man can say: by faith alone, by grace alone, and this means: faith in the God who has come to us, the Mediator.”

(Emil Brunner, The Mediator, pp.285-302)