Ideas

Does the Gospel Make Sense?

“Faith is believing something you know isn’t true.” Unfortunately this ludicrous definition of faith, attributed to a young lad in a Sunday school class, reflects the attitude of some Christians in rejecting the importance of a rational basis for the Christian faith. Becoming a Christian is more than intellectual comprehension of certain truths, and it does not require a thorough understanding of the whole of Christian doctrine. But it is important for a Christian to understand and communicate that reason is not antagonistic but complementary to his faith.

Where did the Sunday school student pick up this absurd idea that a believer must bid farewell to his God-given faculties of reason? Some who deny the place of reason in the Christian faith do so on the basis of a misunderstanding of what Paul said in First Corinthians 1 when he talked about the “foolishness” of the Gospel and said that he preached “not in wisdom of words.” Others have taken Paul’s warning in Colossians 2:8 (“Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ”) to mean that the Christian is to eschew the use of reason.

There is no doubt that human reason, operating apart from divine revelation, has consistently led man into error and away from God. This does not mean that reason is in itself evil, and Paul does not imply that it is. Paul’s reference to the preaching of the Gospel in First Corinthians 1 must be understood in the light of what he meant by the Gospel. The apostolic Gospel was basically a recitation of the saving events which took place in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. It was the message that “Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures; and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the Scriptures” (1 Cor. 15:3). And it is precisely in these historical facts that we find the intellectual foundation to the Christian faith. Therefore, to speak of a Gospel which is divorced from a solid, reasonable foundation in history is absurd.

In his preaching of this message, Paul did not clutter the clear presentation of the Gospel with his own attempts at philosophical persuasion (“in wisdom of words”); his confidence was in the power of God inherent in the Gospel (cf. Rom. 1:16). But even a cursory reading of the Pauline epistles reveals that the author was a man of sound reasoning. His faith was not an irrational leap in the dark but was based on a firm conviction which grew out of his encounter with the risen Christ on the Damascus road. At that time he became convinced that Jesus of Nazareth who had been crucified and buried had indeed been raised from the dead. Upon being persuaded of the truth and relevance of the resurrection he came to faith. Nothing less could have transformed him from an avowed enemy of Christ into a committed servant of Christ. The resurrection became the heart of the Gospel which Paul preached and the foundation of his faith.

When Paul speaks of the “foolishness” of the Gospel, he is not implying that the Gospel makes no sense. Rather he speaks of the attitude that he found among those who rejected the Gospel he preached and he appropriates their terminology in rebuttal. Gentiles thought it folly to accept as a leader and saviour one who could not save himself from death by crucifixion. And Jews thought it blasphemy to speak of a Messiah who was put to death in a way which left him accursed in the eyes of the Jewish law. Paul explains this apparent contradiction very logically in Galatians 3:13 where he points out that Christ was made a curse for us in order to redeem us from the curse of the law.

It is no wonder that the Gospel was regarded as foolishness by those who chose to reject Paul’s preaching of a risen Christ. Paul himself agrees that apart from the resurrection of Jesus Christ “our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain” (1 Cor. 15:14). Paul’s whole case “for Christianity was based upon the resurrection; without the certainty of this historical fact there was no basis for his faith.

In the light of these observations it becomes apparent that in First Corinthians 1 Paul is not minimizing the importance of a rational foundation for Christianity. His purpose is to expose the impotence of wisdom and understanding that do not come from God and that reject the truth that God has revealed. This truth which seems so foolish in the eyes of men who will not receive it is actually the power and wisdom of God. This “foolishness” of God accomplishes what the wisdom of men cannot bring about: it brings salvation to lost men.

In the Colossians passage Paul warns the reader not to be led away from the truth by the persuasive presentation of any form of human philosophy. Understood in the light of the admonition preceding it, this verse obviously does not mean Christians are to shun a rational understanding of the Christian faith. Paul admonishes the Colossians that their faith should be firmly rooted in the teaching he has passed on to them. Absence of a solid foundation in Christian teaching often opens the way for the invasion of false teaching. The more confident we are of the intellectual basis for our faith, the better able we are to confront the false teachers who would lead us away from the truth. Faith built upon a shaky foundation is easily destroyed.

As in so many areas of Christian living, balance is vital in the relation between faith and reason. The Church’s mission is not to offer intellectual proof but to proclaim the good news. Rationalism that exalts human reason above divine revelation has no place in Christian teaching. Men cannot reach God through reason apart from revelation. There are areas of revealed truth which the finite mind may have to grasp by faith (perhaps what defies human reason more than anything else is the fact of God’s love for us). Only the supernatural working of the Holy Spirit can break down the resistance of the human will to the authority of God, a resistance which sometimes persists even in the face of ample intellectual evidence.

At the same time, reason is important in the life and ministry of the Christian. Our faith is not an uncertain leap in the dark but a firm commitment based on solid evidence (why should a man believe in Christ rather than in Buddha?). We can deal with the honest doubts of those to whom we witness. Jesus was willing to dispel Thomas’s doubts by showing him the wounds in his body, and Paul did not turn his back on the intellectual problems of those gathered on Mars Hill.

Disparagement of reason is antithetical to Christianity and leads to the kind of intellectual poison which the Sunday School boy had obviously been administered. Though human reason was affected by the fall, man is still able to know reality in terms of logically organized general propositions. And surely the Holy Spirit will illumine the mind of the believer so that he can grasp the truth revealed in Scripture. Too often the negation of reason grows out of intellectual laziness rather than an accurate exegesis of biblical teaching.

Only as we allow reason its proper place in our Christian faith will we be able to “love the Lord thy God with all thy … mind” and be prepared to “give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you.”

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