When
I address conflicts between divine revelation and human reason, I am not
suggesting that God’s revelation is unreasonable. Rather, I am acknowledging
that God’s thoughts are so far above our thoughts, and his ways so far above
our ways,[1]
that the limitations of our reasoning will never allow us to outthink God.
I
find that discussions of doctrine are usually a mixture of revelation and
reason. If both are in their proper places, this is a good thing. If reason is
exalted, people get stupid.
Man’s
first sin[2]
did not begin by Satan telling Eve, “God
told you not to eat from that tree, but why don’t you do it anyway?” No, it
started with him engaging Eve in a dialogue that exalted her reason above God’s
revelation. God revealed that they were not to eat of the tree of the knowledge
of good and evil because they would die. Satan reasoned that God had some
ulterior motive, that he was trying to keep man from being like God, and that
eating of the fruit had a distinctive benefit, none of which was true.
However,
it sounded reasonable.
And,
because reason was given greater glory than revelation, Eve succumbed to Satan’s
deception and ate the fruit. Adam succumbed to Eve’s invitation and sinned. Their
eyes were opened, and they immediately knew that their reasoning was wrong, and
divine revelation was right. Death was now guaranteed. Guilt, shame and fear
were man’s newfound friends.
While
conflicts between divine revelation and human reason will always show that our reason
is inferior, there is a way that reason unites us to revelation so that both give
their greatest benefit. God designed man in his own image and likeness. He made
us to think thoughts, just as he thinks thoughts, but with the consciousness
that our Creator is eternal, and we are made of dirt. Obviously, his thoughts
will be higher than our own.
When
we exalt revelation above reason, we experience the wonder of reason that rejoices
in God’s thoughts as a child delighting in a parent.[3] We
humbly reject the way sin leads reason astray into prideful imaginings that we
can do better with our thoughts and ways than God has presented in his word. And
we meekly open our hearts to the wonder-filled considerations of the thoughts
and ways of God that we know are absolutely true in the ways God revealed them.
As
we use our sanctified reason to think through the thoughts of God with absolute
confidence that everything God tells us is true, we are then free to learn in
truth. We feel security that, no matter how much we ponder the thoughts of God,
we will only gain truth. We ready ourselves to face things we are thinking and
doing that are contrary to revelation, and to follow the Spirit of God into the
transformation that comes only through the renewal of the mind.[4] As
our minds are renewed from the prideful, sarky, I-can-do-things-myself,
reasoning that makes us sinners who are always sinners, we see ourselves being transformed
into the same image as Jesus Christ our Lord “from one degree of glory to another.”[5]
One
beautifully clear example of reason in submission to revelation is this one
that is revealed in God’s word: “Come
now, let us reason together, says the Lord: though your sins are like scarlet, they
shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become
like wool.”[6]
God’s
word revealed that God’s people were sinning. Their sin was like stains of
scarlet and crimson on a beautiful white robe. God had a way to wash their
robes clean so that they were white as snow, white like the whitest wool. Those
were God’s thoughts that were higher than man’s thoughts, and he had ways of
doing this that were higher than man could conceive.
However,
man could receive the revelation as the promise of God, and enter into these
thoughts with reason. After all, God can reason as well. All his thoughts are
reasoned, but at a much higher level than we can attain. And, wonder of
wonders, God invites us into the inner chamber of his thoughts, calling us to
enjoy the experience of reason, but in the childlike safety that acknowledges
God’s revelation as supreme.
Don’t
forget, the reason that God’s people were so blotched with sin was because their
reason had once again fallen into the devil’s trap.[7]
They had returned to stupid. Worshiping idols made sense to them. Following the
sinful nations appeared superior to their unique and privileged status as the
only nation that had ever entered into love relationship with the Triune God.
When
God spoke to them, he called them to two things. First, that they would accept
the relationship where his revelation trumps their reason. Second, that they
would reason with him in order to gain the full benefit of the things revealed.
To
show that God’s revelation always has a good aim, God followed up his invitation
to reason with a clarification of the options. As he had once spread before
Adam a whole garden full of beautiful, delicious, and life-giving fruit, and
warned about the one tree that would bring death, so he told his people that
receiving the gift of his grace would bring life, and rejecting the divine
revelation would bring death. The consequences of both options are actually
quite reasonable.
Here
is how God presents the choices and consequences: “If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land; but
if you refuse and rebel, you shall be eaten by the sword; for the mouth of the
Lord has spoken.”[8]
There
is the revelation inviting people to cleansing from sin through the gracious
work of God. Those who exalt reason above revelation will be deceived into
thinking that continuing down the wide and easy path of sin will lead to a good
end, when it can only lead to death. Those who exalt revelation above reason,
come to experience the security of obedience, and the blessing of goodness that
only comes from God.
A
long time before Isaiah wrote down God’s revelation of grace to the people of
Israel, God had already reasoned out the two inevitable choices he had first
given in the Garden of Eden.
“I call heaven and earth to witness against you today,
that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose
life, that you and your offspring may live, loving the LORD your God, obeying
his voice and holding fast to him, for he is your life and length of days, that
you may dwell in the land that the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to
Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.”[9]
Revelation
reasons that there are two choices, life and death. From the beginning, there
was a tree that would give life; and there was a tree that would give death. Once
Adam chose the tree of death, God revealed that he had a plan to restore life. It
would come through the offspring of the woman;[10] it
would come through the offspring of Abraham.[11] Jesus
came, “born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive
adoption as sons.”[12]
This is the
most reasonable, and gracious, and glorious thing that sinners could ever hear.
The offspring of the deceived woman came to “destroy the works of
the devil”[13] who deceived her, and now
calls us to open our hearts to the reason of revelation that tells us we can be
cleansed and forgiven of our sin, and restored to love relationship with God
described as “adoption as sons."
The
conclusion is simple: God has revealed himself and his gift of salvation in his
word. It is actually the most reasonable thing to take him at his word, and
receive what his word reveals. Revelation says, “In him was life, and
the life was
the light of
men.”[14]Reason says, “Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God."
© 2014 Monte Vigh ~
Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8 ~ in2freedom@gmail.com
Unless otherwise
noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible,
English Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway
Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers.)
[1] Isaiah 55:9
[2] Genesis 3
[3] I am not speaking of
the negative thoughts that come to mind for many people when considering their
relationship to their parents. I am speaking of the way God designed things so
that, when parents are walking in fellowship with God and so are strong,
loving, caregivers, the children feel loved, safe, and secure. Children will
ask their parents all kinds of questions when they feel respect for their
parents.
[4] Romans 12:1-2; II
Timothy 3:16-17
[5] II Corinthians 3:18
[6] Isaiah 1:18
[7] Paul warns of the
devil’s trap in his letters to Timothy. II Timothy 2:24-26 gives the cause,
character, and cure.
[8] Isaiah 1:19-20
[9] Deuteronomy 30:19-20
(read the chapter for the whole context).
[10] Genesis 3:15
[11] Galatians 3:16
[12] Galatians 4:4-5
[13] I John 3:8
[14] John 1:4
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