Charles Hodge,
The internal evidence of their divine origin is the proper ground of faith in the Scriptures.
The Scriptures themselves clearly teach that the faith which they demand is founded upon the authority of God, manifesting itself in them by the excellence and power of the truth which they contain. They everywhere represent faith as the effect and evidence of right moral feeling, and unbelief as the result of moral or spiritual blindness. Our Saviour said to the Jews, If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine whether it be of God. (John 7:17) Again, He that is of God, heareth God’s words; ye therefore hear them not because ye are not of God. (John 8:47) On another occasion he said, Ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep; my sheep hear my voice. (John 10:26,27) The apostle speaks to the same effect, Hereby know ye the Spirit of God. Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh, is of God. We are of God. He that knoweth God heareth us ; he that is not of God heareth not us. Hereby we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. (1 John 4:2,3) In like manner Paul says, The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness unto him, neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned. (1 Cor. 2:14) And again, If our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost; in whom the god of this world hath blinded the eyes of them that believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them. But God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. (2 Cor. 4:3-6) The doctrine taught in these and similar passages, is that there is in the word of God and especially in the person and character of Jesus Christ, a clear and wonderful manifestation of the divine glory. To this manifestation the natural man is blind, and therefore does not believe, but those who have the Spirit of God discern this glory and therefore believe.
It is in accordance with this view that unbelief is represented as so grave a moral offence, and faith as so important a duty. Atheism is every where regarded as a crime, because the evidences of the existence of God are everywhere present, above us, around us and within us. They are addressed to the moral constitution, as well as to the speculative understanding. They cannot be resisted without the same violence to moral obligations, or the authority of moral considerations, that is involved in calling virtue vice, and vice virtue. Hence the Scriptures always speak of unbelief as a sin against God, and the special ground of the condemnation of the world. He that believeth on him is not condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. (John 3:18) Who is a liar, but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is anti-Christ, that denieth the Father and the Son. Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father. (1 John 2:22-23) Disbelief of the Son as revealed in the Scriptures, is an offence of the same nature as the denial of God. In both cases supreme excellence is revealed and disregarded. Much to the same effect the Saviour says, He that hateth me, hateth my Father also. (John 15:23) On the other hand, faith is represented as the highest act of obedience, as a moral act of the greatest worth in the sight of God. Whosoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God. (1 John 5:1) As many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to as many as believed on his name. (John 1:12) And our Saviour told the enquiring Jews, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent. (John 6:29) These representations cannot be reconciled with the assumption that faith is founded on external testimony, which does not address itself to our moral nature, and an assent to which has so little concern with moral character. All is plain, however, if we are required to believe in the Son because his glory as of the only begotten of the Father is presented to us ; and to receive the Scriptures because they bear the impress of the divine perfections. If this be the ground of faith, unbelief is indeed a crime. It is a refusal to recognise wisdom and holiness, and to acknowledge the manifested excellence of God.
This view of the ground of faith is confirmed by the effects ascribed to that grace. It works by love, it purifies the heart, it overcomes the world, it produces peace and joy. It is indeed conceivable that the conviction of truths affecting our interests, however produced, should call forth fear, sorrow or joy according to their nature. But it is not conceivable that belief of moral or religious truths, founded upon the testimony of others, should control our affections. A man may believe on authority, or on merely rational grounds, that we are under a moral government, and that the law by which we are bound is holy, just and good, but such a faith will not subdue his opposition. He may be, by argument or miracle, convinced of the existence of God, but such a faith will not produce love. Faith therefore cannot have the effects ascribed to it, unless it is founded on a spiritual apprehension of the truths believed.
Hence it is that faith is represented as the gift of God. The evidence indeed is presented to all, or there would be no obligation to believe; but men are morally blind, and therefore the eyes of their understanding must be opened that they may understand the things which are freely given to them of God. The apostle therefore says to his believing brethren, Ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things. I have not written unto you, because ye know not the truth, but because ye know it, and that no lie is of the truth. The anointing which ye have received of him abide th in you, and ye need not that any man teach you : but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him. (1 John 2:20,21,27) It is here taught, as in other passages already quoted, that believers are the recipients of an influence, an unction, from the Holy One, which convinces them of the truth, and makes them see and know that it is truth. Hence Paul says, his preaching was not with the enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in the demonstration of the Spirit and of power; that the faith of his hearers might not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God; that is, that their faith might not be the effect of skillful reasoning, but of the spiritual perception and experience of the truth.
All this is confirmed by the constant practice of the inspired teachers. Though they appealed to all kinds of evidence in support of the doctrines which they taught, to signs and wonders, and divers miracles and gifts of the Holy Ghost, yet they by no means rested the obligation to believe either exclusively or mainly upon these external signs. In many cases faith was demanded by those inspired men who never wrought miracles of any kind, as was the fact in the case of some of the prophets; and still more frequently it was required of those among whom no such wonders had been performed. When the Jews demanded a sign and the Greeks wisdom, the apostles preached Christ, and him crucified, as the wisdom of God and the power of God unto salvation. Their constant endeavour was by the manifestation of the truth to commend themselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God. And if their gospel was hid, it was hid to them that are lost.
It is, therefore, plainly the doctrine of the scriptures themselves, that the word of God is to be believed because of the authority or command of God manifesting itself therein, in a manner analogous to the exhibition of his perfections in the works of nature. If, as Paul teaches us, the eternal power and godhead are so clearly manifested by the things that are made, that even the heathen are without excuse; and if their unbelief is ascribed not to the want of evidence, but to their not liking to retain God in their knowledge; we need not wonder that the far clearer manifestation of the divine perfections made in the scripture, should be the ground of a more imperative command to believe.
It is the experience of true Christians in all ages and nations that their faith is founded on the spiritual apprehension and experience of the power of the truth. There are multitudes of such Christians, who, if asked why they believe the scriptures to be the word of God, might find it difficult to give an answer, whose faith is nevertheless both strong and rational. They are conscious of its grounds though they may not be able to state them. They have the witness in themselves, and know that they believe, not because others believe, or because learned men have proved certain facts which establish the truth of Christianity. They believe in Christ for the same reason that they believe in God ; and they believe in God because they see his glory and feel his authority and power.
If then the truth of God contains in its own nature a revelation of divine excellence, the sin of unbelief is a very great sin. Not to have faith in God, when clearly revealed, is the highest offence which a creature can commit against its creator. To refuse credence to the testimony of God, when conveyed in the manner best adapted to our nature, is to renounce our allegiance to our creator. To disregard the evidence of truth and excellence in Jesus Christ, is the highest indignity that we can show to truth and excellence. This sin is common, and therefore is commonly disregarded. Men do not easily see the turpitude of evils with which they are themselves chargeable. The faults of those who go beyond them in iniquity they are quick to discern. And therefore the man who feels no compunction at want of faith in the Son of God, will abhor him who pronounces the Redeemer a wicked impostor. He will wait for no explanation and will listen to no excuse. The mere fact that a man, acquainted with the Scriptures, is capable of such a judgment respecting the Son of God, is proof of depravity which nothing can gainsay. Yet how little difference is there between the state of mind which would admit of such a judgment, and the state in which those are who have no faith in the declarations of Christ; who disregard his promises and warnings ; who do not feel them to be true, and therefore treat them as fables. The want of faith therefore of which men think so lightly, will be found the most unreasonable and perhaps the most aggravated of all their sins. It implies an insensibility to the highest kind of evidence, and involves the rejection of the greatest gift which God has ever offered to man, pardon, holiness, and eternal life.
— excerpted from: The Way of Life, Charles Hodge, 1841
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