The Appeal of the Gospel
The Appeal of the Gospel This experiential method, thus, does not lead to its intended goal. It attempts to uphold the religious character of revelation but makes its content dependent on the believer's experience, thereby risking the danger of losing all objective truth. Nevertheless, we must be grateful for the reminder that Christianity is not science or philosophy but religion. There are indeed no scientific proofs or philosophical arguments that can move man to accept the gospel. Generally speaking, the rule applies, as we have said, that you can't argue with someone who is principially opposed to you.
This is especially true in the area of religion, because the gospel presents itself as standing above and in opposition to the natural man. It is meant for him, but it does not accord with his thoughts and inclinations. It claims to be of divine origin and therefore demands a different inclination than is man's by birth. If man could be compelled to accept God's Word through scientific reasoning, the gospel would not gain but lose force. It would thereby be robbed of its special character, of its divine origin, of its religious content, and of its saving purpose, and it would be reduced to an ordinary, fallible, rational and human level.
If neither rational argument nor moral experience can explain how the Christian faith comes into being, the question arises whether there isn't a better way in which man may be led to trustingly embrace the truth revealed in Christ. And then we ought first of all to remind ourselves that the gospel, however it may be viewed and misinterpreted, despite all opposition, still continues to be preached from century to century, and regardless of all differences in interpretation has as its principal content that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners. This is how the gospel encounters everyone who has come into contact with it, be it early or late, be they young or old. Whether he accepts or rejects it, it comes to him calling for faith and repentance. This is an unalterable fact. That the gospel is made
known to us, confronting us with the call to believe and repent, does not depend on our will but on a decree of God. It is He who ordains us to be born to Christian parents, raised in a Christian environment, and without any merit on our part makes us acquainted with the way of salvation in Christ.
To sum up, there exists one holy, catholic church which, as the pillar and bulwark of the truth, maintains the mystery of godliness: God is revealed in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen by the angels, preached among the heathens, believed in the world, lifted up into glory. The church's witness would doubtlessly be stronger and its impact more powerful, if all Jesus' disciples were one, as the Father is in Him and He in the Father. Then the world would almost be forced to confess in spite of itself that Christ was sent by the Father.
But even now, despite all its inner divisions, the church is a pillar and bulwark of the truth amidst the world. What divides it, no matter how serious, is always less than what binds it together and unifies it.
The more self-conscious and bolder that unbelief becomes, the more the Christian church closes ranks against the common foe. What it has to save and defend is one spiritual, holy possession. And to the world its confession sounds like the voice of many waters saying that there is no other name under heaven given to men by which they must be saved than the name of Jesus.
The Spirit of the Lord is operative in that confession, convicting the world of sin, righteousness and judgment. God does not leave
Himself without a witness to anyone in nature. He does not prove His existence and does not make it dependent upon our investigation, but He witnesses to Himself in our hearts and consciences, through nature and history, life and destiny, and this witness is so powerful that no man can avoid it, no one can continue to resist it.
There may be all kinds of objections to be raised against the existence of a personal God. According to our limited insight there may be numerous phenomena and events that don't agree with it.
Nevertheless, it is an established fact for every human being. This is also true of the gospel of Christ. It exists; it is brought to us in many ways and in widely differing circumstances; it reaches out to us at every moment during our life's journey.
And this brings us to the second thing that we should remind ourselves of: the gospel never stops making an impression on our hearts. The only influence proper to the Word of God, considered in itself as word, is, by the nature of the case, a moral influence. It can make an impression without molding the will and changing the heart. Nevertheless, it is not an empty sound or a clanging cymbal. It never returns void but does everything the Lord has sent it to do. It is in itself a light upon the path and a lamp unto the feet, even though because of the blindness of his eyes man may not be able to see it.
Although it does not make his truth dependent on reasoning and proof, the Word of God does not sidestep them either. Precisely at the moment when we in our wisdom think we have shown it to be foolishness, it is revealed as the wisdom and power of God. It does not direct itself, like all human science, to our reason to be studied and only then accepted as truth or rejected as error. Neither does it wish to be judged by our standards and justified before our tribunals.
But it lifts itself high above our insight, asserts itself as a judge of our thoughts and desires, and summons us with all that we are and have before His tribunal. It directs itself to the whole man, to his understanding and reason, to his heart and conscience, to man in his hidden depths, to the core of his being, to man in his relationship to God. It assumes nothing on his part other than that he is a sinner who needs reconciliation and peace and salvation. And it promises and gives these to him by way of faith and repentance.
In both respects the gospel answers to the most perfect and beautiful idea of religion we can form for ourselves. For on the one hand it is nothing but the good news of grace and salvation. It doesn't pose a single demand—not of age or generation, of race or language, of class or wealth. It poses no conditions, it asks nothing, it demands nothing, it is no law but the opposite of all law. It is broadly human