Faith as Ethical Choice
and completely universal, because it presupposes nothing but what is common to all men, namely, the need to be freed from the misery of sin. In accordance with this, on the other hand, the gospel confronts man with nothing but a moral choice, the choice to accept the gift of God's grace in faith or to spurn it in hardness of heart.
Faith as Ethical Choice That the difference between belief and unbelief is not merely one of insight but of ethical choice is testified to by the conscience of everyone who lives out of the gospel. Everyone is from time to time plagued by a sense of guilt and misery. In the best and most sacred moments of life the question involuntarily arises whether the gospel might not be divine truth. An unbeliever is never sure. How can someone who puts his trust in man believe with unshakable certainty that Jesus Christ did not come into the world to save sinners? Who would risk his name and reputation, his possessions and life for such a negative faith? Who would dare, who would be able to go forward joyfully to martyrdom with such a denial on his lips? A negation inspires no martyrs, which shows that its deepest ground and origin is not in rational reflection, in philosophical reasoning, or in critical doubt, but in hardness of heart. And this moral guilt of unbelief again supports the truth of the gospel. For no religion can be the true religion if, when I scorn it, it does not in my conscience make me guilty before God.
The choice for or against the gospel involves a moral decision because the promises embraced in the gospel exclude all compulsion.
No one is made to believe against his will. Faith is a function of understanding that has been moved to acknowledge the truth of the gospel by the will. The whole man is therefore involved in believing— with his reason, with his will, with his heart, in the core of his being, in the deepest part of his existence. Knowing himself to be guilty and
lost, man, in faith, surrenders himself wholly to God's grace in Christ. He ceases fighting the war he has long been waging in his conscience against the witness of the Holy Spirit. He leads all his thoughts captive to the obedience of Christ. As we said earlier, what is at issue in religion is always the highest interest, the highest good man recognizes for himself, for his own life, for the preservation of his soul. The Christian religion teaches us that the highest good for man is found in God alone, in fellowship with Him, in heavenly salvation. Faith is a thoroughly personal matter, a retying of the bonds that tie the soul to God, a renunciation of all creaturely things to place all one's trust in God, whether in life or death. Faith is an inattention to the things one sees in order to take into account those that are invisible but yet eternal and imperishable.
The nature of faith also makes it clear that another power is necessary to move man to faith than the moral influence proceeding from the gospel. In order to believe, freely, willingly and with one's whole mind, one needs a new heart and a changed will. Who can initiate these changes? The word can serve as medium, and the rational and moral proofs may serve to recommend faith to man's conscience. But ultimately, even taken together, they are not able to effect in man's heart the faith that turns him away from all created reality and allows him to put his trust in God alone. The Scriptures place this witness in the forefront, prior to all experience. Flesh and blood do not reveal the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven, but only the Father of Jesus, who is in heaven. It is his good pleasure to hide these things from the wise and learned, and to reveal them to children.
At first glance this might seem illogical, yet it is very reasonable. Just as knowledge only occurs when the known object and the knowing subject agree, so true knowledge of God is possible only through faith, which He Himself quickens in our hearts. No one knows the Father but the Son and to whom the Son wishes to reveal Him. This should not discourage us and prompt us to ask: Then who can be