Part 1
THE
WAY OF LIFE
CHARLES HODGE,
professor of the theological seminary, princeton, n. j.
written for the american sunday-school union, and
revised by the committee of publication.
AMERICAN SUNDAY-SCHOOL UNION,PHILADELPHIA:
no. 146 chestnut street.
Source:
https://archive.org/stream/wayoflife00hodg/wayoflife00hodg_djvu
.txt
Formatted, modernized, corrected, with add'l references, by
William H. Gross www.onthewing.org Dec 2020
PREFACE.
It is one of the clearest principles of divine revelation, that holiness is
the fruit of truth; and it is one of the plainest inferences from that
principle, that the exhibition of the truth is the best means of
promoting holiness. Christians regard the word of God as the only
infallible teacher of those truths which relate to the salvation of men.
But are the Scriptures really a revelation from God? If they are, what
doctrines do they teach? And what influence should those doctrines
exert on our heart and life?
The publishing committee of the American Sunday-school Union
have long felt the want of a book which should give a plain answer to
these questions, and be suitable to place in the hands of intelligent
and educated young persons, either to arouse their attention, or to
guide their steps in the way of life.
The following work has been prepared at the request of the
committee, with the hope that it may in some measure answer the
purpose just stated. In a Christian country it might seem
unnecessary to raise the question whether the Scriptures are the
word of God? But those who have had much intercourse with young
men, know that even among those who have been religiously
educated, there is more or less skepticism upon this point; and where
there is no absolute skepticism, there is often an impression that the
evidence of the divine origin of the Bible is not so decisive as it
might, or even should be. Hence it is that the want of faith is seldom
felt to be a great sin. It was therefore deemed important that the
question, "Why are we bound to believe the Bible to be the word of
God?" should be distinctly, though briefly, answered.
The still more comprehensive question, What do the Scriptures
teach? is of course considered here only in reference to those great
practical doctrines which are essential to evangelical religion,
namely, the doctrines of sin, justification, faith, repentance, and holy
living.
With regard to the influence which these doctrines should exert upon
the heart and life, or in other words, with regard to religious
experience, reference might be made to the numerous records of the
exercises of the people of God, or to what we see daily in His church.
However, as the Scriptures themselves not only teach us what the
truth is, but also how it operates on an enlightened conscience and a
believing heart, our safest appeal is to them. It is there that we can
best learn how we ought to feel and act in view of what the Bible
teaches us of sin, of justification, faith, and repentance — since
genuine religious experience is simply the accordance of our views
and feelings with the truth of God.
If this little book should be instrumental, by the simple exhibition of
the truth, of pointing out the way of life to those who are anxious to
know what they must believe and what they must experience in order
to be saved, it will answer the design of its preparation and
publication.
Contents
PREFACE.
CHAPTER I. THE SCRIPTURES ARE THE WORD OF GOD.
Section - I. The Internal evidence of the divine origin of the
Scriptures.
Section II. The internal evidence of their divine origin is the proper
ground of faith in the Scriptures.
Section III. External evidence of the divine origin of the Scriptures.
The Testimony of the Church.
Section IV. The argument from Prophecy.
CHAPTER II. SIN.
Section I. All men are sinners. The nature of man, since the fall, is
depraved.
Section II. The sins of men are numerous and aggravated.
CHAPTER III. CAUSES OF INDIFFERENCE TO THE CHARGE OF
SIN.
Section I. Sin, lack of consideration, striving against the Spirit.
Section II. Sophistical objections against the doctrine of the Bible.
CHAPTER IV. CONVICTION OF SIN.
Section I. Knowledge of sin. Sense of personal ill-desert.
Section II. Insufficiency of our own righteousness and of our own
strength.
CHAPTER V. JUSTIFICATION.
Section I. Importance of the doctrine. Explanation of the Scriptural
terms relating to it. Justification is not by works.
Section II. The demands of the Law are satisfied by what Christ has
done.
Section III. The righteousness of Christ the true ground of our
Justification. The practical effects of this doctrine.
CHAPTER VI. FAITH.
Section I. Faith necessary in order for salvation. The nature of saving
Faith.
Section II. Faith as connected with justification.
CHAPTER VII. REPENTANCE.
CHAPTER VIII. PROFESSION OF RELIGION.
Section I. The nature and necessity of a public profession of religion.
Section II. Baptism and the Lord's Supper. The nature, design and
efficacy of these ordinances.
Section III. Obligation to attend upon the Sacraments. Qualifications
for the proper discharge of the duty.
CHAPTER IX. HOLY LIVING.
Section I. The nature of true religion.
Section II. The means of sanctification.
Summary
THE WAY OF LIFE
CHAPTER I. THE SCRIPTURES ARE THE WORD
OF GOD.
Section - I. The Internal evidence of the
divine origin of the Scriptures.
It often happens that those who hear the gospel, doubt whether it is
really the word of God. Having been taught from infancy to regard it
as a divine revelation, and knowing no sufficient reason for rejecting
it, they yield a general assent to its claims. There are times, however,
when they would gladly be more fully assured that the Bible is not a
cunningly devised fable. They think if that point was absolutely
certain, they would at once submit to all the gospel requires.
Such doubts do not arise from any deficiency in the evidence of the
divine authority of the Scriptures; nor would they be removed by any
increase of that evidence. They have their origin in the state of the
heart. The most important of all the evidences of Christianity, can
never be properly appreciated unless the heart is right in the sight of
God. The same exhibition of truth which produces unwavering
conviction in one mind, leaves another in a state of doubt or unbelief.
And the same mind often passes rapidly, though rationally, from a
state of skepticism to that of faith, without any change in the mere
external evidence presented to it.
No amount of mere external evidence can produce genuine faith. The
Israelites, who had seen a long succession of wonders in the land of
Egypt; who had passed through the divided waters of the Red Sea;
who were daily receiving food from heaven by miracle; who had
trembled at the manifestations of the divine majesty on Mount Sinai
— within sight of that mountain, made a golden calf their God. The
men, who saw the miracles of Christ performed almost daily in their
presence, cried out, Crucify him, crucify him. Hence our Savior said
that those who will not hear Moses and the prophets would not be
persuaded though one rose from the dead. We may confidently
conclude, therefore, that those who now do not believe the gospel,
would not be persuaded had they seen all the miracles which Christ
performed.
It is important that the attention of the doubting should be directed
to the fact that their lack of faith is to be attributed to their own
moral state, and not to any deficiency in the evidence of the truth. If
our gospel is hidden, says the apostle, it is hidden to those who are
lost; in whom the god of this world has blinded the minds of those
who do not believe, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ,
should shine unto them.
There is nothing in the doctrine stated here, that is out of analogy
with our daily experience. No truth can be properly apprehended
unless there is a harmony between it and the mind to which it is
presented. Even abstract or speculative truths are not seen to be true,
unless the understanding is duly cultivated to apprehend them. With
regard to objects of taste, unless there is a power to perceive the
correspondence between them and the standard of beauty, there can
be no appreciation of their excellence. And still more obviously in
regard to moral and religious truth, there must be a state of mind
suited to their apprehension. If our moral sense were entirely
destroyed by sin, we could have no perception of moral distinctions;
if it is vitiated, what is true in itself and true in the view of the pure in
heart, will not be true to us. A man who has no adequate sense of the
evil of sin, cannot believe in the justice of God. If you awaken his
conscience, he is convinced at once, without the intervention of any
process of proof.
No one can fail to remark that the Bible demands immediate and
implicit faith from all who read it. It may lie neglected in the study of
the philosopher, or in the chest of the outcast sailor; or it may be
given by a missionary still ignorant of the language of the heathen to
whom he ministers. The moment it is opened, however, in these or
any other circumstances, it utters the same calm voice, He that
believes in the Son has everlasting life; he that does not believe the
Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him. Joh 3.36 If
this demand was confined to the educated, we might suppose it to
rest on evidence which only the educated are able to appreciate; or if
it was made only of those to whom the scriptures are presented by
regularly commissioned ministers, we might suppose it rested on
their authority; but it is not thus confined. It is inseparable from the
word itself. It is as imperative when the Bible is read by a child to a
company of pagans, as when it is proclaimed in a cathedral. But if
this demand of faith goes with the word wherever it goes, it must rest
upon evidence contained in the word itself. The demand of faith
cannot be more extensive than the exhibition of evidence. Therefore,
unless we restrict the obligation and the benefits of faith to those
who are capable of appreciating the external evidence of the Bible,
we must admit that it contains its own evidence.
To make the testimony of others to the truth of Christianity, the
ground of faith, is inadmissible for two obvious reasons. In the first
place, as already intimated, it is not sufficiently extensive. The
obligation to believe rests on multitudes to whom that testimony is
not addressed. In the second place, it is entirely inadequate. The
great mass of men cannot be required to believe, upon the testimony
of the learned few, a religion which is to control their conduct in this
world, and to decide their destiny in the next. Besides, learned men
testify in behalf of the Koran as well as in favor of the Bible.
Therefore, that cannot be an adequate ground of faith, which may be
urged in support of error as well as of truth. To require average
people to be able to see why the testimony of learned Christians may
safely be relied upon, while that of learned Muslims should be
rejected, is to require of them a task as severe as the examination of
the historical evidences of Christianity. There is, therefore, no way of
justifying the universal, immediate and authoritative demand, which
the Bible makes on our faith, except by admitting that it contains
within itself the proofs of its divine origin.
It may not be easy, or perhaps possible, to give any adequate
exhibition of the nature of this proof to those who profess not to see
it. However, enough may be said to show that it is a rational and
adequate ground for implicit confidence. Every work bears the
impress of its maker. Even among men, it is hard for one man to
successfully counterfeit the work of another. Is it wonderful, then,
that the works of God should bear the inimitable impress of their
Author? Don't the heavens declare his glory? Doesn't the mechanism
of an insect as clearly evince the workmanship of God? Why then
should it be deemed incredible that His word should contain
inherent evidence of its divine origin? If the Bible is the work of God,
it must contain the impress of his character, and thereby evince itself
to be divine.
It may be objected that we're not competent to judge this evidence. If
it requires so much cultivation of the intellect to judge the excellence
of human productions, and so accurate an acquaintance with the
character of their authors, in order to decide on the genuineness of
such productions, who can pretend to a knowledge of God which will
enable him to judge what is, or what is not worthy of His hand? This
would be a fatal objection if the internal evidence of the scriptures
consisted in their intellectual excellence. It loses its force, however,
when it is remembered that this excellence is, in great measure,
moral, and that goodness carries with it its own evidence. To
appreciate evidence of this kind requires no great degree of
knowledge or refinement. It requires merely right moral feelings.
Where these exist, the evidence that goodness is goodness, is
immediate and irresistible. It is not because the Bible is written with
more than human skill, and that its discrimination of character or its
eloquence is beyond the powers of man, that we believe it to be
divine. These are matters of which the mass of men are incompetent
judges. The evidence in question is suited to the apprehension of the
humblest child of God. It is partly negative and partly positive.
It consists, in the first place, in the absence of everything
incompatible with a divine origin. There is nothing inconsistent with
reason, and there is nothing inconsistent with goodness. If the
scriptures contained anything contrary to reason or to right moral
feeling, then belief in its divine origin would be impossible. Such a
belief would involve the ascription of folly or sin to its author. There
is more in this negative evidence than we are apt to imagine. It can
not be urged in behalf of any other book but the Bible, claiming a
divine origin. An impassable gulf is thus placed between the
scriptures and all apocryphal writings. The claims of the latter are in
every instance disproved by the fact that they contain statements
which cannot be true.
It is, however, the positive internal evidence of a divine origin, which
gives power and authority to the claims of the Bible. This evidence
consists mainly in its perfect holiness, in the correspondence
between all its statements respecting God, man, redemption and a
future state, and all our own right judgments, reasonable
apprehensions, and personal experience. When the mind is
enlightened to see this holiness; when it perceives how exactly the
rule of duty prescribed in the word of God agrees with that enforced
by conscience; how the account which it gives of human nature
coincides with human experience; how fully it meets our whole case;
when it feels how powerfully the truths presented there operate to
purify, console, and sustain the soul — then the belief of the
scriptures is a necessary consequence. The idea that such a book is a
lie and a forgery involves a contradiction. The human mind is so
constituted that it cannot refuse its assent to evidence, when clearly
perceived. We cannot withhold our confidence from a man whose
moral excellence is plainly, variously, and constantly manifested. We
cannot see and feel his goodness, and yet believe him to be an
impostor or deceiver. In like manner, we cannot see the excellence of
the scriptures, and yet believe them to be one enormous falsehood.
The Bible claims to be the word of God; it speaks in his name, it
assumes his authority. How can these claims be false and yet the
Bible be so Holy? How can falsehood be an element of perfect
excellence? The only possible way of shaking our confidence in the
competent testimony of a man, is to show that he is not a good man.
If his goodness is admitted, confidence in his word cannot be
withheld, and especially when all he says finds its confirmation in
our own experience, and commends itself to our conscience and
judgment. Thus it is also impossible that we should discern the
excellence of the scriptures and feel their correspondence with our
experience and necessities, and yet suppose them to be untrue.
When the woman of Samaria reported to her townsmen that Jesus
had told her all that she ever did, many of them believed. But after
they had themselves listened to his instructions, they said to the
woman, Now we believe, not because of your saying, for we have
heard him ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the
Savior of the world. Joh 4.42 No Christian can be surprised at this
declaration, or think the faith in Christ, founded on what he said, is
either irrational or enthusiastic. We can well believe that there was
such an ineffable manifestation of goodness in the Redeemer's
countenance, manner, and doctrines, as to conciliate entire
confidence. Those who were rightly affected could not fail to believe
all he said: that he was the Christ, that he came to seek and save
those who are lost, to lay down his life for his sheep, and to give
himself a ransom for many. Can we doubt that the goodness of the
Savior, the elevation, holiness and power of his instructions, their
correspondence with our own nature, experience, and wants, would
of themselves constitute an adequate ground of faith? All this we
have. Every man has this, who reads the Bible. There the Savior
stands in the majesty of unapproachable excellence. He utters in
every hearing ear the words of eternal life; declares his origin, his
mission, the design of his advent and death; offers pardon and
eternal life to those who come to God through him. There is the most
perfect accordance between his claims and his conduct; between his
doctrines and what we know and what we need. To disbelieve him, is
to believe him to be a deceiver; and to believe this, is to disbelieve
our own perceptions. For we know what goodness is; and we know
that goodness cannot deceive, that God cannot lie.
It makes very little difference as to the force of this kind of evidence,
whether we personally saw and heard the Savior for ourselves, or
whether we read the exhibition of his character and the record of his
instructions. For the evidence lies in his goodness and in the nature
of his doctrines. It is the same to us who read the Bible, as it was to
those who heard the Savior. There is therefore the same violence
done to reason and duty, in our rejecting it, as was offered by those
who did not believe because they were not his sheep — that is,
because they were insensible to the constraining influence of the
grace and truth which were in Him. Does anyone ask, then, how we
know that the Bible is not a forgery? Let him consider what such an
assumption involves. It supposes either that the authors of the Bible
were fools, which we can no more believe than to believe Newton was
an idiot; or that they were wicked, which no man can believe who
knows what goodness is. Therefore, wherever the Bible goes, it
carries with it, evidence that is irresistible (when attended to and
appreciated), that its authors were neither dupes nor deceivers.
It may be asked, If the Bible contains such clear evidence of its divine
origin, why are there so many unbelievers? To this it may be
answered that there are two things necessary in order that evidence
should produce conviction. The first is that it should be attended to;
otherwise it might as well not exist. Of the many millions of people in
Christendom, comparatively few give the Scriptures any serious
attention. That such persons should have no effective faith, is no
more a matter of surprise than that they should be ignorant of what
they never learned. The second requisite for the reception of
evidence, is that it should be understood or really apprehended. If
this evidence is addressed to the understanding, there must be
enough strength of mind to comprehend its nature and bearing; if
addressed to the moral faculty, there must be moral sensibility to
appreciate it, or it will be like light shining on the eyes of the blind.
The internal evidence of the scriptures is in a great measure of this
latter kind. It consists in their perfect holiness. In proportion to men
being corrupt, they are blind to this kind of evidence. It may exist in
all its force, and men be insensible to it. Another part of this evidence
consists in the accordance between the scriptures and the religious
experience of men. Those who don't have the experience, cannot see
this accordance. Still another portion of the evidence is made
available by the power of God in subduing sin, in purifying the
affections, in diffusing peace and joy through the heart. Those who
have never felt this power, cannot appreciate this kind of proof. The
fact, therefore, that so large a proportion of mankind have no
adequate faith in the Scriptures, affords no presumption against the
existence of sufficient evidence. This fact is in exact accordance with
what the Bible teaches about the moral state of man.
Another objection to the view of the ground of faith given above, is
that it leads to enthusiasm (baseless emotionalism), and breaks
down the distinction between true and false religion. Every
enthusiast, it is said, thinks he sees wonderful excellence in the
pretended revelations which he embraces. It is a sufficient answer to
this objection to ask, whether the scholar has less faith in the
excellence of the great standards of poetry, because the writers of
doggerel rhymes have had their admirers? That the sensual, selfish
and cruel character of Mohammed appears good in the eyes of a
Turk, does not prove him to be an enthusiast who bows with
reverence before the supreme excellence of Jesus Christ. That the
pagan world saw evidence of the existence of their gods in the
heavens and in the course of nature, does not make him an
enthusiast, who recognizes in the works of God the manifestations of
infinite power, wisdom, and goodness. It is most unreasonable to
assume that we must not feel the force of truth and excellence,
because others have ascribed these attributes to error and vice. It is
not according to the constitution of our nature, that one man should
cease to know a thing to be true or good, because others do not see it.
The evidence is complete for him, though all the world rejects it.
If it is asked, where the standard is; what criterion of excellence
exists by which I am authorized to decide that what I call goodness is
really such; the rule is given in the nature of man. We know that
benevolence is better than malice, veracity than deceit, humility than
pride; and by the same rule we know that Christianity is better than
Hinduism, and the blessed Redeemer than the Arabian impostor. No
judgment can be more sure than this, no persuasion more intimate,
no confidence either more firm or more rational. Therefore, it is no
objection against admitting the excellence of the Scriptures as proof
of their divine origin, that besotted or deluded men have ascribed
excellence to folly and wickedness.
Section II. 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.
Throughout, they represent faith as the effect and evidence of right
moral feelings, and unbelief as the result of moral or spiritual
blindness. Our Savior said to the Jews, If any man does His will, he
will know whether the doctrine is of God. Joh 7.17 Again, He that is of
God, hears God's words; therefore you do not hear them because you
are not of God. Joh 8.47 On another occasion he said, you don't believe,
because you are not my sheep; my sheep hear my voice. Joh 10.26-27
The apostle speaks to the same effect: Hereby you know the Spirit of
God. Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the
flesh, is of God. 1Joh 4.2-3 We are of God. He that knows God, hears us;
he that is not of God, does not hear us. Hereby we know the spirit of
truth and the spirit of error. 1Joh 4.6 In like manner Paul says, The
natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God; for they
are foolishness to him, neither can he know them because they are
spiritually discerned. 1Cor 2.14 And again, If our gospel is hidden, it is
hidden to those who are lost; in whom the god of this world has
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, has
shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of
God in the face of Jesus Christ. 2Cor 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. The natural man is blind
to this manifestation, 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 offense, and faith as so important a duty. Atheism is
everywhere 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
believes in him is not condemned, but he that does not believe is
condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the
only begotten Son of God. Joh 3.18 Who is a liar, but he who denies
that Jesus is the Christ? He is anti-Christ who denies the Father and
the Son. Whoever denies the Son, does not have the Father. 1Joh 2.22-
23 Disbelief of the Son as revealed in the Scriptures, is an offense of
the same nature as the denial of God. In both cases, supreme
excellence is revealed and disregarded. Much to the same effect the
Savior says, He who hates me, hates my Father also. Joh 15.23
On the other hand, faith is represented as the highest act of
obedience, as a moral act of great worth in the sight of God. Whoever
believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God. 1Joh 5.1 As many as
received him, to them he gave power to become the sons of God, even
to as many as believed in his name. Joh 1.12 And our Savior told the
inquiring Jews, This is the work of God, that you believe in him
whom he has sent. Joh 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 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 is the ground of faith, then unbelief is indeed a
crime. It is a refusal to recognize 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 it is 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 on
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 convinced of the existence of God by
argument or miracle; 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 by God. The apostle therefore says to
his believing brethren, You have an unction from the Holy One, and
you know all things. I have not written to you because you don't
know the truth, but because you do know it, and that no lie is of the
truth. The anointing which you have received from him abides in
you, and you don't need any man to teach you: but as the same
anointing teaches you about all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and
even as it has taught you, you shall abide in him. 1Joh 2.20, 21, 27 It is
taught here, 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; 1Cor 2.4-5 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 diverse
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 demanded wisdom, the
apostles preached Christ, and him crucified, as the wisdom of God
and the power of God unto salvation. Their constant endeavor 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 hidden,
it was hidden to those who are lost.
Therefore, it is 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 in them, 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 lack of evidence,
but to their not liking to retain God in their knowledge; Rom 1.20, 28 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, Rom 2.15 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 offense 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 it is commonly disregarded. Men do not
easily see the turpitude of evils with which they are themselves
chargeable. Yet they are quick to discern the faults of those who go
beyond them in iniquity. And therefore the man who feels no
compunction (remorse) at his own lack of faith in the Son of God,
will abhor the one 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 deny. Yet how little difference there is between the state
of mind which would allow such a judgment, and the state of those
who have no faith in the declarations of Christ; who disregard his
promises and warnings; who don't feel they are true, and therefore
treat them as fables. The lack of faith which men think so lightly of,
will therefore 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 it involves the rejection of the greatest gift
which God has ever offered to man: pardon, holiness, and eternal
life.
Section III. External evidence of the
divine origin of the Scriptures.
The Testimony of the Church.
As God has left the heathen to the unauthenticated revelation of
himself in his works, and holds them responsible for their unbelief,
so he might have left us to the simple revelation of himself in his
word. He has been pleased, however, to confirm that word by
external proofs of the most convincing character, so that we are
entirely without excuse.
The testimony of the church is of itself an unanswerable argument
for the truth of Christianity. The validity of this testimony does not
depend on the assumed infallibility of any class of men. It is merely
the testimony of an innumerable body of witnesses, under
circumstances which preclude the idea of delusion nor deception.
For the sake of illustration, take any particular branch of Christ's
church, as for example the Lutheran. It now exists in Europe and
America. It everywhere possesses the same version of the Scriptures,
and the same confession of faith. Its testimony is that it owes its
existence as an organized body, to Luther; to whom it ascribes the
translation of the Bible, and under whose auspices it professes to
have received the Augsburg Confession. It is clearly impossible that
these documents could, during the present century, have been
palmed off on these scattered millions of men. They all bear
testimony that they received them, as they now are, from the hands
of their fathers. As to this point, neither delusion nor deception is
conceivable. In the eighteenth century we find this church scarcely
less numerous than it is at present. It bore the same testimony then,
that it does now. With one voice it declared that their fathers
possessed before them the standards of their faith. This testimony is
repeated again in the seventeenth, and again in the sixteenth
century, till we come to the age of Luther. This testimony, conclusive
in itself, is confirmed by all kinds of collateral evidence. Everything
in the style, doctrines, and historical references of the standards of
the Lutheran church, agrees with the age to which they are referred.
The influence of a society holding those doctrines is traceable
through the whole of the intervening period. The wars, the treaties,
the literary and religious institutions of the period, all to a greater or
less degree, received their character from that Society. Therefore,
much as men may differ as to Luther's character, as to the wisdom of
his conduct or the truth of his doctrines, no sane man has ever
questioned the fact that he lived, that he translated the Scriptures,
that he organized a new church, and gave his followers the Augsburg
confession.
The same series of remarks might be made in reference to the church
of England. That extended and powerful body has her Thirty-Nine
Articles, her liturgy, and her homilies, which she testifies that she
received from the Reformers. This testimony cannot be doubted. At
no period of her history could that church either deceive or have
been deceived, as to that point. Her testimony is moreover confirmed
by all collateral circumstances. The liturgy, articles, and homilies are
in every respect consistent with their reputed origin; and the whole
history of England during that period, is interwoven with the history
of that church. The consequence is, no man doubts that the English
reformers lived, or that they framed the standards of doctrine and
worship universally ascribed to them.
When this argument is applied to the whole Christian church, it is no
less conclusive. This church now exists in every quarter of the globe,
and embraces many millions of disciples. Everywhere it has the same
records of its faith; it is everywhere an organized society with
religious officers and ordinances. It everywhere testifies that these
records and institutions were received from Christ and his apostles.
That this vast society did not begin to exist during the present
century, is as evident as that the world was not just made. It is no
less plain that it did not begin to exist in the eighteenth, the
seventeenth, the sixteenth, nor in any other century subsequent to
the first in our era. In each succeeding century, we find millions of
men, thousands of churches and ministers, uniting their testimony to
the fact that they received their sacred writings and institutions from
their predecessors, until we come to the age of Christ himself. If the
origin of the church ran back beyond the limits of authentic history,
so as to leave a gap between its reputed founder and its ascertained
existence, this argument would fail; an essential link would be
lacking, and the whole extended chain would fall to the ground. But
as this is not the case, its testimony touching the historical facts of its
origin, is as irresistible as that of the church of England respecting
the origin of its articles and liturgy. The Christian church is traced up
to the time of Christ by a mass of evidence which cannot be resisted;
so that to deny that Christ lived, and that the church received the
sacred writings from his followers, is not merely to reject the
testimony of thousands of competent witnesses, but to deny facts
which are essential to account for the subsequent history and the
existing state of the world. A man might as well profess to believe in
the foliage of a tree, but not in its branches and stem.
This testimony of the church as to the facts on which Christianity is
founded, is confirmed by all kinds of collateral evidence. The
language in which the New Testament is written is precisely that
which belonged to the time and place of its origin. It is the language
of Jews speaking Greek, and in its peculiarities, it belonged to no
other age or people. All the historical allusions are consistent with
the known state of the world at that time. The history of the world
since the advent of Christ pre-supposes the facts recorded in the New
Testament. It is beyond a doubt that the religion taught by a few poor
men in Judea, has changed the state of a large part of the world.
Paganism has disappeared, a new religion been introduced; laws,
customs, institutions and manners have become prevalent, and they
all rest upon the facts to which the church bears her testimony.
Beyond all this, the internal character of the scriptures is worthy of
the origin ascribed to them; a character which gives the only
adequate solution of the revolution which they have effected. When
God said, Let there be light, there was light. And when Jesus Christ
said, I am the light of the world, the light shone. We cannot doubt
that it is light; neither can we doubt when it arose, for all before was
darkness.
This testimony of the church, thus confirmed by all internal and
external proofs, establishes the fact that Christ lived and died, that
he founded the Christian church, and that the New Testament was
received from his immediate followers. But these facts involve the
truth of the gospel as a revelation from God, unless we suppose that
Christ and his apostles were deceivers. The evidence against this
latter assumption is as strong as the evidence of the existence of the
sun. The blind, if they please, may deny that the sun exists, and none
but the morally blind can resist the evidence which the New
Testament affords of the moral excellence and intellectual sobriety of
the sacred writers. If they were trustworthy men, men who we are to
believe spoke the truth, then they actually possessed and exercised
the miraculous powers to which they laid claim. Christ and his
apostles appealed to these powers as an unanswerable proof of their
divine mission;1 and we cannot reject their testimony without
denying their integrity.
Section IV. The argument from Prophecy.
The same course of argument which proves that the version of the
scriptures and the Augsburg Confession in the possession of the
Lutheran church; that the articles, liturgy and homilies in the
possession of the church of England; that the New Testament in the
possession of the whole Christian world, were derived from the
sources to which they are severally referred, proves with equal force
that the writings of the Old Testament in the possession of the Jews,
are the productions of the ancient prophets. Jews and Christians now
have them. They had them a century ago; they had them in the time
of Christ. They were then universally acknowledged by the Israelites
in Judea and elsewhere. They can be historically traced to centuries
before the advent of Christ. Three hundred years before that event,
they were translated into the Greek language and widely
disseminated. They contain the history, laws, and literature of the
people of Judea, whose existence and peculiarities are as well
ascertained as those of any people in the world. These writings are
essential to account for the known character of that people; for it was
in virtue of these sacred books, that they were what they were. Critics
have indeed disputed about the particular dates of some of these
productions, but no one has had the hardihood to deny that they
existed centuries before the birth of Christ. This being admitted, we
have a basis for another argument for the truth of Christianity, which
cannot be resisted.
In these ancient writings, preserved in the hands of the open enemies
of Christ, we find the advent of a deliverer clearly predicted.
Immediately after the apostasy (the fall), it was foretold that the seed
of the woman would bruise the serpent's head. Gen 3.15 This prediction
is the germ of all the subsequent prophecies, which but reveal its
manifold meaning. Who the promised seed was to be, and how the
power of evil was to be destroyed by him, later predictions gradually
revealed. It was first made known that the Redeemer should belong
to the race of Shem. Gen 9.26 Then that he should be of the seed of
Abraham, to whom the promise was made: In you all the nations of
the earth shall be blessed; Gen 18.18 then that he should be of the tribe
of Judah of whom it was foretold that, The scepter shall not depart
from Judah, or a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh comes,
and to him shall be the gathering of the people. Gen. 49.10
Subsequently it was revealed that he was to be of the lineage of
David; There shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a
branch shall grow out of his roots, and the Spirit of the Lord shall
rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of
knowledge and the fear of the Lord. Isa 11.1-2
It was foretold that his advent would be preceded by that of a special
messenger. Behold I send my messenger, and he shall prepare the
way before me; and the Lord whom you seek shall suddenly come to
his temple, even the messenger of the covenant whom you delight in;
behold, he shall come says the Lord of Hosts. Mal 3.1 The time, the
manner, and the place of his birth were all predicted. As to the time,
Daniel said, Know therefore and understand that from the going
forth of the commandment to build and restore Jerusalem unto
Messiah the prince, shall be seven weeks and three score and two
weeks. Dan 9.25 As to the miraculous manner of his birth, Isaiah said,
Behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name
Immanuel. Isa 7.14 As to the place, Micah said, But you, Bethlehem
Ephrathah though you are little among the thousands of Judah, yet
out of you shall come forth unto me the one that is to be ruler in
Israel. Mic 5.2
This deliverer was to be a poor man. Behold, O daughter of Zion,
your king comes to you, poor, riding upon an ass and a colt, the foal
of an ass. Zec 9.9 He was to be a man of sorrows and acquainted with
grief, despised and rejected by men, Isa 53.3 and yet Immanuel, God
with us, Isa 7.14 Jehovah our righteousness, Jer 23.6 Wonderful,
Counsellor, The Mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of
Peace, Isa 9.6 whose goings forth were of old, from the days of
eternity. Mic 5.2
The Redeemer thus predicted was to appear in the character of a
prophet or divine teacher. The Lord your God, said Moses, will raise
up for you a prophet from the midst of you, of your brethren, like me;
to him you shall hearken. Deu 18.15 Behold my servant whom I uphold,
my elect in whom my soul delights, I have put my Spirit on him, he
shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles. Isa 42.1 The Spirit of the
Lord God is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach good
tidings to the meek; he has sent me to bind up the broken hearted, to
proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to
those who are bound. Isa 61.1 In that day the deaf will hear the words
of the book, the eyes of the blind will see out of obscurity and
darkness; the meek also will increase their joy in the Lord, and the
poor among men will rejoice in the Holy One of Israel. Isa 29.18-19
He was also to be a priest. The Lord has sworn and will not repent,
you are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. Psa 110.4 He
shall build the temple of the Lord, and he shall bear the glory, and
shall sit and rule upon his throne, and he shall be a priest upon his
throne. Zec 6.13
The regal character of this Redeemer is set forth in almost every page
of the prophetic writings. I have anointed (said God in reference to
the Messiah) my king on my holy hill of Zion. Psa 2.6 Your throne O
God is forever and ever; the scepter of your kingdom is a scepter of
righteousness. You love righteousness and hate wickedness,
therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness
above your fellows. Psa 45.6-7 Unto us a child is born, and unto us a
son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder. Of the
increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the
throne of David and upon his kingdom to order it, and to establish it
with judgment and justice from henceforth, even forever. Isa 9.6-7
The characteristics of this kingdom of the Messiah were also clearly
predicted. They were to be spiritual, in distinction from the external
and ceremonial character of the former dispensation. Behold the
days shall come, says the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with
the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not according to the
covenant which I made with their fathers, etc. I will put my law in
their inward parts and write it in their hearts, and will be their God,
and they shall be my people. Jer 31.31-32 Hence the effusion of the Holy
Spirit is so constantly mentioned as attending the advent of the
promised Redeemer. In that day I will pour out my Spirit upon all
flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, etc. Joe 2.28
Again, this kingdom was not to be confined to the Jews, but was to
include all the world. As early as the book of Genesis, it was declared
that the obedience of all nations would be yielded to Shiloh, and that
all the nations of the earth would be blessed in Abraham and his
seed. God promised the Messiah the heathen for his inheritance, the
utmost parts of the earth for his possession. Psa 2.8 It shall come to
pass in the last days, said Isaiah, that the mountain of the Lord's
house shall be established on the top of the mountains, and be
exalted above the hills, and all nations shall flow to it. Isa 2.2 It is a
light thing, said God, that you should be my servant to raise up the
tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel; I will also give
you for a light to the Gentiles, that you may be my salvation to the
ends of the earth. Isa 49.6 In that day there shall be a root of Jesse,
which shall stand for an ensign of the people, and the Gentiles shall
seek it. Isa 11.10 I saw in the night visions, said Daniel, and behold, one
like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the
Ancient of days, and they brought him near before Him; and to him
was given dominion and glory, and a kingdom, that all people,
nations and languages should serve him; his dominion is an
everlasting dominion which shall not pass away, and his kingdom is
that which shall not be destroyed. Dan 7.13-14 Its progress, however,
was to be gradual. The stone cut out of the mountains, without
hands, was to break in pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver
and the gold, i.e. all other kingdoms, and become a great mountain
and fill the whole earth. Dan 2.45
Though the prophets describe in such strong language the excellence,
glory, and triumph of this Redeemer, they no less distinctly predicted
his rejection, sufferings, and death. Lord, who has believed our
report, and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? For he
shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry
ground; he is despised and rejected by men, we hid as it were our
faces from him; he was despised and we did not esteem him. Isa 53.1-3
To him whom man despises, to him whom the nation abhors, to a
servant of rulers, kings shall see and arise, and princes also shall
worship. Isa 49.7 The people whom he came to redeem, it was foretold,
would not only reject him, but betray and sell him for thirty pieces of
silver. If you think it good, give my wages, and if not, forbear. So they
weighed out for my wages thirty pieces of silver. The Lord said to me,
Throw it to the potter, the goodly price at which I was prized by
them. Zec 11.12-13 He was to be grievously persecuted and put to death.
He was, said the prophet, taken from prison and from judgment (cut
off by an oppressive judgment) and who will declare his generation;
for he was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of
my people he was stricken. And he made his grave with the wicked
and with the rich at his death. Isa 53.8-9 Even the manner and
circumstances of his death were minutely foretold. The assembly of
the wicked enclose me; they pierce my hands and my feet. They
divide my garments among them, and cast lots for my vesture. Psa
22.16, 18 He was not, however, to continue under the power of death.
You will not leave my soul in Sheol; nor will you allow your Holy One
to see corruption. Psa 16.10
The consequences of the rejection of the Messiah to the Jewish
people were also predicted with great distinctness. The children of
Israel, it is said, will abide many days without a king, without a
prince, and without a sacrifice, and without an image, and without
teraphim. Afterwards the children of Israel will return and seek the
Lord and his goodness in the latter days. Hos 3.4-5 Though the number
of the children of Israel are like the sand of the sea, a remnant shall
be saved. Rom 9.27 Of the rebellious portion of the nation it was said, I
will scatter them among all people, from one end of the earth to the
other, and among those nations shall you find no ease, neither shall
the soul of your foot have rest; Deu 28.64-65 ... And you shall become an
astonishment and proverb, and a by-word among all nations,
whither the Lord shall lead you. Deu 28.37 Though thus scattered and
afflicted, they were not to be utterly destroyed, for God promised
saying, When they are in the land of their enemies I will not cast
them away, neither will I abhor them to destroy them utterly, and to
break my covenant with them, for I am the Lord their God. Lev 26.44 It
was moreover predicted that after a long dispersion they would be
brought to acknowledge their crucified king. I will pour upon the
house of David and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of
grace and supplications, and they shall look upon me whom they
have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for his
only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one is in bitterness for
his first-born. Zec 12.10 This same prophet foretold that after the
people had rejected and betrayed the Good Shepherd, they would be
given up to the oppression of their enemies; two-thirds would be
destroyed; but the residue, after long suffering, would be restored. Zec
13.7, 9
This representation of the prophecies of the Jewish Scriptures,
respecting Christ and his kingdom, is in the highest degree
inadequate. It would be impossible to give a full exhibition of the
subject, without unfolding the whole Old Testament economy. It is
not merely in detached predictions, that the former dispensation was
prophetic. In its main design, it was prefigurative and preparatory.
Indeed, it had its immediate purpose, in preserving the Israelites as a
distinct people, in sustaining the true religion, and in exhibiting the
divine perfections in His government of the church. But all this was
subordinate to its grand purpose of preparing that people and the
world, for the advent of Christ, and to be a shadowy representation of
the glories of the new dispensation. It was for the double purpose of
affording an object of faith and hope to those then living, and that
the new economy might be better understood, more firmly believed,
and more extensively embraced. Detached passages from such a
scheme of history and prophecy are like the scattered ruins of an
ancient temple. To form a just judgment, the plan must be viewed as
a whole as well as in its details. It could then be seen that the history
of the Jews was the history of the lineage of Christ. The whole
sacrificial ritual was a prefiguration of the Lamb of God, who was to
bear the sin of the world; the tabernacle and the temple, with their
complicated services, were types of things spiritual and heavenly; the
prophets, who were the teachers and correctors of the people, were
sent not merely or principally to foretell temporal deliverances, but
mainly to keep the eyes of the people directed upward and onward to
the Great Deliverer, and to the final redemption. Detached passages
can give no adequate conception of this stupendous scheme of
preparation and prophecy, running through thousands of years, and
its thousand lines all tending to one common center — the cross of
Christ.
The argument from prophecy in support of the truth of Christianity,
therefore, can be appreciated only by those who will candidly study
the whole system. Still, enough has been presented to show that it is
impossible to account for the correspondence between the
prophecies of the Old Testament and the events recorded in the New,
upon any other assumption than that of divine inspiration. We have
seen that it was predicted, centuries before the advent of Christ, that
a great deliverer would arise, to be born of the tribe of Judah, of the
family of David, at the village of Bethlehem; that he would be a poor
and humble man, and yet worthy of the highest reverence paid to
God; that he would be a teacher, priest, and king; that he would be
rejected by his own people, persecuted, and put to death; that he
would rise again from the dead; that the Spirit of God would be
poured out on his followers, giving them holiness, wisdom, and
courage; that true religion, no longer confined to the Jews, would be
extended to the Gentiles, and in despite of all opposition, would
continue, triumph, and ultimately cover the earth; that the Jews who
rejected the Messiah, would be cast off and scattered, and yet
preserved; like a river in the ocean, it would be divided but not
dissipated, a standing miracle, a fact without a parallel or analogy.
Here then is the whole history of Christ and his kingdom, written
centuries before his advent. A history full of apparent
inconsistencies; a history not written in one age or by one man, but
in different ages and by different men, each adding some new fact or
characteristic, yet all combining to form one consistent, though
apparently contradictory whole.
Admitting, then, what no one denies, the antiquity of the Jewish
Scriptures, there is no escape from the conclusion that they were
written by divine inspiration, and that Jesus Christ to whom they so
plainly refer, is the Son of God and the Savior of the world. To
suppose that Christ, knowing these ancient prophecies, set himself,
without divine commission, to act in accordance with them, is to
suppose impossibilities. It is to suppose that Jesus Christ was a bad
man, which no one who reads the New Testament can believe, any
more than he can believe that the sun is the blackness of darkness. It
is to suppose him to have had control over the actions of others,
which no impostor could exert. Many of the most important
predictions in reference to Christ were fulfilled by the acts of his
enemies. Did Christ instigate the treachery of Judas, or prompt the
priests to pay the traitor thirty pieces of silver? Did he plot with
Pilate for his own condemnation? Or so arrange that he would die by
a Roman, instead of a Jewish mode of capital infliction? Did he
induce the soldiers to divide his garments and cast lots for his
vesture, or stipulate with them that none of his bones should be
broken? By what possible contrivance could the two great predicted
events of the final destruction of the Jewish polity, and the
consequent dispersion of the Jews, on the one hand, and the rapid
propagation of the new religion among the Gentiles, on the other,
have been brought to pass? These events were predicted; their
occurrence was beyond the scope of contrivance or imposture. There
is no rational answer to this argument from prophecy. The testimony
of the Scriptures to the messiahship of Jesus Christ, is the testimony
of God. Search the Scriptures, said our Savior himself, for in them
you think you have eternal life, and it is they that testify of me. Joh 5.39
God, then, has been pleased to hedge up the way to infidelity. Men
must do violence to all their usual modes of argument; they must
believe moral impossibilities and irreconcilable contradictions, and
above all they must harden their hearts to the excellence of the
Savior, before they can become infidels.
This exposition of the grounds of faith is made in order to show that
unbelief is a sin; and to justify the awful declaration of Christ, He
that does not believe, shall be damned. Mar 16.16 Men flatter
themselves that they are not responsible for their faith.
Belief being involuntary, it cannot, it is said, be a matter of praise or
blame. This false opinion arises from confounding things that are
very different in their nature. Faith differs according to its object and
the nature of the evidence on which it is founded. A man believes
that two and two are four, or that Napoleon died in St. Helena, and
this is neither morally better, nor worse for such a faith. Disbelief, in
such cases, would indicate insanity, not moral aberration. But no
man can believe that virtue is vice, or vice virtue, without being to
the last degree depraved. No man can disbelieve in God, especially
under the light of revelation, without thereby showing that he is
destitute of all right moral and religious sentiments. And no man can
disbelieve the record which God has given of his Son, without being
blind to the glory of God and the moral excellence of the Savior. He
rejects the appropriate testimony of God, conveyed in a manner
which proves it to be His testimony.
It is vain, therefore, for any man to hope that he can be innocently
destitute of faith in God or of faith in Jesus Christ. If the external
world retains such an impression of the hand of God, as to leave
those without excuse who refuse to regard it as His work — then
surely those who refuse to acknowledge the excellence of His word
and the glory of his Son, will not be held guiltless. The evidence
which has convinced millions, is before their eyes, and it should
convince them. Instead of apologizing, therefore, for their lack of
faith, and complaining of the weakness of the evidence — to which
nothing but neglect or blindness can render them insensible — let
them confess their guilt in not believing; let them humble themselves
before God, and pray that He would open their eyes to see the
excellence of His word. They should dismiss their cavils, and be
assured that if the Bible doesn't win their faith by its milder glories, it
will one day reveal itself, by its terrors to their awakened
consciences, to indeed be the word of God.
CHAPTER II. SIN.
Section I. All men are sinners. The nature of man, since the fall, is
depraved.
Since then the Scriptures are undoubtedly the word of God, with
what reverence we should receive their divine instructions; with what
diligence and humility we should study them; with what confidence
we should rely upon the truth of all their declarations; and with what
readiness we should obey all their directions! We are especially
concerned to learn what they teach with regard to the character of
men, the way of salvation, and the rule of duty.
With respect to the first of these points (the character of men), the
Bible very clearly teaches that all men are sinners. The apostle Paul
not only asserts this truth, but he proves it at length, in reference
both to those who live under the light of nature, and those who enjoy
the light of revelation. The former, he says, are justly chargeable with
impiety and immorality. This is because the perfections of the divine
Being, His eternal power and godhead, have been manifested since
the creation, by the things which are made. Yet men have not
acknowledged their Creator. They neither worshipped him as God,
nor were thankful for his mercies, but served the creature more than
the Creator. In thus departing from the fountain of all excellence,
they departed from excellence itself. Their foolish hearts were
darkened and their corruption manifests itself not only by degrading
idolatry, but by the various forms of moral evil both in heart and
life. These sins are committed against the law which is written on
every man's heart; Rom 2.15 so that they know that those who do such
things are worthy of death, and are therefore without excuse even in
their own consciousness.
With regard to those who enjoy a supernatural revelation of the
character and requirements of God, the case is still more plain.
Instead of rendering to this God, the inward and outward homage
which are His due, they neglect his service, and really prefer his
creatures to himself. Instead of regulating their conduct by the
perfect rule of duty contained in the Scriptures, they constantly
dishonor God by breaking that law. Thus the apostle shows that all
classes of men, when judged by the light they have severally enjoyed,
are found guilty before God. Moreover, this universality of guilt, he
says, is confirmed by the clear testimony of the Scriptures, which
declare, There is none righteous, no not one. There is none that
understands; there is none that seeks after God. They have all gone
out of the way; they have altogether become unprofitable; there is
none that does good, no not one. Rom 3.10-12
This language is not used by the Holy Spirit in reference to the men
of any one age or country, but in reference to the human race. It is
intended to describe the moral character of man. It is in this sense
that it is quoted and applied by the apostle. And we accordingly find
similar declarations in all parts of the Bible, in the New Testament,
as well as in the Old, in the writings of one age, as well as in those of
another. And there are no passages of an opposite character; there
are none which represent the race as being what God requires, nor
any which speak of any member of that race as being free from sin.
On the contrary, it is expressly said, If we say we have no sin, we
deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 1Joh 1.3 We all offend in
many things. Jas 3.2 There is no man that does not sin. 1Kng 8.46 All
have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Rom 3.23 Hence the
Scriptures proceed on the assumption of the universal sinfulness of
men. To speak, to act, to walk in the manner of men is, in the
language of the Bible, to speak or act wickedly. The world is filled
with the wicked. This present evil world is the description of
mankind, from whose character and deserved punishment, it is said
to be the design of Christ's death, to redeem his people. Gal 1.4 The
world cannot hate you, said our Savior to those who refused to be his
disciples, but it hates me, because I testify of it, that its works are
evil. Joh 7.7 They are of the world; therefore they speak as of the world,
and the world hears them. 1Joh 4.5 We are of God, and the whole world
lies in wickedness. 1Joh 5.19
This however is not a doctrine taught in isolated passages. It is one of
those fundamental truths which are taken for granted in almost
every page of the Bible. The whole scheme of redemption supposes
that man is a fallen being. Christ came to seek and to save the lost.
He was announced as the Savior of sinners. His advent and work
have no meaning or value except on the assumption that we are
guilty, for he came to save his people from their sins; to die, the just
for the unjust; to bear our sins in his own body on the tree. Those
who have no sin, need no Savior; those who do not deserve death,
need no Redeemer. As the doctrine of redemption pervades the
Scripture, so does the doctrine of the universal sinfulness of men.
This doctrine is also assumed in all the Scriptural representations of
what is necessary for admission into heaven. All men, everywhere,
are commanded to repent. Act 17.30 But repentance supposes sin.
Every man must be born again, in order to see the kingdom of God;
he must become a new creature; he must be renewed after the image
of God. Being dead in trespasses and in sins, he must be quickened,
or made partaker of a spiritual life. In short, it is the uniform
doctrine of the Bible, that all men need both pardon and