The Standard of Truth
It is then from the revelation God has given by fact and by Scripture that specifically He is known. Man is called to take the place he is proved to be in before Him, and to believe that which in perfect goodness has been accomplished for him, when his ruin was complete. The standard by which he is to judge what is right and true must be the revelation of God, both as to God's grace and as to man's ruin. It is a revelation from God, and of Him, that alone can give in reality that moral discernment which the nature of man of course affects as conscience.
Man's conscience is no standard. He has by it a knowledge: of sin, but this is partial and incomplete. For he will see no evil save in that which is below his own standard of good and evil.
Moreover, conscience cannot by its nature give a knowledge of God at all; it is a knowledge of good and evil, and by sin even this has been defiled. But though the conscience, through being defiled, is no standard of good and evil, still by its nature it recognizes the truth of the Divine message when presented, to it.
The Gospel a Command and a Revelation
And so the message of God to man commands him everywhere to repent; the power and trail of the requirement the conscience recognizes, but such is man's nature that either he will consider honestly what it involves and resent the claim; or he will seek some religious subterfuge whereby a salve is received from man, not from God; or he must perforce deny 'conviction, and profess a moral standard lower than the natural 'conscience. But the message of God is Also a revelation, and as such a message of reconciliation. It makes known to man sin in the full extent of its wretchedness and guilt and man's, complete thraldom to it, but declares that God made Him to be sin who knew no sin, that the believer might become the righteousness of God in Him.
Man in his own works, can never get above what he is in himself—enmity against God. But in the place of the claims of God being pressed upon him, there is the message of what God Himself accomplished in Christ, upholding the claims of His Own Name Himself'; declaring that in Christ the believer becomes His righteousness, sin having already been judged as such—mat is a new creation. The relationship of the new creation is not dependent upon the creature's faithfulness, but upon the eternal subsistence and righteousness of God in Christ. If' he is not now become the righteousness of God in Christ, he is not yet of the new creation at all, but of the old.
This is Gods last ministry and message to man. His claims have been resented, His Son rejected, and the message of what His Son in His rejection at the cross has accomplished for man is sent back as a final message to him, and God, in the present clay of grace, with the Gospel is beseeching man to be reconciled to Him. Will the sinner, after 'this, still believe that his blessing consists in turning his back upon God? Will he not he recon oiled to Him Who has first proved His perfect love? God's work for the sinner has left him nothing to do; but for him to be justified, what has been done must be believed.
The Obedience of Faith Necessary
Faith is necessary; and it is the message which tests faith in God.
A notice once appeared at the park gates of a gentleman's residence, announcing to the people of the village that all who came to the house on the day and at the time named, would have their debts paid, whatever they might be. One old woman (alone) believed that message, and all her debts were paid.
On London Bridge, again, sovereigns were offered to the passers-by in exchange for pennies, but it was long before one was found to believe a message so contrary to every principle and motive that governs human actions in the largest business city of the world. Nevertheless a true offer had been made. Reasons enough may indeed be given why such offers as these were ignored, but the result of ignoring them is undeniable. The debtor had to bear his own burden of debt, though he might have been relieved of it; the passer by was not enriched, though the stranger would have enriched him had he trusted him in trusting his offer.
And so with God's announcement to man concerning His Son Jesus Christ. In order to be justified, faith being necessary, not to believe is of course not to be justified.
Evasion Impossible
It need not be denied that all is at stake, when the decision is made to reject confidence in man and that which is human, and judge all by a message that claims to be divine. But it must also be remembered that a message having been given from God, a man stakes his all when he rejects and seeks to evade or ignore it. The offer, man considers, is made by a stranger (though blessed be His name He is no longer a stranger to those who have trusted Him), and it demands faith in Him as trustworthy and divine.
But that which is 'demanded is as definite as that which is promised. The message in the Scriptures is at least straightforward, though man proves, alas! that the popular ways of treating it are not. It demands faith, and only faith receives an answer. The message must be believed because it is God's message to man, indeed it cannot be received unless as such. But folly must be imputed to the man (not unfaithfulness to God) who hopes to secure, in his own way, and not according to the message, the blessing that the message offers.
Substitutes for Faith and for Honesty.
Popular adherence to religious observances proves at least that a large majority do not
like to think themselves wholly without that Which the Gospel of God offers to man, but are also unwilling to accept the terms on which it is promised.
What is the result? A substitute is provided for faith,—anything or everything will be believed except the one message which tests faith in God, and upon which justification depends. Tradition, creeds, the sacrament, works, etc., are relied upon,—anything, or nothing particular—only going to church or chapel like other people, and not being worse than the majority. Or, on the other hand, there will be shuffling,—an attempt to escape the issue that Scripture brings every honest man to face. Reason will be made responsible for some such loose objection as " I must reason." Such an objection is either in its nature absurd, or a gratuitous assumption without any proof.
Reason and Faith
But as reason is so frequently appealed to, it may be well to consider its place in reference to the message of the Gospel.
Upon what, then, is the supposed antagonism based? Reason assuredly is not faith. Reason, then, must either be put forward as the principle by which justification is sought and in this way substituted for faith, or else reason in its results is assumed to make, faith in the Gospel irrational.
As to the first case, justification because of human righteousness would be possible on the ground of works, if the works were blameless. Justification, again, has been made possible by divine righteousness on the principle of faith; God's righteousness revealed by what he has wrought. He is, now " just and the Justifier of him who believes in Jesus." Justification on the principle of reasoning, could be recognized only in law-courts of a shamelessly corrupt character.
In the second case, an answer is required only by evidence, not by assumption. But the Scriptures as ever show themselves sufficient to prove and expose the subterfuges in which men seek to hide themselves from God,—meets them to with their own self-chosen weapons, and, wondrous truth, in the power of grace. " Come now," it is said, " and let us reason together saith the Lord; Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they he red like crimson, they shall be as wool." Isaiah, 1-18.
Upon what ground does man refuse to listen to reason in the matter of the message?
To reason only from as much and to as much as is chosen, is will, not reason. If reason be appealed to, reason must also be listened to. Its first essential character is the power to abstractly apportion to each argument its adequate weight and relative importance, apart from personal considerations and bias. Save by irrational denial that there is a God, what does reason teach to be more important personally than the question of His way of justification? Or of more weight abstractly and relatively than knowledge as to God's purposes in and through the world's history, which are to stand forever, after both the world and the individuals in it have run their course?
Man can be reasoned with, if the reason to which lie appeals is capable of weighing the message the Scriptures give—a brute cannot be—on righteousness, temperance and judgment to come; with the consequence that though he be governor on the tribunal, and he who wields the truth be his prisoner, he must tremble if reason is followed to the end.
It is man's reason as to these subjects, that will cause him to tremble, his irrationalism that makes him 'indifferent, and faith. that makes him declare, as the above mentioned prisoner dial, " I. would to God that not only thou but also all who hear me this day were both almost and altogether such as I am, except these bonds."
Reason demands that the message the gospel gives should be considered and either accepted, or openly rejected; that the reasons given for rejecting it be submitted to the same criticism and test that is demanded for faith; and that the responsibility for rejecting it be accepted.