J. N. Darby once said in answer to all these infidel reasonings as to God, something like this:
“There are too many evidences of wisdom, power, and design, for any reasonable being to suppose that things came into existence without a God; on the other hand, there are too many evidences of misery and evil for any one to imagine that a God of power and love could have created things as they now are.”
While it is perfectly true, that the mind of fallen man is naturally infidel; yet, on the other hand, man’s mind is so constituted that it cannot conceive of anything coming into existence without a cause.
Let anybody seriously consider, and he is driven to the conclusion that there must be a God. The first question that arises in the mind as we look at anything is, Who made that? Let it be a manufactured terrestrial globe, we say, Who made it? A man would be looked upon as a fool who would reply, nobody made it. If we cannot conceive of that globe coming into existence without a maker, how much less this earth of which it is but an insignificant representation!
Yes, the mind of man cannot conceive of anything in existence that has not had a maker – such a thing would be unthinkable. There must be a cause for every effect.
I ask, “Who made that table?” You reply, “The carpenter.” Then I ask, “Who made the carpenter?” Somebody must have made him and so you get back to the first original cause, and that is God. Hence the first of Genesis opens, sublime in its grandeur and simplicity – “In the beginning God created.”
This commends itself to every man’s reason; he knows there must be a God. Yet no uninspired man would have written that first chapter of Genesis as it stands.
What gropings in the dark have we in the philosophy of the ancients, and the scientific hypotheses of moderns! What voluminous treatises on cosmogony! What changing theories as fresh light breaks in, exposing the fallacy of earlier conclusions!
But God’s Word never changes. Though not intended as a handbook of science, it nevertheless alludes to scientific subjects, and in a miraculous manner is always right. Take such a chapter as Genesis 1, written between three and four thousand years ago, at a time when the science of geology was unknown, treating of a vast subject, namely: the creation, doing so in the briefest manner possible, and yet invariably correct – How could this be accounted for apart from inspiration?
I merely give this as one evidence of inspiration, not by any means the greatest, but still there it is.
Now I quite admit that honest reason must bring a person to believe that there is a God, but mere reason can teach us nothing whatever about that God. The same process of reasoning that leads me to the conclusion that there must be a God, also proves to me that I cannot understand Him, or know anything about Him unless He is pleased to give me a revelation. For I cannot conceive of anything that has not had a cause, and yet who caused God? He was the great cause of all things, but had no cause Himself.
We have reached, then, two conclusions: First, there must be a God; and second, He must reveal Himself, if I am to know anything about Him.
But the Bible is this revelation. Shakespeare does not pretend to be a revelation from God; it has no authority upon any man, nor is it a guide to conduct.
The Bible is the only book that gives me certain information as to God, as to the creation, as to how man comes to be in the state of sin and misery in which he is found today. It is the only book that makes known to me God’s remedy for sin – a remedy which no man could ever have invented or dared to propose, but which nevertheless the whole moral being recognizes as altogether worthy of God.
But what is man to say, “The only God I would accept is a God of love, and not a God of vengeance”?
Imagine a prisoner at the Old Bailey saying in open court, “The only judge I will accept,” and so on. Such a one would very soon learn that government has authority and power. And is God, the source of all supreme power, to be dictated to by His creatures? It is absurd.
But the fact is that God is a God of love – He is love, and has so loved the world as to give His Son. And what has man done? Spat in His face, and crucified Him, mocking Him as He died. Is this a small sin? But people today may say, We did not do that. Yet each one has taken sides either for Christ or against Him.
The proudest will must bow. It is no use to resist God.
No one need be lost in hell, for God has provided a Saviour for all. Only man must bow, repent, and believe the gospel. Saul of Tarsus had to yield, and own that he was the chief of sinners, though outwardly his was a blameless life.
The only place we can adequately measure sin is at the cross of Christ. By comparing ourselves with one another, we get very poor ideas of what sin is. The greatest crime that could be committed was the murder of the Son of God, and we must remember that we belong, each one of us, to a world that has cast God out of it, when He came in grace and love.
All the human reasoning as to the inconsistency between a few years of sin, and everlasting punishment, is folly. The fact is, men love sin, and hate Christ more than they fear hell.
Man’s mind is a poor and finite thing. The moment we have to do with God, we have to do with infinite. And so (1), the enormity of sin in God’s sight; (2), the infinite value of the atoning sacrifice of Christ; (3), the immortality of the soul; (4), the eternity of glory for the redeemed, and (5), of punishment for the despisers of Christ’s sacrifice, and God’s grace – these are all things which far exceed all power of man’s mind to understand.
“By faith we understand.”