On Faith and Mystery

Here are some thoughts after reading "What is Faith?" by Machen. I have also been thinking a lot about the nature of faith and how it can be easily defined and explained.

Faith has been described or defined as a belief or truth that is beyond the ability of reason to prove. I gained this definition from Oliphant. I believe what he means by this is that it is beyond the ability of the reason (either by empiricism, experientialism, or rationalism) to attain the knowledge of faith. It can be foundationally and further understood by what the Apostle Paul calls “mystery”. Ladd says, “Mystery designates the secret thoughts, plans and dispensations of God which are hidden from the human reason, as well as from all other comprehensions below the divine level, and hence must be revealed to those for whom they are intended.”

This understanding is crucial to a proper placement for certain disciplines – esp., apologetics. We give the gospel and a defense for the hope that is in us (1Pet 3:15). God, however, is the one who gives faith. One cannot reason his way to faith. It is foundationally implanted or laid (1Cor 3). It is the fundamental and foundational presupposition upon which our life and our reason rests. It is without flaw or fracture – able to withstand the greatest of storms. Its builder is God and not the human reason.

A person may know that the chair will hold him when he sits. A person may trust that the sun and the moon will rise and fall with consistency. But, when asked to give an account for why he can have such faith and trust, he is silent and without an apologetic…unless it is revealed to him. That is the mystery that we are speaking about. That only the Christ of the universe can make sense out of all diverse things trusted and assumed; things that are left finally without the unity which makes sense out of them all. The lens of the word of God is that which brings all things into focus – not the reason, not logic, not the intellect. The Word of God, in Christ, is revealed from heaven to give men something now to reason about! A blind man may feel the heat from the sky, but until the sun is revealed to him, he will not understand – he will not know.

Do we really think that, with his reason, he can think of a large star in the universe, thousands of miles away, which is almost self-sustaining by nuclear fission (I think that’s right) which gives not only light but also heat to the entire galaxy? How could he possibly reason himself to this conclusion? What if, however, he was morally obligated to do so? Let’s say that the sun would destroy him if he did not reach such a conclusion? Now the blind man is in desperate need of something wholly other than himself to break into his darkness and give him an account for the heat that he feels. He needs revelation of that which has been a mystery to him for so long. He needs the gospel. And when he receives the revelation that says to him truthfully what the sun is, he embraces such by faith. He can now see. He is no longer blind and thus “accepting” something that is void of information and knowledge. His mental faculties have now been given that superior and authoritative word that will make sense out of everything that he was once so confused about.

There is one thing that I forgot to mention in the above analogy. The blind man, though wholly unable to conjure up the source and make sense of the heat that he feels – he ought to. This is an ethical “ought.” And though he was born blind, say, b/c his parents were, he is no less guilty for his “blindness.” And that is our case. Though we “ought” to give God glory for simply being (“that he is” – Heb 11) and that he is the source of all good things (“that he rewards…”), we cannot. We were born with a deadness that prohibits our reason and faculties from getting to that place where we “ought” to be. We must be illuminated. It must be revealed to us. And we must be given the faith to receive and accept what we have been given. Make no mistake, it is no blind faith. Why? Because we can now see clearly.

But to bring the analogy closer to the human situation that we are in presently – the question is not for a blind man to understand where the heat is coming from; but for an incomplete, or rather, dead man, to understand where he is to get life and satisfaction. The question is not “what is this heat?” But where may I finally be satisfied? Where will this longing in my heart be finally soothed! How and when will I finally rest? In his efforts to find and worship what he “ought”, he has adopted, by using his faulty and dead reason (and trusting in such), “cisterns that could hold no water.” What he needs is Christ illumined and revealed to his conscience to purge it from its deadness. He, however, cannot reason himself to such an understanding. Christ is the mystery of faith – which means He cannot be reasoned…though he is infinitely reasonable. He must be accepted and received by faith and repentance, but after He has been effectually revealed.

Now we see the necessity of the relationship between faith and mystery. Mystery however, is often thought of or subjectively defined as something that is not and cannot be known. But mystery in the New Testament is something wholly different. It is something that must be and has been revealed. It is not some random, indifferent, fact; but a person – indeed, THE Person who created the universe. It is He who is the sound, firm, pillar of our faith – yes, the ROCK of our faith. It is no wonder that those who have no idea of Him and who thus morally reject Him, call faith some blind leap and trust in something that might come through. It is no wonder that those who love Christ have a totally different definition of the term than those who do not. There are only two options. Belief in the one who founded the universe – the One who is infinite, eternal, unchangeable; in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness and truth; or, believe in that which is otherwise. The “otherwise” being created, fickle, contingent, and fading; and that which could never be worthy of trust. No wonder why those who have experienced this “faith”, whose object is other than Christ, define the term with such ambiguity and uncertainty. How could they define it otherwise? It is all they know. Why? It is mystery to them. Unrevealed until the mercy of God alone proves and sees fit to have it otherwise.

If faith, as Machen says, “is based on knowledge,” then it would seem that the mystery revealing is the knowledge being given. Faith embraces such knowledge with complete devotion and adoration.