God and Reason (3)
“Come now, and let us reason together,”
Says the LORD… Isaiah 1.18
Assumptions
For our purposes, examining this and the other questions we will consider in this series from the perspective of a Christian worldview, we will make certain assumptions consistent with our faith as foundational to our inquiry.
And in doing so, we are doing nothing more or less than what every reasoning person does. All reason proceeds on the basis of assumptions—ideas, views, convictions, presuppositions, and beliefs which cannot be proved by reason, but which serve as the foundation upon which reason does its work. Every reasonable person must be mindful of the assumptions which guide their reasoning, and this is true for us as Christians as well.
What are the assumptions on the basis of which we as Christians engage the discipline and tool of reason?
Among these are the convictions that God exists, that Scripture is His Word, and that by believing in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of our sins we may have access to God by His Spirit. By this means, moreover, we may understand the teaching of God’s Word for our lives in Christ.
We make these assumptions as Christians for the simple reason that, being Christians, we cannot deny them. We know them to be true both by our experience and by reflecting on our experience in the light of these assumptions. It is reasonable for us to assume these things because we cannot deny them.
Already, therefore, we are acknowledging that reason has a large role to play in the life of faith. Our task is simply to clarify that role as much as we can.
Reasonable…
To our question then: Is God reasonable? That is, is He amenable or agreeable to reason in any way? Two observations argue for an affirmative answer to this question.
First, the fact that God invites sinful human beings to reason with Him would seem to require that we answer this first question in the affirmative. God is reasonable. He communicates with us in words, using sentences and paragraphs that convey meanings we can easily understand. We understand the words “Come now” to indicate an invitation. God invites us to Himself, to engage with Him reasonably.
The next phrase, “let us reason together”, is cohortative, and offers an opportunity for human beings to dialog with God, as it were. He will present His views, and He invites us to present ours. The same principles of reasoning will obtain between us, so that we may understand one another. He will explain His ways, and we may seek to justify our own. We will be able to hear and understand Him, and He will consider our explanations and justifications. And so must we, in the light of His expressed will.
So, it seems clear that God is reasonable. He can communicate with us in ways we may expect to process successfully using the skills of reason. This is precisely what we might expect from a God Whose only-begotten Son is the Word of God—the Logos, Explanation, or Reason of God Himself. And we may communicate with Him, fully expecting that whatever is in our minds and on our hearts, He will hear, understand, and respond to using the same kind of reason with which we present our views and requests before Him.
So, yes, God, as He is represented in the Bible, is reasonable. And those who know Him have experienced that this is in fact the case.
…but not limited by reason
God is reasonable. He uses reason, the same kind of reason that we human beings use to make our way in this life. We can know the mind of God and understand His ways through the use of reason. However, we cannot know God’s mind or ways exhaustively by reason, or by any other means for that matter. For while it pleases God to use reason in His dealings with men, God is not bound by reason or limited by our ability to make sense out of what He thinks or does. Some of what He thinks and does, and some of the reasons why He thinks and does as He does, are beyond our ability to understand by reason (cf. Is. 55.8, 9; Eccl. 3.11). God knows things we cannot know. He does things we cannot understand. He has “private counsels” (Julian of Norwich) within Himself that go beyond reason’s ability to understand. He is not obliged to limit His plans or ways to whatever we can understand, even if by the exertions of our most skilled reasoners and thinkers.
God is reasonable, and He can reason with us, so that we understand Him, and He understands us. But He is not bound by our reasoning abilities. He reasons within Himself at a level and in ways that will only ever make perfect sense to Him. He is not obligated to explain things He knows we simply cannot understand, so great is the ontological distance between us; and we must not expect Him to justify His thoughts or ways in terms that we are willing, through the use of reason alone, to accept.
So, Yes, God is reasonable, and He uses reason to make Himself and His ways known. At the same time, no, God is not reasonable, not, that is, at the level of our ability exhaustively to understand Him; and reason is not, the way to relate to God or to find our place in the economy He is unfolding on earth as it is in heaven. Reason, to be effective in knowing God, must lead to faith; and faith is the gift of God.
For reflection
1. What is the difference between an assumption and a fact? How does each work together in the reasoning process?
2. The Bible presents God as a reasoning Being. How should this encourage us to want to know Him? In seeking to make Him known to others?
3. Yet the Bible insists that God’s reasoning powers are far more advanced than ours. How should this guide and caution us in seeking to know God? Will we need something other than reason to know God as He reveals Himself in the Bible? Explain.
Next steps—Conversation: Talk with the Lord about the assumptions that guide your life each day. Are they what they should be? Do you hold any assumptions that are keeping you from knowing, loving, and serving the Lord?
T. M. Moore
If you have found this meditation helpful, take a moment to give thanks to God. Then share what you learned with a friend. This is how the grace of God spreads (2 Cor. 4.15).
An excellent companion to this study is our book, Let God Be True, which is free as a PDF download by clicking here.
This week: Our Read Moore podcast continues readings from our book, The Joy and Rejoicing of My Heart. In our Crosfigellteaching letter, we are studying examples of the spiritual poetry of the Celtic Revival. And in our daily Scriptorium column we are working our way through the Gospel of Matthew. Click here to see all the other columns and writers available to you.
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Except as indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved,
