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198 How Are the Christian Scriptures Confirmed by the Peculiar Glory of God?
This Well-Grounded Faith Is Possible through the Gospel
Second, I conclude that the gospel has in it a self-authenticating light,
or glory, that makes such well-grounded belief possible. We saw this,
most clearly where Paul speaks of “the light of the gospel of the glory
of Christ” and “the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the
face of Jesus Christ” (2 Cor. 4:4–6). In other words, Paul teaches that
the gospel—a faithful rendering of the “word of Christ” (Rom. 10:17)
that reveals the person and work of Christ in the way he saves sinners—
has in it a “glory” that can be seen by the eyes of the heart (Eph. 1:17;
2 Cor. 4:6). Thus we have agreed with Jonathan Edwards when he says
about this passage,
Nothing can be more evident, than that a saving belief of the gospel
is here spoken of, by the Apostle, as arising from the mind’s being
enlightened to behold the divine glory of the things it exhibits. . . .
Unless men may come to a reasonable solid persuasion and conviction
of the truth of the gospel, by the internal evidences of it, in
the way that has been spoken, viz. by a sight of its glory; ’tis impossible
that those who are illiterate, and unacquainted with history,
should have any thorough and effectual conviction of it at all. 2
That is what drives the approach we are taking. First, people must
hear the gospel to be saved and are responsible to believe the truth
when they hear it. Second, the gospel has in it a self-authenticating
light, or glory, that makes such well-grounded belief possible. And as
a believer’s knowledge of the Scripture grows, that same divine glory
confirms all of it.
Now we turn to the main burden of this chapter—a comparison
between seeing God’s glory through his world and seeing it through
his word.
What Can Be Known about God Is Plain to Them
First, consider with me the way God expects human beings to see his
glory in the natural world. This will shed significant light on how he
expects us to see his glory in his written word. The key passage of
2
Jonathan Edwards, A Treatise Concerning Religious Affections, vol. 2, The Works of Jonathan Edwards,
ed. John Smith (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1957), 299, 303.