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270 How Are the Christian Scriptures Confirmed by the Peculiar Glory of God?
Faith Comes by Hearing, Sight by Reading
Faith comes by hearing, sight by reading—this is, in fact, what the
Scriptures tell us. There can be no saving faith where there is no knowledge
of the gospel.
“Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” How
then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how
are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how
are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to
preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are
the feet of those who preach the good news!” But they have not all
obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed what
he has heard from us?” So faith comes from hearing, and hearing
through the word of Christ. (Rom. 10:13–17)
Paul is addressing the very thing that concerns us here: How do knowledge
by hearing the word and knowledge by seeing glory in the word
relate to each other? His answer is that there can be no knowledge by
seeing the glory of God in the word if we don’t hear the word.
Paul makes a similar point when he says to the Ephesians that the
means by which they can know his insight into the mystery of Christ is
by reading what he has written.
I, Paul, a prisoner for Christ Jesus on behalf of you Gentiles—assuming
that you have heard of the stewardship of God’s grace that
was given to me for you, how the mystery was made known to me
by revelation, as I have written briefly. When you read this, you can
perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ. (Eph. 3:1–4)
It is through reading what is accessible to the ordinary human eye
and mind—the text of Scripture—that spiritual sight may happen.
Reading with a view to right understanding is a rigorous mental effort.
We worked hard at it in the first six years of our schooling. It was a
human affair, not necessarily a spiritual one. Since our childhood, we
have, perhaps, learned even more demanding skills of reading carefully.
All of this involved our powers of observation and our rational ability.
This, Paul says, is the way you can “perceive my insight into the mystery
of Christ.” There is no access to the mystery of Christ (where the