• January 2023

    • Unresolved difficulties

      Author: Rev. Douglas McCallum

      Dear CPC family,

      I recently came across the following observation of John Murray:

      “There is no doctrine of our Christian faith that does not confront us with unresolved difficulties here in this world, and the difficulties become all the greater just as we get nearer to the centre. It is in connection with the most transcendent mysteries of our faith that the difficulties multiply. The person who thinks he has resolved all the mysteries surrounding our established faith in the Trinity has probably no faith in the triune God. The person who encounters no unresolved mystery in the incarnation of the Son of God and in his death on Calvary’s tree has not yet learned the meaning of 1 Timothy 3:16. Yet these unanswered questions are not incompatible with unshaken faith in the triune God and in Jesus Christ the incarnate Son. The questions are often perplexing. But they are more often the questions of adoring wonder rather than the questions of painful perplexity.” [1]

      Biblical truth is deeply mysterious. This is not to say that it is irrational or nonsensical, a religion reserved only for the most gullible. Christians are not superstitious mystics; we base our faith on revealed truth. As a friend once said to me, to be a Christian does not involve a leap into the dark, but a step into the light.

      At the same time, we recognise that we do not – and we cannot – know everything. Our minds are small and finite. Our ability to grasp and to make sense of truth is limited. And, even while the Holy Spirit has graciously enlightened our darkened understandings, we yet only see through a glass darkly.

      Nowhere is this reality more apparent than in the realm of theology. Through the word he has graciously revealed to us, and by the work of the Spirit who powerfully illumines our minds, we can certainly know God. We can know God truly. But we cannot know him exhaustively. God is beyond finding out. He is gloriously incomprehensible. Who can know the mind of the Lord or be his counsellor?

      Do not be surprised, therefore, when ‘unresolved difficulties’ confront you in your study of the Bible. This is to be expected. Murray mentions the Trinity and the incarnation as two doctrines that may at times leave us scratching our heads. To these could be added the following: predestination, hell, providence, union with Christ, the indwelling of the Spirit, and everlasting glory (to name just a few). Indeed, every Christian doctrine will, if you spend any time thinking about it, give rise to a whole host of questions.

      Perhaps some of you are wrestling with a particular biblical truth at this time. If so, go on wrestling! It is good to search the Scriptures and to try to understand them better. Do not be afraid to ask questions. Ask God to give you more light. Be a person whose faith seeks understanding. Pursue truth in a spirit of humility. Do so in the assurance, as Murray very helpfully says, that unanswered questions and unresolved difficulties are not incompatible with unshaken faith in the God of the Bible. And as you engage in such honest grappling with the Scriptures, so you will find yourself increasingly crying out in adoring wonder, “Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God!”

      Yours in our Saviour,

      Doug

      1. John Murray, ‘The Attestation of Scripture’, The Infallible Word, 7-8.