The Role of Reason in Coming to Faith

For my New Testament Theology class at Wheaton with Dr. Nicholas Perrin, we were recently asked to do an online bulletin board post and interact with other students in regard to the role of reason in coming to faith.  My professor was looking for some integrated theological thinking from the New Testament that bears on this issue.  So, for what its worth, here's what I posted on the Wheaton bulletin board for my class.    

At the outset, I believe that it is important to first lay down a definition of what I mean by the concept of “reason” as I approach this discussion. Although the concept has been weakened in our postmodern climate, reason is often understood in terms of the autonomous reason that grew out of the period of the Enlightenment. In this case, reason is a universal principle to which all of life must conform and by which all things are judged, even the concept of “God”. Such a concept of reason has no place within a Christian worldview shaped by the Bible. The New Testament makes it clear that all things are created by and for Christ and that He continues moment by moment to uphold the created order by the word of his power (Col 1:15-17 & Jn 1:3). So, there are no universal principles at work in the world that do not have their source and continuance constantly upheld by Jesus.

While Christians should reject the autonomous reason of the Enlightenment, there is a Biblical place for reason in New Testament Theology. This definition of “reason” is the rational faculty or cognition that human beings possess by virtue of their being created in the Image of God. However, the problem with this reason is that, as Paul points out in Rom 3:9-20 and 1 Cor 1:21 & 2:14, it is fallen and unable to seek God or find Him on its own.

If unaided human reason is thus useless with regard to faith so that it does not even begin to seek after God, what then is its role in a human being coming to faith? I think that we must affirm that the New Testament writers use language which expresses the exercise of human rational faculties in the process of salvation. Language such as “seeing”, “hearing”, “knowing”, “receiving”, etc all speaks of the human exercise of the rational faculties. However, it is part of the process of coming to faith in such a way that it cannot be said that man works together or cooperates with God in the process of coming to faith. Nowhere is this made more explicit than in 1 Cor 1:18-2:16. Wisdom which equates to a profound grasp of Christ’s eschatological victory and atonement on the Cross, is mediated to human beings only by the Spirit. Human reason or wisdom, unaided, is of no value and so must be brought about by the Spirit who imparts True Wisdom embodied in Christ crucified. This spiritual “making alive” is not done apart from human responsibility. The Spirit energizes our reason so that we are willingly drawn to Christ and call out to God for grace. This is done in such a way that human beings can in no way claim credit for this astonishing work of God’s grace through Jesus. It is, as Paul said, “all for the praise of his (God’s) glory.”