Unbelief—A Marvel
by J. C. Ryle
"He marveled at their unbelief." Mark 6:6
The text which heads this page is a very remarkable one.
Of all the expressions in the four Gospels which show that the Lord Jesus
Christ was very Man, none perhaps is more startling than this. That He who
was born of the Virgin Mary, and had a body like our own, should hunger and
thirst, and weep and rejoice, and be weary and suffer pain—all this we can,
in some degree, understand. But that He who was truly God as well as truly
Man, He "in whom dwelt all the fullness of the Godhead bodily," He in whom
were, "hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge," He who "knew what was
in man"—that He should "marvel" at anything here below, may well fill us
with astonishment! But what says the Scripture? There it is written in plain
words, which no ingenuity can explain away, "He marveled at their
unbelief."
In handling this subject, I do not propose for a moment
to discuss those deep and mysterious articles of the faith which lie at the
foundation of Christianity. If I attempted this, I could add nothing to what
masters of theology have already said and should probably leave the subject
where I found it, if I did not "darken counsel by words without knowledge."
What I wish to do is to say something practical about the general subject of
unbelief. It must be an astonishing thing, if even our Lord
Jesus Christ marveled at it. It must be an important thing, when we
hear and read so much about it in the present day. And I shall try to make a
few plain remarks upon it.
1. Let us consider the nature of unbelief. "What is it?"
2. Let us inquire why unbelief is so astonishing. "Why
did the Lord Jesus marvel at it?"
1. The nature of unbelief.
What is unbelief?
The word so translated will be found twelve times in the New Testament and
always, so far as I can see, in one signification. In its fullest sense, of
course, it only exists in lands where men enjoy the light of revelation. In
heathen lands, where there is little known, there can be comparatively
little unbelief. It consists in not believing something which God has
said—some warning that He gave—some promise that He held
out—some advice that He offers—some judgment that He
threatens—some message that He sends. In short, to refuse to admit
the truth of God's revealed Word, and to live as if we did not think that
Word was to be depended on—is the essence of unbelief.
Unbelief is the oldest of the many spiritual
diseases by which fallen human nature is afflicted. It began in the day when
Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit, and brought sin into the world. They
did not believe what God had told them, would be the consequence of
disobedience; and they did believe the Tempter, saying, "You shall
not surely die."
Unbelief ruined millions in the day of Noah's flood:
they would not believe the great "preacher of righteousness," when he warned
them for a hundred and twenty years to flee from the wrath to come.
Unbelief slew myriads in the day when Sodom and
Gomorrah were destroyed by fire from heaven. When righteous Lot called on
his sons-in-law to escape for their lives, "he seemed as one who mocked."
(Gen. 19.14.)
Unbelief kept Israel wandering forty years in the
wilderness, until a whole generation was dead. We are expressly told, "They
could not enter in—because of unbelief" (Heb. 3.19.)
Unbelief brought, finally, destruction on the Church
and State of the Jews some fifty years after Christ left the world. They
would not believe nor receive Him as the Messiah, but crucified and killed
Him. The primary cause why Jerusalem was destroyed, the temple burned, and
God's ancient people cast off and scattered over the face of the world—was
unbelief.
Unbelief, we are taught everywhere in the New
Testament, is the grand reason why multitudes of professing Christian men
and women in every age are not saved, and die unprepared to meet God. lt
bars the way to heaven, and makes God's glorious promises of mercy, useless
and unavailing. "He who believes not, is condemned already." "He who
believes not, shall be damned." "He who believes not the Son, shall not see
life, but the wrath of God abides on him." "If you believe not that I am He,
you shall die in your sins." (John 3.18, 36; Mark 16.16; John 8.24.)
Remember, everyone into whose hands this paper may
fall—remember and never forget it—it is not so much heinous sin—as unbelief
which ruins souls. "All manner of sins shall be forgiven to the men." "The
blood of Jesus Christ cleanses from all sin." "Though your sins be as
scarlet, they shall be made white as snow." (Matt. 12.31; 1 John 1.7; Isaiah
1.18.) But if a man will not put faith in Christ, he places himself out of
the reach of mercy. I am bold to say, that even Judas Iscariot might have
found absolution, if, after his denial, he had repented and believed. The
true cause of eternal ruin is contained in those solemn words which our
Master spoke before the Jewish Sanhedrin, "You will not come unto Me—that
you might have life." (John 5.40.)
Unbelief is one of the commonest spiritual
diseases in these latter days. It meets us at every turn, and in every
company. Like the Egyptian plague of frogs, it makes its way into every
family and home, and there seems no keeping it out. Among high and low, and
rich and poor, in town and in country, in universities and manufacturing
towns, in castles and in cottages, you will continually find some form of
unbelief. It is no longer a pestilence which walks in darkness, but a
destruction which wastes at noonday. Unbelief is even thought clever
and intellectual, and a mark of a thoughtful mind. Society seems leavened
with it. He who avows his belief of everything contained in the Bible, must
make up his mind in many companies to be smiled at contemptuously, and
thought an ignorant and weak man.
(a) With some, the seat of unbelief appears to be the
head. They refuse to accept anything which they cannot understand.
Inspiration, Miracles, the Trinity, the Incarnation, the Atonement, the Holy
Spirit, the Resurrection, the Future State—all these mighty verities are
viewed with cold indifference as disputable points, if not absolutely
rejected. Can we entirely explain them? Can we satisfy their reasoning
faculties about them? If not, they must be excused if they stand in doubt.
What they cannot fully understand, they tell us they cannot fully
believe.
(b) With some the seat of unbelief is the heart.
They love the sins and habits of life, which the Bible condemns, and are
determined not to give them up. They take refuge from an uneasy conscience
by trying to persuade themselves that the old Book is not true. The measure
of their creed—is their lusts. Whatever condemns their lusts—they refuse to
believe. The famous Lord Rochester, once a profligate and an infidel, but at
last a true penitent, is recorded to have said to Burnet, as he drew near
his end, "It is not reason, but a bad life which is the great
argument against the Bible." A true and weighty saying! Many, I am
persuaded, profess that they do not believe, because they know, if they did
believe—that they must give up their favorite sins!
(c) With far the greater number of people the seat of
unbelief is a lazy, indolent will. They dislike all kind of trouble.
Why should they deny themselves and take pains about Bible-reading and
praying, and diligent watchfulness over thought and word and deed, when
after all, it is not quite certain that the Bible is true? This I have
little doubt, is the form of unbelief which prevails most frequently among
young people. They are not agitated by intellectual difficulties. They are
often not the slaves of any special lusts or passions, and live tolerably
decent lives. But deep down in their hearts there is a disinclination to
make up their minds, and to be decided about anything in religion. And so
they drift down the stream of life like dead fish, and float
helplessly on, and are tossed to and fro, hardly knowing what they believe.
And while they would shrink from telling you they are not Christians, they
are without any backbone in their Christianity.
In days like these, we must count it no strange thing if
we meet with a vast amount of unbelief in the world. Rather, let us make up
our minds to expect it, and to see it under the most specious and plausible
aspects. To be forewarned is to be forearmed. No doubt it is
startling, when a young man leaves some quiet secluded country home, and
launches on the waves of this troublesome world in some busy town, to hear
doctrines and principles denied, or sneered at, which he never dreamed of
anyone questioning when he lived at home. But surely this is no more than
his old Bible might have taught him to expect. Is it not written there,
"There shall come in the last days scoffers?" "When the Son of man comes,
shall He find faith on the earth?" (2 Peter 3. 3; Luke 18. 8;) Such a young
man should say to himself calmly and quietly, "This unbelief is precisely
what my father's Bible told me to expect. If I met with no unbelief, the old
Book would not be true."
After all, it is some comfort to remember that there is
probably less of real, downright, reasoning unbelief than there appears to
be, Thousands, we may be sure, do not in their heart of hearts believe all
that they say with their lips. Many a skeptical saying is nothing more than
a borrowed article, picked up and retailed by him who says it, because it
sounds clever, while in reality it is not the language of his inner man.
Sorrow, and sickness, and affliction, often bring out the strange fact that
so-called sceptics are no sceptics at all, and that many talk scepticism
merely from a desire to seem clever, and to win the temporary applause of
clever men.
That there is an immense amount of unbelief in the
present day I make no question; but that much of it is mere show and
pretense, is to my mind as clear as noonday. No man, I think, can do
pastoral work, and come to close quarters with souls, visit the sick, and
attend the dying, without coming to that conclusion.
2. Let us now inquire WHY unbelief is so astonishing.
What is there in unbelief, which made even the Lord Jesus, the Son of God
marvel? No doubt there was something peculiar and extraordinary in the
unbelief of the Jews. That the children of Israel, brought up from
their infancy in the knowledge of the law and the prophets, trained from
their earliest years to look for the Messiah, and to expect a mighty
"prophet like unto Moses," taught to believe in the possibility of miracles,
and familiar with the story of miracle-working men—that they should
reject Jesus of Nazareth, and not be moved by the mighty works which He did
among them—all this was truly astonishing and surprising! Astonishing that
they should have such privileges—and yet make such a bad use of them!
Astonishing that the door of life should be open, and heaven so near—and
they should refuse to enter in!
But, I suspect, the Holy Spirit would have us look deeper
than this. He would have us know that if we sit down and calmly consider
unbelief, we cannot avoid the conclusion, that there is something singularly
astonishing about it and never so much so as in these latter days of the
world. Let me try to show what I mean.
(1) For one thing, unbelief is a spiritual disease
peculiar to Adam's children.
It is a habit of soul entirely
confined to man. Angels in heaven above, and fallen spirits in hell beneath,
saints waiting for the resurrection in paradise, lost sinners waiting for
the last judgment in that awful place where the worm never dies, and the
fire is not quenched—all these have one point in common—they all believe!
The rich man in the parable, when he lifted up his eyes in torment, and
asked for a drop of water to cool his tongue, and pleaded hard for his five
brethren, had bid an eternal farewell to unbelief. "The very devils," says
James, "believe and tremble." (James 2.19.) Hateful, and hating, and
malicious, and murderous, and lying as Satan is called in Scripture, we read
that his agents cried, "We know You who You are—the Holy One of God!" "Have
You come to torment us before the time!" (Matthew 8. 29.)
But man, living man, is the only intelligent
creature who is unbelieving! I say "living man" advisedly. Alas! What
a waking up remains for many, the moment the last breath is drawn.
There is no unbelief in hell. Voltaire now knows whether there is a
sin-hating God; and David Hume now knows whether there is an endless hell.
The infant of days, by merely dying, acquires a knowledge which the subtlest
philosophers, while on earth, profess their inability to attain. The dead
Hottentot knows more than the living Socrates. Surely a habit of soul so
absolutely and entirely confined to "living man," may well be called
astonishing.
(2) For another thing, unbelief is astonishing, when you
consider its arrogance and presumption.
For, after all how little
the wisest of men know; and none are more ready to confess it than
themselves. How enormously ignorant the greater part of mankind are, if you
come to examine the measure of their knowledge. The education of the vast
majority of people is wretchedly meager and superficial. Most of us cease
learning at twenty-one, and then plunge into some profession in which we
have little time for thought and reading, and are annually more absorbed in
family cares and troubles, and add little to our stock of knowledge. Fifty
or sixty years after this, our part is played out, and we retire from the
stage, rarely leaving the world a wiser world than it was when we were born!
And does unbelief befit a creature like this? Is it
seemly for him to talk in a skeptical and sneering tone about the revelation
which the Eternal God has been pleased to make of Himself, and the unseen
future, in that marvelous Book the Bible? I appeal to common sense for a
reply. "Honest doubt" is a fine thing to talk about, and men are fond of
saying it is "better than half the creeds." But when a man tells you he is
troubled with skeptical and unbelieving feeling about Christianity, while he
has probably never thought deeply about religion at all, it is impossible to
avoid the conclusion that one of the most foolish things in much unbelief,
is its astonishing self-conceit.
(3) For another thing, unbelief is astonishing, when you
consider its unfairness and one-sidedness.
Who has not known that
some of the minor facts and miracles of the Bible are the ostensible reasons
which many assign why they cannot receive the Book as true, and make it
their rule of faith and practice. They point to the ark, and the passage of
the Red Sea, and Balaam's donkey, and Jonah in the whale's belly—and ask you
sarcastically if you really believe such things to be credible and
historically true. And all this time they refuse to look at three great
facts which never can be denied, and which no higher criticism can possibly
explain away.
(a) One of those facts is the historical Person Jesus
Christ Himself.
How He can have been what He was on earth, lived
as He lived, taught as He taught, and made the mark He has certainly made on
the world—if He was not truly God, and One miraculously sent down from
heaven—is a question which those who sneer at Balaam's donkey find it
convenient to evade.
(b) Another fact is the Bible itself.
How this
Book, with all its alleged difficulties, written by a few Jews in a corner
of the earth, who wrote nothing else worth reading, can be the Book that it
is, so immeasurably and incomparably superior to anything else penned by
man, and hold the position it holds after 1900 years' use—how all this can
be, if the Book was not miraculously given by inspiration of God, is a knot
which cannot be untied.
(c) The third and last fact is the effect which
Christianity has had on mankind
—the amazing change which has
taken place in the state of the world since Christianity—and the difference
at this day between those parts of the globe where the Bible is read, and
those where it is not known. Nothing can account for this, but the Divine
origin of Scriptural religion. No other explanation will stand.
Now these three great facts are coolly ignored by many
unbelievers! They will talk by the hour about minor difficulties in the way
of faith, while they refuse to touch the weighty, patent facts which I have
just been naming. The difficulties of infidelity are a wide and interesting
subject, which deserves more attention from the defenders of Revelation than
it receives. But the unfair and unreasonable extent to which many nowadays
concentrate their minds on small disputable points of revealed religion,
while they refuse to look at the great standing evidences of God's truth, is
to my mind one of the most astonishing features of modern unbelief!
(4) Fourthly, and lastly, unbelief is astonishing when
you consider how the vast majority of those who profess it drop it, and give
it up at last.
Few of us perhaps have the least idea how seldom
any man leaves the world an infidel. The near approach of death has a mighty
effect on consciences, and brings into fearful relief the utter
superficiality of much that is called scepticism. The very people who go
through life sneering and scoffing at Christianity, continually break down
in their own last hours, and are glad enough to send for the ministers of
religion, and seek comfort in the old doctrine of the despised creeds. Some,
with a mighty swing of the pendulum, go from one extreme to another, and,
after living sceptics for years, are willing to be read to, and prayed with,
and receive the Lord's Supper, after neglecting every Christian ordinance
and despising God's house for scores of years. Wretched indeed must systems
be, which prove so useless and comfortless in the hour when comfort is most
needed!
But the wonder of all wonders is, that these failures of
unbelief are so notoriously and constantly occurring, and yet men will not
see them, and the ranks of scepticism are perpetually filled by fresh
recruits. If those who profess to deny Revelation generally died happy
deaths, and left the world in great peace and joy, holding their opinions to
the last, we might well expect them to have followers. But when, on the
contrary, it is the rarest thing to see an unbeliever dying calmly in
unbelief and giving no sign of discomfort, while the vast majority of
unbelievers throw down their arms at last, and seek for the very religious
consolation which they once affected to despise—it is impossible to avoid
one broad conclusion. That conclusion is—that of all spiritual diseases by
which fallen man is afflicted, there is none so truly astonishing and
unreasonable as unbelief.
And now let me wind up this subject, with a few words of
kindly advice to all my readers, and especially to the young. I am no longer
young myself. It is thirty-five years since I first began to write on pious
subjects. But even now I think I know the heart of a young man. I can
remember the days when I tried hard to be an unbeliever, because true
religion crossed my path, and I did not like its holy requirements. I was
delivered from that pit, I believe, by the grace of God leading me to a book
which, of late years, has undeservedly fallen out of sight, I mean "Faber's
Difficulties of Infidelity." I read that book, and felt it could not be
answered. But the remembrance of the struggle I went through in those days
is still fresh in my mind, and I always have a deep feeling of sympathy,
when I hear of the mental conflicts of young men.
Some of my readers, I dare say, are often troubled with
skeptical doubts about the truth of Christianity. You are not professed
unbelievers; God forbid that I should say this. But you see many things in
the Bible which you cannot quite understand. You see not a few men of
powerful and commanding intellect, rejecting Christianity almost entirely.
You hear many, slighting things said, and depreciatory remarks made cleverly
and smartly about the facts and doctrines of the Bible, which you are unable
to answer. All this puzzles you. You stand in doubt. Is it really worth
while to pray in private, and read the Bible, and keep the Sunday holy, and
attend the Lord's Table? Is it necessary? Questions such as these are the
first steps in the downward road. Unless you take heed, they may land you in
infidelity. Listen to me while I offer a few
FRIENDLY COUNSELS.
(a) For one thing, let me entreat you to deal honestly
with your soul about secret sins.
Are you quite sure there
is not some bad habit, or lust, or passion, which, almost insensibly to
yourself, you would like to indulge—if it were not for some remaining
religious scruples? Are you quite sure that your doubts do not arise from a
desire to get rid of pious restraint? You would like, if you could, to do
something the Bible forbids, and you are looking about for reasons for
disregarding the Bible. Oh! if this is the case with any of you—awaken to a
sense of your danger! Break the chains which are gradually closing round
you. Pluck out the right eye, if need be; but never be the servant of sin. I
repeat—that the secret love of some wicked indulgence, is the real beginning
of a vast amount of infidelity!
(b) In the next place, let me ask you to deal honestly
with your soul about the use of means for acquiring religious knowledge.
Can you lay your hand on your heart and say that you really take
pains to find out what is truth? Do not be ashamed to pray for light. Do not
be ashamed of reading some choice Christian book; and, above all, do not be
ashamed of regularly studying the text of your Bible. Thousands, I am
persuaded, in this day, know nothing of the Holy Book which they affect to
despise, and are utterly ignorant of the real nature of that Christianity
which they pretend they cannot believe. Let not that be the case with you.
That famous "honest doubt" which many say is "better than half the creeds,"
is a pretty thing to talk about. But I venture a strong suspicion that much
of the scepticism of the present day, if sifted and analyzed, would be found
to spring from utter ignorance of the primary evidences of Christianity. For
my part, I take my stand on these words of Solomon, "My son, if you accept
my words and store up my commands within you, listening closely to wisdom
and directing your heart to understanding; furthermore, if you call out to
insight and lift your voice to understanding, if you seek it like silver and
search for it like hidden treasure, then you will understand the fear of the
Lord and discover the knowledge of God. For the Lord gives wisdom; from His
mouth come knowledge and understanding." Proverbs 2:1-6.
(c) Last, but not least, let me entreat you to deal
honestly with true religion—and those who profess it.
That there
is such a religion in the midst of us, and that there are thousands who
profess it, are simple facts which nobody can deny. These thousands believe
without doubting, certain great truths of Christianity, and live and die in
their belief. Let it be admitted that, in some points, these men of faith do
not agree in minor points—such as the Church, the ministry, and the
sacraments. But after every deduction, there remains an immense amount of
common theology, about which their faith is one.
On such points as sin, and God, and Christ, and the
atonement, and the authority of the Bible, and the importance of holiness,
and the necessity of prayer, and self-denial, and the value of the soul, and
the reality of heaven and hell, and judgment, and eternity—on such points as
these, I say, all Christians are very much of one mind. Now I ask—is it
honest to turn away from these men and the Christian religion with contempt,
because they have many weaknesses and infirmities? Is it fair to despise
their religion, and wrap yourself up in unbelief, because of their
controversies and strifes? Mark the fruits of peace, and hope, and comfort,
which they enjoy. Mark the solid work which, with all their faults, they do
in the world, in lessening sorrow and sin—and increasing happiness, and
improving their fellow-men. What fruits and work can unbelief show,
which will bear comparison with the fruits of faith?
Look these facts in the face and deal honestly with them.
Systems ought to be judged by their fruits and results. When the so-called
systems of modern unbelief, and scepticism, and free thought, can point to
as much good done in the world by their adherents, as simple faith has done
by the hand of its friends—we may give them some attention. But until they
do that, I boldly say, that the simple, old-fashioned Christian religion,
has just claim on our respect, esteem, and obedience, and ought not to be
despised.
After all, I must conclude with the humbling and
sorrowful remark, that we who profess faith, and are never troubled with
unbelief, are not altogether free from blame. Too often our faith is little
better than a mere "useless assent" to certain theological propositions, but
not a living, burning, active principle—which works by love, purifies the
heart, and overcomes the world. It is not the faith which made primitive
Christians rejoice under Roman persecution, and made Luther stand up boldly
before the Diet of Worms, and made Ridley and Latimer "love not their lives
to the death," and made Wesley give up his position at Oxford to become the
Evangelist of England. We are truly guilty in this matter.
If there was more real faith on earth, I suspect
there would be less unbelief. Scepticism, in many a case, would shrink, and
dwindle, and melt away—if it saw faith more awake and alive, and active, and
stirring. Let us, for Christ's sake, and the sake of souls, amend our ways
in this matter. Let us pray daily, "Lord, increase our faith!" Let us live,
and move, and have our being, and deal with men, as if we really believed
every jot and tittle of our creeds; and as if a dying, risen, interceding,
and coming Christ were continually before our eyes. This, I am firmly
convinced, is the surest way to oppose and diminish unbelief. Let the time
past suffice us to have lived content with a cold tame assent to
creeds. Let the time to come find us living, active believers. It was a
solemn saying, which fell from the lips of an eminent minister of Christ on
his death-bed—"We are none of us more than half awake!" If believers were
more thorough, and real, and whole-hearted in their belief—there would be
far less unbelief in the world!