by Sarah Lovett
In the pursuit of knowledge, Christians face the temptation of pride in their intellectual powers. However, a clear awareness of their depravity should lead believers to see that all of their knowledge is merely an extension of God’s grace. In fact, because of humankind’s fall into sin, men and women need the redemption of their minds, hearts, and wills. Consequently, given the reality of humankind’s fallenness, Christian men and women must exercise humility in their attempt to know God.
The Noetic Effect of Sin
The estate of humankind has been hurt by sin, and as a result, explains Reformed theologian Matthew J. Hall, “there is something deeply broken in the world and in each one of us.”[1] The problem is clearly defined throughout the Scriptures, but in our fallen estate, we tend to suppress the extent to which our sin affects us. Still, Hall argues, “When our first parents fell, the implications were far graver than we might naturally assume. Their sin brought immediate consequences as made clear in the pronouncements of the curse in Genesis 3.”[2] Even those who do not verbally or consciously recognize their need for redemption still innately feel despair that comes as a result of the Fall.
All relationships were negatively impacted by the Fall, including man’s relationship with himself. Our ability to know rightly has been greatly affected by sin, commonly referred to as the noetic effects of the Fall. Sin has distorted our minds, clouding our thinking.[3] Even so, the Fall does not preempt our capacity to know God because as the Apostle Paul explains, the Law of God is “written on [our] hearts” (Rom. 2:15, ESV).
Knowledge of God
Alvin Plantinga contends that a sense of the divine, or sensus divinitatis, is still present in the human person.[4] However, this sense is warped by sin. Plantinga writes that the sense of the divine “has been in part overlaid or suppressed by sin . . . [and] it is because of our presently unnatural sinful condition that many of us find belief in God is an epistemically substandard position.”[5] Plantinga’s point is that the natural condition of man makes belief in God a questionable proposition because man cannot rightly know God in his natural and fallen state.
Some scholars have gone much further and question humans’ capacity to know the existence or the nature of their Creator at all. Philosophers such as Immanuel Kant and Gordon Kaufman believed that humanity is wholly unable to know anything about God. Kant argued that an infinite God is above man’s finite comprehension. Man’s conception of God is never vast enough to comprise all that He is, making humans incapable of knowing Him in any way.[6] Kaufman agreed that knowledge of God is unattainable, but he went further by saying that the language used to describe God is not ultimately understandable.[7] Ultimately, he concluded that “our word ‘God’ is . . . just a symbol of cosmic activity and historical processes.”[8] Kaufman’s impersonal god of action cannot be known because he is not a person.
There is indeed a God who is in excelsis (in the highest degree), but He has made Himself known to humankind through His creation, His Word, and the person of His Son. Plantinga writes that the sensus divinitatis, though damaged, is not annihilated; rather, it “remains partially functional in most of us. We therefore typically have some grasp of God’s presence and properties and demands, but this knowledge is covered over, impeded, suppressed. We are prone to hate God but, confusingly, in some way also inclined to love and seek him.”[9] The sense of the divine is still present in men and women even though it has been impaired. While humans are created with the capacity to truly know the reality of God’s salvific work, this capacity is not in and of themselves.
The Need for Humility
Consequently, we need to cultivate the virtue of humility, including in the lives of ordinary saints, in theological education, and in pastoral ministry.
In the Lives of Ordinary Saints
A proper understanding of the noetic effects of sin should cultivate within us a humble desire for God to reveal Himself to us. Men and women cannot know God on their own. They desperately need the intervention of God’s self-revelation to know Him rightly. For this reason, men and women must humbly submit to their elders as they exercise God-given authority in leading and exhorting the Body of Christ.
Humility is an important spiritual discipline to cultivate. However, some wrongly think that humility means self-loathing or a degradation of one’s self-worth.[10] However, F. Leroy Forlines contended, “True Christian humility is not based on having a low sense of self-worth. It is based on a recognition that the Christian is indebted to God for his or her self-worth.”[11] While true humility is certainly a recognition of one’s standing in relation to God, it is also a recognition of the fact that believers are being remade into the image of Christ. There is a balance to be kept between not thinking too highly of oneself and not thinking too lowly of oneself. To be intellectually virtuous, one must be willing to admit both her strengths and weaknesses. In that, one must recognize both her giftings and her limitations.
In Theological Education
Students of theology must cultivate humility in their pursuit of the knowledge of God. Theology is complicated, and it requires precision and care. There is much that is not known about God, for “we only ‘see through a glass dimly.”[12] The scope of theological knowledge is expansive, and one will never know all that there is to know about God and the things of God. While there is a desperate need for humility because of the vastness of theology, it should also be understood that men and women do not always have the right answers to every question. Humankind is fallible, and even the most intellectually accomplished individual can make mistakes. Consequently, theology students should diligently seek humility in their pursuit of the knowledge of God.
In Pastoral Ministry
Pastors are not exempt from the call to epistemic humility. They are called to “shepherd the flock” to the knowledge of God (1 Peter 5:2). Congregations rightly look to pastors for guidance and teaching from God’s Word as they humbly submit to the authority of the elders. This responsibility is not light, and pastors should deal carefully with the Scriptures when leading their congregations.
Because of their profession, pastors should have a deeply rooted knowledge of the Scriptures. According to Ryan LaMothe, “Cassian, a fifth-century desert monk wrote that ‘true knowledge of scripture’ required an ‘unshakeable humility of heart. This is what will lead you not to the knowledge that puffs a man up but to the lore which illuminates through the achievement of love.”[13] To preach the truth of the gospel faithfully, a pastor must have an acute awareness of his own desperate need for renewal and redemption through Christ Jesus. Without a recognition of this need, the pastor would be unable to demonstrate rightly the hearers’ desperate need for Christ’s redemption. No one is exempt from this truth, and a recognition of one’s own shortcomings is the first step in cultivating epistemic humility.
However, pastors are not the ultimate authority. While they are called to feed the flock, they are called to do so as undershepherds to the head Shepherd, that is, Christ. While pastors should study and develop their minds, they should not be unapproachable. At the same time, they must recognize that they are not exempt from the effects of sin on the basis of their office. Just like all other men and women, those who bear the office of elder are fallen, and they are capable of being incorrect. The pastor must, therefore, continually examine himself as he seeks to rightly divide the Word of truth.
Conclusion
Knowledge is good, and it should certainly be sought by believers. Knowing God is central to what it means to be a Christian, but knowing God cannot merely be a means to an end. It is knowledge of God that humans seek, not knowledge of God. To seek Him rightly, one must humble herself and recognize her inability to know God without His self-revelation. Humility is essential in the lives of fallible people who are seeking after God. Developing this spirit of humility takes time; one does not become humble overnight.[14] While it is a process, the goal of a humble spirit is noble. May believers, whether they be theology students, pastors, or faithful saints, seek to follow their God humbly in their pursuit of knowing Him.
About the Author: Sarah Lovett is a native of Madison, Alabama. She currently lives in Gallatin, Tennessee, where she serves as a ministry assistant at Immanuel Church and as an Administrative Assistant at Welch College. She holds a B.S. in Theological Studies and is pursuing an M.A. in Theology and Ministry and an M.Div. from Welch College. Her academic interests include Baptist history and Baptist covenant theology. Her personal interests include reading, watercolor painting, and needlepoint.
[1] Matthew J. Hall, “Sin,” in A Handbook of Theology, ed. Daniel Akin, David Dockery, and Nathan Finn (Nashville, TN: B&H Academic, 2023), 311.
[2] Hall, “Sin,” A Handbook of Theology, 315.
[3] Ronald Nash, Life’s Ultimate Questions (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1999), 287.
[4] Alvin Plantinga, Knowledge and Christian Belief (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2015), 45.
[5] Nash, Life’s Ultimate Questions, 286.
[6] Plantinga, Knowledge and Christian Belief, 1. See also Immanuel Kant, Critique of Pure Reason.
[7] Plantinga, Knowledge and Christian Belief, 3.
[8] Plantinga, Knowledge and Christian Belief, 4.
[9] Plantinga, Knowledge and Christian Belief, 51.
[10] Anthony A. Hoekema, Created in God’s Image (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1986), 107.
[11] F. Leroy Forlines, The Quest for Truth: Theology for Postmodern Times (Nashville, TN: Randall House, 2001), 229.
[12] Dennis Hiebert, “Clothing Christian Convictions in Intellectual Humility,” Journal for the Theology of Culture 15 (2019): 53.
[13] Ryan LaMothe, “Broken and Empty: Pastoral Leadership as Embodying Radical Courage, Humility, Compassion, and Hope,” Pastoral Psychol 61 (Winter 2012): 460. Quoting Cassian, Conference XIV, Section X.
[14] James K. Dew, Jr. and Mark W. Foreman, How Do We Know? An Introduction to Epistemology,2nd ed., Questions in Christian Philosophy (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2020, Kindle), 109.
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