The Basis for Believing Today

Jn.20:29-31; (cp. the Holy Spirit’s ministry of ‘testifying’ regarding Jesus, Jn.14-16); 1 Pet.1:8f.; Jn.5:39f.; Acts 1:21-22; Rom.10:17; Jn.17:20 (cp.vv.6,8,14); Lk.16:31; Matt.28:18ff.; Acts 17:31

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From the Biblical passages above, it seems clear that the basis and warrant for my believing in Christ today is the apostolic witness (available to me via Scripture) given over 2000 years ago. In other words, the signs and attesting miracles given to and through the apostles, culminating in the Resurrection of Christ, are the signs that are intended for me, too, combined with the apostolic interpretation and explanation of what those signs mean. (For example, the sign/event of the Resurrection means Jesus is Lord of all, and the one who will judge the world in righteousness, etc.).

This means that I’m not to expect or wait for or depend on God giving me my own set of signs and attesting miracles in the present – if I am to come to faith in Jesus as the Son of God, faith that brings eternal life, it will be a result of my response to the signs already given to mankind in the case of the apostles whose specific and definitive task is to ‘testify’ as eyewitnesses (and ‘earwitnesses’) regarding the words and works of Jesus, including their authorized/inspired interpretation/significance. (And behind the testifying ministry of the apostles is the testifying work of the Holy Spirit.)

And so, Jesus prays for those who will believe through the word/message of the apostles. And the apostles write what they write to provide their testimony regarding the signs Jesus performed, with the goal of producing life-giving belief in Jesus as Messiah. Naturally then, ‘faith comes through hearing, hearing the message of Christ.’ (And the NT inscripturated messages builds upon Moses/the Law and the prophets – which also testify concerning Christ to lead people to eternal life.

So those who become believers today are in the category of those who ‘have not seen’ but still believe. Yet they are not regarded as disadvantaged; the assumption is that the Spirit-inspired, Spirit-illuminated testimony concerning Christ given via the (now inscripturated) witness of the apostles (and their close associates) is a fully adequate basis and warrant for saving faith (so that those who refuse to believe what they’ve heard are most certainly culpable).

1 John 5:9-11 “We accept man's testimony, but God's testimony is greater because it is the testimony of God, which he has given about his Son. 10Anyone who believes in the Son of God has this testimony in his heart. Anyone who does not believe God has made him out to be a liar, because he has not believed the testimony God has given about his Son. 11And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.”