. . . revelation in Scripture
assumes that humanity is also corrupted in its religious disposition and needs
re-creation. It would therefore deny itself it is recognized the “unspiritual”
person as its rightful judge. If Christianity is a religion of redemption in
the full and true sense of the word and hence seeks to redeem human beings from
all sin, from the errors of the mind as well as the impurity of the heart, as
much from the death of the soul as from that of the body, it in the nature of
the case cannot subject itself to the criticism of human beings but must
subject them to its criticism. The revelation that comes to us in Christ
through Scripture in fact takes that position towards us. It does not put itself
on a level below us to ask for our approving or disapproving judgment on it but
takes a position high above us and insist that we shall believe and obey. Scripture
even expressly states that the unspiritual cannot understand the things of the
spirit, that they are folly to them, that they reject and deny them in a spirit
of hostility [1 Cor. 2:14]. The revelation of God in Christ does not ask for
the support or approval of human beings. It posits and maintains itself in
subline majesty. Its authority is normative as well as causative. It fights for
its own victory. It itself conquers human hearts and makes itself irresistible.
Revelation, accordingly, now divides
itself in two grand dispensations. When the economy of the Son, of objective
revelation, is completed, that of the Spirit begins. God is the author also of
this subject revelation, in other words, of this illumination and regeneration.
. . . The Holy Spirit is the great and powerful witness to Christ, objectively
in Scripture, subjectively in the very hearts of human beings. By that Spirit
we receive a fitting organ for the reception of external revelation. God can
only be known only by God; the light can be seen only in his light. . . . . By
this witness of the Holy Spirit, revelation is realized in humanity and reaches
its goal. (Herman Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, 4 vols. [Grand Rapids,
Mich.: Baker Academic, 2003], 1:505, 506)
The Testimony of the Spirit
This witness of the Holy Spirit
has been all too one-sidedly applied, by Calvin and later Reformed theologians,
to the authority of Holy Scripture. It seemed that it had no other import than
the subjective assurance by itself. It was separated from the life of faith and
seemed to refer to an extraordinary revelation of which Michaelis was honest
enough to admit that he had never experienced it. Scripture, however, teaches
very differently.
Generally speaking, the Holy
Spirit was promised by Jesus as the Comforter, the Spirit of truth, who leads
first and apostles, then, by their word, also all other believers, into the
truth. He witnesses of Christ to them and glorifies him (John 14:17; 15:26;
16:14). To that end he convicts people of sin (John 16:8-11), regenerates them
(John 3:3), and prompts them to confess Christ as Lord (1 Cor. 12:3). He
further assures them of their adoption as children of God and of their heavenly
inheritance (Rom. 8:14f.; 2 Cor. 1:22; 5:5; Eph. 1:13; 4:30, makes known all
the things believers have received from God (1 Cor. 2:12; 1 John 2:20; 3:24;
4:6-13), and in the church is the author of all Christian virtues and all
spiritual gifts (Gal. 5:22; 1 Cor. 12:8-11). It is evident from all these
passages that the testimony of the Holy Spirit is of a religious-ethical kind
and intimately bound up with people’s own faith life. IT does not bypass people’s
faith; it is not a voice from heaven, a dream or a vision. It is a witness that
the Holy Spirit communicates in, with, and through our own spirit
in faith. It is not given to unbelievers but is the portion only of the
children of God. Episcopius therefore raised the objection (Inst. Theol.
IV, sec I, c. 5 §2) that the testimony of the Holy Spirit cannot be a ground of
faith because it is something that only comes later (John 7:38; 14:17; Acts
5:32; Gal. 3:2; 4:6). But from the very beginning faith itself is the work of
the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 12:3) and receives its seal and confirmation in the
Spirit of adoption. Believing itself is a witness of the Holy Spirit in our
hearts and through our spirit. (Ibid., 593-94; cf. pp. 594-95 for a discussion
of the testimony of the Spirit and ‘assurance’)
. . . Calvin also rightly linked
the testimony of the Holy Spirit to Scripture as the word of God. This
testimony has a “material object” in the content but also a “formal object” in
the witness of Scripture, and the two are inseparable. When the Holy Spirit
guarantees the trustworthiness of the apostolic witness who first, in Jesus’
name, proclaimed that gospel and thereby bound all humankind to their witness.
But he also offers direct assurance of it. For the Holy Spirit does not reveal
to the believer any previously unknown truth, neither in respect of Christ nor
in respect of Scripture. He takes everything from Christ, and so the believer
can only confess what Christ has given him or her. Scripture, however, contains
a doctrine about itself, as much as about Christ. And the testimony of the Holy
Spirit with respect to Scripture as Scripture consists in the fact—not that
believers receive an immediate heavenly vision of the divinity of Scripture,
nor that they mediately infer its divinity from the marks and criteria of
Scripture, or, even less, than on the basis of the experience of the power that
is unleashed by it they conclude that it is divine, but—that they freely and
spontaneously recognize the authority with which Scripture everywhere asserts
itself and which it repeatedly expressly claims for itself.
In this connection it is not the
authenticity, nor the canonicity, not even the inspiration, but the divinity
of Scripture, its divine authority, which is the true object of the testimony
of the Holy Spirit. He causes believers to submit to Scripture and binds
them to it in the same measure and intensity as to the person of Christ
himself. . . . [against the charge of ‘circular reasoning] strictly
speaking, the testimony of the Holy Spirit is not the final ground but the
means of faith. The ground of faith is, and can only be, Scripture, or rather,
the authority of God. (Ibid., 596, 597, italics in original; comment in square
bracket added for clarification)