b. The Assurance That Is Essential to Faith
the future. The Heidelberg Catechism certainly implies that it does; and the Reformers, in their strong opposition to Rome, occasionally used expressions which convey the idea that faith at once carries with it the full joy of salvation. This position is also reflected in the Lambeth Articles of 1595: "A man truly faithful, that is, such a one who is endued with a justifying faith, is certain, with the full assurance of faith, of the remission of his sins and of his everlasting salvation by Christ." On the other hand many Presbyterians deny that saving faith necessarily involves a measure of personal assurance. Jonathan Edwards wrote substantially as follows to Ebenezer Erskine, who was one of the Marrow-men of Scotland and therefore sided with the Reformers: "Faith is belief, in its general sense, of what God has revealed to us in the Gospel. He has revealed to us that all who believe will be saved, and we must believe that on the ground of the Gospel assertion: but He has not revealed to us in the Gospel that I, Jonathan Edwards, of Northampton, shall be saved, and therefore that does not belong to the essence of faith. The essence of faith consists in receiving what God has revealed." b. The Assurance That Is Essential to Faith
Let us turn to the Word of God to see what light it sheds on the point in question. It is abundantly evident from Scripture that faith includes something more than an intellectual conviction concerning the truth of what is contained in the Word of God, and particularly of the way of redemption revealed in Jesus Christ. The Roman
Catholics limit it to this, so that faith becomes a mere intellectual assent, without any element of personal assurance. Protestant theology, however, is unanimous in teaching that saving faith also contains an element of trust, and that this is by no means the least important constituent of faith.
The trust-element is very much in the foreground in the Old Testament. It already appears in the word that is fundamental and typical for all Old Testament faith, viz. Gen. 15:6, "And he (Abraham) believed in Jehovah, and He reckoned it to him for righteousness."
Here the meaning of the original can best be given as follows: And he developed assurance in, a trustful repose on Jehovah. He caused his soul to rest, not merely on the promises of God, but on God himself.
That the Old Testament trusting is the same as the New Testament believing is evident from a comparison of Jer. 17:5, 7 with Heb. 3:12.
In the former passage we read: "Cursed is the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the Lord … Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, whose hope the Lord is"; and in the latter: "Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God."
The two are used as words of the same import in Ps. 78:22, where the Lord complains of the faithlessness of his people, "Because they believed not in God, and trusted not in His salvation." This trusting in the Lord involves security. "They that trust in Jehovah are as mount Zion, which cannot be moved, but abideth forever," Ps. 125:1.
The New Testament, as well as the Old, bears witness to the fact that trust is an essential element in faith. This is strikingly brought out by Christ himself on several occasions. He clearly intimates that a lack of trust either in God or in himself is indicative of a small measure of faith. When the disciples proved to be anxious for food and raiment,
He reminded them of God's care for the birds of the air and the lilies of the field, and then added: "But if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to-day is, and to-morrow is cast into the oven, shall He not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?" Matt. 6:30. And when they feared that they would perish in the storm on the Sea of Galilee,
He said to them: "Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith (or: "Have ye not yet faith?"), Matt. 8:26; Mark 4:40. Again, when Peter at the Lord's command walked upon the waters of the sea, but lost courage and needed a saving hand, he received the rebuke: "O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?" On the other hand, when the Syro-Phoenician woman revealed implicit trust in the Saviour, she was commended with the word: "O woman, great is thy faith." These examples would seem to show very clearly that faith involves a feeling of personal security and safety. Anxiety and doubt, fear and distrust, are attributed to a deficient faith. The proper measure of
faith naturally carries with it a feeling of ease, of quietness, and of perfect safety on the stormy sea of life. It inspired the song of the poet: "Jehovah is my light and my salvation: whom shall I fear?
Jehovah is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?… I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of Jehovah in the land of the living. Wait for Jehovah: Be strong, and let thy heart take courage; yea, wait thou for Jehovah."
Now it is perfectly natural that the trust-element in faith should involve a feeling of personal security and safety. To trust is to rely on someone with respect to some vital concern of life. And if this trust be whole-hearted and complete, it will banish all fears, set the mind at rest, and fill the heart with a sense of security. It will enable the believer to join the prophet in his expression of perfect confidence in God: "For though the fig-tree shall not flourish, neither shall fruit he in the vines; the labor of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no food; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls: yet I will rejoice in Jehovah, I will joy in the God of my salvation." Hab. 3:17, 18. The child feels perfectly safe on its father's arm, though he carry it through a flood; the warrior feels secure in the strong fortress that is the object of his trust.
"The child leans on its parent's breast, Leaves there its cares, and is at rest.
"The heart that trusts forever sings, And feels as light as it had wings; A well of peace within it springs."
When we are cast down upon the sickbed, we send for the physician in whom we have confidence, and the measure of our confidence will largely determine the measure in which our fears are dispelled and hope rises within the heart. The same is true in a far higher sense, when we entrust ourselves with our spiritual ills to the great
Physician in reliance on his promises. Fear as to our personal safety and our future well-being is not compatible with real trust in him. An undivided heart, that trusts God as it should, is raised above all the anxieties of life. It is sure of the present and sure of the future.
This idea is brought out in Scripture also, where faith is represented as the sure foundation of hope. In fact, hoping in God and hoping in his mercy are sometimes represented as practically equivalent to trusting in God. Thus the poet sings: "Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in Jehovah his God." Ps. 145:5.
And the prophet speaks of Jehovah as "the hope of Israel, and the Saviour thereof in time of trouble." Jer. 14:8. That faith is the very root out of which hope springs, is quite evident from Heb. 11:1, no matter how we render the words. We may read with the Authorized
Version, "faith is the substance of things hoped for"; or with the American Revision, "faith is the assurance of things hoped for"; or with Moffat, "faith means we are confident of what we hope for." On every one of these renderings the fact remains that hope is embedded in faith. And each one of them contains a special element of truth.
Faith gives present reality to the things of the future, it assures us of the realization of the things hoped for, and it fills the heart with a confident expectation of future bliss. It is characteristic of the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews that he regards faith particularly as that attitude of the heart and of the mind that would enable the readers to rise above the seen to the unseen, above the present to the future, and to preserve hope amid the disappointments of life. Now faith can be the sure bridge to hope only, because it does not stop at the acceptance of a testimony, but also embraces and thus appropriates a promise.
The basis of the assurance that belongs to the direct action of faith lies in the promises of God; and the classical example of such assurance is found in the case of Abraham. He received a promise that seemed quite impossible of fulfilment. Yet mindful of the power of God, "who giveth life to the dead, and calleth the things that are not, as though they were," he staggered not at the promise. "Looking
unto the promise of God, he wavered not through unbelief, but waxed strong through faith, giving glory to God, and being fully assured that what He had promised, He was able also to perform."
Abraham did not doubt the promise; neither did he doubt the power or the faithfulness of God. He was sure that he would receive what
God had promised him, no matter how impossible it might seem. No wonder that he is represented in Scripture as the exemplary believer.
Right here it may be necessary to meet an objection. It may be said that the promise to Abraham was a personal promise, while the promise of the Gospel is not personal but of a general character:
Whosoever believeth in the Lord Jesus Christ shall be saved. This is perfectly true, but we should not forget that, in the very act of faith, the promise becomes personal. Notice the stages by which the believer reaches the confidence of faith. He is first brought to a realization of his own sinful and lost condition. Then the eyes of his understanding are opened to the fact that God in Christ has opened a way of redemption for sinners. This already engenders a feeling of security, and saves him from despondency. There is a Saviour, there is a way of salvation for sinners. In his continued study of the Scriptures he discovers there a picture of the sinner for whom Christ has shed his precious blood, and soon recognizes this as a description of himself. Thus the general promise of the Gospel becomes personal for him; he feels that God comes to him with the promise of pardon and of eternal bliss. And finally, he not only believes in the truth of the promise, but appropriates it and fixes his confidence on Christ as his personal Saviour.
Thus the direct act of the faith undoubtedly involves an element of assurance. This assurance may be implicit rather than explicit in the first act of faith, may not at once reach the level of clear consciousness, and may for a long time be a matter of instinctive feeling rather than of positive knowledge; yet it is destined to grow, and its growth will be commensurate with the measure of faith. The more faith shines in its splendor, the more radiant will be the light it reflects upon itself. He who really believes with a true and living faith