Evidences Of The Faith Of God'S Elect – Overview
EVIDENCES OF THE FAITH OF GOD'S ELECT –
OVERVIEW Securing the spiritual comforts of believers in this life is a matter of the highest importance to the glory of God, and to their own advantage by the gospel. For God is abundantly willing that all the heirs of promise should receive strong consolation; and he has provided ways and means for communicating it to them. Their partaking of it is their principal interest in this world, and it is so esteemed by them. But their effectual refreshing enjoyment of these comforts is variously opposed by the power of the remainders of sin, in conjunction with other temptations. Hence, notwithstanding their right and title to these comforts by the gospel, they are often, in actuality, destitute of a gracious sense of them, and consequently, destitute of that relief which they are suited to afford in all their duties, trials, and afflictions. Now, the root from which all real comforts grow, from which they spring and arise, is true and saving faith,
— the faith of God's elect. Therefore, these comforts ordinarily correspond to and are proportionate to the evidences which any may have of that faith in themselves; at least, they cannot be maintained without such evidences.
That we may be a little useful to establish or recover that consolation which God is so abundantly willing that all the heirs of promise should enjoy, I will inquire about the following:
What are the principal acts and operations of faith by which it evidences its truth and sincerity in the midst of all temptations and storms that may befall believers in this world?
And I will insist on those evidences alone which will bear the severest scrutiny by Scripture and experience. The principal genuine acting of saving faith in us, inseparable from it and, indeed, essential to such acting, consists in choosing, embracing, and approving of God's way of saving sinners by the mediation of Jesus Christ — relying on it — with a renunciation of all other ways and means pretending to that same end of salvation.
This is what we are to explain and prove.
Saving faith is our "believing the record that God has given us of his Son,"
1Joh 5:10, "And this is the record, that God has given to us eternal life; and this life is in his Son," verse 11.
This is the testimony which God gives, that great and sacred truth which he himself bears witness to — namely, that he has freely prepared eternal life for those who believe, or provided a way of salvation for them. And what
God so prepares, he is said to give, because of the certainty of its communication. So grace was promised and given to the elect in Christ
Jesus before the world began, 2Tim 1:9; Tit 1:2. And that grace is so to be communicated to them, in and by the mediation of his Son Jesus Christ, that it is the only way by which God will give eternal life to anyone. It is therefore wholly in Christ, and to be obtained by him, and to be received from him. Upon our acquiescence in this testimony, on our approval of this way of saving sinners, or our refusal of it, our eternal safety or ruin absolutely depends. And it is reasonable that it should be so. For in our receiving of this testimony of God, we "set to our seal that God is true," Joh
3:33; we ascribe to him the glory of his truth, and in this, the glory of all the other holy properties of his nature. It is the most eminent duty we are capable of in this world; and by refusing it, to the extent that lies in us, we make him a liar, as it says in 1Joh 5:10. This is virtually to renounce His being. And the solemnity with which this testimony is entered is very remarkable, verse 7: "There are three that bear record in heaven: the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost; and these three are one."
The trinity of divine persons, acting distinctly in the unity of the same divine nature, give this testimony — and they do so by those distinct operations whereby they act in this way, and in this work, of saving sinners by Jesus Christ. This is declared at large in the gospel. And added to it is a testimony that is immediately applicable to the souls of believers: this sovereign testimony of the holy Trinity. And this is the witness of grace and all sacred ordinances — "There are three that bear witness on earth: the spirit, the water, and the blood: and these three agree in one," verse 8. They are not essentially of one and the same in nature, as are the Father, Word, and Holy Ghost; yet they all absolutely agree in the same testimony. And they do it by that especial efficacy which they have on the souls of believers, to assure them of this truth. In this record — so solemnly, so
gloriously given and proposed — life and death are set before us. Receiving and embracing this testimony, with an approval of the way of salvation testified to, is that work of faith which secures us eternal life. On these terms, there is reconciliation and agreement made and established between God and men; and without this, men must perish forever.
So our blessed Savior affirms, "This is life eternal, that they may know you" (the Father) "the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent," Joh 17:3. To know the Father as the only true God, to know him as he has sent Jesus Christ to be the only way and means of the salvation of sinners, and to know Jesus Christ as sent by him for that end, is that grace and duty which instates us in a right to eternal life, and initiates us in the possession of it. And this includes that choice and approval of God's way of saving sinners, of which we speak.
But these things must be more distinctly explained: — 1. The great fundamental difference in religion concerns the way and means by which sinners may be saved. From men's different apprehensions of it arise all other differences about religion. And the first thing that engages men really into any concern in religion, is an inquiry in their minds about how sinners may be saved, or what they themselves will do to be saved:
"What shall we do? what shall we do to be saved?" "What is the way of acceptance with God?" This inquiry is what gives men their first initiation into religion. See Act 2:37; Act 16:30; Mic 6:6-8. Once this question is raised in the conscience, an answer must be given to it. "I will consider," says the prophet, "what I shall answer when I am reproved," Hab 2:1. And there is all the reason in the world for men to well consider a good answer to it — without it, they must perish forever. For if they cannot answer themselves here, then how do they hope to answer God hereafter?
Therefore, without a sufficient answer always in readiness to this inquiry, no man can have any hopes of a blessed eternity.
Now, the real answer which men give themselves is according to the influence which their minds are under from one or another of the two divine covenants, — the covenant of works, or that of grace. And these two covenants, taken absolutely, are inconsistent; they give answers in this case that are directly contradictory to one another. So the apostle declares in Rom 10:5-9. The one says, "The man that does the works of the law shall
live by them; this is the only way by which you may be saved:" the other wholly waives this reply, and puts it all on faith in Christ Jesus. Hence there is great difference and great variety in the answers which men give themselves upon this inquiry.
For their consciences will neither hear nor speak anything but what complies with the covenant to which they belong. These things are reconciled only in the blood of Christ; this the apostle declared in Rom
8:3.
10 Most convinced sinners 11 seem to adhere to the testimony of the covenant of works; and so they perish forever. Nothing will stand us in stead in this matter, nothing will save us, "but the answer of a good conscience towards God, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ," 1Pet 3:21.
2. The way which God has prepared for saving sinners is a fruit and product of infinite wisdom, and powerfully efficacious for its end. As such, it is either received, or it is rejected. It is not enough that we admit the notions of it as declared in the gospel, unless we are sensible of the divine wisdom and power that are in it — such that it may be safely trusted to. On its proposal, arises the eternally distinguishing difference among men. Some look at it and embrace it as the power and wisdom of God; others really reject it as a foolish and weak thing, not fit to be trusted to. The apostle gives an account of this at large in 1Cor 1:18-24.
12 And this is mysterious in religion: the same divine truth is proposed to various persons, by the same way and means, at the same time, all in the same condition, under the same circumstances, all equally concerned in what is proposed in it — and yet some of them upon hearing it, receive it, embrace it, approve of it, and trust to it for life and salvation; others despise it, reject it, do not value it, and do not trust to it. To the one it is the wisdom of God, and the power of God; to the other, it is weakness and foolishness. And it must of necessity be one or the other — it is not capable of a middle state or consideration. It is not a good way unless it is the only way; if there is any other, then it is not a safe way, it is not the best way; for it is eternally inconsistent with any other. It is the wisdom of God, or it is downright folly. And here, after all our disputes, we must resort to eternal sovereign grace, making a distinction among those to whom the gospel is proposed; and to the almighty power of actual grace in curing that unbelief which blinds the minds of men, so that they can see nothing but folly and weakness in God's way of saving sinners.
And this unbelief still works in most of those to whom this way of God is proposed in the gospel. They do not receive it as an effect of infinite wisdom, and as powerfully efficacious to its proper end.
Some are profligate in the service of their lusts, and they do not regard it.
To these may be applied that saying of the prophet, "Hear, you despisers, and wonder, and perish."
13 Some are under the power of darkness and ignorance, so they do not apprehend, they do not understand the mystery of it; for "the light shines in darkness, and the darkness comprehends it not."
Joh 1.5 Some are blinded by Satan who is the god of this world, by filling their minds with prejudice, and their hearts with the love of present things, so that the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, cannot shine into them. Some would mix with it their own works, ways, and duties, because they belong to the first covenant. These things are eternally irreconcilable with this way of God, as the apostle teaches in Rom 10:3-4.
Hereby unbelief eternally ruins the souls of men. They do not, they cannot, approve of this way of God for saving sinners that is proposed in the gospel, as an effect of infinite wisdom and power — a way which they may safely trust to, in opposition to all other ways and means that pretend to be useful to the same end. And this will give us light into the nature and acting of saving faith, which we inquire about.
3. The whole Scripture, and all divine institutions from the beginning, testify in general that this way of God for saving sinners is by commutation, substitution, atonement, satisfaction, and imputation. This is the language of the first promise; 15 and all the sacrifices of the law are founded on it. This is the language of the Scripture: "There is a way by which sinners may be saved, — a way that God has established and appointed." Now, sinners being concerned in the law, the rule of all things between God and sinners would seem to be what they can do, or suffer, with respect to that law. "No," says the Scripture, "it cannot be so; 'for by the deeds of the law no man living shall be justified in the sight of God.'" Psa 143:2; Rom 3:20; Gal
2:16. Nor is it by personally answering to the penalty of the law which they have broken; for they cannot do so, but must perish eternally: for, "If you,
LORD, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand?" Psa 130:3. There must therefore be, and indeed, there is another way, of a different nature and
kind from these, for saving sinners, or there is no due revelation made of the mind of God in the Scripture. But the main design of Scripture is to declare that there is such a way, and what it is; and this is by the substitution of a mediator instead of the sinners who will be saved, a mediator who will both bear the penalty of the law which they had incurred, and fulfill that righteousness which they could not attain to.
This in general is God's way of saving sinners, whether men like it or not:
"For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh; that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us,"
Rom 8:3-4. See also Heb 10:5-10.
16 "He made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him," 2Cor
5:21.
Here unbelief has prevailed with many in this latter age, to reject the glory of God in it; but we have vindicated the truth against them sufficiently elsewhere.
4. There are various things that are previously required to give us a clear view of the glory of God in this way of saving sinners. These are a due consideration of the nature of the fall of our first parents, and of our apostasy from God thereby. I may not stay here to show the nature or aggravations of them; nor can we conceive them rightly, much less express them. I only say that, unless we have due apprehensions of the dread and terror of them, of the invasion made on the glory of God, and the confusion brought on the creation by them, we can never discern the reason and glory of rejecting the way of personal righteousness, and establishing this way of a mediator for saving sinners. A due sense of our present infinite distance from God, and the impossibility of making any approaches to him in ourselves, is from the same consideration. So likewise is that sense of our utter disability to do anything that may satisfy the law, or the holiness and righteousness of God — of our universal un-conformity (in our natures, hearts, and their acting) to the nature, holiness, and will of God. Unless, I say, we have a sense of these things in our minds and upon our consciences, we cannot rightly believe, we cannot comprehend the glory of this new way of salvation. And because mankind has had a general notion of these things
(or of some of them), though no distinct apprehension of them, many
among them have apprehended that there is a need for some kind of satisfaction or atonement to be made, so that sinners may be freed from the displeasure of God. But when God's way was proposed to them, it was, and it is, generally rejected, because "the carnal mind is enmity against God."
Rom 8.7
But when these things are fixed on the soul by sharp and durable convictions, they will enlighten it with due apprehensions of the glory and beauty of God's way of saving sinners.
5. This is the gospel, this is the work of it — namely, a divine declaration of the way of God for saving sinners, through the person, mediation, blood, righteousness, and intercession of Christ. This is what it reveals, declares, proposes, and tenders to sinners — that there is a way for their salvation. As this is contained in the first promise, so the truth of every word in the Scripture depends on the supposition of it. Without this, there could be no more intercourse between God and us than there is between him and devils.
Again, it declares that this way is not by the law or its works; not by the first covenant, or its conditions; not by our own doing or suffering. But it is a new way, established in and proceeding from infinite wisdom, love, grace, and goodness — namely, by the incarnation of the eternal Son of God; by his susception of the office of mediator; by doing and suffering in the discharge of that office, whatever was needed for the justification and salvation of sinners; to his own eternal glory.
18 in this blessed contrivance of saving sinners by the substitution of Christ, as the surety of the covenant, and thus to have the imputation of our sins to him, and of his righteousness to us, is by faith in him. Here comes that trial of faith which we inquire about. This way of saving sinners being proposed, offered, and tendered to us in the gospel, true and saving faith receives it, approves of it, rests in it, renounces all other hopes and expectations, and reposes its whole confidence in it.
Moreover, the gospel adds that the only way to obtain an interest For it is not proposed to us merely as a notion of truth, to be assented to or denied, as if only in this sense are all those who believe the gospel called
Christians — they do not consider it a fable. Rather, it is proposed to us as
that which we ought to engage practically, trusting to it alone for life and salvation.
And I will speak briefly to two things:
I. How does saving faith approve of this way? On what accounts, and to what ends?
II. How saving faith evidences and manifests itself by this, to the comfort of believers.