Chapter VI — Faith
salvation. The nature of saving Faith.
However abundant and suitable the provision may be which God has made for the salvation of men, there are many who fail to attain eternal life. There are some whom Christ will profit nothing. Indeed, there are those whose condemnation will be greatly aggravated because they have known and rejected the Son of God, the Savior of the world. Therefore, it is not less necessary to know what we must do to secure an interest in the redemption of Christ, than it is to understand what he has done for our salvation.
If God has revealed a plan of salvation for sinners, then in order to be saved, they must acquiesce in its provisions. By whatever name it may be called, the thing to be done is to approve and accept the terms of salvation presented in the gospel. As the plan of redemption is designed for sinners, the reception of that plan on our part implies an acknowledgment that we are sinners, and justly exposed to the displeasure of God. To those who have no such sense of guilt, it must appear foolishness and an offense. As it proceeds on the assumption of the insufficiency of any obedience of our own to satisfy the demands of the law, acquiescence in it involves the renunciation of all dependence on our own righteousness as the ground of our acceptance with God. If salvation is of grace, then it must be received as such. To introduce our own merit in any form or to any degree, is to reject it, because grace and works are essentially opposed. In trusting to the one, we renounce the other.
As justification is pardon and acceptance dispensed on the ground of the righteousness of Christ, acquiescence in the plan of salvation involves the recognition and acceptance of the work of Christ as the only ground of justification before God. However much the child of God may be perplexed with anxious doubts and vain endeavors, he is brought at last to see and admire the perfect simplicity of the plan of mercy. He finds that it requires nothing on his part but the acceptance of what is freely offered — the acceptance of it as free and unmerited. It is under the consciousness of ill-desert and helplessness, that the soul embraces Jesus Christ as he is presented in the gospel. This is what God requires of us in order for our justification. As soon as this is done, we are united to Christ; he assumes our responsibilities; he pleads our cause; and he secures our pardon and acceptance on the ground of what he has done; so that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
The nature of the duty required of us in order for our justification, is made still more plain, if possible, by the account which the Bible gives of those who are condemned. They are described as those who reject Christ, who go about to establish their own righteousness, and refuse to submit to the righteousness of God; as those who look to the law or their own works, instead of relying on the work of Christ.
They are those who reject the counsel of God against themselves who, being ignorant of their character and the requirements of God, refuse to be saved by grace through the redemption that is in Christ
Jesus.
The word by which this acceptance of Christ is commonly expressed in the Bible, is faith. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him might not perish, but have eternal life. He that believes in him is not condemned; but he that does not believe is condemned already. He that believes in the Son has everlasting life; he that does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him. Truly, truly, I say to you, he that believes in me has everlasting life. Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature; he that believes and is baptized shall be saved, he that does not believe shall be damned. Sirs, what must I do to be saved? and they said, Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved. God is just and the justifier of him that believes in Jesus. The Gentiles have attained righteousness, even the righteousness which is by faith; but Israel has not attained it, because they did not seek it by faith. Knowing that a man is not justified by works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ and not by the works of the law. By grace you are saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. This is his commandment, That we should believe in his son Jesus Christ.
He that believes in the Son of God has the witness in himself.
Language so plain and so varied as this, cannot be misunderstood. It teaches every serious inquirer after the way of life, that in order for salvation, he must believe in Jesus Christ. Still, though he knows what it is to believe, as well as anyone can tell him, yet as he reads of a dead faith, as well as of a living faith, a faith of devils and a faith of God's elect; as he reads on one page that he that believes shall be saved, and on another, that Simon himself believed, and yet remained in the gall of bitterness and the bonds of iniquity, he is often greatly perplexed and at a loss to determine what that faith is which is connected with salvation. This is a difficulty which is inseparable from the use of language. The soul of man is so wonderful in its operations; its perceptions, emotions, and affections are so various and so complicated, that it is impossible for there to be a different word for every distinct exercise. It is therefore absolutely necessary that the same word should be used to express different states of mind, which have certain prominent characteristics in common. The definite, in distinction from the general or comprehensive meaning of the word, is determined by the context; by explanatory or equivalent expressions; by the nature of the thing spoken of; and by the effects ascribed to it. This is found sufficient for all the purposes of intercourse and instruction. We can speak without being misunderstood, of loving our food, of loving an infant, of loving a parent, of loving God, though in each of these cases the word love represents a state of mind peculiar to itself, and different from all the others. There is in all of them a pleasurable excitement upon the perception of certain qualities; and this we call love, though no two states of mind can well be more distinct than the complacent fondness with which a parent looks upon his infant, and the adoring reverence with which he turns his soul towards God.
We need not be surprised, therefore, that the word faith is used in Scripture to express very different exercises, or states of mind. In its widest sense, faith is an assent to truth upon the exhibition of evidence. It does not seem necessary that this evidence should be of the nature of testimony; for we are commonly and properly said to believe whatever we regard as true. We believe in the existence and attributes of God, though our assent is not founded upon what is strictly called testimony. But if faith means assent to truth, it is obvious that its nature and attendants must vary with the nature of the truth believed, and especially with the nature of the evidence upon which our assent is founded. A man may assent to the proposition that the earth moves round its axis, that virtue is good, that sin will be punished, that God promises salvation to him, as a believer. In all these cases there is assent, and therefore faith; but the state of mind expressed by the term is not always the same. Assent to a speculative or abstract truth is a speculative act; assent to a moral truth is a moral act; assent to a promise made to ourselves is an act of trust. Our belief that the earth moves round its axis is a mere assent. Our belief in the excellence of virtue is, in its nature, a moral judgment. Our belief of a promise is an act of trust. Or if any choose to say that trust is the result of assent to the truth of the promise, it may be admitted as a mere matter of analysis; but the distinction is of no consequence because the two things are inseparable, and because the Scriptures don't make the distinction. In the language of the Bible, faith in the promises of God is a believing reliance, and no blessing is connected with mere assent, as distinguished and separated from reliance.
It is, however, of more consequence to remark that the nature of the act by which we assent to truth, is modified by the kind of evidence upon which our assent is founded. The blind may believe, on the testimony of others, in the existence of colors; and the deaf in the harmony of sounds; but their faith is very different from the faith of those who enjoy the exercise of the sense of sight or hearing. The universal reputation of such men as Bacon and Newton, and the acknowledged influence of their writings, may be the foundation of a very rational conviction of their intellectual superiority. But a conviction founded upon the perusal and appreciation of their own works, is of an essentially different character. We may believe in the testimony of those in whose veracity and judgment we confide; or that a man of whom we know nothing has great moral excellence.
But if we see for ourselves the exhibition of his excellence, we believe for other reasons, and in a different way. The state of mind, therefore, which in the language of common life and in that of the sacred Scriptures, is expressed by the word faith, varies essentially with the nature of the evidence upon which our belief rests.
One man believes the Bible to be the word of God, and the facts and doctrines contained in it to be true, simply on the testimony of others. Born in a Christian land and taught by his parents to regard the Scriptures as a revelation from God, he yields a general assent to the truth, without troubling himself with any personal examination into the evidence upon which it rests. Another believes because he has investigated the subject. He sees that there is no rational way of accounting for the miracles, the accomplishment of predictions, the success and influence of the gospel, except upon the assumption of its divine origin. Others, again, believe because the truths of the Bible commend themselves to their reason and conscience, and accord with their inward experience. Those whose faith rests upon this foundation, often receive the word with joy; they do many things, and have much of the appearance of true Christians; or like Felix, they believe and tremble. This is the foundation of the faith which often surprises the wicked in their last hours. Men who all their lives have neglected or reviled the truth, and who may have accumulated a treasury of objections to the authority of the Scriptures, are often brought to believe by a power which they cannot resist. An awakened conscience affirms the truth with an authority before which they quail. Their doubts and sophistries fly frightened before the majesty of this new revealed witness for the truth. To disbelieve is now impossible. That there is a God, that he is holy and just, and that there is a hell, they would give the world to doubt, but cannot. Here is a faith very different in its origin, nature, and effects from that which rests upon the authority of men, or upon external evidence and argument.
Though the faith just described, is generally most strikingly exhibited at the approach of death, it often happens that men who are habitually careless, are suddenly arrested in their career. Their conscience is aroused and enlightened. They feel those things to be true, which before they either denied or disregarded. The truth, therefore, has great power over them. It destroys their former peace.
It forces them to self-denial and the performance of religious duties.
Sometimes this influence soon wears off, as conscience subsides into its accustomed slumber. At others, it continues long, even to the end of life. It then constitutes that spirit of bondage and fear under which its unhappy subjects endeavor to work out a way to heaven, without embracing the gospel of the grace of God. The effects produced by a faith of this kind, though specifically different from the fruits of the Spirit, are not always easily detected by the eye of man. And hence many who appear outwardly to be the children of God, are inwardly under the dominion of a spirit that is the opposite of the loving, confiding, filial temper of the gospel.
There is a faith different from any of those forms of belief which have yet been mentioned. It is a faith which rests upon the manifestation by the Holy Spirit, of the excellence, beauty, and suitableness of the truth. This is what Peter calls the precious faith of God's elect. 2Pet 1.1
It arises from a spiritual apprehension of the truth, or from the testimony of the Spirit with and by the truth in our hearts. The Scriptures make frequent mention of this faith. Christ said, I thank you, Father Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and prudent, and have revealed them to babes.
Luk 10.21 The external revelation was made equally to the wise and to babes. To the latter, however, was granted an inward illumination which enabled them to see the excellence of the truth, which commanded their joyful assent. Our Savior therefore added, No man knows who the Son is, but the Father; and who the Father is, but the Son, and he to whom the Son reveals him. Mat 11.27 When Peter made his confession of faith in Christ, our Savior said to him, Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah: for flesh and blood has not revealed it to you, but my Father who is in heaven. Mat 16.17 Paul was a persecutor of the church; but when it pleased God to reveal his Son in him, he at once preached the faith which before, he destroyed. He had an external knowledge of Christ before; but he experienced this internal revelation on his way to Damascus, and it effected an instant change in his whole character. There was nothing miraculous or peculiar in the conversion of the apostle, except in the mere incidental circumstances of his case. He speaks of all believers as having the same divine illumination. God, he says, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, has shined into our hearts, to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God, as it shines in the face of Jesus
Christ. 2Cor 4.6
On the other hand, he speaks of those whose minds the god of this world has blinded, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them. 2Cor 4.4 In the second chapter of his first epistle to the Corinthians, he dwells much upon this subject, and teaches not only that the true divine wisdom of the gospel was undiscoverable by human wisdom, but that when externally revealed, we need the Spirit so that we may know the things freely given to us by God. For the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him, neither can he know them for they are spiritually discerned. 1Cor 2.12, 14 Hence the apostle prays for his readers, that the eyes of their understandings (hearts) might be opened, that they might know the hope of their calling, the riches of their inheritance, and the greatness of the divine power of which they were the subjects. Eph 1.18-
19 And in another place, that they might be filled with the knowledge of his will, in all wisdom and spiritual understanding. Col 1.9 By spiritual understanding is meant that insight into the nature of the truth, which is the result of the influence of the Spirit upon the heart.
Since faith is founded on this spiritual apprehension, Paul says, he didn't preach with the enticing words of man's wisdom, because a faith which resulted from such preaching could be at best a rational conviction; but in the demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that the faith of his hearers might stand, not in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. 1Cor 2.4-5 Hence, faith is said to be one of the fruits of the Spirit, the gift of God, the result of His operation. 10 These representations of the Scriptures accord with the experience of the people of God. They know that their faith is not founded upon the testimony of others, nor exclusively or mainly upon external evidence. They believe because the truth appears to them to be both true and good — because they feel its power and experience its consolations.
It is obvious that a faith founded upon the spiritual apprehension of the truth, as it differs from every other kind of belief in its origin, it must also differ in its effects. Of the multitudes who believe the Scriptures upon authority, or on the ground of external evidence, how large a portion disregard their precepts and warnings! To say that such persons do not believe, although it is true in one sense, is not true in another. They do believe; and to assert the contrary is to contradict their consciousness. In the Bible, the state of mind which they exhibit, is called faith, though it is dead. In other cases, this rational conviction, combined with other causes, produces that decorous attention to the duties of religion, and that general propriety of conduct, which are so often exhibited by the hearers of the gospel. The faith which is founded on the power of conscience produces still more marked effects: either temporary obedience and joy, or the despair and opposition manifested by the convinced, the dying, and the lost; or that laborious slavery of religion which we have already spoken of.
But that faith which is the gift of God, which arises from His opening our eyes to see the excellence of the truth, is attended with joy and love. These feelings are as immediately and necessarily attendant on this kind of faith, as pleasure is upon the perception of beauty. Hence faith is said to work by love. And as all revealed truth is the object of the faith of which we now speak, every truth must, in proportion to the strength of our faith, produce its appropriate effect upon the heart. A belief of the being and perfections of God, founded upon the apprehension of his glory, must produce love, reverence, and confidence, with a desire to be conformed to his image. Hence the apostle says: We all, with open face, beholding, as in a glass, the glory of God, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, as by the spirit of the Lord. 2Cor 3.18 Faith in his threatenings, founded upon a perception of their justice, their harmony with his perfections, and the ill-desert of sin, must produce fear and trembling. His people, therefore, are described as those who tremble at his word. Faith in his promises, founded upon the apprehension of his faithfulness and power, their harmony with all his revealed purposes, their suitableness to our nature and necessities, must produce confidence, joy, and hope. This was the faith which made
Abraham leave his own country to go to a strange land; which led
Moses to esteem the reproach of Christ as greater riches than the treasures of Egypt. This was the faith of David also, of Samuel, and of all the prophets who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens. Heb 11.33-34 This is the faith which leads all the people of God to confess that they are strangers and pilgrims on earth, and that they look for a city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God. Heb 11.10 This is the faith which overcomes the world, which leads the believer to set his affections on things above, where Christ sits at the right hand of God; Col 3.1 which enables him to glory even in tribulation, while he doesn't look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things that are seen are temporal, but the things that are not seen are eternal. 2Cor 4.18
And what shall we say of a faith in Jesus Christ founded upon the apprehension of the glory of God, as it shines in Him; which beholds that glory as the glory of the only begotten of the Father full of grace and truth; which contemplates the Redeemer as clothed in our nature; the first-born of many brethren; as dying for our sins, rising again for our justification, ascending into heaven and as now seated at the right hand of God, where he ever lives to make intercession for us? Such a faith, the apostle tells us, must produce love, for he says, Who having not seen you love, and in whom, though now you do not see him, yet believing, you rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory. The soul gladly receives him as a Savior in all the characters and for all the purposes for which he is revealed; and naturally desires to be conformed to his will, and to make known the unsearchable riches of his grace to others. 11
It is no less obvious that no one can believe the representations given in the Scriptures respecting the character of man and the ill-desert of sin, with a faith founded upon a right apprehension of the holiness of God and the evil of his own heart, without experiencing selfcondemnation, self-abhorrence, and a constant hungering and thirsting after righteousness. Thus, of all the truths in the word of God, it maybe said that so far as they are believed in virtue of this spiritual apprehension, they will exert their appropriate influence upon the heart and consequently upon the life. That such a faith should not produce good fruits, is as impossible as that the sun should give light without heat. This faith is the living head of all right affections and of all holy living; without it, all religion is a dull formality, a slavish drudgery, or at best a rationalistic homage.
Hence we are said to live by faith, to walk by faith, to be sanctified by faith, to overcome by faith, to be saved by faith. And the grand characteristic of the people of God is that they are Believers.
Section II. Faith as connected with justification.
What has been said up to here is designed to illustrate the nature of saving faith as it is represented in the Scriptures. It differs from all other acts of the mind to which the term faith is applied, mainly on account of the nature of the evidence on which it is founded. The Bible, however, is more definite in its instructions on this subject.
Besides teaching us that there is a faith which receives as true all the declarations of God, in virtue of evidence exhibited and applied by the Holy Spirit, it tells us what those particular acts of faith are, which secure our justification before God. It plainly teaches that we are justified by those acts of faith which have a special reference to Christ and his mediatorial work. Thus we are said to be justified by faith in his blood. Rom 3.25 The righteousness of God is said to be by faith in Jesus Christ; Rom 3.22 that is, by faith of which he is the object.
This expression occurs frequently. Knowing, says the apostle, that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus
Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ. Gal 2.16 Not having my own righteousness which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ. Phi 3.9 In all these places and in many others of a similar kind, it is expressly stated that Christ is the object of justifying faith.
The same doctrine is taught in those numerous passages, in which justification or salvation is connected with believing in Christ.
Whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. Joh 3.16
He that believes in the Son has everlasting life. Joh 3.36 Whoever believes in him shall receive remission of sins. Act 10.43 Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved. Act 16.31
The same truth is involved in all the representations of the method of justification given in the word of God. We are said to be justified by the death of Christ, by the blood of his cross, by the redemption that is in him, by the sacrifice of himself, by his bearing our sins, by his obedience, or righteousness. All these representations imply that Christ, in his mediatorial character, is the special object of justifying faith. It is indeed impossible that any man should believe the record which God has given of his Son, without believing every other record which He has given, so far as it is known and apprehended. Still, the special act of faith which is connected with our justification, is belief in Jesus Christ as the Savior from sin. And when we are commanded to believe in Jesus Christ, the Scriptural meaning of the expression is that we should trust, or confide in him. It does not express mere assent to the proposition that Jesus is the Christ, which angels and devils exercise; Mat 8.29 but it expresses trust which involves knowledge and assent. To believe in Christ as a propitiation for sin, is to receive and confide in him as such.
From this representation it is clear what we must do to be saved.
When the mind is perplexed and anxious from a sense of sin and the accusations of conscience; when the troubled spirit looks round for some way of escape from the just displeasure of God, the voice of mercy from the lips of the Son of God is, Come to me, Believe in me, Submit to be saved by me. Till this is done, nothing is done. And when this cordial act of faith in Christ is exercised, we are accepted for his sake, and he undertakes to save us from the dominion and condemnation of our sins. The experience of the people of God, when they are made the recipients of that divine illumination which reveals to them the glory of God, their own unworthiness, and the plan of salvation by Jesus Christ, is no doubt very various. It is modified by their previous knowledge, by their peculiar state of mind, by the particular truth which happens to attract their attention, by the clearness of the manifestation, and by many other circumstances.
This diversity is readily admitted; yet, since no man can come to the Father but by the Son; since without faith in him there is no forgiveness and no access to God, it must still be true that — with greater or less distinctness of apprehension — Christ and his mediatorial work constitute the object of the first gracious exercises of the renewed soul. Any approach to God, any hope of his favor, any peace of conscience or confidence of pardon, that is not founded upon him, must be delusive. Having (that is, because we have) such a High Priest, we come with boldness to the throne of grace; and this is the only ground on which we can venture to draw near. The whole plan of redemption shows that there is no pardon, no access to God, no peace or reconciliation, except through Jesus Christ. And this idea is so constantly presented in the Bible, that all genuine religious experience must be in accordance with it.
It is, however, of such vital importance for the sinner to distinctly understand what it is that is required of him, that God has graciously so illustrated the nature of saving faith, that the most illiterate reader of the Scriptures may learn the way of life. It is not merely by the term faith, or believing, that this act of the soul is expressed, but by many others of equivalent import. The consideration of a few of these will serve to explain more distinctly the plan of salvation, by showing at once the nature, object, and office of justifying faith.
One of the most comprehensive and intelligible of these equivalent terms is that of receiving. To as many as received him, he gave power to become the sons of God. Joh 1.12 As you have therefore received
Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him. Col 2.6 Believers are therefore described as those who receive the gift of righteousness; Rom 5.17 as those who gladly receive the word. Act 2.41 To receive Jesus Christ is to accept and recognize him in the character in which he presents himself: as the Son of God, the Savior of sinners, as a propitiation for our sins, as a ransom for our souls, as the Lord our righteousness. He came to his own and his own did not receive him. The Jews would not recognize him as the Messiah, the only mediator between God and man, as the end of the law for righteousness. They denied the Holy One, and put far from them the offer of life through him. Could the nature, the object, or office of faith be presented more clearly than they are by this representation? Can the soul, anxious about salvation, doubt what it has to do? Jesus Christ is presented to him in the gospel as the Son of God, clothed in our nature, sent by the Father to make reconciliation for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to redeem us from the curse of the law by being made a curse for us. All we have to do, is receive him in this character; and those who thus receive him he makes the sons of God — that is, the objects of his favor, the subjects of his grace, and the heirs of his kingdom.
A still simpler illustration of the nature of faith is contained in those passages in which we are commanded to look to God. Look to me and be saved, all you ends of the earth. Isa 45.22 Our Savior avails himself of this figure, when he says, As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. Joh
3.14-15 The dying Israelite, who was commanded to turn his feeble eye on the brazen serpent, was surely at no loss to know the nature of the duty required of him. He knew there was no virtue in the act of looking. He might look in vain all round the wide horizon. He was healed, not for looking, but because the serpent was placed there by the command of God, and salvation made to depend upon submitting to the appointed method of relief. Why then should the soul convinced of sin and misery be in doubt as to what it has to do?
Christ has been set forth as crucified; and we are commanded to look to him and be saved. Can anything be simpler? Must not every attempt to render more intelligible the Savior's beautiful illustration, serve only to darken counsel by words without wisdom? Job 38.2
Another striking illustration of this subject may be found in Heb
6.18, where believers are described as those who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before them. As of old, the manslayer, when pursued by the avenger of blood, fled to the city of refuge, whose gates were open night and day, and whose highways were always unincumbered. So the soul, under the sense of its guilt and convinced that it must perish if it remains where it is, flees to Jesus
Christ as the appointed refuge, and finds peace and security in him.
There the avenger cannot touch him; there the law which before declared vengeance, spreads its ample shield around him and gives him the assurance of safety.
A still more common method of expressing the act of saving faith, is to be found in such passages as Joh 6.35. He that comes to me shall never hunger, and he that believes in me shall never thirst. All that the Father gives to me shall come to me; and whoever comes to me I will in no wise cast out. Here coming and believing are interchanged as expressing the same idea. So also in the following chapter, where our Savior says, If any man thirsts, let him come to me and drink. He that believes in me, as the Scripture has said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living waters. Hence the invitations and commands of the gospel are often expressed by this word. Come to me all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Mat 11.28 And in the closing invitation of the sacred volume, The Spirit and the bride say, Come! And let him who hears say, Come! And let him who thirsts come. And whoever will, let him take the water of life freely. Rev 22.17
Though this language is so plain that nothing but the illumination of the Spirit can render it plainer, yet the troubled soul perplexes itself with the inquiry, What is it, to come to Christ? Though assured that he is not far from any one of us, we are often forced to cry out, O that I knew where I might find him! that I might come even to his seat.
Behold, I go forward, but he is not there; and backward, but I cannot perceive him; on the left hand, where he works, but I cannot behold him; he hides himself on the right hand, so that I cannot see him. It is often the very simplicity of the requirement that deceives us. We think we must do some great thing, which will bear a certain proportion to the blessing connected with it. We cannot believe that it is merely looking, merely receiving, merely coming as the prodigal came to his father, or as the Israelite came to the high priest who was appointed to make atonement for the sins of the people. Yet is it even thus that we must come to the High Priest of our profession, with confession of sin, and there submit to the application of his blood as the appointed means of pardon, and rejoice in the assurance of the divine favor. Or still more impressively, as the Hebrew believer came to the altar, laid his hand with confession upon the head of the victim, and saw it die in his stead, so does the trembling soul come to Christ as its propitiatory sacrifice; and confiding in the efficacy of his death, he looks up to God and says, My Father! Coming to Christ, therefore, is the confiding reception of him in the offices and for the purposes for which he is presented in the word of God — as our mediator and priest, as our advocate with the Father, as our Redeemer and Lord.
Another term by which faith is expressed is submitting. This is not to be understood as meaning a submission to the will of God as a sovereign ruler, giving up all our controversy with him, and resigning ourselves into his hands. All this is duty, but it is not saving faith.
The submission required is submission to the revealed plan of salvation; it is giving up all excuses for our sins, all dependence on our own righteousness, and submitting to the righteousness which God has provided for our justification. This is what the Jews refused to do, and so they perished in unbelief.12 This is what we must do in order to be saved. Men, when sensible of their guilt and danger, are perplexed and anxious about many things. But there is only one thing for them to do. They must submit to be saved as ungodly, as sinners, as entirely undeserving, solely for Christ's sake. They must consent to allow the robe of his righteousness to be cast over all their nakedness and blood, that they may be found in him, not having their own righteousness, but the righteousness which is by faith in Jesus Christ. Then will they be prepared to join that great multitude which stand before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes with palms in their hands, crying with a loud voice, Salvation to our God who sits upon the throne, and to the Lamb! For you were slain, and have redeemed us unto God by your blood, out of every kindred, and people, and tongue, and nation, and have made us unto our God, kings and priests.
It is thus that the Bible answers the question, What must we do to be saved? We are told to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. And to set forth the nature, object and office of this faith, the Scriptures employ the most significant terms and illustrations. This is in order that we may learn to renounce ourselves and our works, and to be found in Christ, depending solely upon what He has done and suffered as the ground of our acceptance with God. Those who thus believe, have passed from death unto life; they are no longer under condemnation; they have peace with God and rejoice in hope of his glory. As this faith unites them with Christ, it makes them not only partakers of his death, but of his life. The Holy Spirit given to him without measure, is given to them through him; and it works in them the fruits of holiness, which are to the praise and glory of God.