The principal bond of union between Christ and
His people is the Holy Spirit: but as the union is mutual, something is
necessary on our part to complete it, and this is faith. Hence, Christ is said
to dwell in our hearts “by faith” (Eph.
It is a great mistake to define Scriptural terms
according to the narrow scope and meaning which they have in common
speech. In ordinary conversation,
“faith” signifies credence or the assent of the mind unto some testimony. But in God’s Word, so far from faith—saving
faith, we mean—being merely a natural act of the mind, it includes the
concurrence of the will and an action of the affections: it is “with the
heart,” and not with the head, that “man believeth unto righteousness” (Rom.
10:10). Saving faith is a cordial
approbation of Christ, an acceptance of Him in His entire character as Prophet,
Priest, and King; it is entering into covenant with Him, receiving Him as Lord
and Savior. When this is understood, it
will appear to be a fit instrument for completing our union with Christ, for
the union is thus formed by mutual consent.
Were people to perceive more clearly the
implications and the precise character of saving faith, they would be the more
readily convinced that it is “the gift of God,” an effect or fruit of the
Spirit’s operation on the heart. Saving
faith is a coming to Christ, and coming to Christ necessarily presupposes a
forsaking of all that stands opposed to Him.
It has been rightly said that “true faith includes in it the
renunciation of the flesh as well as the reception of the Savior; true faith
admires the precepts of holiness as well as the glory of the Savior” (J.H. Thornwell, 1850).
Not until these facts are recognized, enlarged upon, and emphasized by
present-day preachers is there any real likelihood of the effectual exposure of
the utter inadequacy of that natural “faith” which is all that thousands of
empty professors possess.
“Now He which stablisheth
us with you in Christ, and hath anointed us, is God” (2 Cor.
The same blessed Spirit
who moved holy men of old to write the Word of God, works in the regenerate a
faith which nothing can shatter that that Word is the Word of God. The stablishing
argument is by the power of God’s Spirit, who causes the quickened soul to see
such a Divine Majesty shining forth in the Scriptures that the heart is
established in this first principle. The
renewed soul is made to feel that there is such a pungency in that Word that it
must be Divine. No born-again soul needs
any labored argument to convince him of the Divine inspiration of the
Scriptures: he has proof within himself of their Heavenly origin. Faith wrought in the heart by the power of
the Spirit is that which satisfies its possessor that the Scriptures are none
other than the Word of the living God.
Not only does the blessed Spirit work faith in
the written Word—establishing the renewed heart in its Divine
veracity and authority—but He also produces faith in the personal Word, the
Lord Jesus Christ. The imperative
necessity for this distinct operation of His was briefly shown in a previous
article upon “The Spirit Comforting,” but a little further word thereon will not here be out of place. When the soul has been Divinely
awakened and convicted of sin, it is brought to realize and feel its depravity
and vileness, its awful guilt and criminality, its utter unfitness to approach
a holy God. It is emptied of
self-righteousness and self-esteem, and is brought into the dust of
self-abasement and self-condemnation.
Dark indeed is the cloud which now hangs over it; hope is completely
abandoned, and despair fills the heart. The painful consciousness that Divine goodness has been abused,
Divine Law trodden under foot, and Divine patience trifled with, excludes the
expectation of any mercy.
When the soul has sunk into the mire of despair,
no human power is sufficient to lift it out and set it upon the Rock. Now that the renewed sinner perceives that
not only are all his past actions
transgressions of God’s Law, but that his very heart is desperately
wicked—polluting his very prayers and tears of contrition, he feels that he
must inevitably perish. If he hears the
Gospel, he tells himself that its glad tidings are not for such an abandoned
wretch as he; if he reads the Word he is assured that only its fearful
denunciations and woes are his legitimate portion. If godly friends remind him that Christ came
to seek and to save that which was lost, he supposes they are ignorant of the
extremities of his case. Should they
urge him to believe or cast himself on the mercy of God in Christ,
they do not mock him in his misery, for he now discovers that he can no more do
this of himself than he can grasp the sun in his hands. All self-help, all human aid, is useless.
In those in whom the Spirit works faith, He
first blows down the building of human pretensions, demolishes the walls which
were built with the untempered mortar of man’s own
righteousness, and destroys the foundations which were laid in self-flattery
and natural sufficiency, so that they are entirely shut up to Christ and God’s free grace. Once awakened, instead of fondly imagining I
am the man whom God will save, I am now convinced that I am the one who must be
damned. So far from concluding I have
any ability to even help myself, I now know
that I am one “without strength” and no more able to receive Christ as my Lord
and Savior than I can climb up to heaven.
Evident it is, then, that a mighty supernatural power is needed if I am
to come to Him who “justifieth the ungodly.” None but the all-mighty Spirit can lift a
stricken soul out of the gulf of despair and enable him to believe to the
saving of his soul.
To God the Holy Spirit be
glory for His sovereign grace in working faith in the heart of the writer and
of each Christian reader. Thou hast
attained unto peace and joy in believing, but hath thou thanked the
peace-Bringer?—”the Holy Spirit” (Rom.
Excerpted
and edited from Studies in Scriptures, March 1935.