Saving faith is not a vague optimism or a generalized religious spirit, but true and specific faith in the triune God as He has revealed Himself in Jesus Christ through His Word; faith is meaningless unless it rests upon truth. Scripture teaches that faith comes by hearing the Word of God, that Christ not the Bible itself is the object of faith, and that saving faith is the work of the Holy Spirit whereby the whole person accepts, receives, and rests upon Christ alone for justification, sanctification, and eternal life. This faith unites us personally to Christ so that His righteousness, life, and victory become ours, and we are never alone in our trials, for our burdens are His and our hope is secured in Him. Because Christ is with us, saving faith is always marked by hope embracing God’s promises for this life and the life to come and therefore produces confidence, perseverance, and assurance, for if God be for us, none can finally be against us.
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31. Seeaving Faith, August 28th, 1956. Good morning, friends.
Religious faith is frequently recommended in popular magazines as a cure all for the sickness of society
and it is assumed that a man's problems and burdens would all disappear if we only believed.
But believed what? Here the writer has usually become vague.
They insist that faith is the answer, but they will not specify faith in what.
Very often such people will continue by saying that various churches and even religions
should all work together without quibbling about points of doctrine and articles of faith.
The fallacy of all such thinking can be illustrated by reference to a football league.
Would it be possible for it teams to constitute a league if one insisted on six-man football, another eleven,
one band all passing, another insisted on the right to change rules it will,
while yet another declared that its own rules permitted them to do whatever they pleased as long as they were sincere?
The results, of course, would be no football at all.
A common and uniform set of rules must prevail before teams can meet or a single team can be assembled.
In like manner, faith is meaningless unless it is specific and true and for the Christian saving faith is true Christian faith and none other.
In the words of the Westminster Confession, quote,
by this faith the Christian believe it to be true whatsoever is revealed in the word,
for the authority of God Himself speaketh therein,
Westminster Confession of Faith, 142.
Thus faith in fairies or in false gods is never true or saving faith.
The only valid faith is that which relates itself specifically and accurately to reality.
Thus the Bible is a means of faith.
In the words of Paul, faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God, Romans 10, 17.
The Bible is never the object of faith but rather the means of faith.
Christ and through Christ the triune God is the object of faith.
Faith is not merely an act of the will nor an act of the reason or a sense to true teaching,
but an act of the whole person whereby He surrenders Himself to and leans on Christ for His salvation.
It is the work of the Holy Spirit by means of the word strengthened in us by the word the sacraments, prayer and the Christian walk.
The Westminster Confession declares that, quote,
The principle acts of saving faith are accepting, receiving and resting and praying Christ alone for justification, sanctification and eternal life by virtue of the covenant of grace.
Faith brings us into personal union with Christ so that Christ now lives in us and we in Christ.
Luther says,
Faith must be purely taught, namely that He and thou art made as it were one person, so that thou mayest boldly say,
I am now one with Christ, that is to say Christ righteousness, victory and life are mine.
And again Christ may say, I am that sinner, that is His sins and His death are mine because He is united and joined unto me and I unto Him.
For by faith we are so joined together that we are become one flesh and one bone, we are members of the body of Christ, flesh of His flesh and bone of His bones, so that this faith dot couple Christ and me more nearly together than the husband is coupled to His wife.
These beautiful words emphasize an important aspect of faith.
Too often men feel alone in their faith, placed in difficult circumstances under an obligation to live peacefully that limits their resistance while increasing their burden.
To be in Christ means often to be under trial, but that is not all. Christ is involved in all of our lives, we are never alone.
Our burden is His burden, our problem is His problem and our deliverance is His deliverance.
Therefore will not we fear though the earth be removed and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea, the Lord of hosts is with us.
The God of Jacob is our refuge, Psalm 462 and 11.
More than that because Christ is with us, saving faith has always as its magnificent dimension hope.
Goat, embracing the promises of God for this life and that which is to come, Westminster Confession of Faith 142.
We knew that quote, tribulation, work of patience and patience experience and experience hope and hope make it not ashamed because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.
Romans 5-3-5, quote,
If God be for us who can be against us, Romans 8-31.
The life of faith is a life of hope, a life of promise and a life of realization because it is a life lived in Christ and in the glory of His saving power.
