On Faith
On Faith
Extract from Romans Verse by Verse, Chapter 3
by William R. Newell
"Faith is not trust, and must be carefully distinguished therefrom, if we would have a clear conception of the gospel. Faith is simply the acceptance for ourselves of the testimony of God as true. Such faith, indeed, brings one into a life of trust. But faith is not “trusting,” or “expecting God to do something,” but relying on His testimony concerning the person of Christ as His Son, and the work of Christ for us on the cross.
So faith is
“the giving substance to things hoped for.”
After saving faith, the life of trust begins. In a sense that will be readily perceived by the spiritual mind, trust is always looking forward to what God will do; but faith sees that what God says has been done, and believes God’s Word, having the conviction that it is true, and true for ourselves.
In saving faith, then, you do not trust God to do something for you: He has sent His Son, who has borne sin for you. You do not look to Christ to do something to save you: He has done it at the cross. You simply receive God’s testimony as true, setting your seal thereto.
You rest in God’s Word regarding Christ and His work for you. You rest in Christ’s shed blood.
It is GOD that justifieth (8:33), as it is God against whom we sinned. And it is God whom we find in Chapter 3:25 setting forth Christ on the cross as a righteous meeting-place (between the sinner and God) through faith in His blood. And again:
“To him that worketh not, but believeth on Him [God] that justifieth the ungodly”
(on the ground, of course, of the blood of Christ).
“Righteousness shall be reckoned unto us who believe on Him that raised Jesus our Lord from the dead” (4:5 and 24).
This, it seems, is what the Lord meant in His last public message to the Jews, John 12:44:
“Jesus cried and said, He that believeth on Me, believeth not on Me, but on Him that sent Me.”
Faith, indeed, lays claim to Christ and possesses Him, but it is through believing the testimony of God the Father concerning His Son.
And this seems to me the meaning of the words in Chapter 3:22,
“through faith concerning Jesus Christ.”
Peter also says not only that we have
“the answer of a good conscience toward God, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ” (I Pet. 3:21)
, but:
“through Him [Christ] ye are believers in God, that raised Him from the dead, and gave Him glory; so that your faith and hope might be in God” (I Pet. 1:21).
Thus also, he says,
“Christ also suffered for sins once, the righteous for the unrighteous, that He might bring us to God” (I Pet. 3:18).
We must remember that it is the “gospel of God” (Rom. 1:1) in its general aspect, which we are now studying; and that it is “concerning His Son.” Christ says also in John 5:24,
“He that heareth My word, and believeth Him that sent Me hath everlasting life and cometh not into judgment.”
Now we believe concerning Jesus Christ: (a) that He is the Son of God, (b) that He has put away sin by His blood (as Paul will soon show); and (c) that He is and has become through simple believing our very own, so that what He has done was really done for us.
You may say, this is simply “believing on the Lord Jesus Christ.” Yes; but it is believing God concerning Christ. In Chapter Four we find that Abraham believed God, and righteousness was reckoned unto him. We also
“believe on Him that raised Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was delivered up for our trespasses, and was raised for our justification.”
Here the faith is in God, and is made possible by His raising Christ, upon whom He had placed our sins. Sanday says: “‘By faith of Jesus Christ’: that is, by faith which has Christ for its object.” In the gospel of God concerning Christ, God announces not only Christ’s person as Son of David, and Son of God; but also His finished work, that He has been set forth by God as a propitiation, a righteous meeting-place between the sinner and God. It is therefore God whom the sinner believes; and in believing God he appropriates Christ, and His saving work."
