THERE is, perhaps, no truth in the Scriptures which is more distinctly stated than that of justification by faith. “Without faith it is impossible to please God;” “Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness;” “that we might be justified by faith,” and similar statements in the Word of God, render it impossible to deny it is written that God justifies men on the principle of believing what He is, what He says, and what He has done. While this is the case, it is equally apparent that no truth laid clown in the Scriptures is more battled against in the religious world than that of justification by faith. Rome levels her anathemas against all who accept it, cursing them for so doing for time and eternity; Ritualism will not tolerate it; Rationalism ridicules it. With the arguments against this Scripture truth we do not now concern ourselves, and while it is quite sufficient to believe the truth, because God says such is His way of justifying and saving men, we may with propriety devote a few thoughts to the reasonableness of faith in what God says.
In civilized countries men conduct their affairs upon the principle of faith in other men. We cannot live one day in a large city without being impressed with this fact. Do we wish to visit a town one hundred miles off? We take up a timetable, and read that at such an hour a train will leave such a station, and that it will arrive at the town we desire to reach at such a time. Consequently, we go to the railway station in the full belief that things will be as the timetable states. We part with our money and take a piece of thick paper in exchange as our guarantee for the journey. We seek an attendant and we are shown a seat in the train, and then we make ourselves quite content in our corner.
Everything we did was done in faith; we gave up ourselves to the timetable, the booking clerk, and the railway porter; and all we had to go by was the word written or spoken by the officials. Now, if we inquire the reason for our faith, the answer lies in the reliability of the railway company. The company issued the timetable, the ticket, instructed the porter, and provided the train. There was, therefore, solid sense in our faith. An African who had neither seen nor heard of a railway train might think us mad to trust the paper instructions, or perhaps think us under a spell, or fetish, so to do; but at the back of our faith was solid reason―we had due and sufficient cause for our reliance. If we care to do so, we should find that the ways of our everyday life are conducted on the principles of faith, and that without such faith we could not exist—at least, in a civilized country. The man who refused to trust the timetable, the railway ticket, the porter, and the train, and instead would trust to his legs alone to reach the town one hundred miles off; would he regarded as a barbarian, if not as demented.
In faith in God there is perfect reasonableness. God bids us believe on His Son, and teaches us that “through His Name, whosoever believeth in Him shall receive remission of sins.” There is a why and wherefore for remission of sins being so granted. It is not an arbitrary law without a cause―if such a law at the hand of God could by any possibility exist. The why and the wherefore are this: God gave His Son to the world that He might make full atonement for sin, and His Son has made the atonement. He has come into the world; He has died out of the world; He is risen again and is now in God’s presence for us. In believing on the Lord Jesus Christ, we humbly accept what is actually done by Him, and we accept Him who did the work.
God has made perfect provision for the need of sinful men. He has Himself wrought out salvation on man’s behalf; He has Himself prepared and accomplished an eternal redemption. The fact exists; the work is done. It is an immovable reality. And, such being the case, God invites us to believe. We do not create anything by believing God, we simply obtain the favor of His accomplished goodness. We surrender ourselves to the divine Word. It is perfect in its simplicity as applied to ourselves. We merely take what God offers. It is perfect in its majesty as applied to God. Perhaps we shall never, even in eternity, fully understand it. If such a plan and system as the working of a vast institution by man is beyond the comprehension of a child, the infinite wonders of God’s way of salvation may well be beyond our grasp of thought.
If a man say, “I do not believe it,” he does not thereby affect the existent fact: he merely refuses to believe the fact. The fact abides; the man’s unbelief keeps him in the dark about it. The African of our illustration might refuse to believe he could travel one hundred miles in two hours, but his ignorance would not touch the speed of the railway train! The unbeliever may refuse to believe that he may be saved by Christ, but his unbelief is merely a crown of thorns for his own head―a chamber of darkness for him to dwell in.
God has been pleased to give man reasons in His Word why he should trust what He says: “Be it known unto you therefore . . . that through this Man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins ; and by Him all that believe are justified from all things.” The why and the wherefore were laid down by the apostle Paul. He stated how God had fulfilled His promise by sending His Son to the world, and how man had fulfilled God’s Word by slaying His Son, and then how that God had raised Him from the dead; and upon this divine and accomplished fact he said, “Therefore . . . through . . .” Christ “is preached the forgiveness of sins.” In like manner it is written, “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus.” The reasons are given.
We believe that that which God says will come to pass, because we rely upon God; we believe that we are justified and forgiven our sins because of what God and His Son have done. Faith rests upon a solid and an eternal foundation.
What we are bidden to believe exists. God’s own being is magnified by the work of Christ, His Son, on account of sin, and when we believe we side with God on divine realities. A foreigner might elect not to believe that the law of England forbade stealing, but upon his stealing he would feel the force of the law in which he elected not to believe. The law is not a visible object like the railway train, but it is none the less a reality. The Gospel of God goes forth and commands men to the obedience of faith; if men will not obey―if they persist in not believing―they do so at their eternal peril. In this there is perfect reasonableness. We feel that it is only reasonable and right for the law to punish the foreigner who would steal, and who would not yield his obedience to what he heard was the law of our country. No one would suggest that it was with him a matter for his choice whether to believe or not to believe, and that, even if he chose not to believe, it would all turn out right with him in the end when he stood before the judge!
On every hand we are reminded by the things of daily life of the principle of faith and of its reasonableness. There is a why and a wherefore for our faith in the affairs of daily life; there is a divine reason for our faith in God. We repeat, if God had not taught us, for example, why the death of His Son meets our need, and had only bidden us believe because He is God and commands us to believe Him, that had been enough ; but God has given us divine reasons and proofs why faith in Christ is our salvation, and it is our blessedness not only to believe, but also to enter into God’s mind respecting the actual and eternal efficacy of the work of His Son in which He enjoins us to trust.