THE correspondence which has lately appeared in the London Daily Telegraph has brought to light a remarkable variety of opinion as to what English people believe. “Oxoniensis’” letter raised the question of “Christian Belief.” Now Christian belief must necessarily depend on a Christian revelation, and raises two questions. Whom, or in whom, are we, as a professedly Christian people, to believe? And what? The only book that can give light upon these two questions is the Bible. Apart from that book all is darkness as to the Supreme Being (save the light creation affords as to His eternal power and godhead) and man’s moral and spiritual condition, and as to what (for man) lies beyond the grave.
The effort of man’s spiritual enemy has always been to set that book aside as a revelation from God, or to raise such questions and doubts about it as to destroy its authority. To give up the Scriptures as being that revelation is to give up the foundation of the Christian faith. It is the Scriptures the Holy Spirit of God livingly applies to men’s consciences and hearts. The Psalmist writes, “The entrance of thy words giveth light” (Psa. 119:130130The entrance of thy words giveth light; it giveth understanding unto the simple. (Psalm 119:130)), and the apostle Paul says, “Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Rom. 10:1717So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. (Romans 10:17)).
The strongest proofs of the truth and of the inspiration of the Scriptures are those found in its own pages. The creation of light before the sun, as stated in Genesis 1, and the rotundity of the earth (Isa. 40), while all the world until comparatively recent years believed the contrary are, amongst others, strong proofs; to which may be added the preservation of the Jews as a people distinct from others for two thousand years.
Returning to the question—
WHO IS TO BE BELIEVED?
It is the Supreme Being revealed in Scripture as Creator and as Saviour. Not a Supreme Being of men’s reasonings or imaginations, for that would give a hundred gods and more, but a Being who is revealed to man in the Scriptures, and livingly in and by Him who bears the name of “the Word of God”— the Lord Jesus Christ. “No man has seen God at any time, the only begotten Son which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him” (John 1:1818No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him. (John 1:18)). “He that hath seen me ‘lath seen the Father” (John 14:99Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Show us the Father? (John 14:9)). This is He who in the Scriptures and in the Person of “the Son” is the object of faith. The apostle Paul says, “I know whom I have believed” (2 Tim. 1:1212For the which cause I also suffer these things: nevertheless I am not ashamed: for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day. (2 Timothy 1:12)). Then as to
WHAT IS TO BE BELIEVED?
This involves the question of man’s moral condition and what means or way of recovery or salvation for man is found in the Divine revelation.
It has not been sufficiently noticed in the letters published that man’s condition is of a twofold character. First, he is, as a creature in responsibility to the Creator, guilty of numberless sins—or in other words, a sinner before God and needs forgiveness. Second, he is in heart and disposition a morally ruined creature, the springs of his moral being are poisoned by sin, and he is a corrupt fountain, “for out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies” (Matt. 15:1919For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies: (Matthew 15:19)), so that he “must (to use the language of John 3) be born again.”
Now the Scriptures are a testimony from God of a work done (the atoning death of Christ) which God, in the gospel, sets forth as a propitiatory (or mercy seat) for “faith in his blood” (Rom. 3:2525Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; (Romans 3:25)), and by which He can righteously forgive sins to every repentant sinner. No one during Christ’s lifetime came to Him with repentance but got what the woman in Simon’s house got— “Thy sins be forgiven thee: thy faith hath saved thee.... go in peace” (see Luke 7:48-5048And he said unto her, Thy sins are forgiven. 49And they that sat at meat with him began to say within themselves, Who is this that forgiveth sins also? 50And he said to the woman, Thy faith hath saved thee; go in peace. (Luke 7:48‑50))— and no one now can turn to God in repentance and confession of sins—one of the marks of repentance—but will get the same. In connection with this it is most striking that the New Testament opens with the call for repentance by John the Baptist, and by Christ, and this call is continued through the apostles. “But now God commandeth all men everywhere to repent, because he hath appointed a day in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained, whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead” (Acts 17:3030And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent: (Acts 17:30)).
There is no real Christian faith that is not accompanied by repentance. There may be a mental assent to the truths of Christianity—an educational faith. While this may lead to a measure of self-culture in restraining the passions and in self-improvement, yet it is powerless to implant in man spiritual life, so affecting him in the moral roots or springs of his being that the principles taught in the “Sermon on the Mount” become not only possible but congenial to him. This educational faith is the faith found wanting (ineffective) in John 2:23-25,23Now when he was in Jerusalem at the passover, in the feast day, many believed in his name, when they saw the miracles which he did. 24But Jesus did not commit himself unto them, because he knew all men, 25And needed not that any should testify of man: for he knew what was in man. (John 2:23‑25) and is immediately followed by the remarkable third chapter teaching the necessity of new birth. This it is that meets man’s actual, moral, and spiritual condition. Hence our Lord’s solemn words to Nicodemus— “Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again” (John 3:77Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again. (John 3:7)). This is the sovereign act of God by His Spirit, and it is in this way (and having purgation of his sins by the blood of Christ) that man becomes a “new bottle”— to use the figurative word of Matthew 9:1717Neither do men put new wine into old bottles: else the bottles break, and the wine runneth out, and the bottles perish: but they put new wine into new bottles, and both are preserved. (Matthew 9:17)—and can be a recipient of the Holy Spirit, as taught in John 4. where Jesus says, “If thou knewest the gift of God and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldst have asked of him and he would have given thee living water,” which, for the believer, “shall be in him a well (a fountain) of water springing up into everlasting life” (vers. 10:14).
Now, the question raised by “Oxoniensis” as to the honesty and reality of professed Christian belief, testing it by the Sermon on the Mount, can be answered. A mere mental, educational, or ecclesiastical faith will not stand that test, but the regenerated man made capable by the Spirit, can; for, although not perfectly, as seen in his Master—the Lord Jesus Christ—yet he seeks such perfection, and there will be seen in his life some or many of the lovely features of divine life in man there taught. “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance” (Gal. 5:2222But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, (Galatians 5:22)). These are not found in the natural man but are seen in the spiritual man—the one “born of the Spirit,” and these are the fruits contemplated in the Sermon on the Mount.
It may be said no one can effect new birth for himself—that is so, and no one can command the gift of the Holy Spirit, but is it not written, “If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?” (Luke 11:1313If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him? (Luke 11:13)). And it may be added, that though man is not responsible in respect of “new birth” and the gift of the Holy Spirit, yet he is responsible to repent and believe the gospel. This is the platform upon which he can meet God and find Him “a just God and a Saviour”; and from such the gift of the Holy Spirit will not be withheld, but, the rather, freely given, as freely as God forgives the sins of them that turn to Him.
God delights to give. He has proved His love to man in the gift of His Son “that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life”; and the scripture already quoted (John 4) shows from whom the priceless gift of the Holy Spirit can be got, and what the effect of that will be in the recipient.
Faith then becomes, by the Holy Spirit, a living force in our souls and a power in our lives, and we shall know what it is to possess the “Christian faith”— and the reality and joy of a living Christianity.
F. S. C.