Q. “M. W. K.” 1. What is the meaning of “The author and finisher of faith?” (Heb. 12:2).
2. Is there any difference, and what, if any, between the words “Faith of Christ,” or “of the Son of God”; and “faith in Christ Jesus”? Has 1 Peter 1:21 any relation to this subject? etc.
A. 1. The Lord is spoken of here as the one who had run the whole career of faith as a man on earth, until He sat down on the right hand of the throne of God. The cloud of witnesses of Hebrews 11 might fill up their little niche in the career of faith, and be an encouragement to those who were called to walk on the same principle; but there was one who had gone through the entire course, from beginning to end of the pathway. If the fathers had trusted in God and were delivered, He had cried and was not heard. All — even the cup of wrath — must be drained to the bottom before the answer came. He looked for comforters, and found none — His friend betrays; His disciples flee away; Peter denies Him. Forsaken of God, because made sin, He treads with unfaltering step the wondrous pathway, looking to the joy that was set before Him, till He sat down on high — the “Captain,” or “Leader, and Finisher of faith.” We look steadfastly upon Him, and are not only encouraged, as by the other witnesses, but are sustained and strengthened and upheld in the race that is set before us. In contemplating Him, the new man is in vigor and activity, and the weights and besetting sins are laid aside with ease.
“Author,” in this passage, is the same word as that translated “Captain” in Hebrews 2:10, and “Prince,” in Acts 3:15, and verse 31.
2. The expressions are substantially the same. There is, however; a nice shade of difference. In Galatians 2:16,20, we have the characteristic way by which we are justified, and by which we live — viz, “on the principle of faith,” Christ being the object of it — in contrast with “works of law.” So “we live,” also, by “faith” in the “Son of God,” as the object and motive and spring of our life.
In Galatians 3:25 — “Faith,” here, is the object of the apostle’s argument, in contrast to “the law” — Christ being He who is the object of this faith. 1 Peter 1:21 has no relation to this subject.
Words of Truth 3:178-180.