The Wednesday Word
The
Gospel Truth About Faith (Part 1)
“Faith
claims a King,
An all-atoning Priest:
It claims no merit of
its own,
But looks for all in Christ.”
“Therefore,
being justified by faith, we have peace with God”
-Romans
5:1 [KJV]
Does
God look for faith in a believer and then, upon seeing this faith,
declares the believer not guilty? Well if you were to believe what
many say about this matter you would think yes, absolutely yes!
But this theory is a grim error. The gospel knows nothing of the
sort!
Saving faith is not a quality within us. We
are saved entirely by a work outside of us. Faith, however,
takes a hold of the gospel, and sees that it is perfect, sufficient
and finished.
Faith sees that our salvation has been
accomplished by the Lord Jesus.
Faith acknowledges that
all things necessary to make us accepted before God have already been
done in the substitutionary work of Christ. It
is finished!
Faith takes hold of the good news that in our name and on our behalf,
Jesus Christ lived, died and rose again.
Faith sees that
Jesus as our substitute and representative has met and fulfilled
every righteous requirement needed to restore us to God.
Faith
sees that the Christ event is sufficient and complete and that
nothing whatsoever can be or indeed needs to be added to it.
But
we must never think that faith is a quality in us that saves
us.
Faith embraces the fact that Jesus Christ alone
saves. Faith sees that He is enough.
Since Christ’s
work for us in salvation is finished, nothing can be added to His
accomplishments. Since redemption is secured, salvation is not
a matter of Christ plus faith. Where so many depart from the
gospel is that they believe their faith makes them accepted to
God. But faith in no way makes us accepted to the Father. We
are only accepted in the acceptable One, Jesus Christ.
I
like Spurgeon in his Morning and Evening, June 28th, Reading’ He
says, ‘It is not your hold of Christ that saves you … it is
Christ. It is not your joy in Christ that saves you … it is
Christ. It is not even faith in Christ, though that is the
instrument … it is Christ’s blood and merits which saves.
Do not look to your hope, but to Christ, the source of your
hope.’
Amen brother Spurgeon! It is vital that we
do not look to our faith to save, but to Christ, the author and
finisher of our faith.
We must be very clear about this …
it’s worth repeating … although we are saved through faith, faith
is not our saviour. Our Saviour is Jesus Christ alone and our
salvation is in Him alone! He is the object of our faith. He
alone is the Redeemer. What faith does is to take a hold of
Jesus and His accomplishments and make them our own.
Faith
grasps that our righteousness is not in ourselves but rather outside
of us in Christ Jesus. But faith does not bring salvation into
existence nor does it produce the righteousness by which God
justifies us. What faith does, however, is to take something
already in existence and enables us to reckon it as our own! (to
be continued).
And
that’s the Gospel Truth!
-preacher D.G. Miles McKee
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