ix, 2, and Luke vii, 9). To another woman he said: "Daughter, be of good cheer; thy faith hath saved thee. And the woman was saved from that hour" (Matt. ix, 22). To the blind men who cried for his favor he said: "According to your faith be it done unto you. And their eyes were opened" (Matt. ix, 29). He taught his disciples that they might remove mountains by faith (Matt. xvii, 20; xxi, 21; Mark xi, 23; comp. 1 Cor. xiii, 2), and said in the same connection: "All things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive." He seems almost to employ hyperbole when he declares, "All things are possible to him that believeth" (Mark ix, 23). Many other examples in the synoptic gospels teach the same doctrine of faith, as a condition and means of obtaining the gracious help of God and of Christ. In the gospel of John, as the one passage already cited shows, faith is essential to salvation in Christ. "The right to become children of God" is given "to them that believe on his name" (i, 12; comp. ii, 23; iii, 18; 1 John iii, 23; v, 13). The great text in iii, 16, affirms that "whosoever believeth on" the only begotten Son of God shall not perish but have eternal life. In v, 24, it is declared that "he who heareth my word and believeth on him that sent me, hath eternal life, and cometh not into judgment." The same truth is reiterated in one form and another so as to be a characteristic formula of this Johannine gospel (comp. vi, 29, 35, 47; vii, 38; ix, 35-38; xi, 25, 26; xiv, 1, 11, 12). In fact this gospel claims to have been written "that ye may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye may have life in his name" (xx, 31). 8. Personal Confession. The act of personal confession may also well be mentioned in connection with this doctrine of faith. The two are closely associated in Rom. x, 9, 10: "If thou wilt confess the word with thy mouth, that Jesus is Lord, and wilt believe in thy heart that God raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved; for with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation." Some such confession of Christ is spoken of in Luke xii, 8, 9, as opposed to a denial in the presence of men (comp. Matt. x, 32; 1 John iv, 2, 3, 15). In the initial experience of salvation confession of sins must needs accompany the act of faith and the confession of Jesus Christ as Lord; for "if we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (1 John i, 9; comp. Matt. iii, 6). It is worthy of note that the word faith (riori) does not occur in John's gospel, and appears only once in the epistle (1 John v, 4), where it is called "the victory that overcame the world." CHAPTER III FORGIVENESS OF SINS AND RECONCILIATION 1. Greek Words for Remission. According to the words of Acts iii, 19, repentance and conversion are essentially preliminary to the blotting out of sins (τὸ ἐξαλιφθῆναι τὰς ἁμαρτίας), and the personal act of faith is the means whereby this blessed result is realized. But this idea of a removal of sin as a blotting out, wiping off, erasure, or obliteration (ešaλɛipw) of the sins of a human soul calls for separate examination. There are two Greek words in the New Testament which especially deserve our attention in connection with this subject, namely, apε015 (άμaptiwv) and dinaιów. The former may be translated remission, pardon, or forgiveness of sins; the latter means rather to justify, acquit, clear from guilt, pronounce righteous. Both terms contain a measure of forensic and juridical significance, and suggest the idea of a prisoner, a debtor, or a guilty person, whose merited penalty is discharged by order of a competent court. When such an act of pardon restores friendly relations between the offender and the party who has been wronged, it not only remits the penalty, but may also include the further idea of personal forgiveness, so that reconciliation is effected between those who were at enmity. Applying these analogies to the relations between a guilty sinner and the most holy God, we may discern a wonderful depth of meaning in such a statement as that of 2 Cor. v, 19: "God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, not reckoning unto them their trespasses." The trespasses are blotted out, removed, reckoned as if they had not been. According to Paul the sinner is freely justified through faith by the grace of God (Rom. iii, 24), and being thus justified he has "peace with God," and access into a state of blessed and glorious hope, having the love of God shed abroad in his heart by the Holy Spirit (Rom. v, 1-4). "We reckon therefore," he says (iii, 28), "that a man is justified by faith apart from the works of the law." He maintains (vii, 6) that "we have been discharged from the law, having died to that in which we were held down, so as to serve in newness of spirit." The wretched captive, whose struggle we saw depicted in Rom. vii, 15-25, accepts by faith the gracious pardon, obtains remission of sins, and "thanks God through Jesus Christ our Lord." 2. Peculiarity of Paul's Doctrine of Justification. The chief peculiarity of Paul's doctrine of justification by faith is the intensity with which he conceives it as proceeding from the saving grace of God. He sees in the example of Abraham that "faith was reckoned unto him for righteousness" (Rom. iv, 3), and the whole gospel of Christ is to him the revelation of "a righteousness of God" (dikaloσúvη dɛov, Rom. i, 17). It is "a righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ unto all them that believe" (Rom. iii, 22). The word righteousness here is not to be understood as an attribute of God in the sense of his divine justice; it is a righteousness which proceeds from God, and is extolled as a "free gift" (xápioμa), and a "gift in grace” (dwpeà èv xápiti, Rom. v, 15-17). He calls it in Phil. iii, 9, "that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God (ex deov) on the condition of faith." This righteousness or justification (for both these ideas run together in the word) is the gracious state which results immediately from the acquittal which goes with the forgiveness of sin.' If it seem astonishing that the "righteous Judge of all the earth," who revealed himself to Abraham as one who will distinguish between the righteous and the wicked (Gen. xviii, 25), should be declared by Paul to be God who "justifieth the ungodly" (Rom. iv, 5), let it be observed that the divine justification goes forth only "to him that believeth." "The righteousness which is of faith" insists that God's free gift comes not to every sinner; only to him who makes the needful confession, and "with the heart believeth unto righteousness" shall the salvation of God be given (Rom. x, 6-10). To all such "God reckons righteousness apart from works" (Rom. iv, 6, 11) in the fact that he reckons faith for righteousness, as in the case of Abraham. The sinner who "believes unto righteousness" is accordingly treated by God as freed from guilt and "from the law of sin and of death" (Rom. viii, 2). The act of faith on the part of the convicted and penitent sinner is accordingly followed by the gracious act of justification on the part of God. 3. Reconciliation. The result of this divine act of pardon is a state of reconciliation and peace between God and the believer. We have seen that, according to Paul, "the mind of the flesh is enmity (xopa) against God" (Rom. viii, 7); but "being justified by faith we have peace with God through Jesus Christ" (Rom. v, 1). 1 In the strict legal sense, as Merrill has observed, "pardon differs from acquittal. The latter term is applied where guilt is charged but not established. The innocent man, when found to be innocent, is acquitted. He is not pardoned, but justified as an innocent man. In such case there is no forgiveness. But the sinner is not innocent. The dreadful fact of his guilt is established, and cannot be ignored."-Aspects of Christian Experience, p. 79. Cincinnati, 1882. Such a peace with God involves the removal of the enmity, and the infusion of holy love and joy within the heart. This blessed result of heavenly grace is called in Rom. v, 11, "the reconciliation" ( xaraλλayń), and in the immediate context the apostle writes: "If, being enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, shall we be saved in his life" (ver. 10). This idea of reconciliation finds further expression in 2 Cor. v, 18-20: "All things are of God who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; to wit, that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, not reckoning unto them their trespasses, and having placed in us the word of the reconciliation." This "word of the reconciliation" is a sacred deposit in the hearts of those who like Paul had received a commission to preach this doctrine of reconciliation. They became ambassadors of Christ, and went about entreating men to "be reconciled to God." Such a ministry of reconciliation was not different from that "word which God sent unto the children of Israel, preaching good tidings of peace by Jesus Christ," mentioned in Acts x, 36. The preaching of this reconciliation is the preaching of "peace with God through Jesus Christ" which follows the free pardon of sin. This work of reconciliation through Christ is spoken of in Eph. ii, 14-18, as a removal of enmity between Jew and Gentile, and effecting peace between them both and God; thereby Christ "reconciled them both in one body unto God through the cross, having slain the enmity thereby; and he came and preached good tidings of peace to you that were far off (Gentiles), and peace to them that were nigh (Jews); for through him we both have access in one Spirit unto the Father." In a similar way, we are told in Col. i, 20-22, of God's "reconciling all things unto himself, having made peace through the blood of the cross," so that those who were once aliens and enemies in their evil works had become reconciled to him so as to be "presented before him holy and without blemish and unreprovable." This happy reconciliation with God is something to be received (Rom. v, 11: λaußávw, lay hold of; claim and take into possession as one's own blessed boon). But though appropriated by the act of faith, it is a gracious provision coming from the love of God for his enemies (Rom. v, 10). It is, in personal experience, the result of conviction of sin, repentance, turning to God, believing in Christ, receiving forgiveness of sins and justification before God. CHAPTER IV NEW BIRTH AND NEW LIFE 1. Comprehensive of the Other Experiences. But all these personal experiences of conviction, repentance, faith, forgiveness of sin, and reconciliation with God do not exhaust the mighty working of the power from on high whereby sinful man is brought into conscious favor and fellowship with God. Other truths vitally connected with these experiences of the soul appear in the biblical writings and are attested by an innumerable company of Christian believers. Chief among these is that mysterious work of the Holy Spirit which we commonly call regeneration, or the new birth. This must not be thought of as an experience that is subsequent to repentance and conversion. There can be no remission of sins and no sense of justification before God apart from the regeneration of the heart. We treat the subject in this relation because of the deeper and broader significance which it has for the whole Christian life. The new birth and the new life, which are contemplated in the spiritual regeneration of a sinner, will be found to be of the nature of a new creation, and in a broad yet true sense, comprehensive of all the experiences of personal salvation in Christ. Pardon and justification are gracious acts of God done for us; regeneration is a corresponding and concomitant work of the Holy Spirit wrought in us. 2. Idea of a New Heart in the Old Testament. The idea of a new spiritual life, begotten as by a special creative act of God, appears in various parts of the Old Testament. It is suggested by the metaphor of the circumcision of the heart in Deut. x, 16; xxx, 6; Jer. iv, 4. It seems implied in 1 Sam. x, 9, where God gives Saul "another heart." It finds strong expression in the penitential psalm (li, 10), "Create for me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me." It is set forth in language of remarkable spiritual depth and beauty in Ezek. xi, 19, and xxxvi, 26: "I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit will I put within you; and I will take away the heart of stone from your flesh, and will give you a heart of flesh; and my Spirit will I put within you." All these scriptures imply a radical change in the spiritual nature of man; not of course the creation of new substance, but such a quickening of all the forces of spiritual life as to produce another mode of life. |