“As it is written, the just shall live by faith” Romans 1:17
“…The justifier of him which believeth in Jesus” Romans 3:26
TROUGHOUT the epistle to the Romans a constant theme is reiterated: “The just shall live by faith” (Romans 1:17). Faith is central to the Gospel and to salvation by that Gospel.
In Romans 3:26 we read that God is the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. But how does one believe in Jesus? Just what is faith?
This is a question about which there is much confusion. Many think faith is just some belief in certain things, a belief which man can produce naturally, a response of man’s will to the Gospel. Yet scripture teaches clearly that man by nature is “dead in trespasses and sins” (Ephesians 2:1), that he is spiritually blind and spiritually deaf, and that he cannot know the things of God except the Spirit of God reveal them unto him. “The natural man receiveth not the things of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned” (see 1 Corinthians 2:10-16). No, man by nature does not have faith – it is something he must be given, something that is received, something that is obtained (2 Peter 1:1). Scripture teaches us that faith is the gift of God (Ephesians 2:8), a fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22), which is given to God’s people, in order that they might believe the Gospel preached unto them, and believe in Christ who is revealed by that Gospel. Faith comes by the preaching of God’s word for “how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher? … So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” Romans 10:14,17.
In Hebrews 11:1 we are told that “faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” It is that principle by which God’s people live, for “the just shall live by faith”, and without faith it is impossible to please God “for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him” (Hebrews 11:6). The faith of God’s elect was exemplified by that faith by which the Just One, the Lord Jesus Christ, also lived. Whilst He looked to His Father by faith, whereas the child of God also looks to Christ by faith, nevertheless His was a life of absolute trust in, and inner communion with, God His Father.
Not only is faith something shared by God’s people with Christ their Saviour, but faith itself cannot be divorced from that truth in which it believes. Faith believes, trusts, and rests in, the truth of the Gospel, in The Faith itself. The two are inextricably linked. One cannot have true faith except one hears the Gospel, and when God is pleased, by His Spirit, to open the ears to that Gospel, faith is the result – faith which believes the truth… and the One who is Truth, even Jesus Christ the Lord.
But there are some who speak of faith as being a mere mental assent to the truths of the Gospel. Yet true, saving faith, is far, far more than mere mental assent to the bare letter of truth. Whilst many do reject the truth, it is also true that many who are religious make mental assent to the Gospel – at least in part – whilst having no real, personal revelation of the Son of God as their Saviour. They consent to the facts, but the truth declared by those facts has never been revealed to them inwardly as a reality in which they are personally concerned. A bare intellectual belief that Christ’s blood was shed to wash away His people’s sins, does not mean for certain that we are one of those for whom that blood was shed – one of those who are brought to comprehend its application and worth spiritually. We can know much, but still be blind (Romans 2:17-29). True faith is far more than mental assent. It is that which springs from a new life within, having been born again of the Spirit (John 3), that which lays hold upon the Son of God as revealed inwardly in the heart of the believer as his personal Saviour, that which not only sees outwardly the blood shed to wash away sins, but knows the application of that blood sprinkled within, upon the heart and conscience. Yes, saving faith is a reality, not a mere mental assent. It is that by which we see and know, believe and trust, lay hold of and are united, inwardly and by revelation to the Son of God, who loved us and died for us, who believe.
“…it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb, and called me by his grace, to reveal his Son in me” Galatians 1:15-16.
“For by grace are ye saved, through faith; and that not of yourselves: if is the gift of God: not of works, lest any many should boast.” Ephesians 2:8-9
RELATED AUDIO MESSAGES
“The just shall live by faith” Hebrews 10:38
“That Our Eyes May Be Opened” Matthew 20:33
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