Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 1280
“For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision avails anything, nor uncircumcision; but faith which works by love.” Galatians 5:6.
THE most prominent doctrine in Paul’s teaching was that of Justification by Faith. He taught it so very plainly, so very boldly—I had almost said so very baldly—that it seemed necessary to the Holy Spirit that James should bear testimony to the necessity of holiness as the result of faith. Hence the Epistle of James is put into the sacred canon lest any should wrest and twist the language of Paul from its proper meaning. His great teaching—anybody can see this with half an eye—the great teaching of Paul is that we are saved by the Grace of God through faith in Jesus Christ. This doctrine has always been taught in the Church of God and it is, as Luther well put it, the standing or falling article—the test of a standing or a falling Church.
A Church which holds this doctrine in its integrity, notwithstanding many errors, is still a Church of Christ, but the church which denies this, whatever else it may hold, is against Christ, and is not a Church of Christ at all. The great Reformation, for which we so often bless God, was brought about by this light. The Truth of God, which had been hidden in darkness, was held forth in the preaching and teaching of Protestant Reformers. For a long time after those eminent men had departed, the testimony of all the Protestant Churches to Justification by Faith was clear and unwavering. You can scarcely read a sermon of any of the immediate successors of the Reformers, but you will find it filled with the doctrine that man is justified through the righteousness of Jesus Christ, by faith in Him and not by the works of the Law.
It was the same testimony which produced the revival in the last century, when Whitfield and Wesley awoke the slumbering masses of our population as they went forth through every town and hamlet preaching the Gospel. Whatever difference there might have been between those eminent Evangelists and their followers, they did not differ at all upon this point, that men are saved by believing in Jesus Christ—by resting upon the Atonement once offered for human sin upon the bloody tree of Calvary. And I rejoice, dear Friends, that this doctrine was never more clearly preached than now. As the time of the singing of birds has come and the Churches are waking up and expecting a blessed springtide, I thank God that there is this sign of its being a truthful work! Among other gracious signs it is conspicuous that Jesus Christ is preached and that faith in Him is declared to be of paramount importance.
That it is so is evident from the opposition which has been aroused! I can hear the voice of the old growler—he is a gentleman that never has been absent when the banner of Christ has been unfurled. He is beginning, again, to whine and snarl, as he always did, and to bark at this doctrine, in particular, as not according to holiness, subversive of morality and mischievous in all its tendencies! I shall not attempt to stop his growling. His temper tells its own tale. He and his cronies do but display their natural disposition. If dogs delight to bark and bite, Dr. Watts has taught us to let them do so, “for ‘tis their nature, too.”
I am not thinking of the cynical skeptic just now—my aim is to meet the sincere seeker. This objection takes the form of a difficulty in the minds of some who are anxious to find salvation. They say to themselves, “Can it be so? Is it possible that by simply believing on Christ, Himself, my soul can be saved? I can comprehend that this might be made a condition upon which God should pardon me, but that is not all I need. I need a new heart. I need a right spirit. It would be of little use for me merely to have my past sins forgiven. I need to become a better man. The salvation that I need is salvation from my sins, from temptations in the world and from the uprisings of my own naturally depraved heart. If I cannot get that, the mere pardon of sin is a very small business. I can understand, however, that God would pardon me upon my believing in Jesus. What I need to know is what effect my believing in Jesus will have upon me, personally—what change would accrue to my nature as the result of my believing.”
It is about that I want to talk—faith which works—faith which works! And I want to show something about how it works. It works “by love.” To begin, then, I shall first attempt to answer the enquiry, “What is the faith which saves the soul?” And I venture to answer the question, first, by saying that it does not differ as a mental act from any other kind of believing. I fully admit that there is much about faith that is mysterious and of that I may speak presently. But if any man asked me what the act of believing is, I should not hesitate to reply, “I believe God just the same as I believe anybody else—believe Him as I believe my father, as I believe my mother, as I believe my wife. It is the same mind which believes and it is the same act of the mind that comes into operation. It is a rational assent. Faith is to believe what God says, to take it to be true, real, a matter of fact.”