CHAPTER VIII.

FAITH IN THE CROSS.

UNLESS we adopt the most dangerous error, we cannot deny that the Cross saves only those who believe. Until a man believes the Gospel, he is under the curse of the law; and if he never believes it, under the curse he must remain. Faith, on his part, is as necessary to his justification, as the righteousness of Christ is necessary, on God's part, in receiving him into favor. The language of the Scriptures, on this point, is as explicit as it can be. The death of Christ is declared to be a propitiation through "faith in his blood." "Being justified by faith," says the apostle, "we have peace with God." "The righteousness of God" is affirmed to be "by the faith in Jesus Christ." It is "unto all, and upon all them that believe." "A man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ." "The Scriptures conclude all under sin, that the promise, by faith in Jesus Christ, might be given to all them that believe."

In speaking, therefore, of the attraction of the Cross, we may not overlook the thought, that it is the object of saving faith. What is the faith of the Gospel? and why do the Scriptures attach so much importance to this particular grace, rather than any other, as the revealed condition of salvation? These two inquiries present the outline of the present chapter.

What is the faith of the Gospel? There are various graces of the Christian character, each of which possesses properties peculiar to itself. The distinctive character of each is decided by the object towards which it is appropriately exercised. None of them exist in the soul until it is converted to God, and acquires that new and spiritual life whereby the mind perceives new truths, and truths formerly perceived, with new and holy affections. They are not the production of nature, nor superinduced by any human discipline, or any persuasion or ingenuity of man, but wrought out and perfected by the spirit of God. "If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature." The elementary principles of faith are the same in all good men, and are found in substance in every regenerated mind. But it does not follow, that all the exercises of the renewed mind are of the same specific character. Love to God is not repentance; humility is not submission, nor is submission joy, nor is either of them faith. Love to God is exercised in view of the divine character; repentance in the more immediate view of sin; humility in view of personal unworthiness and ill-desert; submission in view of those dispensations of the divine government in which the will of God is opposed to our own; and faith in view of the method of salvation by Christ. The Cross is the peculiar and distinctive object of believing. Faith is the act of the mind which "receives and rests upon Christ alone, for salvation, as he is freely offered in the Gospel." God makes a grant of Jesus Christ in the Gospel to men as sinners. It is his own method of mercy, and is proposed to men with all its fullness, simply on the testimony of its divine Author. Jesus Christ complained of the Jews because they "received the testimony of men," but not "the testimony of God, which is greater." It is the peculiar province of

faith to receive this testimony, because it is his testimony who "cannot lie." In receiving this testimony, it receives and rests upon Christ for salvation. Impressed with the conviction of his own utter inability to meet the demands of the divine law, perceiving by the Cross where those demands are met, sensible that none but that great Sufferer can deliver him from going down to the pit, and appreciating Christ Jesus as "the end of the law for righteousness," the sinner reposes his confidence on that finished redemption. By this act of the mind he becomes a believer. Christ is his hope, and his Cross his refuge. What things were gain to him he now counts loss for Christ; his wisdom, folly; his own righteousness, as filthy rags; his former glory, but his present shame; his former security, but refuges of lies; his former hopes, but a spider's web:-"Yea, doubtless, he counts all things but loss, for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, his Lord." This is the faith of the Gospel. It is the combined act of the understanding and the affections. It carries with it the intellect, but much more the heart. It is the assent of the understanding and the consent of the will, uniting in a satisfied and gratified persuasion and confidence of the whole soul to the record which God has given concerning his Son. It is the grace which " sets to his seal that God is true," and by which an apostate sinner has a legitimate title to the name of Christian. Whatever concerns the Cross of Christ is a peculiarly interesting topic of thought to such a man. His faith looks to Christ as the God-man Mediator, coming to redeem a ruined world; as making an end of sin, and bringing in everlasting righteousas triumphing over death and the grave, ascending into heaven and sitting at the right hand of God, there, by the influence of his character and work, to

ness;

make intercession for his people. It appropriates this Saviour, in all his characters, as Prophet, Priest and King, atoning by his death, instructing by his word, and rescuing, defending and ruling by his power. It apprehends him as a complete and perfect Saviour, securing all that the sinner most needs and desires, all that is most valuable to the life that now is and that which is to come. It forms the bond of union between Christ and the soul, as the Finisher as well as the Author of salvation, as the head of all gracious influences, and as the only way of "increasing in all the increase of God." Such is the faith of the Gospel.

But the main object of the present chapter is to show, why the Scriptures attach so much importance to this particular grace, as the revealed condition of salvation, rather than to any other. That they do so is obvious, and there are not wanting important reasons for this wise and even necessary arrangement.

In adverting to some of these, it must strike every mind, that in the method of salvation by the Cross there is a demand for faith, which the exercise of no other Christian grace can satisfy. There are things to be believed, to be believed with the heart; and they are strange and wonderful things. Some of them constitute the mysteries of godliness. They are not the objects of human reason; they are not the subjects of observation and experiment; they are not capable of that sort of demonstration which is peculiar to those more exact sciences where the human intellect riots and revels in the discovery and enjoyment of its own high faculties. They are God in human nature; they are the infinite Deity, so loving a worm of the dust as to abandon his own Son to the agonies of the Cross; they are the substitution of the innocent for the guilty, and the efficacy of that substitu

tion, in defiance of all that is degrading and condemning in human wickedness, all that is imperative in the claims of the divine law, all that is terrible in death and the grave, and all that is mighty in the powers of darkness. Now, no other grace is fitted to come in the place of faith, when such wonderful proposals as these are made to the human mind. Love cannot reach them; penitence cannot reach them; humility cannot reach them; patience and meekness, long-suffering and self-denial, cannot reach them. They are the peculiar and exclusive objects of faith—of implicit faith in the divine testimony. They make their appeal, not to sense, not to reason for they are above and beyond reason-but to faith. So far are they beyond the range of human thoughts, that it is impossible to receive them without an unhesitating confidence in their divine Author. The Gospel is a revelation of wonderful truths and wonderful claims. It sets before us a mighty Saviour, and bids us trust in him. It tells us that God is just while he justifies, and calls upon us to believe it. It assures us that he is able to keep that which we have committed to him, and requires us to be satisfied that he is so. It reveals to us the duties of our high calling, the perils of our course, the conflicts with the sin that dwelleth in us, and with the world and the adversary without us; and while it promises that "as our day is, so shall our strength be," directs us to confide in that promise, and go on our way rejoicing. It points to the chamber of death, and bids us to go up to it with peace, because Jesus died. It points to the dark valley, and bids us go down through all its gloomy darkness, with a confidence and peace which the world cannot give, because "he rose again." It tells us to go forward, when, to mere sense and reason, all is midnight darkness. And it calls upon us cheerfully to venture on the ocean of eternity, because the God of