ingl3' the divine mission and ])f'rson:ditv of Jesng lliiii.-elf (Jn0»»8-'' n-''--''' 13'" 14'" 10-''-*'l7»- =' 20»\ 1 Jn 5'-'). By their side we may recall also the rare construction with the infinitive (Ac 15", Ro 14=).
When we advance to the constructions with prepositions, we enter a region in which the deeper sense of the word — that of firm, trustful reliance — conies to its full rights. The construction with 4y, which is the most frequent of the constructions with prepositions in the LXX, retires almost out of use in NT ; it occurs with certainty only in Mk 1'°, where the object of faith is 'the gospel,' though Jn 3", Eph l" may also be instances of it, where the object would be Christ. The implica- tion of this construction would seem to be firm fixedness of confidence in its object. Scarcely more common is the parallel construction of irl with the dative, expressive of steady, resting repose, reliance upon the object. Besides the quotation from Is 28'*, which appears alike in Ro 9^ 10", 1 P 2", this construction occurs only twice : Lk 24=°, where Jesus rebukes His followers for not ' believing on,' relying implicitly upon, all that the prophets have spoKen ; and 1 Ti 1'", where we are declared to ' believe on ' Jesus Christ unto salvation, i.e. to obtain salvation by relying upon Him for it. The constructions with prepositions governing the accusative, which involve an impli- cation of ' moral motion, mental direction towards,' are more frequently used. That with ^wi, indeed, occurs only seven times (four of which are in Ac). In two instances in Ro 4, where the reminis- cence of the faith of Abraham gives colour to the language, the object on which faith is thus said relyingly to lay liold is God, described, however, as savingly working through Christ — as He that justifies the ungodly. He that raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. Elsewhere its object is Christ Himself. In Mt 27" the Jewish leaders declare the terms on which they will become ' believers on ' Jesus; in Ac 10"' this is the form that is givsn to the proclamation of salvation by faith in Christ — 'turn with confident trust to Jesus Christ', and appropriately, therefore, it is in this form of expression that those are designated who have savingly believed on Christ (Ac 9" 11" 22'»). The special NT construction, however, is that with eh, which occurs some forty-nine times, about four- fifths of which are Johannine and the remainder more or less Pauline. The object towards which faith is thus said to be reliantly directed is in one unique instance ' the witness which God hath witnessed concerning his Son' (1 Jn 5'"), where we may well believe that ' belief in the truth of the witness is carried on to personal belief in the object of the witness, that is, the Incarnate Son Himself.' Elsewhere the object believed on, in this construction, is always a person, and that very rarely God (Jn 14', cf. 1 Jn 5'°, and also 1 P 1=', where, however, the true reading is prob- ably jri<rToi>s fit 6c6p), and most commonly Christ (Mt 18", Jn2" 3>«-i8w 4'» C="- '"•■"' 75- 'i- >^- !»• « si"
Ac 10" 14=» 19*, Ro lo"*- '^ Gal 2'«, Ph 1», 1 P !»', 1 Jn 5'», cf. Jn 12*" l'" 2» 3'», 1 Jn 5'»). A glance over these passages will bring clearly out the pregnancy of the meaning conveyed. It may be mure of a question wherein the pregnancy resides. It is probably sufficient to find it in the souse conveyed by the verb itself, while the preposition adjoins only the person towards whom the strong feeling expressed by the verb is directed. In any event, what these passages express is ' an absolute transference of trust from our.selves to another," a cdiMpIcle self-surrender to Christ. Some confirmation of this explanation of the I strong meaning of the phrase rurrtijeiy tls may be
830
FAITH
FAITH
derived from the very rich use of the verb abso- lutely, in a sense in no way inferior. Its absolute use is pretty evenly distributed through the NT, occurring 29 times in John, 23 times in Paul, 22 times in Acts, 15 times in the Synoptics, and once each in Hebrews, James, 1 Peter, and Jude ; it is placed on the lips of Jesus some 18 times. In surprisingly few of these instances is it used of a non-religious act of crediting, — apparently only in our Lord's warning to His followers not to believe when men say ' " Lo, here is the Christ," or ;■ here " ' (Mt 24a>- », Mk 13-'). In equally surpris- ingly few instances is it used of specific acts of faith in the religious sphere. Once it is used of assent given to a specific doctrine — that of the unity of God (Ja 2"). Once it is used of believing prayer (Mt 21^). Four times in a single chapter of John it is used of belief in a specific fact — the great fact central to Christianity of the resurrec- tion of Christ ( Jn 208- •»• ■■^- ^). It is used occasion- ally of belief in God's announced word (Lk 1", Ac 2G-''), and occasionally also of the credit given to specific testimonies of Jesus, whetlier with refer- ence to earthly or heavenly things (Jn 3'^- '- l"", Lk 22"), passing thence to general faith in the word of salvation (Lk 8'-- "). Twice it is used of general soteriological faith in God (Jude °, Ro 4'*), and a few times, with the same pregnancy of im- jilication, where the reference, whether to God or Christ, is more or less uncertain ( Jn 1', Ro 4", 2 Co 413.13) Ordinarily, however, it e.xpresses soterio- logical faith directed to the person of Christ. In a few instances, to be sure, the immediate trust expressed is in the extraordinary power of Jesus for the performance of earthly effects (the so-called ' miracle faith '), as in Mt 8>», Mk 5^ 9^-^, Lk 8", Jn 4''* 11** ; but the essential relation in which this faith stands to ' saWng faith ' is clearly exhibited in Jn 4*^ compared with v." and 9^, and Jn ll" compared with v." and 12'' ; and, in any case, these passages are insignificant in number when compared with the great array in which the refer- ence is distinctly to saving faith in Christ (Mk 9" W [Jn 3'°], Jn 3'8 4«. «. m 544 gss. 47. »4. m 933 io=»-2» 11" 12»» 14-« 16" 19°* 20", Ac 2«4*-«' 5" 8" IP'