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cnpied by faith in the discussions of the Jewish schools, reflections of which have naturally found their way into the language of both Paul and James. And so far are we from needing to sup- pose some reference, direct or indirect, to Pauline teaching to account for James' entrance upon the question which he discusses, that this was a matter upon which an earnest teacher could not fail to touch in the presence of a tendency common among the Jews at the advent of Christianity (cf. Mt 3» 7'' 23', Ro 2"), and certain to pass over into Jewish-Christian circles : and James' treat- ment of it finds, indeed, its entire presupposition in the state of tilings underlying the exhortation of l**. When read from his o«ti historical stand- point, James' teachings are free from any dis- accord with those of Paul, who as strongly as James denies all value to a faith which does not work b_v love (Gal 5«, 1 Co 13», 1 Th 1»). In short, James is not depreciating faith : with him, too, it is faith that is reckoned unto righteousness (2-^), though only such a faith as shows itself in works can be so reckoned, because a faith which does not come to fruitage in works is dead, non-exist- j ent. He is rather deepening the idea of faith, and insisting that it includes in its very concep- tion something more than an otiose intellectual assent.
It was a far more serious task which was laid upon Paul. As apostle to the Gentiles he was called upon to make good in all its depth of meaning the fundamental principle of the religion of grace, that the righteous shall live by faitli, as over-against what haa come to be the ingrained legalism of Jewish thought now intruded into the Christian Church. It was not, indeed, doubted that faith was requisite for obtaining salvation. But he that had been bom a Jew and was conscious of the privileges of the children of the promise, found it hard to think that faith was all that was requisite. What, tlien, was the advantage of the Jew! In defence of the riglits of the Gentiles, Paul waa forced in the most uncompromising way to validate the great proposition that, in the matter of salvation, there is no distinction between Jew and Gentile, — that the Jew has no other righteousness than that which comes through faith in Jesus Christ (Gal 2"*«-)> anJ that the Gentile fully possesses this righteousness from faith alone (Gal S'"^-) ; in a word, that the one God, who is God of the Gentiles also, ' shall justify the circumcision by faith, and the uncircumcision through faith' (Ro 3™). Thus was it made clear not only that 'no man is justilied by the law' (Gal 2" 3", Ro 3="), but also that a man is justilied by faith apart from law-works (Ro 3*). The splendid vigour and thorouglme.ss of Paul's dialec- tic development of the absolute contrast between the ideas of faith and works, by virtue of whicli one peremptorily excludes the other, left no hiding-
Slace for a work-righteousness of any kind or egree, but east all men solely upon the righteous- ness of God, which is apart from the law and comes through faith unto all that believe (Ro 3"-"). Thus, in vindicating the place of faith as the only instrument of salvation, Paul necessarily dwelt mucli upon the object of faith, not as if he were formally teaching what the object is on which faith savingly lays hold, but as a natural lewnlt of his effort to show from its object the ail-Buf!iciency of faith. It is because faith lays hold of Jesus Christ, who was delivere<l up for our trespa-sses and was raised for our justification (Ro 4"), and makes us possessors of the righteous- ness provided by God through Him, that there is no room for any righteousness of our own in the ground of our salvation (Ro 10*, Eph 2*). This is the rea-son of that full development of the object
FAITH
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of faith in Paul's ^^Titings, and especially of the specific connexion between faith and the right- eousness of God proclaimed in Christ, by which the doctrine of Paul is sometimes said to be distinguished from the more general conception of faith which is characteristic of the Epistle to the Hebrews. This more general conception of faith is not, however, the peculiar property of that epistle, but is the fundamental conception of the whole body of biblical writers in OT and in NT (cf. Mt 6" 162=1, Jn 20-*- »', 1 P 1"), including Paul himself (2 Co 4i8 5', Ro 4'«-~ 8-^) ; while, on the other liand, the Epistle to the Hebrews, no less than Paul, teaches that there is no righteousness except through faith (10** 11', cf. U'').
That in the Epistle to the Hebrews it is the general idea of faith, or, to be more exact, the subjective nature of faith, that is dwelt upon, rather than its specific object, is not due to a peculiar conception of what faith lays hold npon, but to the particular task which fell to its writer in the work of planting Christianity in the world. With him, too, tlie person and work of Christ are the specific object of faith ( 13'- " 3" 10"). But the danger against which, in the providence of God, he was called upon to guard the infant flock, was not that it should fall away tnnu faith to works, but that it should fall away from faith into despair. His readers were threatened not with legalism but with 'shrinking back' (W), and he needed, therefore, to emphasize not so much the object of faith as the duty of faith. Accordingly, it is not so much on the righteous- ness of faith as on its perfecting that lie insists ; it is not so much its contrast with works as its contrast with impatience that he impicsses on his readers' consciences ; it is not so niucli to faith specifically in Christ and in Him alone that he exliorts them as to an attitude of faith — an altitude which could rise above the seen to the unseen, the present to the futiire, the temporal to the eternal, and which in the midst of sufferings could retain patience, in the niid.st of disajipoint- ments could preserve hope. This is the key to the whole treatment of faith in the Epistle to the Hebrews — its definition as the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen (11') ; its illustration and enforcement by the example of the heroes of faith in the past, a list chosen and treated with the utmost skill for the end in view (11); its constant attachment to tlie promises (41. a gii 1036.88 118 1389). ^g conuexiou with the faithfulness (U", cf. lO'*), almightiness (11"»), and tlie rewards of CJod (U"-''*); and its association with such virtues as boldness (3* 4" 10'"- "), con- fidence (3" 11'), patience (lU*" 12'), hope (3" e"-" 10-^).