in which he was engaged he required to throw the strongest emphasis possible upon the immediate entrance of believers into this life. This insistence had manifold applications to the circumstances of his readers. It had, for example, a negative application to the antinomian tendency of Gnostic teaching, which John does not fail to press (1 Jn j5 .>!. 15 36) . < whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is begotten of God' (1 Jn 5'), and ' whosoever ia begotten of God doeth no sin ' (1 Jn 3'). It had also a positive application to their own encouragement : the simple believer was placed on a plane of life to which no know- ledge could attain ; the new life received by faith gave the victory over the world ; and John boldly challenges experience to point to any who have overcome the world but he that believes that Jesus is the Son of God (1 Jn 5*'). Accordingly, it is characteristic of John to announce that ' he that believeth hath eternal life ' (Jn 3^ 5^ 6"- ", 1 Jn 314. 18 511. u. IS) jjg even declares the purpose of his writing to be, in the Gospel, that his readers ' may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that, believing, they may have life in his name' (20^'); and in the First Epistle, that they that believe in the name of the Son of God ' may know that they have eternal life' (1 Jn 5'').
III. The Biblical Conception of Faith.— By means of the providentially mediated diversity of emphasis of the NT writers on the severd aspects of faith, the outlines of the biblical con- ception of faith are thrown into very high relief.
Of its subjective nature we have what is almost a formal definition in the description of it as an ' assurance of tilings hoped for, a conviction of things not seen' (He II'). It obviously contains in it, therefore, an element of knowledge (He 11*), and it as obviously issues in conduct (He 11", cf. 5°, 1 P F-). But it consists neither in assent nor in obedience, but in a reliant trust in the invisible Author of aU good (He 11-''), in which the mind is set upon the things that are above and not on the things that are upon the earth (Col 3", cf. 2 Co 4'«-", Mt 6^ 16*"). The examples cited in He 11 are themselves enough to show that the faith there commended is not a mere belief in God's existence and justice and goodness, or credit- ing of His word and promises, but a practical counting of Him faithful (11"), with a trust so profound that no trial can shake it (11"), and so absolute that it survives the loss of even its own pledge (U"). So little is faith in its biblical con- ception merely a conviction of the understand- ing, that, when that is called faith, the true idea of faith needs to be built up above this word (Ja 2""). It is a movement of the whole inner man (Ho 10'- '"), and is set in contrast with an unbelief that is akin, not to ignorance but to disobedience (He 3'«- '», Jn 3», Ro II*'-*' 15", 1 Th 1*, He 4»- >, 1 P !'• ' 3'- *> 4'e, Ac 14«- ' 19»), and that grows out of, not lack of information, but that aversion of the heart from God (He 3'^) which takes pleasure in unrighteousness (2 Th 2'"), and is so unsparingly exposed by our Lord (Jn 3" 5" 8" 10^). In the breadth of its idea, it is thus the going out of the heart from itself and its resting on God in confident trust for all good. But the scriptural revelation has to do with, and is directed to the needs of, not man in the abstract, but sinful man ; and for sinful man this hearty reliance on God necessarily becomes humble trust in Him for the fundamental need of the sinner — forgiveness of sins and reception into favour. In response to the revelations of His grace and the provisions of His mercy, it commits itself without reserve and with abnegation of aU self-dependence, to Him as its .sole and sufficient Saviour, and thus, in one act, empties itself of all
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claim on God and casts itself upon His grace alone for salvation.
It is, accordingly, solely from its object that faith derives its value. This object is uniformly the God of grace, whether conceived of broadly as the source of all life, light, and blessing, on wliom man in his creaturely weakness is entirely dependent, or, whenever sin and the eternal welfare of the soul are in view, as the Author of salvation in whom alone the hope of unworthy man can be placed. This one object of saving faith never varies from the beginnin" to the end of tlie scriptural revela- tion ; thdugii, naturally, there is an immense difference between its earlier and later stages in fulne.^ of knowledge as to tlie nature of the redemptive work hy whieli the salvation intrusted to God shall be accomplished ; and as naturally there occurs a very great variety of forms of state- ment in which trust in the God of ealvation re- ceives expression. Already, however, at tlie gate of Eden, the God in whom the trust of our tirst parents is reposed is the God of the gracious promise of the retrieval of the injury inflicted by the serpent ; and from that beginning of know- ledge the progress is steady, until, what is implied in the primal promise having become express in the accomplished work of redemption, the trust of sinners is explicit!}' placed in the God who was in Christ reconciling tlie world unto Himself (2 Co 5"). Such a faith, again, could not fail to em- brace with humble contidence all the gracious promises of the God of salvation, from which indeed it draws its life and strength ; nor could it faU to lay hold with strong conviction on all those revealed truths concerning Him wliicli constitute, indeed, in the varied circumstances in which it has been called upon to persist throughout the ages, the very grounds in view of which it has been able to rest upon Him with steadfast trust. These truths, in which the ' Gospel' or glad-tidings to God's people has been from time to time embodied, run all the way from such simple facts as that it was the very God of their fathers that had appeared unto Moses for their deliverance (Ex 4'), to such stujjendous facts, lying at the root of the very work of salvation itself, as that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God sent of God to save the worid (Jn e" 8" 11"-*' 13"' lO-''- »» 17*- " 2^fi\ 1 Jn 5"), that God has raised Him from the dead (Ro 10», 1 Th 4"), and that as His children we shall live with Him (Ko 6"). But in believing this variously presented Gospel, faith has ever terminated with trustful reliance, not on the promise but on the Promiser, — not on the propositions which declare God's grace and willingness to save, or Christ's divine nature and power, or the reality and perfec- tion of His saving work, but on the Saviour upon whom, because of these great facts, it could securely rest as on One able to save to the uttermost. Jesus Christ, God the Redeemer, is accordingly the one object of saving faith, presented to its embrace at first implicitly and in promise, and ever more and more openly until at last it is entirely explicit and we read that 'a man is not justified save through faith in Jesus Christ ' (Gnl 2'"). If, with even greater explicitness still, faitli is sometimes said to rest upon some element in the saving work of Christ, as, for example, upon His blood or His right- eousness (Ro S'", 2 I' 1'). obviously such a singling otit of the very thing in His work on which faith takes hold, in no way derogates from its rejio-se upon Him, and Him only, as the sole and sullicient Saviour.