It is plain, now, that John's idea of faith includes the element c 'cleaving to Christ as well as of accepting him ; and this cleaving to him includes the idea of fall trust in Christ as Saviour, as illustrated in the important passage, John iii, 15: 'iva ttuq 6 iriaTiviov iv aiiTiji (tliat whosoever helieveth in him, not dc ah- Tov. Tischondorf iv, Lachmann Itt' al'Tov). " Here is involved the anguish, in the believer, of the bite of the fiery serpent, and the earnest looking on him in whom sin is crucified with the inner eye of foith" (Al- ford, in loc.). In this full sense of the word John uses TTKTTiino by itself (to believe') in i, 7, 51; iv, 41, 42, 48, £3; vi, 36, 64; ix, 38; x, 25, 26; xi, 15, 40; xii, 39, 47; xiv, 29; xvi, 31; xix, 35; xx, 31 (comp. iii, 12; vi, 69 ; XX, 8, 25, 29). And this faith is the condition of the gifts of life,liglit, and salvation ; John x, 26, 27; iii, 12, 16, 18, 36 ; vi, 35, 40, 47 ; vii, 38 ; xi, 25, 26 ; xx, 31 (comp. v, 38); viii, 24; i, 12; xii, 36, 46 (comp. viii, 12 and xi, 40).
(3.) Paul's use of tticttii'iiv also includes the idea of intellectual conviction, recognition; see the passages above cited under TricrriQ, and comp. also Kom. iv, 20 (strong in faith) ; i, 5 ; x\i, 2G, and tlie relation of TTinrivtiv to Ki^woTHV (Kom. x, 14, 16; 1 Cor. xv, 2, 11 ; Ephes. i, 13). But the sense of trust in Christ as Saviour is alwaj'S predominant in Paul. The con- struction TTidTclniv Ttvi, to trust, relij upon, is found 2 Tim. i, 12 (I know in whom I have heliered, and am permnded); Tit. iii, 8; Pom. iv, 3; Gal. iii, G; Pom. iv, 6 ; compare iv, 18. Instead of the dative we find TTWTtvuv ini Ttvn, Pom. iv, 5: iyrl rii- OiKcnovvra ruv c'«T(liii (on him that justifieth the migodly), iv, 24. Tlie TTtdTti'HV tic; denotes always faith in Christ (Rom. X, 14; Gal. ii, 16; Phil, i, 29); likewise tTri witli the dative, 1 Tim. i, 16 ; Pom. ix, 33. And ttkt- Tivnv is used standing alone to designate the fullest trust of faith. Pom. i, 16 ; iii, 22 ; iv, 11, 18 ; x, 4, 10 ; xiii, 11; XV, 13; 1 Cor. i, 21; iii, 5; xiv, 22; 2 Cor. iv, 13 ; Gal. iii, 22 ; Ephes. i, 13, 19 ; 1 Thess. i, 7 ; ii, 10, 13 ; 2 Thess. i, 10.
Iu James ii, 19, to believe denotes intellectual assent, but in ver. 23 it denotes trust (see under Tri'crric). In Peter the two elements of assent and trust are con- joined (comp. 1 Pet. i, 8, with ii, 6, 7 ; i, 21).
In the Acts and Synoptical Gospels, the import of the word (whether assent or trust, or both conjoined) must be decided bj'' the context.
The result of our examination is, that " faith" in the N. T. inchides three elements, each and all necessary to the full meaning of the word, wliile one or another of them may liecome prominent according to the con- nection, viz. (1) full intellectual acceptance of the rev- elation of salvation ; (2) adherence to tiie truth and to the person of Christ thus accepted ; (3) absolute and
exclusive trust in the redeeming work of Christ for salvation. In no one of the writers of the New Testa- ment is any one of tliose tiiree elements wanting.
(II.) Early IJistury of the Doctrine of Faith. — 1. In the early Church, the Pauline doctrine of faith as a condition of justification was universally maintained. But the Eastern thinkers did not give much attention to faith in a doctrinal way, and its true meaning was not prominently developed, nor was the distinction be- tween faitli and works (as conditions) sharplv drawn. During the Apologetic period (from A.D. lOO to A.D. 250), while attention was " principally directed to the- oretical Ivnowledgo, /((iV/j was for the most part consid- ered as historico-dogmatic faith in its relation to -^vCo- aiQ. This gave rise to the opinion that knowledge in divine things justifies, while ignorance condemns. Mi- nucius Felix (f 208), 35 : Imperilia Dei sufjicit ad pm- nam, notitia prodest ad veniam. Theophilus of Antioch (t 181) also knows of a fdes historica alone, upon which he makes salvation to depend, i, 14 : ' Airui'ti^iv ovv \«/3(tJV Twv yivopiiH))v kuI ■Kgoavawi^u>vi]piVii)v, ovK inntjTixi, uWu TTiartvio ■aiiSia^t'^Cov 5it<ij, oj £('' ftov- \ii Kai ai' iiTroT(iyi]Bi, Tricrrtvuiv aiiToj, j-o) I'l'v cnria-
^!](JaQ,TZil(T^7}f2 UVIWIUVOQ TUTt tV OKKJ'IOIt; Tiiitopiatc-
But, tliough it was reserved for men of later times to investigate more profoundl}' the idea of justifying faith in the Pauline sense, yet correct views on this subject were not entirely wanting during this period." Cle- ment of Rome (f 100) says in a Pauline spirit, " Call- ed by the will of God in Christ, we can be justified, not by ourselves, not by our own wisdom and piety, but only by faith, bj^ which God has justified all in all ages. But shall we on this account cease from doing good, and give up charity .' No, we shall labor with unwearied zeal as God, who has called us, alwa3'8 works, and rejoices in his works" (1 J'Jp. ad Cor. c. 32, 83). IreniEUS (f 202) contrasts the new joyful obedi- ence which ensues on tlie forgiveness of sins with the legal stand-point. " Tlie law which was given to bondmen formed men's souls by outward corporeal work, for it coerced men by a curse to obey the com- mandments, in order tliat thej' might learn to obey God. But the Word, the Logos who frees the soul, and through it the body, teaches a voluntarj' surrender. Hence the fetters of the law must be taken off, and man accustom himself to the free obedience of love. The obedience of freedom must be of a higher kind ; we are not allowed to go back to our earlier stand- point ; for he lias not set us free in order that we may leave him ; this no one can do who has sincere!}' con- fessed him. No one can obtain the blessings of salva- tion out of communion with the Lord; and the more we obtain from him, so much tlie more must we love him ; and the more we love liim, so much greater glo- ry shall we receive from him" (Irenieus, Hen; bk. iv, chap, xiii, 1, 23; Neander, History of Dugmas, Pyland, p. 216). Tertullian (220) adv. Marc, v, 3 : Exfdei li- bertate justijicatur homo, non ex Icgis serritide, quia Jus- tus ex fide rivit. According to Clement of Alexandria (I 21H), faith is not onh' tlie key to the knowledge of God (Coh. p. 9), but by it we are also made the chil- dren of God (ib. p. 23). Clement accurately distin- guishes between theoretical and practical unbelief, and understands by the latter the want of susceptiliility of divine impressions, a carnal mind which would have everything in a tangilile shape (^Strom. ii, 4, p. 436). Origen (A.D. 250) in Num. Horn, xxvi (0pp. iii, p. 369): Impossibile est salrari sine fide; Comni. in Ep. ad Rom. (0pp. iv, p. 517) : Eliamsi opera quis habtat ex lege, tamen, quia non sunt cedificata supra fundamentum fidei, quamvis videantur esse bona, tamen operatorem suum ju.st'ficare non possvnt, qrtod eis deest fides, qum est signaculum eorum, qui justificantur a Deo (Hagenbach, History of Doctrines, § 70; comp. also § 34). Apolli- naris (f 385) on John vi, 27, says : " The eternally en- during food, by which Ave are sealed by the Father and assimilated to Christ, is the faith which makes alive;"