do not do, is to believe on Him. He was lifted up, " That who- soever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life." (John iii. 15.) " He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God." (v. 18.) " He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life : but he that believeth not the Son shall not see life ; but the wrath of God abideth on him." (v. 36.) " This is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and be- lieveth on him, may have everlasting life : and I will raise him up at the last day." (John vi. 40.) " Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life. I am that
bread of life This is the bread which cometh down from
heaven, .... if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for- ever." (vers. 47-51.) In another place our Lord says, " This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent." (John vi. 29.) The passages, however, in which faith in Christ is expressly demanded as the condition of salvation, are too nu- merous to be cited.
• We are said to be saved by receiving Christ.
That Christ is the immediate object of saving faith is also taught in all those passages in which we are said to receive Christ, or the testimony of God concerning Christ, and in which this act of receiving is said to secure our salvation. For example, in John i. 12, " As many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God." "I am come in my Father's name, and ye receive me not." (John v. 43.) " If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater : for this is the wit- ness of God which he hath testified of his Son. He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself : he that believeth not God has made him a liar ; because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son." (1 John v. 9, 10.) " He that hath the Son hath life ; he that hath not the Son of God hath not life." (v. 12.) " Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God." (v. 1.) It is, therefore, receiving Christ.; re- ceiving the record which God has given of his Son ; believing that He is the Christ the Son of the living God, which is the specific act required of us in order to salvation. Christ, therefore, is the immediate object of those exercises of faith which secure salva- tion. And, therefore, faith is expressed by looking to Christ ; coming to Christ ; committing the soul to Him, etc.
98 PART HI. Ch. X VI.— FAITH.
Teaching of the Apostles. Accordingly the Apostle teaches we are justified " by the faith of Christ." It is not faith as a pious disposition of the mind ; not faith as general confidence in God ; not faith in the truth of divine revelation ; much less faith " in eternal verities," or the general principles of truth and duty, but that faith of which Christ is the object. Romans iii. 22 : " The righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe." Galatians ii. 16 : " Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law." iii. 24 : " The law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith." v. 26 : " For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus." Galatians ii. 20 : "I live by the faith of the Son of God," etc., etc.
Christ our Ransom.
Christ declares that He gave Himself as a ransom for many ; He was set forth as a propitiation for sins ; He offered Himself as a sacrifice unto God. It is through the merit of his righteousness and death that men are saved. All these representations which pervade the Scriptures necessarily assume that the faith which secures salvation must have special reference to Him. If He is our Redeemer, we must receive and trust Him as such. If He is a propitiation for sins, it is through faith in his blood that we are reconciled to God. The whole plan of salvation, as set forth in the Gospel, supposes that Christ in his person and work is the object of faith and the ground of confidence.
We live in Christ ly Faith. The same thing follows from the representations given of the relation of the believer to Christ. We are in Him by faith. He dwells in us. He is the head from whom we, as members of his body, derive our life. He is the vine, we are the branches. It is not we that live, but Christ, who liveth in us. These and other representations are utterly inconsistent with the doctrine that it is a vague general faith in God or in the Scriptures which secures our salvation. It is a faith which terminates directly on Christ, which takes Him to be our God and Saviour. God sent his Son into the world, clothed in our nature, to reveal his will, to die foi