Saved by Grace Through Faith: What Spurgeon Says Faith Is

Theology Evangelism Christian Life

"Saved by grace through faith" comes from Ephesians 2:8. It means God saves sinners as a free gift that they don't earn (grace), and they receive that gift by trusting Christ (faith). Grace is the source. Faith is the means. C. H. Spurgeon spent most of his book All of Grace explaining this one verse, and he did it in plain words meant for anyone.

For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast.
Ephesians 2:8-9

Here is what Spurgeon teaches about grace, about faith, and about why God chose faith as the way. If you'd like the whole book in outline first, see the All of Grace summary.

Grace comes first

Spurgeon's title says it: salvation is all of grace. In chapter 7 he asks the reader to stop and look at where salvation starts. It doesn't start with us.

It is not because of anything in them, or that ever can be in them, that they are saved; but because of the boundless love, goodness, pity, compassion, mercy, and grace of God.
All of Grace, chapter 7

This is why the book opens with Romans 4:5 and the surprising phrase "him that justifieth the ungodly." God doesn't wait for people to become good. He justifies those who aren't.

But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.
Romans 4:5

He comes, not because we are just, but to make us so: he justifieth the ungodly.
All of Grace, chapter 3

How can a holy God do that and still be just? Spurgeon answers from Romans 3:26: Christ bore the penalty in our place. God is "just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus."

Faith is the channel, not the fountain

Spurgeon's best-known picture of Ephesians 2:8 is water. Grace is the spring. Faith is the pipe the water flows through.

Grace is the fountain and the stream; faith is the aqueduct along which the flood of mercy flows down to refresh the thirsty sons of men.
All of Grace, chapter 7

He keeps the order straight with a simple line:

We are saved "through faith," but salvation is "by grace."
All of Grace, chapter 7

That matters because people often turn faith into a new kind of work. They examine their faith, worry it isn't strong enough, and try to make it bigger. Spurgeon tells them to look somewhere else.

Never make a Christ out of your faith, nor think of it as if it were the independent source of your salvation.
All of Grace, chapter 7

By faith all things become possible to us; yet the power is not in the faith, but in the God upon whom faith relies.
All of Grace, chapter 7

So weak faith still saves, because the saving is done by Christ. "A trembling hand may receive a golden gift," he writes. In chapter 11 he says it again:

It is not great faith, but true faith, that saves…
All of Grace, chapter 11

What is faith?

In chapter 8 Spurgeon gives his clearest definition. Faith has three parts.

What is faith? It is made up of three things — knowledge, belief, and trust.
All of Grace, chapter 8

Knowledge. You can't trust what you've never heard. "Faith cometh by hearing," so learn what the gospel says, above all about Christ dying in the place of sinners.

So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
Romans 10:17

Belief. The mind accepts these things as true, the way you'd accept what a trusted friend tells you. Spurgeon says the difference between ordinary belief and saving faith lies mainly in what is believed.

Trust. This is the part that saves. The Puritans used the word "recumbency," which means leaning on something.

Lean with all your weight upon Christ.
All of Grace, chapter 8

He puts it another way a few paragraphs later:

Faith is believing that Christ is what he is said to be, and that he will do what he has promised to do, and then to expect this of him.
All of Grace, chapter 8

And he warns against stopping at the definition:

Better the poorest real faith actually at work, than the best ideal of it left in the region of speculation.
All of Grace, chapter 8

Pictures of faith

Chapter 9 is full of everyday pictures. Faith is the eye that looks at Christ, the hand that takes Him, the mouth that feeds on Him. The farmer trusts the seed, the sailor trusts the water to hold him up. And then there's the limpet clinging to a rock at the seaside:

Our little friend, the limpet, does not know much, but he clings.
All of Grace, chapter 9

Faith grows from simple clinging into a trust that knows Christ and loves Him. Real faith always leads to obedience. "Trust Jesus, and prove your trust by doing whatever he bids you."

Why faith, and not something else?

In chapter 10 Spurgeon asks why God chose faith rather than love or patience. His answers:

Faith only receives. It's like a child's hand taking an apple; the hand doesn't make or earn the apple.
Faith gives God the glory. It leaves no room for boasting, which is the point of Ephesians 2:9.
Faith joins us to God, like a rope thrown from the shore to a man in the river.
Faith moves the heart toward love, holiness and peace.

Faith is the tongue that begs pardon, the hand which receives it, and the eye which sees it; but it is not the price which buys it.
All of Grace, chapter 10

Even faith is a gift

Ephesians 2:8 says "that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God." Spurgeon agrees that faith itself comes from grace:

Faith is the work of God's grace in us
All of Grace, chapter 7

Yet he never lets that become an excuse to wait. The Spirit's work is hidden, but the command is plain. "It is ours to believe," he writes, "it is the Lord's to create us anew." And when someone says they've tried and can't believe, he answers: "The shortest way to believe is to believe."

And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.
Acts 16:31

Look and live

Spurgeon knew this from his own life. As a teenager he heard a sermon on "Look unto me, and be ye saved," and he looked. You can read how that happened in Who was Charles Spurgeon? His advice to every reader was the same: stop looking at yourself, even at your own faith, and look at Christ.

You must look away even from your own looking, and see nothing but Jesus, and the grace of God revealed in him.
All of Grace, chapter 7

For more of his words on grace, see All of Grace quotes. Better yet, read All of Grace for yourself. Chapters 7 through 12 cover everything in this article in Spurgeon's own warm, direct voice.