The Orthodox Doctrine, as to the Nature of the Atonement, Proved from the Teachings of Scripture as to the Nature and Office of Faith
Our view of the nature of the Atonement, and of the federal union subsisting between Christ and his people, is the only one consistent with the teaching of Scripture as to the nature and office of FAITH.
The most prominent and important characteristic of the gospel preached by the apostles is, that they habitually presented salvation to all their hearers as an instant gift to follow immediately upon the exercise by them of faith on the Lord Jesus Christ. Nothing beside this was required. No other condition was necessary in addition to this in order to render it effective. Whenever this condition was present, the gift of salvation was in no case either denied or delayed. The single direction given to every inquirer was, “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.”
Now it is susceptible of demonstration that this faith, as set forth in Scripture as the condition of salvation, is not mere assent of the mind to the claims of Christ’s person or to the truth of his doctrine, but that, together with this assent, it includes trust or reliance upon him and his finished work. This is certain, because —
1. To believe “iV or “o?i” a person necessarily involves trust, reliance, of which his character and his doings are the ground, as well as credit or assent to the truthfulness of his communications. And it is a fact that the sole condition of salvation is habitually presented in the Scriptures by the phrases, “to believe in or upon Christ Jesus;” e«c or Ine rbv Xpeffrov, and e«c TO ovopa Xptarou, and sv TW Xpiarw. John iii. 18: “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.” John iii. 36: “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life.” John vii. 38: “He that believeth on me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.” Acts ix. 42; xvi. 31: “And they said believe on the Lord Jesus Christ (1x rbv Kupeov, &c.), and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.” Gal. ii. 16: “Even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ.”
2. We are said to be saved by faith in or upon Christ, Ttlart$ e«c rov Xpearbv and su Xptarqj. Acts xx. 21; xxvi. 18; Gal. iii. 26; Col. i. 4.
3. This one special act of faith, which is the single yet indispensable condition of salvation, is in Scripture illustrated by a variety of paraphrases, describing in other words the nature of the thing to be done. These are such as, “Coming to Christ;” John vi. 35: “I am the bread of life; he that cometh to me, shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me, shall never thirst.” Receiving Christ; John i. 12: “But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.” Flying to Christ for refuge; Heb. vi. 18: “That by two immutable things, in which it was impossibk for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us.’7 Committing all our interests to his keeping; 2 Tim. i. 12: “For I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day.”
4. The effects inseparable from this faith are of such a nature as to show that the faith itself is an act of the whole soul embracing Christ, relying upon him and appropriating his whole work as the basis of our future life and happiness. By faith we are united to Christ. He dwells in our hearts by faith. Eph. iii. 17. It is by faith that we eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of God. “He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him.’7 John vi. 56, &c.
It must be remembered that this form of presenting the gospel is not one form among several others, but it is the one sole way in which the gospel was offered by the apostles to sinners in their day, and it is the form in which the gospel has always been presented, when it has been accompanied with the witness of the Holy Ghost, from the day of Pentecost until the present time. And if the Church doctrine of the literal substitution of Christ in the law-place of his people, and his vicarious suffering of their penalty in order to expiate them and propitiate God, is acknowledged, then all this scriptural usage with respect to faith in Christ as the sole condition of salvation is very plain. If his sufferings exhaust the penalty for which we were bound — if his obediencr merits an eternal reward for us — then all we can have to do is to accept and appropriate his finished substitutionary work, and to trust upon it implicitly as the legal and meritorious foundation on which our entire hope is built. And such a faith, when once exercised, will immediately secure its end. The instant we believe, the righteousness of Christ in all its fulness and federal rights is ours for ever. And the instant we exercise such a faith, we are united forensically to its object in an ineffable and perpetual communion (xo/vwvla) of all relations, honours and rights.
On the other hand, according to the Moral Influence Hypothesis, a sinner may with evident propriety be called to credit the communications of the divine Messiah, and to yield obedience and sympathy to the spiritual influence of the heavenly Medium of the Father’s love to man. But on this hypothesis, it is only in a very far-fetched sense that we could be said to trust on him, and to commit all our interests to his charge. And it is simply preposterous to pretend that the Scriptures would make trust in Christ the one sole and essential thing to be done in order to the remission of sins, if the whole design and effect of the work of Christ was to produce a moral impression upon ourselves, that is, save us by persuading us to be good. If that were so, the one characteristic point of the gospel would be to make us look inward and reform. On the other hand, as above shown, and as the whole world knows, the one characteristic point of the gospel is to make us look outward to Christ, and trust self-abandoningly upon him.
It is true, also, that the scriptural language with respfct to faith refuses absolutely to coalesce with the
Governmental Hypothesis. If it be true that Chris did not suffer in the strict sense as our Substitute; if he did not occupy our law-place in the covenant upon the fulfilment of which our life was suspended; if he did not suffer the penalty of the law in our stead; if his righteousness is not credited to our account as the ground of our justification; if the effect of his death is actually to save none, but to put all men indiscriminately in a salvable state; — then, in such a case, there can obviously be no propriety in our being required to believe on Christ as the one sole condition of salvation. In such a case it would be congruous enough to require us to submit to God as Sovereign, and to credit the personal claims, the official character, and the infallible teaching of Christ. We may even with sufficient propriety be required to trust to his work as far as it is concerned in putting us in a salvable condition. But it plainly would be absurd, in that case, to make the one sole condition upon which remission of sins and actual salvation is instantly suspended to be tiust upon Christ — ignoring the fact that his work, costly as it is, is only one of the independent grounds on which our salvation depends.
On the Governmental Hypothesis, faith must be either (a) the sovereignly imposed condition of salvation, or (6) as including evangelical obedience accepted in the place of perfect legal obedience for Christ’s sake, as the ground of our justification. But since saving or justify ing faith, as above shown, involves trust, its very essence excludes the possibility of its being itself the ground upon which justification depends. Faith is in its nature self-emptying, appropriating and building upon that on which its trust terminates. If belief in or upon Chris* is the sole condition of salvation, if it is the one thing to be done by the inquirer, and if salvation invariably follows upon its exercise, then it is beyond question that Christ’s person and work, on which the faith terminates, must be the ground, the meritorious principle, on which the salvation rests, and the efficient virtue by which it is effected.
Thus the very nature of Caving faith, as set forth in the constant language of Scripture, makes it evident that it is the instrument whereby we are united to Christ and made participants in his righteousness, and in all the covenanted consequences thereof. 20 *