Ephesians 2:8,9; Hebrews 11:1-3; John 13:23
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.
Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it the elders obtained a good report. Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.
Now there was leaning on Jesus’ bosom one of his disciples, whom Jesus loved.
CASPER OLEVIANUS (1536-1587): What is true faith?
MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): It is “the substance of things hoped for.” Faith and hope go together; and the same things that are the object of our hope, are the object of our faith. It is a firm persuasion and expectation that God will perform all that He has promised to us in Christ…It is “the evidence of things not seen.” Faith demonstrates to the eye of the mind the reality of things that cannot be discerned by the eye of the body. Faith is the firm assent of the soul to the divine revelation and every part of it, and sets to its seal that God is true. It is a full approbation of all that God has revealed as holy, just, and good.
CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): Faith comprehends within its grasp the past, the present, and the future. By it, the Christian knows that the universe, but a few thousand years ago, had no existence, and that it was created out of nothing by the Word of God.
ZACHARIAS URSINUS (1534-1583): True faith is not only a certain knowledge, whereby I hold for truth all that God has revealed to us in His Word, but also an assured confidence, which the Holy Ghost works by the gospel in my heart; that not only to others, but to me also, remission of sin, everlasting righteousness and salvation, are freely given by God, merely of grace, only for the sake of Christ’s merits.
HULDREICH ZWINGLI (1484-1531): Faith is a matter of fact, not of knowledge or opinion; for it is born only when a man begins to despair of himself, and to see that he must trust in God alone. And it is perfected when a man wholly casts himself off and prostrates himself before the mercy of God alone, in such a fashion as to have entire trust in it because of Christ who was given for us. What man of faith can be unaware of this? For then only are you free from sin when the mind trusts itself unwaveringly to the death of Christ and finds rest there.
WILLIAM GURNALL (1617-1679): Faith is that act of the soul whereby it rests on Christ crucified for pardon and life, and that upon the warrant of the Word. The person of Christ is the object of faith as justifying: secondly, Christ as crucified. First, the person of Christ, not any axiom or proposition in the Word―this is the object of assurance, not of faith. Assurance saith, “I believe my sins are pardoned through Christ;” Faith’s language is, “I believe on Christ for the pardon of them.”
C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): What is faith? Even those who know what faith is, personally and experimentally, do not always find it easy to give a good definition of it. They think they have hit the mark; then, afterwards, they lament that they have failed. Straining themselves to describe one part of faith, they find they have forgotten another, and in the excess of their earnestness to clear the poor sinner out of one mistake, they often lead him into a worse error. So that I think I may say that, while faith is the simplest thing in all the world, yet it is one of most difficult upon which to write.
JOHN G. PATON (1824-1907): For a long time no equivalent could be found for the word “faith” in the native language of Aniwa Island, and my work of Bible translation was paralyzed for the want of so fundamental a term. The natives apparently regarded the verb “to hear” as equivalent to “to believe.” I would ask a native whether he believed a certain statement, and his reply would be, should he credit the statement, “Yes, I heard it,” but should he disbelieve it, he would answer, “No, I did not hear it,” meaning, not that his ears had failed to catch the words, but that he did not regard them as true. This definition of faith was obviously insufficient.
I prayed continually that God would supply the missing link, and spared no effort in interrogating the most intelligent native pundits, but all in vain, none caught the hidden meaning of the word. One day I was in the Mission House anxiously pondering. I sat on an ordinary kitchen chair, my feet resting on the floor. Just as an intelligent native woman entered the room, the thought flashed through my mind to ask the all-absorbing question again, if possible in a new light. Was I not resting on the chair? Would that attitude lend itself to the discovery? I said, “What am I doing now?” “Koikae ana,” the native replied, “you are sitting down.”
Then I drew up my feet and placed them upon the bar of the chair just above the floor, and leaning back in an attitude of repose, asked, “What am I doing now?” “Fakarongrongo,” she said, meaning “you are leaning wholly, or you have lifted yourself from every other support.” “That’s it!” I shouted with an exultant cry; and a sense of holy joy awed me, as I realized that my prayer had been fully answered. To “lean on” Jesus wholly and only, is surely the true meaning of saving faith. And now “Fakarongrongo Iesu ea anea mouri,”—leaning on Jesus unto eternal life, or, for all the things of eternal life, is the happy experience of those Christian Islanders, as it is of all who thus cast themselves unreservedly on the Saviour of the world for salvation.
ALEXANDER COMRIE (1706-1774): It will mean that they rest their whole weight upon Him, upon the Christ. O! as long as a man leans and supports himself partly upon Jesus, and partly upon duties, for sure the left hand will be pierced by the broken reed of Egypt, by legal duties, and self-strength. Here we must lean upon Him and upon none other, else we shall ever be wrong in the exercise.
C. H. SPURGEON: It is essential that our faith rest alone on Jesus. Mix anything with Christ, and you are undone. If your faith stand with one foot upon the rock of His merits, and the other foot upon the sand of your own duties, it will fall, and great will be the fall. Recumbency on the truth was the word which the old preachers used. You will understand that word: Leaning on it; saying, “This is truth, I trust my salvation on it.” Now, true faith, in its very essence rests in this—a leaning upon Christ. It will not save me to know that Christ is a Saviour; but it will save me to trust Him to be my Saviour. I shall not be delivered from the wrath to come by believing that His atonement is sufficient, but I shall be saved by making that atonement my trust, my refuge, and my all. The pith, the essence of faith lies in this—a casting one-self on the promise.
MARTIN LUTHER (1483-1546): Many are lost because they cannot use possessive pronouns.
HUGH BINNING (1625-1654): To believe in Christ is simply this: that I, whatsoever I be, ungodly, wretched, polluted, desperate—am willing to have Jesus Christ for my Saviour. I have no help or hope if it be not in Him.
