116
The Fundamentals. put it so. That is a real temptation to many. Hearing, and fully thinking, that to be justified we must have Faith, they, we, are soon occupied with an anxious analysis of our Faith. Do I trust enough? Is my reliance satisfactory in kind and quantity ? But if saving Faith is, in its essence, simply a reliant attitude, then the question of its effect and virtue is at,once shifted to the question of.the adequacy of its Object. The man then is drawn to ask, not, Do I rely enough ? but, Is Jesus Christ great enough, and gracious enough, for me to rely upon? The introspective microscope is laid down. The soul’s open eyes turn Upward to the face of our Lord Jesus Christ; and Faith forgets itself in its own proper action. In other words, the man relies instinctively upon an Object seen to be so magnificently, so supremely, able to sustain him. His feet are on the Rock, and he knows it, not by feeling for his feet, but by feeling the Rock. Here let us note that Faith, thus seen to be reliance, is obviously a thing as different as possible from merit. No one in common life thinks of a well-placed reliance as meri torious. It is right, but not righteous. It does not make a man deserving of rescue when, being in imminent danger, he implicitly accepts the guidance of his rescuer. And the man who, discovering himself, in the old-fashioned way (the way as old as David before Nathan, Isaiah in the vision, the pub lican in the temple, the jailor at Philippi, Augustine at Milan), to be a guilty sinner, whose “mouth is shut” before God, relies upon Christ as his all for pardon and peace, certainly does not merit anything for closing with his own salvation. He deserves nothing by the act of accepting all. “God,” says Richard Hooker; in that great “Discourse” of his on Justification, “doth justify the believing man, yet not for the worthiness of his belief but for the worthiness of Him which is believed.”* So it is not our attitude which we rely on. Our attitude is just our reliance. And reliance means the going out upon Another for repose. ♦“A Discourse of Justification,” Chap. 33.
Made with FlippingBook flipbook maker