'...Faith that is in Me.'--ACTS xxvi. 18.
It is commonly said, and so far as the fact is concerned, said truly,
that what are called the distinguishing doctrines of Christianity are
rather found in the Epistles than in the Gospels. If we wish the
clearest statements of the nature and person of Christ, we turn to
Paul's Epistle to the Colossians. If we wish the fullest dissertation
upon Christ's work as a sacrifice, we go to the Epistle to the Hebrews.
If we seek to prove that men are justified by faith, and not by works,
it is to the Epistles to Romans and Galatians that we betake
ourselves,--to the writings of the servant rather than the words of the
Master. Now this fuller development of Christian doctrine contained in
the teaching of the Apostles cannot be denied, and need not be wondered
at. The reasons for it I am not going to enter upon at present; they
are not far to seek. Christ came not to _speak_ the Gospel, but _to be_
the Gospel. But then, this truth of a fuller development is often
over-strained, as if Christ 'spake nothing concerning priesthood,'
sacrifices, faith. He _did_ so speak when on earth. It is often misused
by being made the foundation of an inference unfavourable to the
authority of the Apostolic teaching, when we are told, as we sometimes
are, that not Paul but Jesus speaks the words which we are to receive.
Here we have Christ Himself speaking from the heavens to Paul at the
very beginning of the Apostle's course, and if any one asks us where
did Paul get the doctrines which he preached, the answer is, Here, on
the road to Damascus, when blind, bleeding, stunned, with all his
self-confidence driven out of him--with all that he had been crushed
into shivers--he saw his Lord, and heard Him speak. These words spoken
then are the germ of all Paul's Epistles, the keynote to which all his
writings are but the melody that follows, the mighty voice of which all
his teaching is but the prolonged echo. 'Delivering thee,' says Christ
to him, 'from the people, and from the Gentiles, unto whom now I send
thee, to open their eyes, to turn them from darkness to light, and from
the power of Satan unto God; that they may receive forgiveness of sins,
and inheritance among them that are sanctified by faith that is in Me.'
Now, I ask you, what of Paul's Gospel is not here? Man's ruin, man's
depravity and state of darkness, the power of Satan, the sole
redemptive work of Christ, justification by belief in that,
sanctification coming with justification, and glory and rest and heaven
at last--there they all are in the very first words that sounded upon
the quickened ear of the blinded man when he turned from darkness to
light.
It would be foolish, of course, to try to exhaust such a passage as
this in a sermon. But notice, what a complete summary of Christian
truth there lies in that one last clause of the verse, 'Inheritance
among them which are sanctified by faith that is in Me.' Translate that
into distinct propositions, and they are these: Faith refers to Christ;
that is the first thing. Holiness depends on faith; that is the next:
'_sanctified_ by faith.' Heaven depends on holiness: that is the last:
'_inheritance_ among them which are sanctified by faith that is in Me.'
So there we have the whole gospel!
To the one part of this comprehensive summary which is contained in my
text I desire to turn now, in hope of gathering from it some truths as
to that familiar word 'faith' which may be of use to us all. The
expression is so often on our lips that it has come to be almost
meaningless in many minds. These keywords of Scripture meet the same
fate as do coins that have been long in circulation. They pass through
so many fingers that the inscriptions get worn off them. We can all
talk about faith and forgiveness and justifying and sanctifying, but
how few of us have definite notions as to what these words that come so
easily from our lips mean! There is a vast deal of cloudy haze in the
minds of average church and chapel goers as to what this wonder-working
faith may really be. Perhaps we may then be able to see large and
needful truths gleaming in these weighty syllables which Christ Jesus
spoke from heaven to Paul, 'faith that is in Me.'