Ver. 8. Salvation by Faith.
I. What faith it is through which we are saved.—1. It is not barely the faith of a heathen. 2. Nor is it the faith of a devil, though this goes much further than that of a heathen. 3. It is not barely that the apostles had while Christ was yet upon earth. 4. In general it is faith in Christ: Christ and God through Christ are the proper objects of it. 5. It is not only an assent to the whole Gospel of Christ, but also a full reliance on the blood of Christ, a trust in the merits of His life, death, and resurrection, a recumbency upon Him as our atonement and our life, as given for us and living in us, and in consequence hereof, a closing with Him and cleaving to Him as our wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption, or, in one word, our salvation.
II. What is the salvation which is through faith?—1. It is a present salvation. 2. A salvation from sin. 3. From the guilt of all past sin. 4. From fear. 5. From the power of sin. 6. A salvation often expressed in the word “justification,” which taken in the largest sense implies a deliverance from guilt and punishment by the atonement of Christ actually applied to the soul of the sinner now believing on Him, and a deliverance from the power of sin, through Christ formed in his heart.
III. The importance of the doctrine.—Never was the maintaining this doctrine more seasonable than it is at this day. Nothing but this can effectually prevent the increase of the Romish delusion among us. It is endless to attack one by one all the errors of that Church. But salvation by faith strikes at the root, and all fall at once where this is established.—Wesley.
Vers. 8, 9. Our Salvation is of Grace.
I. Consider how we are saved through faith.—1. Without faith we cannot be saved. 2. All who have faith will be saved.
II. What place and influence works have in our salvation.—1. In what sense our salvation is not of works. (1) We are not saved by works considered as a fulfilment of the original law of nature. (2) We are not saved by virtue of any works done before faith in Christ, for none of these are properly good. 2. There is a sense in which good works are of absolute necessity to salvation. (1) They are necessary as being radically included in that faith by which we are saved. (2) A temper disposing us to good works is a necessary qualification for heaven. (3) Works are necessary as evidences of our faith in Christ and of our title to heaven. (4) Good works essentially belong to religion. (5) Works are necessary to adorn our professions and honour our religion before men. (6) By them we are to be judged in the great day of the Lord.
III. The necessity of works does not diminish the grace of God in our salvation nor afford us any pretence for boasting.—1. Humility essentially belongs to the Christian temper. 2. The mighty preparation God has made for our recovery teaches that the human race is of great importance in the scale of rational beings and in the scheme of God’s universal government. 3. It infinitely concerns us to comply with the proposals of the Gospel. 4. Let no man flatter himself that he is in a state of salvation as long as he lives in the neglect of good works. 5. Let us be careful that we mistake not the nature of good works.—Lathrop.
Ver. 8. True Justifying Faith is not of Ourselves.—It is through grace that we believe in the grace of God. God’s grace and love, the source; faith, the instrument; both His gift. The origin of our coming to Christ is of God. Justifying faith, not human assent, but a powerful, vivifying thing which immediately works a change in the man and makes him a new creature and leads him to an entirely new and altered mode of life and conduct. Hence justifying faith is a Divine work.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Verse 10.