part0014

W hy is faith the chosen channel of salvation? Without a doubt this is an often-asked question. For by grace are ye saved through faith (Ephesians 2:8) is certainly doctrine from Holy Scripture and a decree of God, but why is it? Why is faith selected rather than hope, or love, or patience?

It’s fitting for us to be humble in answering such a question, because God’s ways aren’t always understood, nor are we allowed to presumptuously question them. Humbly we should say that, as far as we can tell, faith has been selected as the channel of grace because faith naturally adapts to being used as the receiver. Think of it this way. If I’m ready to give a poor man a charitable gift, I put it into his hand. Why? Well, it would hardly be fitting to put it into his ear, or to lay it on his foot. The hand is made to receive, and, like the hand of man, faith is created to be a receiver.

Faith that receives Christ is as simple an act as when your child receives an apple from you, because you hold it out and promise to give him the apple if he comes for it. The belief and the receiving relate only to an apple, but they make up precisely the same act as the faith that deals with eternal salvation. What the child’s hand is to the apple, your faith is to the perfect salvation of Christ. The child’s hand doesn’t make the apple, improve the apple, nor deserve the apple. It only receives it.

Faith is chosen by God to be the receiver of salvation, because it doesn’t pretend to create salvation nor to help in it. Instead, it’s content to humbly receive it. Faith is the tongue that begs pardon, the hand which receives it, and the eye which sees it, but it is not the price which buys it. Faith never makes herself her own plea. Her argument rests on the blood of Christ. She becomes a good servant that brings the riches of the Lord Jesus to the soul, because she acknowledges the source from which she drew them. She admits that grace alone entrusted her with them.

Again, faith is no doubt selected because it gives all the glory to God. It is of faith so it might be by grace, and it is of grace so there might be no boasting, because God can’t endure pride. The proud he does not know (Psalm 138:6), and He has no wish to come nearer to them. He won’t give salvation in a way to suggest or foster pride. Paul says, Not of works, lest any man should boast (Ephesians 2:9). Faith excludes all boasting.

The hand which receives charity doesn’t say, “I am to be thanked for accepting the gift.” That would be absurd. When the hand lifts bread to the mouth it doesn’t say to the body, “Thank me, because I feed you.” It is a very simple thing the hand does, but a very necessary thing. It never claims glory for itself for what it does. In the same way, God has selected faith to receive the unspeakable gift of His grace, because it can’t take any credit to itself but must adore the gracious God who is the giver of all good. Faith sets the crown on the right head, and therefore the Lord Jesus was to be used to put the crown upon the head of faith, saying, Thy faith has saved thee; go in peace (Luke 7:50).

Next, God selects faith as the channel of salvation because it is a sure method which links man with God. When man confides in God, it creates a point that joins the two, and that union guarantees blessing. Faith saves us because it makes us cling to God and connects us to Him. I have often used the following illustration, and I can’t think of a better one. It’s a story I heard years ago, about a boat that overturned above the falls of Niagara. Two men were being carried down the current, and people on the shore managed to float a rope out to them, which both of the men seized.

One of the men held fast to the rope and was safely drawn to the bank, but the other unwisely let go of the rope when he saw a big log float by. He decided to cling to the log, because it was bigger than the rope and to his thinking the better choice. Sadly, the log with the man on it went right over the falls into the vast abyss, because there was no link – no union − between the log and the shore. The size of the log was of no benefit to the man who grasped it. It needed a connection with the shore to produce safety.

It is the same with the person who trusts in his works, sacraments, ordinances, or anything of that sort. Such a person will not be saved, because there is no connection between him and Christ. But faith, while it might seem like a slender cord, is in the hands of the great God on the shore. Infinite power hauls in the connecting line and pulls the man from destruction. Oh, the blessedness of faith, because it unites us to God.

Faith is also chosen as a conduit of grace because it touches the place where action begins. Even in ordinary things, a certain sort of faith lies at the root of everything. I wonder whether it would be wrong to say we never do anything except through faith of some sort. For instance, if I walk across my study, it is because I believe my legs will carry me. A man eats because he believes in the necessity of food. He goes to work because he believes in the value of money. He accepts a check because he believes the bank will honor it. Columbus discovered America because he believed another continent lay beyond the ocean; and the Pilgrim Fathers colonized it because they believed God would be with them on those rocky shores.

Most great deeds have been born of faith, whether for good or for evil, because faith works wonders through the person in whom it dwells. Faith in its natural form is a persuading force, which enters into all kinds of human actions. Possibly the person who derides faith in God is the person who, in an evil way, has the most faith. In reality, he’s fallen into a gullibility which would be ridiculous, if it weren’t so disgraceful.

God gives salvation to faith, because by creating faith in us He touches the real mainspring of our emotions and actions. He has, so to speak, taken possession of the battery through which energy is converted and through which He can send the sacred current to every part of our nature. When we believe in Christ and the heart comes into the possession of God, then we are saved from sin and moved toward repentance, holiness, zeal, prayer, and every other gracious thing. It’s a consecration from a common use to a holy use. What oil is to the wheels, what weights are to a clock, what wings are to a bird, what sails are to a ship, that’s what faith is to all holy duties and works of the body and mind. Have faith, and all other graces follow and continue to stay on course.

Faith has the power of working through love. It influences the passions toward God, and draws the heart after the best things. He who believes in God will love God without a doubt. Faith is an act of the understanding, but it also proceeds from the heart. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness (Romans 10:10). Therefore God gives salvation to faith because it resides next door to the passions and is closely related to love, and love is the parent and nursemaid of every holy feeling and act. Love for God is obedience; love for God is holiness. To love God and to love man is to be conformed to the image of Christ, and this is salvation.

Similarly, faith creates peace and joy. The one who has faith rests in Christ and is tranquil. They are glad and joyous, which is training for heaven. God gives all heavenly gifts to faith for this reason among others − that faith works in us the life and spirit which are to be eternally displayed in heaven above. Faith furnishes us with armor for this life (Ephesians 6:10-18), and teaches us about the life to come. It enables believers to live and to die without fear, and it prepares us for action and for suffering. The Lord also selects it as a most convenient medium for conveying grace to us and thereby positioning us for glory.

Faith certainly does for us what nothing else can do. It gives us joy and peace and causes us to stop striving and to enter into rest (Psalm 46:10). Why do people attempt to gain salvation by other means? An old preacher says, “A silly servant who is told to open a door, sets his shoulder to it and pushes with all his might. But the door doesn’t budge. He can’t enter, even when he uses all his strength. Another comes along with a key, easily unlocks the door, and enters right in. Those who hope to be saved by works are pushing at heaven’s gate without result. Faith is the key which opens the gate instantly.”

Won’t you use that key? The Lord commands you to believe in His dear Son, and in doing so, you will live. Isn’t this the promise of the gospel? He that believes and is baptized shall be saved (Mark 16:16). How can you object to a way of salvation which entrusts itself to the mercy and wisdom of our gracious God?