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Faith In Christ: Quotations from Burning Words

If you have any faith, give me, for heaven's sake, a share of Your doubts you may keep to yourself, for I have a plenty of my own. -— GOETHE

Faith in Jesus Christ is a saving grace, whereby we receive and rest upon Him alone for salvation, as He is offered to us in the gospel. -— WESTMINSTER CATECHISM

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.— HEIDELBERG CATECHISM

Faith is the gift of God, wrought by the Holy Spirit through the means of grace, in the heart of every penitent and seeking sinner; who faithfully uses them.— EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN CATECHISM

This saving faith is the perceiving, believing, and resting upon a fact - the atoning death of Jesus Christ. The failure to understand this is one fruitful cause of the confusion in many minds about this subject. For not unfrequently persons are looking into their own hearts, and trying to discover whether they have faith or not, instead of looking away from themselves altogether at the object of faith.— M. R. VINCENT

We believe that the very beginning and end of salvation, and the sum of Christianity, consists of faith in Christ, who by His blood alone, and not by any works of ours, has put away sin, and destroyed the power of death.— MARTIN LUTHER

Let it be borne in mind, however, that the merit or efficiency of all this is not in us, or in faith itself. All blessing, all power, all efficiency belong to God alone. These He may communicate in manner and measure as seems best to His sovereign will; but He has constituted faith the nexus, or electric wire, by which we may be brought into connection with His inexhaustible fullness. The tree planted in rich soil, surrounded with a genial atmosphere, and basking under the light and heat of the sun, possesses an appropriating principle of life, by which it appropriates from all these surrounding elements, and assimilates to its own nature whatever is adapted to its healthy growth and fruitfulness. These things do not dwell in the tree, nor in the appropriating principle itself. They may abound in all their fullness and richness; but let the tree be without this appropriating principle, and it stands in the midst of them all, bare, barren, dead. So faith is the appropriating principle of spiritual life, by which, if properly exercised, we may appropriate to ourselves out of the Divine fullness. And, as in proportion to the healthy exercise of the appropriating principle in the tree, so will be its growth and fruitfulness, so in proportion as faith is in healthy, spiritual exercise, will be our spiritual growth, fruitfulness, and triumphs. The fullness of blessing is in God; we become partakers by faith.— JOHN JAMES

Faith is a simple trust in a personal Redeemer. The simpler our trust in Christ for all things, the surer our peace.— WILLIAM ADAMS

Faith - saving faith- whatever other definition may be framed - is best described as that act of the soul by which the whole man is given over to the guardianship of the Mediator. He who thus resigns himself to Jesus avouches two things: first, his belief that he needs a protector; secondly, his belief that Christ is just that protector which his necessities require.— HENRY MELVILL

Saving faith is confidence in Jesus; a direct, confidential transaction with Him.— RICHARD FULLER

When a miner looks at the rope that is to lower him into the deep mine, he may coolly say, "I have faith in that rope as well made and strong." But when he lays hold of it, and swings down by it into the tremendous chasm, then he is believing on the rope. Then he is trusting himself to the rope. It is not a mere opinion - it is an act. The miner lets go of every thing else, and bears his whole weight on those well braided strands of hemp. Now that is faith.— T. L. CUYLER

The true confidence which is faith in Christ, and the true diffidence which is utter distrust of myself - are identical. -— ALEXANDER MACLAREN

Faith then, in its relation to salvation, is that confidence by which we accept it as a free gift from the Saviour, and is the only possible way in which the gift of God could be appropriated. --— MARK HOPKINS

We have nothing to do but to receive, resting absolutely upon the merit, power, and love of our Redeemer.— WILLIAM JAMES

Faith is the act of trust by which one being, a sinner, commits himself to another being, a Saviour.— HORACE BUSHNELL

We are not saved by nations or by churches or by families, but as individuals, through a personal interest in a personal Saviour.— JOHN JAMES,

There are three acts of faith, assent, acceptance, and assurance.— JOHN FLAVEL

The act of the soul, in surrendering itself into the hands of Christ, forms a connecting bond between Him as the Vine and the soul as the branches, which communicates life, strength, nourishment, and beauty. In a word, with a just view of the character, and a supreme attachment to the person of Christ, the believer yields himself into His hands as a full and complete Saviour. Him he receives; upon Him he rests, and rests for time and eternity.— GARDINER SPRING

- When there is a clear reception of truth as revealed, declared, or testified to, the soul believes in that truth. There is here the idea of transfer. The truth has been received through or from an accredited witness. "It is revealed from faith to faith." When the soul, conscious of weakness or want, looks to, trusts in, or waits upon, another for help and strength, this is resting on, relying on, acting faith on, that other for the desired blessing. And when the soul believes or acts faith into another, there is an entire self-surrender to the authority and sovereign will of that other to rule. There is here the idea of the soul going out to rest on the power, and to be subordinate to, the authority of another. Thus the Israelites " were all baptized unto or into Moses in the cloud and in the sea."— JOHN JAMES

When the sinner is brought to a consciousness of his lost condition, and realizes that there is no hope for him except in Christ Jesus, then is it that the soul believes "into" Christ. There is an entire self-surrender, to be saved by the Saviour, just as He will, and a complete subordination of the will to the supreme authority and sovereign will of his Lord and Master. Here is the true involution of the soul, the deepest root and highest reach of faith, whence spring its true life and fruitfulness and glory. It is the finite and subdued will of the renewed man rolled inside the infinite will of the redeeming Lord, to be governed by, and to beat in unison with His will. Its nestling prayer is, "Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?"— JOHN JAMES

Its very essence is trust upon Him and His sin-expiating and life-purchasing merits. Its very essence consists in its self-emptying, self-denying, Christ-grasping energy.— CHARLES HODGE

Faith is trusting Jesus to lead us and going where He leads. What avails it to me to analyze Saratoga water, and to believe in its virtues? I must drink the water if I want its purifying power. And the soul that has not actually drunk of Christ can never be purged from sin.— T. L. CUYLER

This is faith, receiving the truth of Christ; first knowing it to be true, and then acting upon that belief.— C. H. SPURGEON

The first thing in faith is knowledge. What we know we must also agree unto. What we agree unto we must rest upon alone for salvation. It will not save me to know that Christ is a Saviour; but it will save me to trust Him to be my Saviour.— C. H. SPURGEON

Faith refers to Christ. Holiness depends on faith. Heaven depends on holiness. -— ALEXANDER MACLAREN

If faith, then new birth; if new birth, then sonship; if sonship, then "an heir of God, and a joint-heir with Christ." But if you have not got your foot upon the lowest round of the ladder, you will never come within sight of the blessed face of Him who stands at the top of it, and who looks down to you at this moment, saying to you, "My child, wilt thou not at this time cry unto me, 'Abba, Father?'"— ALEXANDER MACLAREN

Faith is the vital artery of the soul. When we begin to believe, we begin to love. Faith grafts the soul into Christ, as the scion into the stock, and fetches all its nutriment from the blessed Vine..— WATSON

Faith is the bond of union, the instrument of justification, the spring of spiritual peace and joy, the means of spiritual peace and subsistence.— JOHN FLAVEL

Faith has a saving connection with Christ. Christ is on the shore, so to speak, holding the rope, and as we lay hold of it with the hand of our confidence, He pulls us to shore; but all good works having no connection with Christ are drifted along down the gulf of fell despair.— C. H. SPURGEON

That is faith, cleaving to Christ, twining round Him with all the tendrils of our heart, as the vine does round its support.— ALEXANDER MACLAREN

*Faith is the nail which fastens the soul to Christ; and love is that grace that drives the nail to the head. Faith takes hold of Him, and love helps to keep the grip. Christ dwells in the heart by faith, and He burns in the heart by love, like a fire melting the breast. Faith casts the knot, and love draws it fast.— ERSKINE

Faith in Christ is not an exercise of the understanding merely; it is an affection of the heart. "With the heart man believeth." To those who believe Christ is precious.— GARDINER SPRING

True faith, by a mighty effort of the will, fixes its gaze on our Divine Helper, and there finds it possible and wise to lose its fears. It is madness to say, "I will not be afraid; " it is wisdom and peace to say, "I will trust and not be afraid."— ALEXANDER MACLAREN

Faith that trusts on Jesus alone for salvation, and not on your respectable life, and the obedience that follows Him, are the indispensable steps to salvation. You admit that you have not taken these decisive steps. Then, however near you are, you are not in Christ.— T. L. CUYLER

Faith has in it the recognition of the certainty and the justice of a judgment that is coming down crashing on every human head; and then from the midst of these fears and sorrows and the tempest of that great darkness there rises up in the night of terrors the shining of one perhaps pale, quivering, distant, but divinely given hope, "My Saviour! My Saviour! He is righteous; He has died; He lives! I will stay no longer; I will cast myself upon Him!"— ALEXANDER MACLAREN

Faith is a Christian's right eye, without which he cannot look for Christ; right hand, without which he cannot do for Christ; it is his tongue, without which he cannot speak for Christ; it is his vital spirit, without which he cannot act for Christ.— THOMAS BROOKS

Faith does not first ask what the bread is made of, but eats it. It does not analyze the components of the living stream, but with joy draws water from the "wells of salvation."— J. R. MACDUFF

These poor people had never heard the distinctions between intellectual faith, historic faith, and saving faith; but they did as they were taught, - reached out their dirty hands to take Christ, and attended to the washing of their hands afterwards.— W. H. DANIELS

The righteousness which is by faith in Christ is a loving heart and a loving life, which every man will long to lead who believes really in Jesus Christ.— CHARLES KINGSLEY

The only qualification for knowing Divine things is to love them; to know Christ and to see the light of His revelation, we have only to aspire after a filial temper.— WILLIAM ADAMS

There can be no faith so feeble that Christ does not respond to it.— ALEXANDER MACLAREN

One look outward to Jesus and you are saved; not a look inward to a feeling that can give nothing but despair to the conscientious soul.— W. P. MACKAY

Sensible of his ill-desert and helplessness, persuaded of the all-sufficiency of the Redeemer, the believer therefore makes a voluntary surrender of himself into the hands of Christ, to be saved upon His own terms. He relinquishes his vain confidences, and places all his hopes on Christ. He casts himself into His arms. "Lord, to whom shall I go but to Thee?"— GARDINER SPRING

I expect eternal life, not as a reward of merit, but a pure act of bounty. Detesting myself in every view I can take, I fly to the righteousness and atonement of my great Redeemer for pardon and salvation; this is my only consolation and hope. "Enter not into judgment, O Lord, with Thy servant; for in Thy sight shall no flesh be justified."— ELIZABETH ROWE

Relying on the atonement which Christ has made, and desiring to be saved in no other way, I commit myself into Thy hands, O God, my Father! Take me, and do with me as Thou seest to be for Thy glory. I consecrate myself forever to Thy service, and trust for acceptance in the merits of Thy Son.— SAMUEL IRENÆUS PRIME

Just as I am - Thou wilt receive, Wilt welcome, pardon, cleanse, relieve; Because Thy promise I believe, O Lamb of God, I come! I come! CHARLOTTE ELLIOTt. Able to save to the uttermost, "Lord to whom shall we go; Thou hast the words of eternal life?" Thou who hast abolished death, upon whom else shall we suspend our immortality ?— HENRY MELVILL

If you feel sincerely sorry on account of your sins, and believe that Christ is able and willing to forgive you, the work is done. You may trust with all the confidence of a child who confesses his fault, and casts himself into his father's arms. This is faith; a simple trust in the power and willingness of the Father to forgive, for the sake of what Christ the Son has done.— SAMUEL IRENÆUS PRIME

Go to the cross, and meet there God in sacrifice. Behold Him as Jesus bearing your sin, receiving the shafts of your enmity! Embrace Him, believe in Him, take Him to your inmost heart. Do this, and you shall feel sin die within you, and a glorious quickening, Christ the power of God, Christ in you the hope of glory, shall be consciously risen upon you, as the morn of your new creation.— HORACE BUSHNELL

Virtuous or vile, decent or indecent, rich or poor, receive and rest upon Christ now as He is so freely offered you; and then you may believe (not feel) that your sins are in the depths of the sea.— W. P. MACKAY

I am a sinner and a debtor to God. The law has a claim against me; but the gospel says Christ paid that claim on the cross. I believe that. I take that death as good for my claim, and I say boldly, "It is paid." I am tired of sin. Christ bids me rest on Him. I do rest on Him. He tells me that if I will put myself, sins and all, with all my weakness - put my stained past, the guidance of the present, the whole matter of the future, into His hands, and leave it with Him, He will take care of the whole. I do put it all into His hands. I lay my sins on Jesus. I rest my whole life on Him.— M. R. VINCENT,

To trust God, as seen in the face of His Son, and to believe that He loves us, that is faith, that is what we must do to be saved. And to love God, as seen in the face of His Son, and to seek to testify our love by our whole life, - that is Christian duty; that is all we have to do.— A. H. BOYD

Faith from its essential nature implies the fallen state of man, while it recognizes the principles of the covenant of grace. It is itself the condition of that covenant. It is a grace which is alike distinguished from the love of angels and the faith of devils. It is peculiar to the returning sinner. None but a lost sinner needs it; none but a humbled sinner relishes it.— GARDINER SPRING

Now I saw in my dream, that the highway, up which Christian was to go, was fenced on either side with a wall, and that wall was called salvation. Up this way, therefore, did burdened Christian run, but not without great difficulty, because of the load on his back. He ran thus till he came at a place somewhat ascending; and upon that place stood a cross, and a little below, in the bottom, a sepulchre. So I saw in my dream, that just as Christian came up with the cross, his burden loosed from off his shoulders, and fell from off his back, and began to tumble, and so continued to do till it came to the mouth of the sepulchre, where it fell in, and I saw it no more.— JOHN BUNYAN

I have taken my good deeds and bad deeds, and thrown them together into a heap, and fled from them both to Christ, and in Him I have peace.— DAVID DICKSON

O, for a living faith in a living Redeemer!— RICHARD FULLER

When you have given yourself to Christ, leave yourself there, and go about your work as a child in His household.— C. S. ROBINSON

Child of God, if you would have your thought of God something beyond a cold feeling of His presence, let faith appropriate Christ.— F. W. ROBERTSON

When you sincerely embrace Jesus as your Saviour, and rest on His atonement for pardon, when you look to Him for daily direction, lean on Him for support, and are joined to Him in heart union, then you may be sure that you have got the everlasting rock bed underneath you.— T. L. CUYLER

Here then is man's duty. It is to receive that free and full salvation that Christ has provided. It is to stretch forth the hand of faith, and with it take the proffered salvation. It is to cling to the cross as the only hope of everlasting life. Will you do it? Weary, working, plodding one, will you, ceasing all this vain attempt to save yourself, receive Christ, and Christ alone as your Saviour?— HENRY DARLING

From that time Mr. Moody ceased to urge people to begin their religious life by finding something to do for Christ; but insisted that, first of all, they should let Christ do something for them. If they would only believe, Christ would help them to be and to do.— W. H. DANIELS

With Mary and Thomas, with the millions who have lived and died triumphant in the blessed assurance of the infinite love and omnipotence of Christ, we can stand by that middle cross, and say adoringly, lovingly, joyfully, "My Brother! my Lord! my God!" Dear seeker of salvation, doubting, fearing Christian, you are beaten by the billows of sin and fear, swept by the gusts of doubt. Look through the mists, and behold the pilot! Christ comes to you to take every thing in charge. Will you let Him come? Will you give Him charge? Will you just throw off the whole load of sin, doubt, and fear on Him, and rest?— M. R. VINCENT

If you could once get away, my friends, from that sense of mediocrity and nothingness to which you are shut up, under the stupor of your self-seeking and your sin, how easy would it be for you to believe! Nay, if but some faintest suspicion could steal into you of what your soul is, and the tremendous evils working in it, nothing but the mystery of Christ's death and passion would be sufficient for you.— HORACE BUSHNELL

Nothing but Christian faith gives to the furthest future the solidity and definiteness which it must have if it is to be a breakwater for us against the fluctuating sea of present cares and thoughts.— ALEXANDER MACLAREN

Above all things I entreat you to preserve your faith in Christ. It is my wealth in poverty, my joy in sorrow, my peace amid tumult. For all the evil I have committed, my gracious pardon; and for every effort, my exceeding great reward. I have found it to be so. I can smile with pity at the infidel whose vanity makes him dream that I should barter such a blessing for the few subtleties from the school of the cold-blooded sophists.— S. T. COLERIDGE

This is the work of God that ye believe on Him whom He hath sent. Oh, my soul! why art thou so often disquieted within thee? How is it that thou hast so little faith? Wilt thou never learn that Jesus has even the least of His little boats always under His watchful eye, and all the winds and the waves obey Him?— T. L. CUYLER

Seek for a fresh invoice of grace. Unbelief can scoff or growl; faith is the nightingale that sings in the darkest hour. Faith can draw honey out of the rock and oil out of the flint. With Christ in possession and heaven in reversion, it marches to the time of the One-hundred-and-third Psalm over the roughest road, and against the most cutting blast.— T. L. CUYLER

We must not think that faith itself is the soul's rest; it is only the means of it. We cannot find rest in any work or duty of our own, but we may find it in Christ, whom faith apprehends for justification and salvation.— JOHN FLAVEL

Faith, considered as a habit, is no more precious than other gracious habits are; but considered as an instrument to receive Christ and His righteousness, it excels them all; and this instrumentality of faith is noted in the phrases, "by faith," and "through faith."— JOHN FLAVEL

If we bear an inward enmity to all sins because they are offensive to God, if we can say that it is the desire of our souls to love Christ above all things, and to be eternal debtors to free grace, reigning through His righteousness, then we may warrantably conclude, that our faith, however weak, is yet of a saving nature.— FISHER'S CATECHISM

No man's salvation depends on his believing that he believes; but it does depend on his seeing and receiving Jesus Christ as his Saviour.— M. R. VINCENT

We shall never recover the true apostolic energy, and be endued with power from on high, as the first disciples were, till we recover the lost faith. -— HORACE BUSHNELL

It appears to me that, even within the recollection of living men, the Christian faith has come to be less and less regarded as a commanding and mighty power from heaven, a voice of authority, a law of holy life, but more and more as an easy going guide to future enjoyment, to a universal happiness and an indiscriminate salvation.— BISHOP HUNTINGTON

The act of faith, which separates us from all men, unites us for the first time in real brotherhood; and they who, one by one, come to Jesus and meet Him alone, next find that they are come to the city of God "and to an innumerable company."— ALEXANDER MACLAREN,

It avails nothing that the ocean stretches shoreless to the horizon; a jar can hold only a jarful. The receiver's capacity determines the amount received, and the receiver's desire determines his capacity. The law has ever been, "According to your faith be it unto you." Logically, faith comes first, and love next; but in life they will spring up together in the soul; the interval which separates them is impalpable, and in every act of trust, love is present; and fundamental to every emotion of love to Christ is trust in Christ.— ALEXANDER MACLAREN

When in your last hour (think of this) all faculty in the broken spirit shall fade away, and sink into inanity - imagination, thought, effort, enjoyment - then will the flower of belief, which blossoms even in the night, remain to refresh you with its fragrance in the last darkness.— JEAN PAUL RICHTER

In faith and hope Earth I resign; Secure of heaven, For I am Thine!— ZWINGLE