Volume. XL, No. 13
Sunday, 28 September 2025
I have been talking about peace with God and about justification as the means by which peace becomes the property of a man’s soul.
First, it must not surprise anyone that a man is justified by “simple faith.” There is but one thing needful in order to be justified by His blood and have peace with God. That one thing is to believe on Him. This is a peculiar mark of a true Christian. He believes on the Lord Jesus for his salvation. Acts 16:31 says, “And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.” John 3:16 also affirms this truth, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
(1) Without this faith it is impossible to be saved. A man may be moral, amiable, good-natured, and respectable. But if he does not believe on Christ, he has no pardon, no justification, no heaven. John 3:18 and 36, “He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God…. 36 He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.” Mark 16:16b testifies the same truth, “… he that believeth not shall be damned.”
(2) Beside this faith, nothing whatsoever is needed for a man’s justification. Beyond doubt, repentance, holiness, love, humility, prayerfulness, will always be seen in the justified man. But they do not in the smallest degree justify him in the sight of God. Nothing joins a man to Christ, nothing justifies but simple faith. Romans 4:5, “But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.” Romans 3:28, “Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.”
(3) This faith brings man to complete justification at once. His sins are at once removed. His iniquities are at once put away. The very hour when he believes, he is reckoned by God entirely pardoned, forgiven, and a righteous man. His justification is not a future privilege, to be obtained after a long time and great pains. It is an immediate present possession. Jesus says, “He that believeth on me hath everlasting life” (John 6:47). Paul says, “By him all that believe are justified from all things” (Acts 13:39).
(4) This faith is not the possession of everybody. It also does not mean that all who are called Christians are true believers. A man may be baptised like Simon the Sorcerer and yet have no part or a lot in Christ. The visible church contains unbelievers as well as believers. 2 Thessalonians 3:2b, “… all man have not faith.”
(5) This faith is not a mere matter of felling. A man may have many good feelings and desires in his mind toward Christ, and yet they may all prove as temporary and short-lived as the morning cloud, and the early dew. Many are like the stony-ground hearers, and “hear the word with joy.” Many will say, under momentary excitement, “… I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest” (Matthew 8:19b).
(6) This faith is not a bare assent of the intellect to the fact that Christ died for sinners. This is not a whit better than the faith of devils. They know who Jesus is. Surprise …. They believe. They do even more than believing … they tremble (James 2:19).
(7) This faith is an act of the whole inner man. It is an act of the head, heart, and will, all united and combined. It is an act of soul, in which, seeing his own guilt, danger, and helplessness, and seeing at the same time Christ offering to save him - a man ventures on Christ flees to Christ - receives Christ as his only hope, and becomes a willing dependent on Him for salvation. He who has it may not always be equally sensible of his own faith, but in the main he lives by faith and walks by faith.
(8) This faith cannot be called a work. It is but laying hold of a Saviour’s hand, leaning on Him. It brings with it nothing to Christ but a sinful man’s soul. It gives nothing, contributes nothing, pays nothing, performs nothing. It only receives, takes, accepts, grasps, and embraces the glorious gift of justification which Christ bestows, and by renewed daily acts enjoys that gift. All Christian virtues and graces are important, but faith is the most important. Of all it is the most difficult to make men understand in practice. The mistakes into which men fall about it are endless. Some who have not faith never doubt for a moment that they are believers. Others, who have faith, can never be persuaded that they are believers at all. But nearly every mistake about faith may be traced up to the old root of natural pride. Men will persist in sticking to the idea that they are to pay something of their own in order to be saved. As to a faith which consists in receiving only and paying nothing at all, it seems as if they could not understand it.
Second, justification by faith is a beautiful doctrine. It places eternal life within the reach of the most unlearned and the poorest in the land, because it is of God.
(1) It ascribes glory to God. It honours all His attributes, justice, mercy, and holiness. It gives the whole credit of the sinner’s salvation to the Saviour He has appointed. It honours the Son and honours the Father who sent Him. It gives man no partnership in his redemption but makes salvation to be wholly of the Lord.
(2) It puts man in his right place. It shows him his own sinfulness, weakness, and inability to save his soul by his own works. It leaves him without excuse if he is not saved at last.
(3) It comforts a broken-hearted and penitent sinner. It brings such a man glad tidings. It shows him that there is hope even for him. It tells him though he is a great sinner, there is ready for him a great Saviour. Though he cannot justify himself, God can and will justify him for the sake of Christ.
(4) It sanctifies a true Christian. It draws him by the strongest of all cords, the cord of love. It makes him feel that he is a debtor, and in gratitude bound to love much, when much has been forgiven. Exalting man’s goodness and merits never makes men so holy as exalting Christ. The free grace of Christ will produce far greater effects on men’s lives than the sternest commands of law.
Do you have this faith? Do you know anything of simple child-like confidence in Jesus?
Do you have peace?
Lovingly,
Pastor Emeritus Rev Okman Ki
More Lively Hope
