Systematic Theology (Volume 3 of 3)Strong, Augustus Hopkins
Religion
Systematic Theology (Volume 3 of 3)
Strong, Augustus Hopkins
Baptists -- Doctrines; Theology, Doctrinal
We need to emphasize this active element in saving faith, lest men
get the notion that mere indolent acquiescence in Christ’s plan
will save them. Faith is not simple receptiveness. It gives
itself, as well as receives Christ. It is not mere passivity,—it
is also self‐committal. As all reception of knowledge is active,
and there must be attention if we would learn, so all reception of
Christ is active, and there must be intelligent giving as well as
taking. The Watchman, April 30, 1896—“Faith is more than belief
and trust. It is the action of the soul going out toward its
object. It is the exercise of a spiritual faculty akin to that of
sight; it establishes a personal relation between the one who
exercises faith and the one who is its object. When the
intellectual feature predominates, we call it belief; when the
emotional element predominates, we call it trust. This faith is at
once ‘An affirmation and an act Which bids eternal truth be
present fact.’ ”
There are great things received in faith, but nothing is received
by the man who does not first give himself to Christ. A conquered
general came into the presence of his conqueror and held out to
him his hand: “Your sword first, sir!” was the response. But when
General Lee _offered_ his sword to General Grant at Appomattox,
the latter returned it, saying: “No, keep your sword, and go to
your home.” Jacobi said that “Faith is the reflection of the
divine knowing and willing in the finite spirit of man.” G. B.
Foster, in Indiana Baptist Outlook, June 19, 1902—“Catholic
orthodoxy is wrong in holding that the authority for faith is the
church; for that would be an external authority. Protestant
orthodoxy is wrong in holding that the authority for faith is the
book; for that would be an external authority. Liberalism is wrong
in holding that the reason is the authority for faith. The
authority for faith is the revelation of God.” Faith in this
revelation is faith in Christ the Revealer. It puts the soul in
connection with the source of all knowledge and power. As the
connection of a wire with the reservoir of electric force makes it
the channel of vast energies, so the smallest measure of faith,
any real connection of the soul with Christ, makes it the
recipient of divine resources.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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