The Nature of Faith
Bishop Horne. Mark 16:16 He that believes and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believes not shall be damned. 1. To believe is to come to Christ; to betake ourselves to Him. In Hebrews 10:22, we are exhorted to come with full sail, with all haste, as a ship when it makes all its sail. There is no sanctuary for a guilty soul but Christ only; therefore the sinner must fly to the tabernacle of the Lord, and take hold of the horns of the altar. 2. To believe in Christ is to lean upon Him, to stay and rest on Him. None but Christ can stay the sinner's soul from falling into everlasting burnings. 3. To believe in Christ is to adhere to him, to cleave to Him, cling about Him. A man that has suffered shipwreck is left to the mercy of the waves; has nothing in his reach to save him but some plank or mast. How will he cling to it! how fast will he clasp! He will hold it as if it were his life (2 Kings 18:5; Deuteronomy 4:4). So Christ is our only security. 4. To believe in Christ is to roll, to cast ourselves upon Him (Psalm 22:8; Psalm 37:5; Psalm 55:23). Sin is a heavy, a most grievous burden (Amos 2:13). The weight of sin, though Christ had none of His own, made Him sweat blood. It is burdened with the wrath and heavy indignation of God; it is clogged with the curses and threatenings of the law. No wonder if one sin be as a millstone about the neck of the soul, able to sink it into the bottom of hell. But though so burdensome, yet the sinner, before conversion, feels no weight in it. How can he, seeing he is dead? Cast rocks and mountains upon a dead man, and he feels them not. Ay, but when the Lord begins to work faith, and brings the sinner to Himself, then he feels it burdensome indeed, and groans under its weight. None can ease him but Christ; and Christ bids him Come, and lay his burden on Him. Glad tidings these; the sinner closes with Christ, rolls himself, casts his burdened soul upon Him, and so believes. 5. To believe in Christ is to apply Him. It is an intimate application, such as that of meat and drink by one pinched with hunger and fainting with thirst (John 6:51-56). Nothing can save the soul, but a draught of the water of life, a taste of Christ. 6. To believe in Christ is to receive Him. A condemned person upon the scaffold, all the instruments of death ready, and nothing wanting but one blow to separate soul and body, while he is possessed with sad apprehensions of death one unexpectedly comes and brings him a pardon. Oh, how will his heart welcome it! How will his hands receive it, as though his soul were in his hands! So here. 7. To believe in Christ is to apprehend Him, to lay hold of Him, to embrace Him. As in the case of Peter walking on the water to come to Christ: so, to walk in the ways of sin, is to walk as it were upon the waters; there is no sure footing, how bold soever sinners are to venture. If God's patience were not infinite, we should sink every moment. The sensible sinner begins to see his danger, patience will ere long withdraw, it will not be always abused; a tempest of wrath will arise; nay, he finds it grow boisterous, it does already ruffle his conscience, he is as sure to sink as if he were walking upon the waves. Nay, he feels his soul already sinking; no wonder if he cry out as a lost man, as one ready to be swallowed up in a sea of wrath. But now Christ stretches out His hand in the gospel, and the soul stretches itself out and lays hold on the everlasting arm which alone can save it. This may be sufficient to discover the nature of faith. But for farther evidence, observe what is included in it, as appears by what has gone before. (1) A sense of misery. It is a sensible dependence, therefore more than simple assent. A man who has read or heard much of the sad effects of war, may assent, believe that it is a great misery to be infected with war. Ay, but when the enemy is at his door, when they are driving his cattle and plundering his goods and firing his houses, he not only assents to it, he sees, he feels the miseries of it; he has more sensible, more affecting apprehensions of it than ever before. So a sinner who continues in unbelief, hearing the threatenings and wrath denounced against unbelievers, may assent to the statement that unbelievers are in a miserable condition; but when the Lord is working faith, he brings this home to himself, he sees justice ready to seize on him, he feels wrath kindling upon him. He now not only believes it, but has a quick sense of it. (2) A rejecting of other supports. Dependence upon Christ alone. When the soul, feeling the flame of wrath kindling upon her, cries out as one already perishing, "None but Christ, none but Christ," then he is on the highway to faith. But alas! so averse are we, naturally, to Christ, that He is the last thing a sinner looks after. Till he apprehend himself as an orphan, without strength, without counsel, all his supports dead which were a father to him, he will not betake himself to Christ as his only guardian; till he thus betakes himself to Christ, he believes not. (3) Submission. Faith is a very submissive grace. Sin and wrath lie so heavy, that the soul bends itself gladly to whatever the Lord will. If the shipwrecked man can get to shore, can save himself from drowning, he regards not the wetting of his clothes, the spoiling of his goods; a greater matter is in danger. So it is with a sinner in whom faith is working. His soul is in a sea of wrath, and he is ready to sink. If he can but reach Christ, get to shore, he is content, though he come there naked, stripped of all that was otherwise dear to him. (4) Resolution to persist in his dependence. When Satan or his own guilty soul tells him that he must come forth, there is no mercy for such a traitor, such a heinous offender; nay, says the believing soul, but if I must die, I will die here; if justice smite me, it shall smite me with Christ in my arms; though He kill me, yet will I rely on Him; here will I live or here will I die; I will not quit my hold, though I die for it. (5) Support. He is on the Rock of Ages; he who stays on Him stands firm; he cannot but have some support for the present, though he has little confidence, no assurance. (6) A consent to accept Christ on His own terms. The will is naturally closed against Christ, but consent opens it; and when the will is open to receive Him, it always receives Him; when it opens, it consents; when it consents, it receives, i.e., believes. (Bishop Horne.) Parallel Verses KJV: He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned. WEB: He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who disbelieves will be condemned.