The “Faith of Christ” means Christ’s faithfulness, not our “Faith in Christ”!
A
response to Mark McCulley’s article The
Faith of Christ Means “Faith in Christ” and not “Christ’s
Faith”
and
a positive statement of the doctrine.
The
position I defend is the truth of Scriptures. The Scriptural phrase
“the
faith of
[Jesus]
Christ”1
spells the gospel of our salvation. It can be summed up in one
paragraph:
The
Good News of our salvation is that, apart from the law, which justly
condemns us, sinners, God’s own righteousness [in justifying the
ungodly] has been revealed through the faith (faithfulness)2
of Christ, the Righteous One, for all who believe. God’s
righteousness is made manifest through Christ’s faithfulness [even
unto death] to the covenant keeping God, Who has promised to save His
people. This promise was fulfilled through Christ’s faithfulness
whereby He laid down His life for His sheep and obtained for them an
eternal redemption. God’s elect / Christ’s sheep, taught by the
Spirit are made to hunger and thirst after that righteousness which
is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by
faith, for they know
that
a person is not justified by works of the law but through the
faithfulness of Jesus Christ. Therefore they do believe in Jesus
Christ, so as to be justified by Christ’s faithfulness, and not by
the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be
justified.
The
strength of this position is simply its faithfulness to what
Scripture actually
says, not to what interpreters or theologians think
it should say. This fact can be easily verified by looking up the
cited references in any New Testament Greek /English Interlinear or,
in a good (faithful),
literal translation, such as KJV/AV or YLT. (LITV or Green’s
Literal Translation can be consulted also, but it errs in the crucial
passage of Galatians 2:16, by supplying the non-existent,
interpretative preposition “in” in the phrase). The idea of
justification through the faith (faithfulness) of Jesus Christ is
repeatedly taught by Scripture in the following texts:
"Even
the righteousness of God which is by
faith of Jesus Christ
unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference:"
(Rom 3:22 KJV)
"for
the shewing forth of His righteousness in the present time, for His
being righteous, and declaring him righteous who [is] of
the faith of Jesus."
(Rom 3:26 YLT).
"Knowing
that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by
the faith of Jesus Christ,
even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by
the faith of Christ,
and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no
flesh be justified." (Gal 2:16 KJV)
"I
am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ
liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by
the faith of the Son of God,
who loved me, and gave himself for me." (Gal 2:20 KJV)
"But
the Scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by
faith of Jesus Christ might
be given to them that believe." (Gal 3:22 KJV)
{Please,
note that the promise [of Abraham’s blessing] was obtained by
Christ’s faithfulness, not by our believing (which is also
mentioned in this verse!)}.
"And
be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the
law, but that which is through
the faith of Christ,
the righteousness which is of God by faith:" (Phil 3:9 KJV)
"In
whom we have boldness and access with confidence by
the faith of him."
(Eph 3:12 KJV)
Observe,
in Christ we have boldness and access with confidence [to the throne
of grace] through His faith (faithfulness). It is through His
faithfulness this access was gained, not through our believing! HE
opened a new and living way by HIS faithfulness!
Well,
someone might object at this point, that none of this is reflected in
my
Bible
translation (which might be NIV, ESV, NASB, NKJV or a host of other
modern versions)! Why should I trust you or the KJV over my Bible?
A
pertinent question. Especially, in light of the fact, that most of us
(myself included) have little or zero knowledge of the original
Greek. How do we know that the Greek phrase “the faith of Christ”
means “the faith OF Christ” and not the “faith IN Christ” (as
is the rendering in NIV, ESV, NASB, NKJV (shame on them!) and
virtually every other modern and not so modern translation with the
exception of KJV, YLT, LITV and, surprisingly NET). So what of the
phrase “faith of Christ”?
In
the Greek phrase pistis Christou (‘faith of Christ’) the word
“faith” is related to the word “Christ” in the form of the
“genitive case”, which generally corresponds to the English
“possessive” case. Something belongs to something or someone
else. In English this idea is expressed by either preposition “of”
or an apostrophe ‘ followed by “s”. Abraham’s
faith or the faith of
Abraham.
The faith of
God
(Romans 3:3), the grace of
the
Lord Jesus Christ, love of
God,
fellowship of
the Holy Spirit, longsuffering
of God,
etc, etc. In all such instances (which our translations render
through the use “of”) the same grammatical structure is used as
in the phrase “the faith
of
Christ”. No one thinks that the phrase “finger of
God” should be translated a “finger in
God”, or that “faith of
Abraham”
should be translated a “faith in
Abraham”.
Yet, in the case of “the faith of
Christ” we get a totally different picture in the majority of Bible
translations and in majority of Bible commentaries. WHY? Well, in
short, because of two reasons:
#1.
Indecisiveness / certain ambiguity of the Greek grammar of the
phrase.
#2.
A preconceived theological bias, which tends
to
favor the objective genitive reading of “the faith of Christ”,
as “the faith in
Christ”,
simply because “believing on Christ” is such a prominent theme in
the NT.
First,
the genitive case in Greek can be an “objective
genitive”,
that is, the noun connected to the other noun by means of a genitive
case ending (translated into English as “of”) is about
or towards
that other noun. For example, the expression “the gospel of
Jesus Christ” in Mark 1:1 can mean “the gospel about
Jesus Christ” and probably does mean that: “ the gospel about
Jesus Christ”. Hence, Greek πιστις Χριστου - “faith
of Christ’ can mean “faith about
or towards
Christ” as well as the “Christ’s faith”.
Yes,
this does sound confusing. The Greek grammar can be ambiguous. It is
often open to interpretations. The exact meaning, signification of a
word / phrase must be determined by its immediate and larger context.
And it can
be
ascertained by the context. But that is precisely what the modern
Bible paraphrases prevent their readers from doing, by deciding for
us, or instead of us, what the phrase should
mean in their opinion, leaving us not with what Scriptures say, but
with their interpretation...which in this case of the “faith of
Christ” I believe, is wrong.
Once
again, the expression “the faith of Christ” could
mean
either Christ’s
faith or faithfulness (please keep in mind that Greek pistis
can
mean both “faith” and “faithfulness”, depending on the
context), or “faith toward
or in
Christ”, but the faithful Bible translation must render the
expression as
close to the original as possible, leaving the options of
interpretation to the reader of the passage.
At
the end of the day, there are two undeniable facts and one
observation as far as the grammar / linguistics of the phrase:
Fact
#1. There is no preposition “in” between the words “faith”
and “[Jesus] Christ” as the phrase exists in the original Greek.
The word “faith” is in genitive case relation to the word
“Christ”. It is literally “the
faith of Christ”,
even though the expression itself can
be
interpreted in more than one way, as we have seen. But the point
being, it does not by any means dogmatically establish the “faith
in
Christ” reading.
Fact
#2. Paul knew very well, how to express the idea of our believing in
/ on Christ clearly, unambiguously and unmistakably. In fact we have
a prime example of this in Galatians 2:16, where he simultaneously
speaks of justification by the faith of
Jesus
Christ AND our believing in
Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of
Christ.
Observation:
if the apostle, who knows how to communicate effectively and
unmistakably the idea of our believing on Christ and who sometimes
does it in the very same verses where the mysterious phrase “the
faith of Christ” occurs (as in Gal. 2:16), if that same apostle
chooses, under the inspiration of the Spirit, to employ a different
grammatical
structure to speak about some ‘faith of Christ” where there is no
preposition “in”, it is at least possible that means by it
something other than our believing on Christ.
But
the grammar / linguistics by themselves do not settle the question.
Larger theological concerns help to arrive at the true import of the
ambiguous “faith of Christ”.
Look
at Romans 3:23: "Even the righteousness of God which is by
faith of Jesus Christ
unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference:"
(Rom 3:22) There and in the preceding v. 22 we have God’s
righteousness being (or having been) revealed or disclosed by or
through the faith of Christ and this righteousness is for all who
believe. Notice, both Christ’s faith and
our
believing. In one verse. Now the modern prevailing reading makes the
second part of Rom. 3:22 superfluous, redundant. Since to believe is
to have faith, the verse reads as follows: “...by
faith in Jesus Christ for all who have faith [in Jesus Christ]”.
Does it not sound like a needless repetition - tautology? But reading
the
faith of Christ
as Christ’s faithfulness explains how God’s righteousness has
been disclosed! It is through Christ’s keeping faith to His
Messianic role as the Redeemer of God’s elect that God’s
righteousness in pardoning His people’s sins is being made
manifest! Otherwise, it is obscured! Christ is
the revelation of God’s righteousness! In Him is God’s
righteousness in justifying the ungodly is justified / vindicated
(Rom. 3:26).
Galatians
2:16: "Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the
law, but by the faith of
Jesus
Christ, even we have believed in
Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of
Christ,
and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no
flesh be justified." We see both here {incidentally, no one
suggests that the phrase “works of
the
law” should be understood as “works in
the law”, somehow}. Again, if
we read Gal. 2:16 as speaking about our faith or believing in Christ
in all the three occurrences where faith and believing is mentioned
in this verse, we get a needless repetition: “knowing that a man
is...justified by the faith in Christ, we exercised faith in Christ,
that we might be justified by the faith in Christ…”. This is
called tautology:
a needless repetition. But Paul knows how to express the idea of our
believing in Christ unmistakably and unambiguously.
So
what does the faithfulness of Christ mean or could signify, in a
nutshell?
It
is Christ’s being faithful to the Father, to the covenant of
redemption, to His mission, to His beloved elect even unto death; It
is His faithfulness in doing God’s will, faithfulness in
accomplishing so great a salvation for His people and faithfulness in
bearing witness to it and faithfulness in the whole mediatorial
office of our High Priest.
Consider
these Scriptures:
"Who
then is a faithful
and
wise servant, whom his lord hath made ruler over his household, to
give them meat in due season?" (Mat 24:45)
"[Christ]
was faithful
to him that appointed him, as also Moses was faithful in all his
house." (Heb 3:2)
Please,
note, that Christ is a perfectly “faithful and wise Servant” Whom
God hath made Ruler over all His house (Hebrews 3:2)
"Wherefore
in all things it behooved him to be made like unto his brethren, that
he might be a merciful and faithful
high priest
in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of
the people." (Heb 2:17)
"And
from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful
witness,
and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of
the earth. Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his
own blood," (Rev 1:5)
"And
I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon
him was called Faithful
and
True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war." (Rev
19:11)
"Faithful
is he that calleth you, who also will do it." (1Ths 5:24)
We
are saved, justified, sanctified and glorified by God’s
faithfulness
in Jesus Christ in the whole great work of redemption. It is through
Christ’s being faithful
that God’s righteousness in justification of guilty sinners is
disclosed, it is by His faithfulness that the promise of blessing
promised to Abraham is realized and given to all those who believe
(Gal. 3:22), it is by His faithfulness that we have gained access and
boldness to the throne of grace (Eph. 3:12) and we hope to be found
not with our own righteousness of the law but that which is [earned,
merited, purchased for us] by the faithfulness of Jesus (Phil. 3:9).
Thus
far the positive statement of justification through the faith of
Jesus Christ.
Mr.
Mark McCulley has written an article: The
Faith of Christ Means “Faith in Christ” and not “Christ’s
Faith”
where he takes issue with the idea of salvation by the faith of
Christ and shows a great deal of misunderstanding what it is all
about.
He
writes:
“Some
Reformed folks are so unhappy with the idea that faith is a condition
that [they] also deny that faith in Galatians 3 is the human act of
believing. I too deny that faith is an instrumental condition before
justification. But take a few minutes to read Gal 2:16, 3:22; Romans
3:22,26; Phil 3:9; Ephesians 3:12. When I look at all the texts
together, I cannot deny that faith often means the human act of an
individual elect person hearing, understanding, and believing the
gospel”.
This
is begging the question. Having looked at all those texts mentioned
by McCulley closely (as we just did above), we cannot deny that faith
of Christ in these texts might actually mean something other
than the human act of believing, which is also clearly mentioned in
some of these passages. In my opinion, every one of these texts
speaks about justification or righteousness by or through the faith
of
Christ
(or “faith of Him” in Ephesians 2:12).
Mr.
McCulley proceeds:
“Here’s
the question. Is Christ the subject or object of faith? The view I
oppose says we should read all these verses as saying, “Christ’s
faith.” Some of the Reformed people who say this remind us that God
gives us faith, that God is the source of faith. I agree that faith
is God’s gift to the elect. But Christ does not believe for us.
Christ makes us both able and willing to believe the gospel so that
we do believe the gospel. Christ indwelling in us does not believe,
and so I disagree with Primitive Baptists who deny that the elect
need to hear or understand or believe the gospel”.
I
will not concern myself with Primitive Baptists or their beliefs
here. I disagree with dormant regenerationism also. (I cite whole
paragraphs for the sake of being fair to the author) Here’s where
the misunderstanding shows: McCulley says “but Christ does not
believe for us”. This is
a strange idea that faith of Christ means His believing for us in our
stead. Now, of course, He through His Spirit does
enable
us to believe, but He does not do the believing in Himself for us in
our stead! No, it is we who believe in / on Christ; He is the object
of
our believing. But we are not justified by our believing. Scripture
explicitly says that we are justified by
the faith of Christ,
which expression means, as we have seen in the context of the whole
Scripture, His faithfulness to the Father, to the covenant of
redemption, to us, His people, in His mediatorial office as God’s
Lamb and our High Priest.
McCulley
goes on:
“But
many who agree with me that the elect need to believe the gospel
still insist that “faith” in these texts means “Christ’s
faith”, either in the sense that He is the source of my faith, or
in the sense of Christ Himself believing. But no other texts refer to
the act of Christ believing, unless these texts do”.
Christ
is
the source, origin of our faith (Hebrews 12:2), but He does not do
the believing in Him for us as we said before. McCulley confidently
asserts that “no other texts refer to the act of Christ believing,
unless these texts do”.
WRONG:
2 Corinthians 4:13 and Psalm 116:10. These texts refer to the act of
Christ's believing
and Paul states that Christ's believing is the basis of our believing
, that we follow Christ's faith in His resurrection.
McCulley
also appears unaware of the fact that the word “faith” in Greek
original is inclusive of “faithfulness” so that “the faith of
Christ” is Scripture’s shorthand in referring to His faithfulness
in discharging His Father’s will.
McCulley
continues:
“James
2:1 tells us, “show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord
Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory.” I think that Christ is the object
of faith, and that our faith is in/toward Christ and not toward His
act of believing”.
I
agree with this. Moreover, James 2:1 does present a little thorn in
the flesh of my argumentation, since in this verse “the faith of
the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ” clearly refers to our faith
about
or
in the
glorious Lord Jesus Christ. This instance, along with Mark 11:22
present a case of reading pistis Christou as the “faith about
or towards
Christ”, which facts reinforce the truth that the proper meaning /
signification of the word is always determined by its use in the
context.
“Romans
3:3 does refer to God’s faithfulness. “Does their unfaithfulness
nullify the faithfulness of God? The gospel is about Christ’s death
as that which satisfies God’s justice. Justice demands death
because of the elect’s sins imputed to Christ. To believe that
gospel promise is to believe in Christ’s death. We can’t have a
gospel which speaks generically about God’s faithfulness without
talking about Christ’s death”.
Agree
again, but would note that Romans 3:3 uses exactly the same structure
as “the faith of Christ”, only the here it is “the faith of
God”, which as McCulley rightly concedes is God’s faithfulness.
Romans
3:25,26. “God put forward Christ as a propitiation by his blood to
show God’s righteousness, to be RECEIVED by faith.” The receiving
here is the human act of believing. Yes, God is faithful to His law
and therefore just, but also God does not justify all sinners, but
only of those sinners who have faith in Christ and His propitiation.
This language no more makes faith the condition of salvation than
does John 3:16. God does not love everybody. God only loves the
elect, and the elect are identified as those who believe the gospel.
There is no reason not to talk about election in John 3 or Romans 3,
but also there is no reason not to talk about “as many as”
believe the gospel.
This
is a perfect example of an argument built upon a
bad translation:
Romans 3:25 does NOT have “to be received by faith”. People use
loose translations and then attempt to build their theology on them.
McCulley is using a paraphrase, not a faithful Bible translation.
There is no “to
be received by faith”
in that verse. There is no “us”
or “our”
in reference to the word “faith” in the passage. This is what
Romans 3:26 actually says:
"whom
God did set forth a mercy seat, through
the faith in his blood,
for the shewing forth of His righteousness, because of the passing
over of the bygone sins in the forbearance of God --" (Rom 3:25
YLT)
It
speaks of Christ whom God did set forth a mercy sea (propitiation)
through the faith in His (Christ’s) blood, etc. Who is the Actor in
this passage? Who DOES whatever is being done in the verse? It is God
Who
sets
forth the mercy seat. He does it through what? - through
the faith in His blood.
People tend to read “our
faith” in the text, but there is no “our”. “We” are not
present in the text, because we are not mentioned in the text at all.
The only action figure / subject in the verse is GOD Himself. He
sets Christ as a mercy seat and He
does it through the faith, I say, HIS
faith in Christ’s blood. God had faith that Christ’s blood shall
be an effectual propitiation for the sins of His people. In other
words, God trusted that Christ’s sufferings would not be wasted,
that His sacrifice would not be offered in vain. You will say to me,
no, but He KNEW for certain, because God is an all-knowing,
omniscient God, Who knows all things beforehand. True. God does know
all things beforehand. But a person may have faith with certainty in
something yet to be done. For instance, Hebrews 12:2, speaks of
Jesus, “the author and finisher of our faith; who
for the joy that was set before him endured
the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of
the throne of God.” He endured the cross, despising the shame for
the joy that was set before Him.
In other words, He was looking in faith to
the joy [of the glory and happiness of the accomplished salvation]
and that is why
by faith,
that is by
His faith He
ran the race marked out for Him, enduring the cross, despising the
shame. He knew of course, that His travail shall see a goodly fruit,
but He also had faith in the same, because it was still before
Him.
Thus,
Romans 3:25 does not speak of our reception of the propitiation by
our faith. It speaks of God setting forth Christ a propitiation
through the
[that is His]
faith in His (Christ’s) blood.
McCulley
goes on:
“Some
Reformed people, to avoid making faith a condition of salvation, tell
us that the continual faith in the gospel by the elect is a work.
They do this in order to prove that the elect are saved not by
believing but by the work of Christ. For example, Harold Camping
quotes John 6:28-28, “ What shall we do to do the works of God? “
Jesus answered and said unto them, “This is the work of God, that
ye believe in Him whom He has sent.” Then Camping quotes Phil 2:13,
“For it is God who works in you both to will and to do of His good
pleasure.”
Then
Camping goes to James about faith working and then says this proves
that our human act of believing is no part of salvation. He claims
that it’s Christ’s faith that saves. The logic is clear. The
elect are saved by Christ’s work. And then Camping reminds us that
Christ’s faith is Christ’s work”.
I
do not have to be an advocate for the late Mr. Camping, but I do
appreciate some of his arguments and Scripture references quoted here
by Mr. McCulley. I agree for instance, “that the elect are saved
not by believing, but by the work of Christ”. I should add that
every saved soul must certainly, wholeheartedly agree “that the
elect are saved not by believing, but by the work of Christ”. This
statement cannot even be debated. It is Christ’s cross-work that
saves us. Our believing is the primary evidence of our being saved by
Christ’s cross-work. He has
saved
us before we ever came along. If we do not believe this blessed
gospel truth, we have no gospel.
I
also agree with Camping that believing is
God’s work since Christ says it plainly in John 6:28. I also agree
with the apostle James that faith which has no works is a dead faith
(James 2:20,26) and that, by inference, a true, lively faith has
works and the very activity of “faith” as “believing”
is an
action by itself. Hence, those who insist that we are saved by our
own believing, or on the basis of our believing do imply in Scripture
terms, that people get saved by
the work of believing,
which is another gospel.
I
agree also with the statement itself as
it is worded
that “it’s Christ’s faith that saves”, but it is not clear
what exactly Mr. Camping means by it. If by the “faith” of Christ
he means Christ’s whole saving work of redemption (which He
accomplished by His faith), then I agree. If he means we are saved
by Christ’s vicariously believing in Himself for us in our stead,
then, no, I do not agree with that. I believe in the instrumental
function of our faith in Christ as a God-given, divinely appointed
means of our arriving at the knowledge
of salvation,
which salvation has been accomplished two thousand years ago on the
cross by
Christ’s faithfulness.
The
rest of McCulley’s article is non-controversial as far as the
subject of discussion. I agree with what he says at the end of his
article.
I
hope this short material will help clarify my position on the
faith of Christ.
Renat
N. Ilyasov
1
Rom.
3:22, Rom. 3:26b {“faith of Jesus” YLT}, Gal. 2:16, 20 {“faith
of the Son of God”} Gal. 3:22, Phil. 3:9, Eph. 3:12 {“by the
faith of him”}
