John Newton
The use and importance of faith, in a sinner’s justification before God, has been much insisted on; but faith is likewise of great importance in the daily concerns of life. It gives evidence and subsistence to things not seen, and brings out the great truths of the gospel, so that they become abiding and living principles of support and direction while we are passing through this wilderness. It is as the eye and the hand; without them we cannot take one step with certainty, or attempt any service with success. It is to be wished that all professing Christians would duly attend to making a practical use of faith.
We should not then meet with so many of whom we would willingly hope well, who yet leave us in great difficulty to reconcile what we see in them with what we read in Scripture about what always accompanies a true and lively faith. How can we but be staggered when we hear people speaking the language of assurance – that they know that God has accepted them through Christ, and have not the least doubt of their interest in all the promises – while at the same time we see them under the influence of unsanctified tempers, and acting in a proud, passionate, worldly, selfish, or churlish way?
It is not only plain, from the general tenor of Scripture, that a covetous, a proud, or a censorious spirit, are no more consistent with the spirit of the gospel than drunkenness or adultery; but many texts point directly against other evils which are too often found amongst professing Christians. Thus the Apostle James assures us: “If any man . . . seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, this man’s religion is vain”; and the Apostle John: “If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him”; and he
1A letter taken, with editing, from The Works of John Newton, vol. 1.
seems to apply this character to any man, whatever his profession or pretences, who “hath this world’s goods, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him”. Surely these texts more than intimate that the faith which justifies the soul likewise receives from Jesus grace for grace, whereby the heart is purified and the life regulated as becomes the gospel of Christ.
There are too many who would have the ministry of the gospel restrained to the privileges of believers. And when there is teaching on the fruits of faith and the attitudes of mind which should be obvious in those who have “tasted that the Lord is gracious”, they think they sufficiently evade all that is said by calling it legal preaching. I would be no advocate for legal preaching, but we must not be deterred, through fear of a hard word, from declaring the whole counsel of God. We have the authority and example of Paul, who was a champion of the doctrines of free grace, to animate us in exhorting professing Christians to “walk worthy of God, who hath called you unto His kingdom and glory”.
Indeed the expression of a believer’s privilege is often misunderstood. It is a believer’s privilege to walk with God in the exercise of faith and, by the power of His Spirit, to mortify the whole body of sin, to gain a growing victory over the world and self, and to make daily advances in conformity to the mind that was in Christ. Nothing that we profess to know, believe, or hope for deserves to be called a privilege, any further than we are influenced by it to die unto sin and to live unto righteousness. No one who has true faith, will confine his inquiries to the single point of his acceptance with God, or be satisfied with the distant hope of heaven hereafter. He will be likewise solicitous how he may glorify God in the world and enjoy such foretastes of heaven as are attainable while he is yet upon earth.
Faith then, in its practical exercise, has for its object the whole Word of God, and forms its estimate of all things with which the soul is at present concerned, according to the standard of Scripture. Like Moses, it endures “as seeing Him who is invisible”. When the Lord was upon earth and conversed with His disciples, their eyes and hearts were fixed on Him. In danger He was their defender, their guide when in perplexity; and to Him they looked for the solution of all their doubts and the supply of all their needs. He is now withdrawn from our eyes, but faith sets Him still before us for the same purposes and, according to its degree, with the same effects as if we actually saw Him.
Christ’s spiritual presence, grasped by faith, is a restraint from evil, an encouragement to every service, and affords a present refuge and help in every time of trouble. The delight a believer takes in ordinances is due to this,
because there he meets his Lord, and it is due to this likewise that his religion is not confined to public occasions, but he is the same person in secret as he appears to be in the public assembly, for he worships Him who sees in secret and dares appeal to His all-seeing eye for the sincerity of his desires and intentions. By faith he is enabled to use prosperity with moderation, and knows and feels that what the world calls good is of small value, unless it is accompanied with the presence and blessings of Him whom his soul loves. And his faith upholds him under all trials, by assuring him that every dispensation is under the direction of his Lord, that chastisements are a token of His love, that the season, measure and continuance of his sufferings are appointed by infinite wisdom and designed to work for his everlasting good, and that grace and strength shall be afforded him, according to his day.
Thus, because his heart is fixed, trusting in the Lord, to whom he has committed all his concerns, and because he knows that his best interests are safe, he is not greatly afraid of evil tidings but enjoys a stable peace in the midst of a changing world. Though he cannot tell what a day may bring forth, he believes that He who has invited and enabled him to cast all his cares upon Him will allow nothing to befall him but what shall be made subservient to his chief desire – the glory of God in the sanctification and final salvation of his soul. And if, through the weakness of his flesh, he is liable to be startled by the first impression of a sharp and sudden trial, he quickly flees to his strong refuge, remembers it is the Lord’s doing, resigns himself to His will, and patiently expects a happy outcome.
A believer’s conduct towards his fellow creatures is regulated by the same principle of faith, and his great aim is to please God in carrying out the various duties of life and to let his light shine in the world. He believes and feels his own weakness and unworthiness, and lives on the grace and pardoning love of his Lord. This gives him a habitual tenderness and gentleness of spirit. Humbled under a sense of being forgiven much, he finds it easy to forgive others, if he has anything against anyone. A due sense of what he is, in the sight of the Lord, preserves him from giving way to anger and resentment; he is not easily provoked, but is “swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath”. If he is offended, he is easy to be entreated and is disposed, not only to yield to a reconciliation, but to seek it.
As Jesus is his life, righteousness and strength, so He is his pattern. By faith he contemplates and studies this great Exemplar of kindness. With a holy ambition he treads in the footsteps of his Lord and Master and learns from Him to be meek and lowly, to repay injuries with kindness, and to overcome evil with good. From the same views, he derives by faith a benevolent spirit and, according to his sphere and his ability, he endeavours to promote
the welfare of all around him. The law of love being thus written in his heart, and his soul set at liberty from the low and narrow dictates of a selfish spirit, his language will be truth and his dealings equity. Others may depend on his promise, without the use of oath, bond, or witness; and the feelings of his heart, under the direction of an enlightened conscience and the precepts of Scripture, prompt him to do unto others as he would desire that they should do to him in similar circumstances.
If he is a master, he is gentle and compassionate; if a servant, he is faithful and obedient; for in both relationships he acts by faith, under the eye of his Master in heaven. If he is a trader, he neither dares nor wishes to take advantage either of the ignorance or the necessities of those with whom he deals. And the same principle of love influences his whole way of life. A sense of his own infirmities makes him careful about those of others: he will not readily believe reports to their prejudice without sufficient proof; even then he will not repeat them, unless he is lawfully called to do so. He believes that the precept, “Speak evil of no man,” is founded on the same authority as those which forbid adultery or murder; therefore he keeps his “mouth as with a bridle”.
Lastly, faith is of daily use to preserve from complying with the corrupt customs and maxims of the world. The believer, though in the world, is not of it; by faith he triumphs over its smiles and enticements; he sees that all in the world, that is suited to gratify the desires of the flesh or the eye, is not only to be avoided as sinful, but as incompatible with his best pleasures.
He will mix with the world as far as is necessary, in the discharge of the duties of the position in life where the providence of God has placed him, but no further. His leisure and inclinations are engaged in a different pursuit. They who fear the Lord are his chosen companions, and the blessings he derives from the Word, prayer and other ordinances of grace make him look with a mixture of disdain and pity on the poor pleasures and amusements of those who live without God in the world.
By faith he is proof against its frowns. He will obey God rather than man; he will have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but will rather reprove them. And if, because of this, he should be despised and injuriously treated, he accounts as gain whatever loss he suffers in such a cause, and esteems such disgrace his glory.
I am not aiming to draw a perfect character, but to show the proper effects of that faith which justifies. It purifies the heart, works by love, and overcomes the world. A habitual endeavour to possess such a frame of spirit and thus to adorn the gospel of Christ, and with growing success, is what I am persuaded you are not a stranger to. And I am afraid that they who can
content themselves with aiming at anything short of this, in their profession, are too much strangers to themselves and to the nature of that liberty with which Jesus has promised to make His people free. My sincere prayer is that you may go on from strength to strength, increasing in the light and the image of our Lord and Saviour.