Foy E. Wallace, Jr.
The relation between the question “what think ye of Christ,” and the question of when one is saved by faith, has been previously set forth. It has been shown that it is the believer who is to be saved. But between the believer and salvation is the power of God. And it is when the believer makes use of the “power” (the Gospel) that he instantaneous faith alone doctrine. is saved, and not before. (1) Faith (2) power used (3) salvation.
Another passage frequently quoted by the faith alone advocates is John 1:12. It reads: “But as many as received him, to them gave he the power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.” Great stress is laid on the last words, “even to them that believe on, his name.” But John 1:12 is like Romans 1:16—the same order is in it. First, is the believer; second, between the believer and the sonship is the “power” to become; third, when the believer uses the power he becomes the son of God. Strange, indeed, that men will quote this passage to prove that a believer is saved the moment he believes, when the passage itself says that the believer must “become” a son of God. The use must be made of the power that lies between; that believer and sonship.
Another effort for faith only is made on Rom. 5:1-2. They attempt to drag it into service. It reads: “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ; by whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.” Of course, the emphasis is on faith, and the assumption is that Rom. 5:1-2 teaches that the sinner is saved the moment he believes-assumption, and nothing else. First, Paul bases salvation on faith. Second, he states that faith gives the believer access into “this grace.”
The word access is defined to mean “admittance or approach to a person or place; means of approach or admission.” Inasmuch as faith gives access into the grace, then the believer, is not in the “grace” the moment he believes. He gains access by faith, that is, after he is a believer.
The use of the word access may be further observed in a comparison with Eph. 2:18: “For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father.” In verse 16 the apostle had. shown that “by the cross” the pathway to reconciliation unto God had been opened up to both the Jew and the Gentile. Then, in verse 18, he declares that both have access by the one Spirit unto the Father. In chapter 3:12, the apostle says that in boldness we have access and confidence “by the faith of him.” Now, the faith of Christ is the Gospel. So by the Gospel we have access, into what? Verse 12 to 21 gives a list of the blessings of the gospel, and it was by faith A that the Ephesians had obtained the access into all of these blessings. Though believers, they still had to use their faith in order to enter these blessings. So it is in Rom. 5:1-2, faith gave the believer access into the grace, and he was not saved out of the grace but in it, therefore the believer is not saved at the moment of faith he is saved when he uses it as the access, the means of his admittance into the grace of God. Anybody ought to be able to see that Rom. 5:1-2 is fatal to the faith only theory, which would have a believer saved outside the grace, saved without grace. That is a new thing, indeed!
Other passages in the Roman letter settle the faith alone issue. In Rom. 3:22 we read of “the righteousness of God which is by faith of. Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe.” And again, in Rom. 3:26, “that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.” He is the justifier of whom? The one who has already believed in Jesus. If God justifies one after he is already a believer in Jesus, then how can salvation be co-incident with faith? If salvation is instantaneous with believing, how can God justify the one who has already believed in Jesus? But Paul says he does that— therefore salvation is not instantaneous with faith; it is not co-incident with believing. At this point Rom. 4:16 comes in to settle it: “Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace.” Here Paul puts “might be” right between faith and salvation by grace! How could he say that a believer might be saved by grace if he was already saved the moment he believed? Thus in the Roman letter Paul uses four chapters to lay his premise that the law of Moses could not save, and in the fifth chapter he gives his conclusion that we are justified by faith because it gives us access into the grace of God. But to gain this access, faith must be used. How is faith used? This question is extended into the sixth chapter where he describes how the believer is “baptized into Jesus Christ,” and is therefore “buried with him by baptism into death,” that as Christ was raised “even so we also should walk in newness of life.” The doctrine of the Roman letter is not the doctrine of faith alone salvation.
A sectarian sugar stick is claimed for Gal. 2:16. It reads:
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 are told this passage teaches, first, that “not by works of the law” excludes baptism; and that “justified by the faith o f Christ” means salvation the moment one believes. To this we reply: (1) Baptism is not a work of the law. To class baptism as a “work of the law” is to deny believer’s baptism, for “the law is not of faith” (Gal. 3:12), and the one baptized, furthermore would be under a “curse” (Gal. 3: 13), and would come under the “wrath of God” (Rom. 4:15). That is consequence number one of such reasoning. (2) Paul contrasts the law of Moses and the Gospel of Christ. The first is “the law” and the second is “the faith.” The law is the Jewish system. The faith is the Gospel of Christ, for all the world. (3) In the passage there are two names—“faith” and “the faith of Jesus Christ.” They are not the same. The word, “faith” refers to the state of mind in the person, when one says that he believes. The phrase “the faith of Jesus Christ” refers to the Gospel of Christ. Certain ones had believed in Christ, they had “faith.” Was that enough? No. Faith short of justification. Paul puts down into this record this order: First, we have believed in Christ; second, that we might be; third, justified by the faith of Christ. If salvation was coincidental with believing, if salvation comes the moment one believes, there could be no room for the “might be” between belief and salvation. But Paul puts this “might be” in Gal. 2:16. Between the believer and salvation there are conditions. That is why the “might be” is there. If the believer obeys Christ, he is baptized into Christ and comes into “the faith of Christ.” Here the “might be” disappears, but as long as he has “faith alone” the might be stares him in the face.
Faith alone teachers can never harmonize their doctrine and the scriptures. While it is true that the apostles taught the doctrine of justification by faith, do not overlook the fact that Gal. 2:16 says that the believer is justified by “the faith of Christ.” Why is this? Because the personal faith, the faith of the individual, prompts him to obey the Gospel, to be baptized. Thus he “by faith” accepts “the faith”—the entire teaching of Christ—and is baptized “into Christ.” Can anyone be foolish enough to say that the sinner is saved “by faith” the moment he believes, and is saved again “by the faith” when he accepts the faith in baptism? To such an absurd position all who teach the doctrine of salvation by faith only are driven by Paul’s Galatian argument.
Many times I have traveled from Oklahoma City to Los Angeles on the railroad. The energy in steam moved the train. “How did you travel?” some one asks. “I came by steam,” I would reply. Who could misunderstand that? Steam was in the boiler of the locomotive before we left, Oklahoma City. But the train did not move until the energy in the steam was released in the engine of the locomotive; then energy was converted into motion, and away we went. The question was not whether there was energy in steam, but when does the energy get us to the destination. Now, on the human side of salvation, the energy that saves is in faith, but the question is: When are we saved by faith? Paul settles that question for us. He says: “We believed in Christ that we might be justified by the faith of Christ.” The faith that saves is the faith that obeys the Gospel.
