A Definition of Faith.--Faith, saving faith, is to be taught. The definition of this faith in Jesus Christ may be described in few words: It is the act of the soul by which the whole man is given over to the guardianship and control of Jesus Christ. He abides in Christ and Christ abides in the soul by faith as supreme. The believer commits his soul and body to God and with assurance may say, Christ is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day. All who will do this will be saved unto life eternal. There will be an assurance that the soul is washed in the blood of Christ and clothed with His righteousness and precious in the sight of Jesus. Our thoughts and our hopes are on the second advent of our Lord. That is the day when the Judge of all the earth will reward the trust of His people.--MS 6, 1889. {2MCP 531.1}
Other Definitions.--Through faith we receive the grace of God, but faith is not our Saviour. It earns nothing. It is the hand by which we lay hold upon Christ and appropriate His merits.--DA 175 (1898). {2MCP 531.2}
Where there is not only a belief in God's word, but a submission of the will to Him; where the heart is yielded to Him, the affections fixed upon Him, there is faith. (SC 63).
Faith is trusting God--believing that He loves us and knows best what is for our good. Thus, instead of our own, it leads us to choose His way. In place of our ignorance, it accepts His wisdom; in place of our weakness, His strength; in place of our sinfulness, His righteousness. Our lives, ourselves, are already His; faith acknowledges His ownership and accepts its blessing. Truth, uprightness, purity, have been pointed out as secrets of life's success. It is faith that puts us in possession of these principles.--Ed 253 (1903). {2MCP 531.3}
Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Heb. 11:1 {OHC 117.1}
Faith in Christ is not the work of nature, but the work of God on human minds, wrought in the very soul by the Holy Spirit, who reveals Christ, as Christ revealed the Father. Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. With its justifying, sanctifying power, it is above what men call science. It is the science of eternal realities. Human science is often deceptive and misleading, but this heavenly science never misleads. It is so simple that a child can understand it, and yet the most learned men cannot explain it. It is inexplainable and immeasurable, beyond all human expression. {OHC 117.2}
The acceptance of Christ's atonement is the groundwork of true faith. . . . Those who will look long enough into the divine mirror to see and despise their sins, their unlikeness to the meek and lowly Jesus, will have strength to overcome. All who truly believe will confess and forsake their sins. They will cooperate with Christ in the work of bringing their hereditary and cultivated tendencies to wrong under the control of the divine will, so that sin shall not have dominion over them. Looking to Jesus, the author and finisher of their faith, they will be changed into His likeness. They will grow up into the full stature of men and women in Christ Jesus. . . . Those who truly believe, who confess and forsake their sins, will grow more and more like Christ, until of them it can in heaven be said, "Ye are complete in him." Col. 2:10. {OHC 117.3}
There are many who do not understand the simplicity of faith. They make great efforts to understand how to exercise faith, and think they must have a transporting emotion, a joyful flight of feeling, or they have not faith. But if they had what they desire, it would not prove that they had faith. What is faith? It is simply taking God at his word; it is believing that God will do just as he has promised. We should be a far greater power of good than we now are, if we would comply with the conditions that God has laid down in his word, and trust him implicitly. It is our unbelief that brings us under the description the Spirit of God has given of the Laodicean church in its condition of lukewarmness. There is nothing more disgusting to our taste than tepid water, and from the use of this figure in describing our condition, we can understand how our want of faith and love, and our indifference, is regarded by the Lord. {ST, September 9, 1889 par. 2}
Faith is not feeling. . . . True faith is in no sense allied to presumption. Only he who has true faith is secure against presumption, for presumption is Satan's counterfeit of faith. {FLB 122.4}
Faith claims God's promises, and brings forth fruit in obedience. Presumption also claims the promises, but uses them as Satan did, to excuse transgression. Faith would have led our first parents to trust the love of God and to obey His commands. Presumption led them to transgress His law, believing that His great love would save them from the consequences of their sin. It is not faith that claims the favor of Heaven without complying with the conditions on which mercy is to be granted. Genuine faith has its foundation in the promises and provisions of the Scriptures. {FLB 122.5}
To abide in faith is to put aside feeling and selfish desires, to walk
humbly with the Lord, to appropriate His promises, and apply them to all
occasions, believing that God will work out His own plans and purposes in your
heart and life.
123
{FLB 122.6}
In
Genuine faith in
Jesus leads to denial of self; but however high the profession may be,
if self is exalted and indulged, the faith of Jesus is not in the heart. The
true Christian manifests by a life of daily consecration that he is bought with
a price, and is not his own. He realizes that an infinite sacrifice has been
made for him, and that his life is of inestimable value, through the merits of
Jesus' blood, intercession, and righteousness. But while he comprehends the
exalted privileges of the sons of God, his soul is filled with humility. There
is no boasting of holiness from the lips of those who walk in the shadow of