Chapter 125
The Nature of True Faith
1:15 – 16).14 To Paul, their perpetual disobedience proved their disbelief. Their actions denied God more loudly than their words proclaimed Him. This is characteristic of unbelief, not faith, for true faith always embodies righ teous works. As the Reformers were fond of saying, we are justified by faith alone, but justifying faith is never alone. Spurgeon said, "Although we are sure that men are not saved for the sake of their works, yet we are equally sure that no man will be saved without them."15 True faith is manifest only in obedience.
Faith and faithfulness were not substantially different concepts to the firstcentury Chris tian. In fact, the same word is translated both ways in our English Bibles.16 Writing on "faith" in his commentary on Galatians, Lightfoot wrote:
Th e Greek pistis . . . and the English "faith" hover between two meanings; trustfulness, the frame of mind which relies on another; and trustworthiness, the frame of mind which can be relied upon. Not only are the two connected together grammatically, as active and passive sense of the same word, or logically, as subject and object of the same act; but there is a close moral affi nity between them. Fidelity, constancy, fi rmness, confi dence, reliance, trust, belief — these are the links which connect the two extremes, the passive with the active meaning of "faith." Owing to these combined causes, the two senses will at times be so blended together that they can only be separated by some arbitrary distinction. . . . In all such cases it is better to accept the latitude, and even the vagueness, of a word or phrase, than to attempt a rigid defi nition. . . . And indeed the loss in grammatical precision is oft en more than compensated by the gain in theological depth. In the case of "the faithful" for instance, does not the one quality of heart carry the other with it, so that they who are trustful are trusty also; they who have faith in God are stedfast and unmovable in the path of duty?17
14. Incredibly, Zane Hodges asserts that Paul was describing true believers when he wrote those words to Titus (Hodges, Gospel Under Siege, 96). He writes, "Th e people Paul has in mind in Titus 1:16 are evidently the same as those of whom he says in verse 13: 'Th erefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith.' Th e Greek word for 'sound' means to be healthy. Hence, the persons he thinks of are not individuals who are not 'in the faith' at all. Rather, they are people whom he regards as spiritually 'sick' and who need a rebuke designed to restore them to good health." Th at completely ignores the fact that Paul referred to these people as "defi led and unbelieving, [with] both their mind and their conscience . . . defi led" (v. 15); and "detestable and disobedient . . . worthless for any good deed" (v. 16). Th at cannot be a description of the children of God.
15. Charles H. Spurgeon, Th e New Park Street Pulpit (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1962 reprint of 1858 volume), 4:265. 16. Cf. Galatians 5:22, where pistis as a fruit of the Spirit is rendered "faithfulness." Th is is the same word translated "faith" in Ephesians 2:8: "By grace you have been saved through faith."
17. J. B. Lightfoot, Th e Epistle of St. Paul to the Galatians (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, n.d.), 154 – 55.