Third, how is room made in the soul for faith's appropriation of Christ? How does faith experientially appropriate Christ and His righteousness? What is the hall­mark of such appropriation?

The concept of receiving Christ by faith, hijacked in our day by Arminian-ism, needs to be recovered for the Re­formed pulpit. Many sincere Reformed Christians are afraid to speak of "receiv­ing Christ" simply because of the false way modem evangelists describe such reception (i.e. as an act of the suppos­edly "free will" of the sinner to fulfil a condition for salvation). Believing that it somehow seems wrong and "Arminian" to receive Christ, their response to the gospel with liberty is inhibited.

To deny faith as the foundation of justification is not to minimize faith or the need for personally receiving Christ by faith. Though Scripture never ascribes merit to faith itself, it establishes un­equivocally the necessity of faith (Heb. 11:6). The sovereign grace of the im­puted righteousness of Christ must be personally received by faith if a sinner is to be grafted or incorporated into Christ On. 3:36; Rom. 5:11,17). The Holy Spirit uses faith to work out sovereign grace. As G. C. Berkouwer states: "The way of salvation is the way of faith just because it is only in faith that the exclusiveness of divine grace is recognized and hon­ored.... Faith is no competitor of sola gratia [by grace alone]; but sovereign grace is confirmed by faith.... Sola gratia and sola fide [by faith alone], thus, remain the be all and end all of the relation between faith and justification."¹

Faith is a holy command, a personal necessity, a pressing urgency (2 Ki. 17:14, 18, 21). There is only faith or damnation (Mk. 16:16; John 3:18). Faith is indispensable. John Flavel wrote, "The soul is the life of the body; faith is the life of the soul; Christ is the life of faith."

By the Spirit and Word of God, jus­tifying faith is a saving grace which, first, convicts of sin and misery; second, as­sents to the gospel from the heart; third, receives and rests upon Christ and His righteousness for pardon and salvation; and fourth, lives out of Christ, who is the hallmark of appropriating faith (Heb. 10:39; Rom. 10:14, 17; Jn. 16:8-9; Rom. 10:8-10; Acts 10:43; Phil. 3:9; Gal. 3:11; cf. Westminster Larger Catechism, Questions 72-73). These marks of faith are experienced in the soul and urge closer examination if we are to ascertain the experiential dimensions of "by" in justification by faith alone.

First then, faith is an experiential con­victing, soul-emptying grace. To lay hold of Christ, to treasure His righteousness, necessitates losing my own righteous­ness. Faith teaches utter humility, the total emptiness of all within the sinner when he is viewed outside of Christ.² Faith means utter despair of everything except Christ. To that end, faith makes a sinner conscious of the desperate situation he is in and the tragic judgment he de­serves. Sin must become sin if grace is to become grace. Far from being a work of merit, faith is a realizing of my demerit, a negating of all hope of merit, a becoming aware of divine mercy. My filthy rags must be stripped away; the spiritual character of the law which demands perfect love to God and my neighbor must condemn me, if I am to come to appreciate the beauty of that Savior who, for the un­godly, perfectly obeyed the law in His active obedience and bore the penalty of sin in His passive obedience (Rom. 5:6­10). My unrighteousness must be uncov­ered if Christ's righteousness is to be discovered (Psa. 71:16).

Second, faith wholeheartedly "assents to the truth of the gospel" (Westminster Larger Catechism, Question 73). Faith is no mere intellectual assent. Faith be­lieves from the heart that which the Scriptures teach about self, the holiness of God, and the saviorhood of Christ. Thrust before God's holiness, faith repu­diates self-righteousness and is brought to need Christ experientially as revealed in the Scriptures and given by the Spirit. Faith abandons all self-merit while being increasingly allured to Christ and His merits (Rom. 7:24-25). Faith surrenders to the gospel and falls into the out­stretched arms of God. "The act of faith is as much being held by God as holding Him; the power of faith is exercised as much in capitulation as in conquering ­the faith that overcomes the world is capitulation to Christ's great victory."³

Faith looks away from self and itself to Christ, living and moving entirely from and in grace.⁴ Faith flees with all the soul's poverty to Christ's riches, with all the soul's guilt to Christ as recon­ciler, with all the soul's bondage to Christ as liberator. Faith confesses with Augustus Toplady:

Nothing in my hand I bring, Simply to thy cross I cling; Naked, come to thee for dress; Helpless, look to thee for grace; Foul, Ito the fountain fly; Wash me, Saviour, or I die.

Third, justifying faith is especially that act of the soul by which a sinner lays hold of Christ and His righteous­ness and experiences pardon and peace that passes understanding (Phil. 4:7). Faith is nothing less than the means which unites a sinner with his Savior. "Faith justifies in no other way," wrote Calvin, "than as it introduces us into a participation of the righteousness of Christ." It apprehends (fides apprehen­siva), "closes" with, and "grasps" Christ in warm believing embrace, surrender­ing all of self, clinging to His Word, relying on His promises. Christ is not only the object of faith, but is Himself present in faith. Faith reposes in the person of Christ — coming, hearing, seeing, trusting, taking, embracing, knowing, rejoicing, loving, triumph­ing. It leaves its case in the hands of Christ as great Physician, while taking His prescriptions, following His direc­tions, trusting simply and supremely in His finished work and ongoing inter­cessions. Faith, Luther writes, "clasps Christ as a ring clasps its jewel"; faith wraps the soul in Christ's righteous­ness. It appropriates with a believing heart the perfect righteousness, satis­faction and holiness of Christ. It tastes the efficacy of Christ's blood-righteous­ness as the righteousness of God Him­self (Rom. 3:21-25; 5:9; 6:7; 2 Cor. 5:18-21). It weds the soul to Christ, ex­periences divine pardon and acceptance in the Beloved, and makes the soul partaker of every covenant mercy. Faith and Christ become inseparable in jus­tification as Daniel Cawdray illustrates:

As the act of healing through the eyes of the Israelites and the brazen serpent went together; so, in the act of justifying, these two, faith and Christ, have a mutual relation, and must al­ways concur — faith as the action which apprehendeth, Christ as the object which is apprehended; so that neither the passion of Christ saveth without faith, nor doth faith help un­less it be in Christ, its object.⁵

William Gumall put it this way: "With one hand faith pulls off its own righteousness and throws it away; with the other it puts on Christ's." The Heidelberg Catechism ex­plains personal appropriation of Christ's righteousness best:

Question 60: How art thou righteous before God?

Answer: Only by a true faith in Jesus Christ (Rom. 3:22ff.; Gal. 2:16); so that, though my conscience accuse me, that I have grossly trans­gressed all the commandments of God, and kept none of them (Rom. 3:9ff.), and am still inclined to all evil (Rom. 7:23); notwithstanding, God, without any merit of mine (Rom. 3:24), but only of mere grace (Tit. 3:5; Eph. 2:8-9), grants (Rom. 4:4-5; 2 Cor. 5:19) and imputes to me (1 John 2:1) the perfect satisfaction, righteousness, and holiness of Christ (Rom. 3:24-25); even so, as if I never had had, nor committed any sin; yea, as if I had fully accomplished all that obedience which Christ has accomplished for me (2 Cor. 5:21), inasmuch as I em­brace such benefit with a believing heart (Rom. 3:28; Jn. 3:18).

Question 61: Why sayest thou that thou art righteous by faith only?

Answer: Not that I am acceptable to God on account of the worthiness of my faith (Psa. 16:2; Eph. 2:8-9), but because only the satisfaction, right­eousness, and holiness of Christ, is my righteousness before God (1 Cor. 1:30; 2:2); and that I cannot receive and apply the same to myself any other way than by faith only (1 John 5:10).

Fourth, faith lives out of Christ. Be­ing united to Christ by faith, the be­liever is objectively possessed of all Christ's benefits and subjectively expe­riences these benefits as abundantly as the Spirit applies them and as he is capable of receiving them through ap­prehending Christ. Since grace and faith are given in Christ, the essential righteousness of the believer will re­main extrinsic to him, even as Christ is really present within him, effecting daily conversion. "Christ without" is the ground of justification; "Christ within," the fruit of justification, and an evidence of vital union of the be­liever to Christ.⁶ 999For faith, Christ — both in glory as ascended Lord and in the believer's soul — is the chief among ten thousand, white and ruddy, altogether lovely (Song of Sol. 5:10, 16). With the Queen of Sheba, faith can say of the greater Solomon when gazing and feast­ing upon His blessed person and benefits, "Behold, the one half of the greatness of thy wisdom was not told me: for thou exceedest the fame that I heard" (2 Chr. 9:6). Faith exclaims, "Christ is all, and in all" (Col. 3 : 11)!

This Christ-centeredness is the hall­mark of faith. Faith's distinguishing mark is the real and redeeming presence of Christ. It is the very nature and fountain of faith to rest entirely upon Christ. Faith does not look at itself. Many today are too preoccupied with looking at their faith rather than faith's object. The Reformers spoke and wrote much about faith, but their concern was object-centered rather than subject-centered, Christocentric rather than anthropocentric, theological rather than psychological. It is not faith in our faith, nor faith in the faith, nor faith in our justification, that is salvific, but faith in Christ. The Puritans caught this well. As George Swinnock indited, "First, Faith must look out for Christ; secondly, Faith must look up to Christ for grace; thirdly, Faith must take Christ down, or receive him and grace."⁷"Faith has two hands," Thomas Manton wrote, "with one it stretches out for Christ; with the other, it pushes away all that comes between Christ and the soul." Faith not only ven­tures to Christ with the demanding law at its heels and upon Christ with all the soul's guilt, but it also ventures for Christ despite all difficulties and discouragements.

"Without faith it is impossible to please God" (Heb. 11:6). God is pleased with faith because faith is pleased with Christ. Christ honors faith the most of all graces because faith honors Christ the most. Faith con­tinually takes refuge, as the Belgic Con­fession states, "in the blood, death, passion, and obedience of our Lord Jesus Christ" (Article 29).

Christ is faith's only object and only expectation. He is the heartbeat and life of faith. Faith enables the soul to enjoy the whole salvation of Christ; by faith Christ becomes the soul's wisdom, righ­teousness, sanctification, and redemption (1 Cor. 1:30). Faith commits the total person to the total person of Christ. This Christ-centeredness, more than any­thing else, makes faith inseparable from justification and superior to all other graces in justification.⁸

Small wonder then that faith has been called the captain of all spiritual graces. Thomas Watson wrote, "Love is the crowning grace in heaven, but faith is the conquering grace upon earth.... Faith is the master-wheel; it sets all the other graces running.... Other graces make us like Christ, faith makes us mem­bers of Christ."⁹."Call forth first that com­mander-in-chief," George Swinnock adds, "and then the private soldiers, the other graces, will all follow."¹⁰