Faith Very Simple

Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. ACTS 16:31

Spurgeon spent his life explaining faith to people who thought it must be harder than it is. He had been one of them. For years before his conversion he waited for something mysterious and difficult to happen inside him, and when it came, it was as simple as looking. He never forgot the surprise, and he wrote two small books, All of Grace and Around the Wicket Gate, largely to spare others the years he had wasted.

Hard because it is easy

In Around the Wicket Gate he gives a whole chapter the title Faith very Simple, and he opens it with a paradox. To many people faith seems a hard thing. “The truth is,” he says, “it is only hard because it is easy.” He points to Naaman, who was offended at being told to wash in the Jordan. If the prophet had bid him do some great thing, he would have done it gladly. It was the simplicity of the remedy that he could not stomach.

My father, if the prophet had bid thee do some great thing, wouldest thou not have done it? how much rather then, when he saith to thee, Wash, and be clean? 2 KINGS 5:13

People expect salvation to be the reward of some mysterious experience, Spurgeon says, and so they are bewildered when they find it offered for the taking. The trouble is not that they cannot understand. It is that they do not believe God means what He says.

He tells a story of a Sunday-school teacher who, trying to explain faith, held out his watch to each boy in turn and offered it to him. One after another they hesitated or politely declined, suspecting a trick. At last a younger boy simply said thank you and put it in his pocket. The others were horrified to discover that the offer had been real. Each of them had a theory, and none of them had the watch. Spurgeon’s point is obvious and piercing. God is not playing with us when He offers His Son.

Knowledge, belief and trust

In All of Grace he gives a more careful account. Faith, he says, is made up of three things: knowledge, belief and trust. You must first know what the gospel says, for you cannot believe what you have never heard. You must then believe it to be true — that Christ is who He is said to be, and will do what He has promised. And then comes the decisive step. You must trust Him, resting your own soul on Him.

So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. ROMANS 10:17

“Trust is the lifeblood of faith,” Spurgeon writes; “there is no saving faith without it.” He borrows a word from the Puritans, recumbency, meaning to lean on something. “Lean with all your weight upon Christ,” he says, and then corrects himself to something stronger still: fall at full length and lie on the Rock of Ages.

This is a helpful correction to two opposite mistakes. Some treat faith as mere agreement with a creed; they believe the facts and never commit themselves. Others treat faith as a leap in the dark with no content at all. Spurgeon’s faith is neither. It begins with knowledge, it rests on facts, and it ends in personal trust in a Person.

For I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day. 2 TIMOTHY 1:12

The hand that takes

Why did God choose faith, rather than love or patience or obedience, as the way of receiving salvation? Spurgeon answers modestly in All of Grace: as far as we can tell, it is because faith is fitted to receive. When you give a poor man money, you put it in his hand, because the hand is made for taking. Faith is the hand of the soul.

He puts it in a homely picture. A child reaches out for an apple its father holds out. “The child’s hand does not make the apple, nor improve the apple, nor deserve the apple; it only takes it.” That is what faith does with salvation. It adds nothing, earns nothing, and so leaves all the glory to God.

Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace. ROMANS 4:16

This is why Spurgeon insisted that weak faith saves as surely as strong faith. The power is not in the hand but in what it holds. A trembling hand that grips a sure rope is as safe as a steady one. Many anxious believers torment themselves by examining their faith, wondering if it is strong enough or real enough. Spurgeon told them to stop examining their hand and look at Christ.

The shortest way to believe

Some people say they want to believe but cannot. Spurgeon was practical with them. In All of Grace he says that a great deal of nonsense is talked about this, and that common sense is needed in religion as anywhere else. “The shortest way to believe is to believe.” If truth is set before you, believe it because it is true.

If there are real difficulties, he says, take them to God in prayer and ask the Holy Spirit to make them plain. Hear the gospel often. Think about the Person of Christ. Consider the testimony of those who have trusted Him. But do not wait for a feeling to come before you obey the command.

Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief. MARK 9:24

Simple, but not shallow

A word of caution belongs here. Spurgeon’s insistence on simplicity can be misheard as if faith were a quick decision, a form of words, or a raised hand at the end of a meeting. He meant nothing of the kind. He believed faith to be the gift of God, worked in the heart by the Holy Spirit, and always joined to repentance. He expected it to show itself in a changed life. What he insisted was that none of those things is a condition to be met before coming. They come with faith and after it, not as its price.

He also warned against the opposite error: making faith so complicated, so hedged with qualifications and inward tests, that nobody dares to exercise it. That is the error he saw in much of the preaching he heard as a boy, and he spent his life undoing it.

The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach. ROMANS 10:8

FOR REFLECTION AND ACTION

1. Ask whether you, like Naaman, have wanted salvation to require something greater than trust. What would you rather do than simply believe?

2. Write down what you know of Christ, what you believe about Him, and where you have actually trusted Him. Which of the three is weakest?

3. Stop examining the strength of your faith this week. Each time you are tempted to, turn instead to a promise of Christ and rest on it.

4. If you have been waiting to feel something before you believe, take Spurgeon’s counsel: the shortest way to believe is to believe. Do it now, in prayer.

5. Explain the child and the apple to someone else. Nothing fixes a truth in the mind like teaching it.

A PRAYER

Lord Jesus, You hold out salvation as a gift, and I have hesitated as if You were not in earnest.

I have looked for something great to do, and stumbled at the simplicity of trusting You.

I lean my whole weight on You now. I have nothing to add and nothing to pay. I take what You give.

When my hand trembles, let me look at what it holds, and not at the hand. Lord, I believe; help Thou mine unbelief. Amen.