Yea, but you will say to me, peradventure though works be not the condition of the covenant; yet, we hope you will yield, faith is the condition of the covenant.
I answer, beloved, I beseech you observe me warily in this, for I am now upon a nice point, and I shall desire to go as evenly as the Scripture will guide me in it. I must needs tell you directly, and according to the truth, that, faith is not the condition of the covenant.
"He that believes shall be saved, he that believes not shall be damned." Is not faith here the condition of the covenant?
I answer, There is no person under heaven shall be saved till he have believed. This I grant; yet this will not make faith to be the condition of the covenant. For, first, consider faith as an act, our act, and as we do it, so I say it is a work; our act of believing is a work. If therefore we perform the condition that is a work for the enjoyment of the covenant, then the covenant doth depend upon a work; but it doth not depend upon a work, for the text saith, "To him that worketh not, but believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly," &c.
You will say, In that text, believing is required to the justifying of the ungodly.
I answer, An ungodly person, after he is justified, believes: but you must understand it, it is not the faith of the man that simply and properly justifies, but it is Christ in whom he believes; believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly: it is He that justifieth, that is Christ. It is not believing that justifies. Mark well that phrase; Him that justifieth. Justification is an act of Christ, it is not an act of faith.
But you will say, It is an act of Christ by faith.
I answer, Then Christ justifies not alone. Is faith Christ Himself? If not, then Christ must have a partner to justify, but Christ alone doth it. Nay, I say more, Christ justifies a person before he believes; for, he that believes is justified before he believes; for I ask you, whether in justification a man must believe a truth of a falsehood? You will say, he must believe a truth; then say I, it is a truth that he is justified before he believes it; he cannot believe that which is not, and if he be not justified, that he may believe it, he then believes that which is false. But he is first justified before he believes, then he believes that he is justified.
But what then serves faith for?
I answer, It serves for the manifestation of that justification which Christ puts upon a person by Himself alone: that you by believing on Him, may have the declaration, and manifestation of your justification. Mark what the apostle saith, whereby you shall find the true use of faith, that is not the condition, without which we receive no benefit from Christ; but rather it is the manifestation of that which is already done, and received. Heb. xi. 1, the apostle saith, "Faith is the ground of things hoped for, and the evidence of things not seen." I pray you observe the apostle's expression, there is abundance of light in it. Faith is the evidence of things, it is not the being of things; and it is the evidence of things not seen. A man is justified, and that by Christ alone, but it is not known to him, it is an unseen thing. Well, how shall he see this, and know that it is so? The text saith "Faith is an evidence;" faith gives evidence to this thing, faith makes it known; by faith we come to apprehend it; by faith we come to rejoice in it, as we apprehend it to be our own. It is true, indeed, Christ has honoured faith admirably; but let us take heed we do not over-honour it, to give the peculiar reserved prerogative of Christ Himself unto it: if faith were a concurrent thing with Christ, and Christ did justify a person alone, what would follow?...
As we stand thus, I say, it is not faith that justifies, neither wholly, nor in part; but Christ alone freely for His own sake, considering a person is ungodly, so He justifies him.
Beloved, let me tell you, though faith itself cannot thus be called our righteousness; yet in respect of the glory that God ascribes to it, that it seals to men's souls the fulness of righteousness, how can you consider a person a believer, and withal ungodly? When men are believers, they cease to be ungodly: but if they are not justified till they believe, Christ doth not justify the ungodly, but the godly; and then that truth which I have delivered, Rom. iv. 5, cannot hold the current, "That we must believe on Him that justifies the ungodly;" but rather, we must believe on Him that justifies the righteous. But as I said, we do not believe that we may be justified; but we do believe, and truly believe, when we are, and because we are justified. So that still stands firm, we are not in covenant, we partake not of the covenant, by any condition we perform, till which performance the covenant cannot be made good unto us; but we are in covenant, and Christ makes us to be in covenant, for His own sake, without any condition in the creature, "Shewing mercy to whom He will shew mercy;" without anything, I say, the creature is to do, to this end, to partake of the covenant.
Tobias Crisp
Christ Alone Exalted, I:90-93
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