Bible Commentaries

Psalms 27:13-14 — helpful. "These words are a testimony and strong exhortation to steadfast endurance. This conclusion of the anthem emphasizes human frailty, but stresses the fact of Divine intervention, the utter certainty of the Lord's sufficiency, and the patience of faith which waits with confidence."New Bible Commentary Revised, p. 468. "Both parts of this Psalm bear testimony to a vital faith."The Layman's Bible Commentary, Vol. 9, p. 58. And as Ash stated, "The psalm ends, as it began, with trust, trust tried

Psalms 31:23-24 — EXHORTATION FOR ALL GOD'S SAINTS TO TRUST HIM "Oh love Jehovah, all ye saints: Jehovah preserveth the faithful, And plentifully rewardeth him that dealeth proudly. Be strong and let your heart take courage, All ye that hope in Jehovah." In these verses we have the essence of the great lesson which all true believers should observe and take to heart. "It

Jeremiah 20:11-13 — heart and the mind, let me see thy vengeance on them; for unto thee have I revealed my cause. Sing unto Jehovah, praise ye Jehovah; for he hath delivered the soul of the needy from the hand of evil doers." The appearance of this remarkable expression of faith and trust in Jehovah and a repeated call for men to sing God's praise beautifully expresses the attitude with which Jeremiah came through the terrible sorrows depicted in this chapter; nor can the subsequent verses of the chapter cast any reflection

Jeremiah 7:27-28 — they will not answer thee. And thou shalt say unto them, This is the nation that hath not hearkened unto the voice of Jehovah their God; nor received instruction: truth is perished, and is cut off from their mouth." The Jews believed in salvation "by faith only"; but as Feinberg stated it, "That faith must be joined by works was lost to them; so the time of Jeremiah was a sad epilogue in Judah's history."Charles Lee Feinberg in Ezekiel (Chicago: Moody Press), p. 432. God's warning in these verses

Matthew 17:16 — And I brought him to thy disciples, and they could not cure him. The latent doubt planted in the apostles' hearts by the Pharisees must surely have played a part in the inability to heal the lunatic. Their faltering faith, coupled with the double difficulty at hand, made them powerless to effect a cure. These same disciples had once returned with joy over the fact that demons were subject to them in the name of Christ (Luke 10:17 ff); but then they were powerless

Matthew 18:3 — development. These are: (1) believers who needed to repent (Matthew 18:3), (2) unbelievers (Acts 28:27), and (3) believers whose repentance was anticipated (Acts 3:19). From these three texts it is clear that Biblical conversion has three phases — faith, repentance, and something additional (baptism) — these separate phases being accomplished by obedience to the gospel and involving three distinct changes in the individual. Franklin taught that the three changes are: (1) a change of mind;

Mark 1:14-15 — the sacred authors guided them in the terminology which they employed. The near approach of the kingdom was announced in the earliest preaching of Jesus. Repent ye, and believe in the gospel … These words, along with reference to repentance and faith (in that order) in Hebrews 6:1 and Acts 20:10, have led to some religious theories that repentance precedes faith in the sinner's heart; but such notions are refuted by the fact that no unbeliever in the history of the race was ever known to repent.

Acts 14:2 — were disobedient stirred up the souls of the Gentiles, and made them evil affected against the brethren. The Jews that were disobedient … This is the antithesis of "a great multitude … believed" in Acts 14:1, proving that not faith alone, but faith and obedience are included in the meaning there. "Disobeying is frequently used in the New Testament as the opposite of believing." G. H. C. MacGreggor, The Interpreter's Bible (New York: Abingdon Press, 1954), Vol. IX,

Acts 14:8-10 — And at Lystra there sat a certain man, impotent in his feet, a cripple from his mother's womb, who never had walked. The same heard Paul speaking: who fastening his eyes upon him, and seeing that he had faith to be made whole, said with a loud voice, Stand upright on thy feet, And he leaped and walked. A certain school of critics, intent on establishing a theory that Luke invented certain incidents to force a parallel between the lives of Peter and Paul,

Romans 11:20 — Well; by their unbelief they were broken off, and thou standest by faith. Be not highminded, but fear. How instructive! Admitting, of course, that branches had been broken off, as the Gentile indicated in his boasting, Paul would not emphasize the fact that God broke them off, but shifted the emphasis to the fact that

Galatians 3:27 — a Christian; and by the use of it, Paul testified to the essentiality of it. It violates the rules of grammar to use in such a synecdoche any non-vital, unnecessary or unessential part to stand for the whole. Yet there is a difference between "faith" and "baptism," for here it is declared that people are baptized "into" Christ, a declaration nowhere existing in the New Testament with regard to "faith." As many of you as were baptized into Christ … is

Colossians 2:13 — reality of which even the salvation of Noah and his family was only "the figure" (1 Peter 3:21). Furthermore, it is a gross error to suppose that baptism in any true sense whatever is accomplished without the existence of the prior conditions of faith, repentance and confession. One is surprised that even Lipscomb would declare that "Baptism avails nothing without faith." David Lipscomb, op. cit., p. 280. Without faith, no one was ever baptized, although of course he might have been

Hebrews 11:34 — achieved the remarkable things mentioned in this list are left anonymous in this reference to them, a familiarity with the Old Testament reveals the identity of many of them. Thus, it was Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah (Daniel 1—2) who through faith quenched the power of fire. Their faith was so strong that although they confessed that God might not choose to deliver them, they nevertheless refused to worship the king's image, knowing they would certainly be thrown into the fiery furnace. Of

Hebrews 11:5 — By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and he was not found, because God translated him: for he hath had witness borne to him that before his translation he had been well-pleasing to God. This verse casts a great deal of light on the

James 2:13 — this portion of the New Testament is as easily understood as any other; (3) that the simple answers are the true ones; (4) that there is not the slightest contradiction between Paul and James; (5) that Paul's affirmation that we are justified "by faith" and James' declaration that we are justified "by works" mean simply that we are indeed justified "by both," and that it is a sin to assert that men are justified either (a) "by faith alone," or (b) "by works

James 2:24 — Ye see that by works a man is justified, and not only by faith. The KJV is better in this verse, having "not by faith only," since James' efforts in the whole paragraph are directed against supposing that salvation is "by faith only." The meaning is allegedly the same. "In the Greek,

1 Peter 1:5 — who by the power of God are guarded through faith unto a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. "The word guarded here is a military term," Ibid., p. 23. Christians are garrisoned by the power of God and are safeguarded by the Father himself. Of course, the Christians themselves,

2 Peter 2:2 — extensively, indicating that, "this epistle was known to him." Alfred Plummer, op. cit., p. 451. Regarding the date of this Clement, see introduction. Antinomianism has foundation in the misunderstanding of Paul's teaching on salvation "by faith," which people have willfully perverted to mean "by faith alone," being apparently blind to the fact that if one is saved by faith alone; he is by that very definition saved without morality of any kind. The scholars, many of them,

1 John 2:4 — "Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father who is in heaven" (Matthew 7:21). All talk of knowing God, loving God, or even of "believing" or "having faith" is meaningless in the mouths of people who dishonor the commandments of the Lord through disobedience and failure to do the "work of faith." It is even more than meaningless; it is falsehood.

1 John 3:23 — commandment. Believe in the name … and love one another … To believe and love — this is the greatest and most important command that ever issued from the throne of glory."John Wesley, op. cit., p. 913. The inclusion here of faith "in the name" of Christ shows that, "the commandments" mentioned in the preceding verse are "not only, or chiefly moral."Amos N. Wilder, op. cit., p. 270. They include the whole spectrum of Christian duty. It is a