"It was not written for his sake alone, ... but also for us. It shall be imputed to us who believe in Him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was delivered up because of our offenses, and was raised because of our justification" (Romans 4:23-25).
Faith is dependence on the word of God only. So long as there is any dependence on himself, so long as there is any conceivable ground of hope for any dependence upon anything in or about himself, there can be no faith: since faith is dependence on "the word only."
But when every dependence on anything in or about himself is gone, and it is acknowledged to be gone: when everything is against any hope of justification, then it is that throwing himself on the promise of God, upon the word only, hoping against hope, faith enters. And by faith he finds justification full and free, all ungodly though he be.
Forever it stands written, "To him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness" (Rom. 4:5). "Even the righteousness of God which is through faith in Jesus Christ ... whom God set forth ... to demonstrate his righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed" (3:22, 25).
This is what it is to exercise faith. Are you exercising faith? For understanding how to exercise faith,--this is the science of the gospel. [1]
"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved" (John 3:16, 17). [1]
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