# Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1906_S14
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

14 Proceedings of the twenty-first convention

promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance unto our redemption." The whole context again characterizes faith. It is not enough that one hears the Gospel and accepts it outwardly, but it must come to this, that one places one's trust in the LORD Jesus. The fact that we have come to faith is for us a pledge given by God that eternal blessedness in its consummation is certain to us, so that for the Christian nothing else remains than to live in trust, in confident hope in his Savior.

The second passage, where faith is spoken of, shows how through faith we enter into connection with the LORD Jesus. After he had said in chap. 2:4–6: "God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ (by grace ye are saved) and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places," he adds as explanation (v. 8): "For by grace are ye saved through faith." Thus, by the fact that we have accepted with faith the redemption of our LORD Jesus Christ, the forgiveness of sins, and it has become our own, we have entered into a definite relationship with the LORD Jesus. Where he then, in the further course of the second chapter, comes to the contrast between Jews and Gentiles, he shows again that it is the characteristic of the Christian to believe and to have hope, in contrast to the former condition of the heathen; whereas they then had no hope in the world, they have now, after the LORD has brought them to Himself through the working of the Gospel, come to faith, and through faith they have hope, which they place on the LORD Jesus; for through Jesus, our LORD, we have boldness and access with confidence to the Father; that is, through faith, which consists in hearty trust, we have entered into the intimate relation of children to God.

In the course of the letter the Apostle makes, in the form of exhortations and prayers, many further remarks that depict faith. So chap. 1:17–19: "That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him: the eyes of your understanding being enlightened, that ye may know what is the hope of His calling, and what the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of His mighty power." When, in view of the things which the Apostle enumerates here, one asks what they demand of the Christian, the answer is: nothing other than faith. Even the understanding of which he speaks is not an intellectual matter, but the understanding of faith and trust. And not