Through Faith Alone

[ELLEN G WHITE]

Through Faith Alone
Part 1
A general manuscript written by Ellen G. White circa 1890.

Let the subject be made distinct and plain that it is not possible to effect
anything in our standing before God or in the gift of God to us through
creature merit. Should faith and works purchase the gift of salvation for
anyone, then the Creator is under obligation to the creature. Here is an
opportunity for falsehood to be accepted as truth. If any man can merit
salvation by anything he may do, then he is in the same position as the
Catholic to do penance for his sins. Salvation, then, is partly of debt,
that may be earned as wages. If man cannot, by any of his good works, merit
salvation, then it must be wholly of grace, received by man as a sinner
because he receives and believes in Jesus. It is wholly a free gift.
Justification by faith is placed beyond controversy. And all this
controversy is ended, as soon as the matter is settled that the merits of
fallen man in his good works can never procure eternal life for him.

Wholly of Grace
The light given me of God places this important subject above any question
in my mind. Justification is wholly of grace and not procured by any works
that fallen man can do. The matter has been presented before me in clear
lines that if the rich man has money and possessions, and he makes an
offering of the same to the Lord, false ideas come in to spoil the offering
by the thought he has merited the favor of God, that the Lord is under
obligation to him to regard him with special favor because of this gift.

There has been too little educating in clear lines upon this point. The Lord
has lent man His own goods in trust--means which He requires be handed back
to Him when His providence signifies and the upbuilding of His cause demands
it. The Lord gave the intellect. He gave the health and the ability to
gather earthly gain. He created the things of earth. He manifests His divine
power to develop all its riches. They are His fruits from His own husbandry.
He gave the sun, the clouds, the showers of rain, to cause vegetation to
flourish. As God's employed servants you gathered in His harvest to use what
your wants required in an economical way and hold the balance for the call
of God. You can say with David, "For all things come of Thee, and of Thine
own have we given Thee" (1 Chronicles 29:14). So the satisfaction of
creature merit cannot be in returning to the Lord His own, for it was always
His own property to be used as He in His providence should direct.

God's Favor Forfeited
By rebellion and apostasy man forfeited the favor of God; not his rights,
for he could have no value except as it was invested in God's dear Son. This
point must be understood. He forfeited those privileges which God in His
mercy presented him as a free gift, a treasure in trust to be used to
advance His cause and His glory, to benefit the beings He had made. The
moment the workmanship of God refused obedience to the laws of God's
kingdom, that moment he became disloyal to the government of God and he made
himself entirely unworthy of all the blessings wherewith God had favored
him.

This was the position of the human race after man divorced himself from God
by transgression. Then he was no longer entitled to a breath of air, a ray
of sunshine, or a particle of food. And the reason why man was not
annihilated was because God so loved him that He made the gift of His dear
Son that He should suffer the penalty of his transgression. Christ proposed
to become man's surety and substitute, that man, through matchless grace,
should have another trial--a second probation--having the experience of Adam
and Eve as a warning not to transgress God's law as they did. And inasmuch
as man enjoys the blessings of God in the gift of the sunshine and the gift
of food, there must be on the part of man a bowing before God in thankful
acknowledgment that all things come of God. Whatever is rendered back to Him
is only His own who has given it.

Man broke God's law, and through the Redeemer new and fresh promises were
made on a different basis. All blessings must come through a Mediator. Now
every member of the human family is given wholly into the hands of Christ,
and whatever we possess--whether it is the gift of money, of houses, of
lands, of reasoning powers, of physical strength, of intellectual
talents--in this present life, and the blessings of the future life, are
placed in our possession as God's treasures to be faithfully expended for
the benefit of man. Every gift is stamped with the cross and bears the image
and superscription of Jesus Christ. All things come of God. From the
smallest benefits up to the largest blessing, all flow through the one
Channel--a superhuman mediation sprinkled with the blood that is of value
beyond estimate because it was the life of God in His Son.

Now not a soul can give God anything that is not already His. Bear this in
mind: "All things come of Thee, and of Thine own have we given Thee" (1
Chronicles 29:14). This must be kept before the people wherever we go--that
we possess nothing, can offer nothing in value, in work, in faith, which we
have not first received of God and upon which He can lay His hand any time
and say, They are Mine--gifts and blessings and endowments I entrusted to
you, not to enrich yourself, but for wise improvement to benefit the world.

All Is of God
The creation belongs to God. The Lord could, by neglecting man, stop his
breath at once. All that he is and all that he has pertains to God. The
entire world is God's. Man's houses, his personal acquirements, whatever is
valuable or brilliant, is God's own endowment. It is all His gift to be
returned back to God in helping to cultivate the heart of man. The most
splendid offerings may be laid upon the altar of God, and men will praise,
exalt, and laud the giver because of His liberality. In what? "All things
come of Thee, and of Thine own have we given Thee" (1 Chronicles 29:14). No
work of man can merit for him the pardoning love of God, but the love of God
pervading the soul will lead him to do those things which were always
required of God and that he should do with pleasure. He has done only that
which duty ever required of him.

The angels of God in heaven that have never fallen do His will continually.
In all that they do upon their busy errands of mercy to our world,
shielding, guiding, and guarding the workmanship of God for ages--both the
just and the unjust-- they can truthfully say, "All is Thine. Of Thine own
do we give Thee." Would that the human eye could catch glimpses of the
service of the angels! Would that the imagination could grasp and dwell upon
the rich, the glorious service of the angels of God and the conflicts in
which they engage in behalf of men to protect, to lead, to win, and to draw
them from Satan's snares. How different would be the conduct, the religious
sentiment!

Concluded Next Month

Printed in Faith and Works, pp. 19-23