rating the ground of this justification; but that is not at all found or expressed in the term, “by faith,” and is another matter. Had the apostle meant such a doctrine, he would have used other terms,as in the following: “These all died according to faith” (kata pistin). “Now walkest thou not according to charity” (katu agapen). (Heb. xi, 13—Rom. xiv. 15.) But here the original preposition is quite different: whereas, “by faith” (ek pisteos) means faith as just described, the preposition signifying “out of,” as from within (ex Lat.) The term, “by faith,” often contrasts with “by law,” as the subjective ground of justification; because both look to the subjective side of the question, as it is said, “not by works of law but by faith of Jesus Christ.” Hence in Rom. iii. 30, “Seeing it is one God who shall justify the circumcision by faith, and the uncircumcision through faith.” In this passage, “by faith,” in reference to the Jew, contrasts with, “by the law” (ek tou nomou), the previous source from which the Jew expected righteousness. Whereas the gentile, who had not the law previously, was simply justified “through faith” (diatespisteos), or by means of faith. Thus the verse becomes quite clear, and beautifully expresses the antecedents of both parties. [See also Rom. x. 5, 6—Gal. ii. 16, etc. etc.] The preposition “by” (ek) refers to the internal source out from which God and Christ are taken hold of by the soul, and the revelation of God made one’s own. Many prepositions are used, with the word “faith” in the New Testament, and all with a view to intensity; but Mr. Darby’s rendering eviscerates all its force from it, and wrests the Scriptures.
Had the Romish theologians in the sixteenth century made the discovery that “justification by faith” was justification “on a principle,” they would have made short work with poor Martin Luther, who staked his all in this—“the just shall live by faith.” They had only to show it was, with God and man, a principle in common with other principles, such as the principle of charity or the principle of works (as above, No. 12), or the principle of baptismal regeneration—the last notably so; as to enter the kingdom of God, a man must be “born on the principle of (ek) water and the spirit;” adopting of course a like rendering in both cases. By this method their triumph had been complete, as in this way their proofs would be more distinct and pronounced, and the text which braved the storms of the Reformation had been shivered at a blow!
