What is the foundation of the Christian faith-Jesus or the Bible?

"Built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets" does not mean that the apostles are the foundation. The apostles are the foundation through their inspired teachings as Paul wrote, "I have laid the foundation." But he also adds "for other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ." (1 Cor. 3:9-11). The Lord Jesus Christ and the doctrine of Christ is the foundation. This the apostles taught. And the Lord Jesus Christ is the chief corner stone (Isa. 28:16; Psalm 118:22; Matt. 21:44; Acts 4:11; 1 Peter 2:4-5). "In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto a holy temple in the Lord" (verse 21). The building, the true Church is fitly framed together, which means that God puts it together in His own marvelous way.

Jesus Christ must be the foundation, else what is built is not the assembly of God. There are many other kinds of institutions in this world, both among the heathen and in Christendom, but only what is built on the foundation of Jesus Christ is God's assembly. The foundation is the doctrine received into the hearts of those who have believed, and when Paul came first to Corinth he preached "Jesus Christ, and Him crucified". That was the foundation; and every other part of the building should take character from it.

Such is the divine order, an order so constantly reversed to the serious damage of souls, the subversion of their peace and the dishonor of their Lord. When we turn to Scripture, when we examine the various cases which it records for our learning, we invariably find the order to be, first, the Word; secondly, faith; thirdly, feeling. On the other hand, when we turn to the history of souls today and examine their exercises and experiences, we constantly find they begin with their feelings. As a consequence, they rarely enjoy a right sense of the nature and foundation of true Christian faith.

All this is greatly to be deplored. It claims the earnest attention of those who take an interest in souls and are called to watch the progress of the work of God therein. It is of the greatest importance to lead all exercised souls to the sure foundation of Holy Scripture and to teach them that faith is simply taking God at His word. It is believing what He says, not because we feel it, but because He says it. To believe because we feel, would not be faith in God's Word at all, but faith in our own feelings, which is a worthless faith that will not stand for a moment in the presence of the enemy. The Word of God is settled forever in heaven. “He has magnified His Word above all His name.” This is the solid foundation of Christian faith.

True, it is by the Holy Spirit that the soul is led to rest on this foundation, but the foundation is Scripture and Scripture alone. It is not feelings or experiences, but the plain testimony of Holy Scripture. “Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures; He was buried and rose again the third day, according to the Scriptures.” Here lies the true foundation of Christian faith, yea, of faith in all ages. Abraham believed God and thus found rest for his soul. So with Isaiah, so with Peter, so with all. Patriarchs, prophets, apostles and saints of every age, every condition and every clime rested upon the stable rock of divine revelation, and if the reader will only do the same, he will possess a peace which no power of earth or hell can ever disturb.

But as to the ground or authority on which we are called to rest our souls, it is the same in our case as in Abraham's and all true believers in all ages — it is the Word of God — the holy Scriptures. There is no other foundation of faith but this; and the faith that rests on any other is not true faith at all. A faith resting on human tradition — on the authority of the Church — on the authority of so-called general councils — on the clergy — or on learned men, is not divine faith, but mere superstition; it is a faith which "stands in the wisdom of men," and "not in the power of God." (1 Cor. 2:5)

We have seen already what an important place the apostles and prophets held: "Ye are … built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone" (Eph. 2:20). They laid the foundation, and when the foundation of a house is once laid, you do not need to be always at it; you then go on with the building. Consequently you would not expect to have them, in their living ministry, in this day. They remain with us, but only in their writings, and in the unfolding of the truth which God has preserved for us in the holy Scriptures, and that is where our faith rests.

Of all those great items of scriptural truth which are fundamental in their character, the one which forms our present theme stands first, for the simple reason that whatever may have been the excellence and authority of those revelations of God and of His will originally delivered orally by our Lord and His apostles, except we have, now that they are gone, those revelations conveyed to us in writings, divinely inspired and therefore of full authority, we have nothing worthy of being called THE FAITH today. At best we should have had but an ill-assorted mass of recollections and traditions, handed on from generation to generation. Until therefore the inspiration and authority of the Bible are fully and firmly settled in our souls, it is hardly worth proceeding to establish from its pages those further truths which at first sight may appear to be of a still more fundamental character.

Here then we have the solid foundation of our Christian faith — the glory of the Person of the Son — an eternal Person, a distinct Person, a Divine Person, and an eternally distinct Person.

In this way we can see that unless we bring the doctrine of Christ in maintaining that the Scriptures are infallible as the inspired book of God, we have no sure ground for our faith. On the other hand, unless we have a Christ fulfilling every prophecy and every type of the Scriptures to the very letter, again the whole scheme of the Christian faith would fall to the ground.

Here, then, while Israel remains in unbelief, is the faith of the Church. It is founded on Scripture, but along with this on the knowledge of Christ Himself, ― on the revelation of Christ by the Father to him, as the Lord immediately declares. The Spirit and the Word act together, and so constantly: the Shepherd comes in by the door, and the porter opens to Him; He speaks, and the sheep hear His voice.

Verse 11. "For other foundation can no man lay," etc. It is in a secondary and relative sense only that the apostle can call himself a founder. There is One who alone can say, "I lay in Zion a chief corner stone." The person of Christ, now "declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead,"2 is the eternal truth on which God's building rests. A reception by faith of that essential and life-giving truth establishes the believer, as a stone of God's building, in his place: happy if he rest there, undisturbed by divers and strange doctrines, himself in Christ, and Christ in him, the beginning and continuance of his confidence and rejoicing, and his bright and certain hope of glory.3 But our question here is rather that of ministry in its general effect upon God's building, than the experimental history of souls; and so he proceeds: