# “Childlike faith” by J. Gresham Machen

- Link: https://tollelege.net/2014/08/22/childlike-faith-by-j-gresham-machen/
- Published: 2014-08-22T15:00:51-05:00
- Author: tollelege

“What mars the simplicity of the childlike faith which Jesus commends is not an 
admixture of _knowledge_, but an admixture of _self-trust_. To receive the kingdom
as a little child is to receive it as a free gift without seeking in the slightest
measure to earn it for one’s self.

There is a rebuke here for any attempt to earn salvation by one’s own character,
by one’s own obedience to God’s commands, by one’s own establishment in one’s life
of the principles of Jesus; but there is no rebuke whatever for an intelligent faith
that is founded upon the facts.

The childlike simplicity of faith is marred sometimes by ignorance, but never by
knowledge; it will never be marred—and never has been marred in the lives of the
great theologians—by the blessed knowledge of God and of the Saviour Jesus Christ
which is contained in the Word of God.

Without that knowledge we might be tempted to trust partly in ourselves; but with
it we trust wholly to God. The more we know of God, the more unreservedly we trust
Him; the greater be our progress in theology, the simpler and more childlike will
be our faith.”

–J. Gresham Machen, [_What is Faith?_](https://www.amazon.com/dp/0851515940?tag=toletaupanre-20)(
Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1925/1991), 95.

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