He answered and said, “Who is He, Lord, that I might believe on Him?” – John 9:36

Saving faith is that which rests upon a knowledge of Him. This man said to Jesus, “Who is He, Lord, that I might believe on Him?” He was not one whose notion of faith was that he need not know what he believed. The Church of Rome seems to inculcate some kind of implicit faith (or credulity) which can exist apart from knowledge; but how can I believe that which I do not know? Paul puts it thus, “Faith cometh by hearing.” You must first hear and know what it is you are to believe before you can believe it; otherwise, your faith is vain, like that of the man of whom I have sometimes spoken, who said, “I believe what the Church believes.” “But what does the Church believe?” It believes what I believe.” “Then what do you and the Church believe?” “Why, we both believe the same thing.” That is not the kind of believing that can save the soul. It is through the knowledge of Christ that we are saved. To know Christ is sometimes said to be analogous to believing in Christ. You must know what it is that you have to believe; a faith that does not know is no faith at all. Read through the Epistles of John, and mark with your pencil every time the word “know” is used. The apostle makes that word “know” come in again and again, for a man must know that which he is to believe and hence this man says to Christ, “Who is He, Lord, that I might believe on Him?”~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2667.cfm

Jesus heard that they had cast him out; and when He had found him, He said unto him, “Dost thou believe on the Son of God?” He answered and said, “Who is He, Lord, that I might believe on Him?” And Jesus said unto him, “Thou hast both seen Him, and it is He that talketh with thee.” And he said, “Lord, I believe.” And he worshipped Him. – John 9:35-38

Now, strange to say, here is a pressed man; for I do not think that this man, whose eyes had been opened by Christ, had thought of becoming a believer in the Son of God until the Lord Jesus found him out. Before he had reached that point; indeed, before he knew that the Prophet who had opened his eyes was the Son of God, the Pharisees had cast him out of the synagogue, so that he was compelled to bear the cross for Christ although he did not then fully know Christ, and certainly had not believed upon the Son of God. Yet, in his case also, it appears that he cheerfully took up the cross which had been at the first forcibly laid upon him…This man, then, bearing Christ’s cross in a certain way, was cast out of the synagogue, and then Christ found him, and blessed him.

Observe, dear friend, where Christ began with him; for it will show us where and how the blessing usually enters. The door by which the richest of heaven’s favors must come to us is indicated by our Lord going to that door, and opening it. He said to the man, “Dost thou believe on the Son of God.” So that faith in the Son of God is the gate of benediction. Faith is that window of agate and gate of carbuncle by which the divine light of Jesus’ love comes streaming into the soul…So, in this enquiry of our Lord, we have most instructive teaching. His object, no doubt, was to bless this man by working in him saving faith, and therefore He said to him, “Dost thou believe on the Son of God?” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2667.cfm

For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace. – Romans 6:14

My Lord, have I sinned against Thee so many times, and yet hast Thou freely forgiven me all? What stronger motive could I have for keeping me from sinning again? Ah, there are some who are saying this is licentious doctrine. A thousand devils rolled into one, must the man be who can find any licentiousness here. What! go and sin because I am forgiven? Go and live in iniquity because Jesus Christ took my guilt and suffered in my room and stead? Human nature is bad enough, but methinks this is the very worst state of human nature, when it tries to draw an argument for sin from the free grace of God. It is far harder to sin against the blood of Christ, and against a sense of pardon, than it is against the terrors of the law and the fear of hell itself. I know that when my soul is most alarmed by a dread of the wrath of God, I can sin with comfort compared with what I could when I have a sense of His love shed abroad in my heart. What more monstrous! to read your title clear, and sin?

Yes, and I must, and will esteem all things but loss for Jesus’ sake. O may my soul be found in Him, perfect in His righteousness! This will make you live near to Him: this will make you like unto Him. Do not think that this doctrine by dwelling on it will make you think lightly of sin. It will make you think of it as a hard and stern executioner to put Christ to death; as an awful load that could never be lifted from you except by the eternal arm of God; and then you will come to hate it with all your soul, because it is rebellion against a loving and gracious God, and you shall by this means be led to walk in the footsteps of your Lord Jesus, and to follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth. ~C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0362.cfm

For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do….O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. – Romans 7:19, 24-25

You ask, “What if a child of God should fall into sin?” I answer, the child of God does fall into sin; every day he mourns and groans because when he would do good, evil is present with him. But though he falls into sins, he is not condemned for all that-not by one of them, or by all of them put together, because his acceptance does not depend upon himself, but upon the perfect righteousness of Christ; and that perfect righteousness is not invalidated by any sins of his. He is perfect in Christ; and until Christ is imperfect, the imperfections of the creature do not mar the justification of the believer in the sight of God. But oh! if he fall into some glaring sin,-O God, keep us from it!-if he fall into some glaring sin, he shall go with broken bones, but he shall reach heaven for all that. Though, in order to try him and let him see his vileness, he be suffered to go far astray, yet He that bought him will not lose him; He that chose him will not cast him away; He will say unto him, “I, even I, am He that blotteth out thy transgressions for Mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins.” David may go never so far away, but David is not lost. He comes back and he cries, “Have mercy upon me, O God!” And so shall it be with every believing soul-Christ shall bring him back.

If I have been speaking to a backslider, I pray he will not make a bad use of what I have said. Let me say to him, “Poor backslider! thy Father’s bowels yearn over thee; He has not erased thy name out of the registry. Come back, come back now to Him and say, ‘Receive me graciously, and love me freely’; and He will say, ‘I will put you among the children.’ He will pass by your backsliding and will heal your iniquities; and you shall yet stand once more in His favour, and know yourself to be still accepted in the Redeemer’s righteousness and saved by His blood.” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0362.cfm

Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. – Romans 8:34

In the reign of King George the Third, the son of a member of this church lay under sentence of death for forgery. My predecessor, Dr. Rippon, after incredible exertions, obtained a promise that his sentence should be remitted. By a singular occurrence the present senior deacon-then a young man-learned from the governor of the gaol that the reprieve had not been received; and the unhappy prisoner would have been executed the next morning, had not Dr. Rippon gone post-haste to Windsor, obtained an interview with the king in his bed-chamber, and received from the monarch’s own hand a copy of that reprieve which had been negligently put aside by a thoughtless officer…Ay, that pardon might have been given, and yet the man might have been executed if it had not been effectually carried out. But blessed be God our non-condemnation is an effectual thing. It is not a matter of letter, it is a matter of fact. Ah, poor souls, you know that condemnation is a matter of fact. When you and I suffered in our souls, and were brought under the heavy hand of the law, we felt that its curses were no mock thunders like the wrath of the Vatican, but they were real; we felt that the anger of God was indeed a thing to tremble at; a real substantial fact. Now, just as real as the condemnation which Justice brings, just so real is the justification which mercy bestows. You are not only nominally guiltless, but you are really so, if you believe in Christ; you are not only nominally put into the place of the innocent, but you are really put there the moment you believe in Jesus. Not only is it said that your sins are gone, but they are gone. Not only does God look on you as though you were accepted; you are accepted. It is a matter of fact to you, as much a matter of fact as that you sinned…For as certain as ever the black spot fell on you when you sinned, so certainly and so surely was it all washed out when you were bathed in that fountain filled with blood, which was drawn from Emmanuel’s veins.~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0362.cfm