We must not confound repentance with fruits meet for repentance, nor faith with fruits meet for faith. A. J. Gordon, The First Thing in the World: "Love is the greatest thing in the world, but faith is the first. The tree is greater than the root, but let it not boast: '_if thou gloriest, it is not thou that bearest the root, but the root thee_' (_Rom. 11:18_). Love has no power to branch out and bear fruit, except as, through faith, it is rooted in Christ and draws nourishment from him. _1 Pet. 1:5_--'_who by the power of God are guarded through faith unto a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time_'; _1 Cor. 13:13_--'_now abideth faith, hope, love_'; _Heb. 10:19-25_--'_draw near ... in fulness of faith ... hold fast the confession of our hope ... provoke unto love and good works_'; _Rom. 5:1-5_--'_justified by faith ... rejoice in hope ... love of God hath been shed abroad in our hearts_'; _1 Thess. 1:1, 2_--'_work of faith and labor of love and patience of hope._' Faith is the actinic ray, hope the luminiferous ray, love the calorific ray. But faith contains the principle of the divine likeness, as the life of the parent given to the child contains the principle of likeness to the father, and will insure moral and physical resemblance in due time."
A. J. Gordon, Ministry of the Spirit, 112--" '_The love of the Spirit_' (_Rom. 15:30_) is the love of the Spirit of Christ, and it is given us for overcoming the world. The divine life is the source of the divine love. Therefore the love of God is '_shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who is given unto us_' (_Rom. 5:5_). Because we are by nature so wholly without heavenly affection, God, through the indwelling Spirit, gives us his own love with which to love himself." A. H. Strong, Christ in Creation, 286, 287, points out that in _2 Cor. 5:14_--"_the love of Christ constraineth us_"--the love of Christ is "not our love to Christ, for that is a very weak and uncertain thing; nor even Christ's love to us, for that is still something external to us. Each of these leaves a separation between Christ and us, and fails to act as a moving power within.... Not simply our love to Christ, nor simply Christ's love to us, but rather Christ's love _in_ us, is the love that constrains. This is the thought of the apostle." The first fruit of this love, in its still unconscious and undeveloped state, is faith.