The object of faith is sometimes represented in the N. T., as being God the Father. _John 5:24_--"_He that heareth my word, and believeth him that sent me, hath eternal life_"; _Rom. 4:5_--"_to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is reckoned for righteousness._" We can explain these passages only when we remember that Christ is God "_manifested in the flesh_" (_1 Tim. 3:16_), and that "_he that hath seen me hath seen the Father_" (_John 14:9_). Man may receive a gift without knowing from whom it comes, or how much it has cost. So the heathen, who casts himself as a sinner upon God's mercy, may receive salvation from the Crucified One, without knowing who is the giver, or that the gift was purchased by agony and blood. Denney, Studies in Theology, 154--"No N. T. writer ever _remembered_ Christ. They never thought of him as belonging to the past. Let us not preach about the _historical_ Christ, but rather, about the _living_ Christ; nay, let us preach _him_, present and omnipotent. Jesus could say: '_Whither I go, ye know the way_' (_John 14:4_); for they knew _him_, and he was both the _end_ and the _way_."
Dr. Charles Hodge unduly restricts the operations of grace to the preaching of the incarnate Christ: Syst. Theol., 2:648--"There is no faith where the gospel is not heard; and where there is no faith, there is no salvation. This is indeed an awful doctrine." And yet, in 2:668, he says most inconsistently: "As God is everywhere present in the material world, guiding its operations according to the laws of nature; so he is everywhere present with the minds of men, as the Spirit of truth and goodness, operating on them according to laws of their free moral agency, inclining them to good and restraining them from evil." This presence and revelation of God we hold to be through Christ, the eternal Word, and so we interpret the prophecy of Caiaphas as referring to the work of the personal Christ: _John 11:51, 52_--"_he prophesied that Jesus should die for the nation; and not for the nation only, but that he might also gather together into one the children of God that are scattered abroad._"
Since Christ is the Word of God and the Truth of God, he may be received even by those who have not heard of his manifestation in the flesh. A proud and self-righteous morality is inconsistent with saving faith; but a humble and penitent reliance upon God, as a Savior from sin and a guide of conduct, is an implicit faith in Christ; for such reliance casts itself upon God, so far as God has revealed himself,--and the only Revealer of God is Christ. We have, therefore, the hope that even among the heathen there may be some, like Socrates, who, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit working through the truth of nature and conscience, have found the way of life and salvation.