Studies in the Gospel Message
THE subject of the Sabbath-school lesson for May 10, the sixth lesson in the present series, is, Faith Is the Victory. We do not so much need to learn a new definition of faith as to learn the simplicity of the experience of faith. No really accurate idea of what faith is can be conveyed in words. It is an experience which must be known by experience, but perhaps something can be said which may prove a blessing to souls desiring to learn by experience. Let us begin with facts and experiences, rather than with mere definitions. Let us try to learn what faith is by what it does. If we can gain the experience of faith, we need not trouble ourselves about a definition of it further than it is defined in our lives. Here is a word of instruction for us: “Therefore let us also, seeing we are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus the author [captain or leader] and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising shame, and hath sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” By looking carefully at our translation, it will be seen that in the expression “the author [leader] and perfecter of our faith,” the word “our” is printed in italics, thus indicating that it was supplied by the translators. The real teaching of the text will be quite as clear if this word is omitted. Then the passage reads, “Looking unto Jesus the author [leader] and perfecter of faith.” Jesus is, then, the leader and the perfecter of faith. In Abel, and Enoch, and Noah, and Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and Joseph, and Moses, we have examples of faith, and we have learned the secret of their victories when we learn that they “through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness,” etc., but in Jesus we have the leader and the perfecter of faith. All those whose faith is recorded in the eleventh chapter of Hebrews constitute the great cloud of witnesses as to what faith really is, but we are not to look to them for the experience of faith. Their lives show what faith can accomplish in men who are “subject to like passions as we are;” but simply dwelling upon their experiences will not impart the same experience to us. We may have the same kind of an experience which they had, and in the same way that they had it, but they cannot impart it to us, and we cannot get it by simply trying to copy them. Jesus is the leader and perfecter of faith. His life in the flesh was not merely an example of faith, although it was that, but by the gift of himself to the flesh, by the gift of his own life of faith, he by that indwelling life in us becomes the leader and the perfecter of faith in us. The word here translated “author” is used in only three other places in the New Testament, and a reference to these passages may assist us in a right understanding of the word in this passage. In speaking to the crowd who gathered about after the healing of the lame man, Peter said, “But ye denied the Holy and Righteous One, . . . and killed the Prince [“Author,” margin] of life.” Again, when speaking before the council in defense of this same act of healing, he said, “Him [Jesus] hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour.” And in Heb. 2: 10 we read, “For it became him, for whom are all things, and through whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the author of their salvation perfect through sufferings.” It thus appears that Jesus is the prince, author, or leader, of life, and also of salvation. He is the leader of salvation because he is the leader of life; and because he is the leader of life and salvation, he is the leader and the perfecter of faith. There can therefore be no experience of a living, saving faith apart from the experience of the life of Jesus, the leader and perfecter of faith. This is, after all, only another view of the truth which is taught in these words: “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” “The seed is the word of God.” “His name is called The Word of God.” “He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ.” He who is the Word of God is also the Seed, and his spirit and life are the spirit and life of the words which he spoke (John 6: 63), and the words which he spoke through prophets and apostles constitute “the word of6faith, which we preach.” Thus Jesus, “the leader and perfecter of faith,” has made the living word the revealer of that living faith which is the very essence of his own life in the flesh. Thus the act of faith is simply the letting go of all things outward and visible, and a taking hold of all things as found in the Seed of all things, and as set forth in the Word of God. It is the giving up of all things apart from Christ, and the acceptance of all things as found in Christ. This has been expressed in the following acrostic:—
Forsaking
All
I
Take
Him. “There is a kind of belief that is wholly distinct from faith. The existence and power of God, the truth of his word, are facts; that even Satan and his hosts cannot at heart deny. The Bible says that ‘the devils also believe, and tremble;’ but this is not faith. Where there is not only a belief in God’s Word, but a submission of the will to him; where the heart is yielded to him, the affections fixed upon him, there is faith,—faith that works by love, and purifies the soul. Through this faith the heart is renewed in the image of God.”—“Steps to Christ,” page 69. “The faith essential for salvation is not mere nominal faith, but an abiding principle, deriving vital power from Christ.” From the inquiry which our Lord himself made, it is evident that the genuine faith will not abound just before the coming of the Lord. “Howbeit when the Son of man cometh, shall he find the faith on the earth?” From what we have studied, it is clear that the only faith of any value is the faith of Jesus; and just before the coming of the Lord, there is a message to go forth in all the earth which shall separate a people from Babylon, and bring to them an experience which is described by saying, “Here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.” That message is the message of being made right by the working of the faith of Jesus, the message of justification by faith. This is the message which will give victory over sin in the daily experience; and by giving victory over sin, it will give victory over death, even that complete victory which will mean translation to God’s people in this generation. “Thanks be unto God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” “This is the victory which overcometh the world, even our Christ made present with all his glorious power by faith, so that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, whom shall I fear?”