Translation Faith by Editor

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Apr 7, 1903

Translation Faith

By Editor

Editorial

Translation Faith

WE know that “Enoch was translated that he should not see death,” and the basis for this extraordinary experience is stated to be that “before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God.” There is only one way, however, in which it is possible to please God. “Without faith it is impossible to please him.” That faith which enabled Enoch to please God made his translation possible. But the kind of faith which enables one to please God and makes translation possible is thus defined: “For he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.” It is not enough simply to believe in the existence of God. “Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble.” To acknowledge that there is a God is to do no more than the devil does. We must believe in the character of God as revealed in his Word, and our faith must be that genuine kind which appropriates that character as bestowed upon us in the gift of Jesus the Saviour. This is the only basis for a life well pleasing to God. “This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.” This is translation faith, and a people who are preparing for translation must have just this faith. The fruit of this faith will be seen in obedience to all the commandments of God. This is the faith which will establish the law of God. This message will prepare a people to be translated without seeing death. The faith of this message is of that quality which enables one to please God, and this is the preparation for translation. This is the faith concerning which Jesus inquired, “When the Son of man cometh, shall he find the faith on the earth?” In this time when doubt and unbelief are sweeping so many from their foundation, we must hold fast to the faith which we have, and so exercise it that it may grow. Translation faith ought to be the faith of this people. This will give present victories, and prepare the way for the final triumph.

“Lord, give me such a faith as this, And then, whate’er may come, I’ll taste e’en here the hallowed bliss Of an eternal home.”

Life by Believing

LIFE is the gift of God. With God is the fountain of life. “As the Father hath life in himself, even so gave he to the Son also to have life in himself.” Concerning his errand to this world, Jesus said, “I came that they may have life, and may have it abundantly.” Life comes to man only in and through the Son. We lay hold of God’s gift of life by receiving the gift of his Son. “God gave unto us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath the life; he that hath not the Son of God hath not the life.” Faith is the only faculty bestowed upon us by means of which we can thus deal with life. Through faith we can understand the provision which God has made for life in his Son. Through faith we can receive the Son as our life. Through faith we can maintain our hold upon the life which we have thus received. To say that we have life in ourselves is to profess that we are equal to God. To say that we shall live as long as God lives, independent of the gift of life in his Son, is to make gods of ourselves. To say that man is immortal regardless of character, and that the gift of God is happiness rather than life, is to contradict the plainest teaching of the Scriptures. “The wages of sin is death; but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” “God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have eternal life.” The signs recorded in the Gospel of John are written for the express purpose of furnishing a solid foundation for the faith which receives Jesus as the life. “Many other signs therefore did Jesus in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book: but these are written, that ye may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that [by] believing ye may have life in his name.” The faith which recognizes the man Christ Jesus as the divine Son of God accepts as a personal experience the fact that divinity has been united with humanity, and this brings the believer into fellowship with the heavenly current of life. God offers us the gift of his own life through his Son as our righteousness, to be received by believing. It is simply glorious and gloriously simple. “O, believe, and receive, and confess him!”