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The Victories of Our Faith

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Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Mar 14, 1907

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 84, No. 11.

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The Victories of Our Faith

(Concluded)
God’s word is true whether we say so or not. Faith is that which lets that word be true in us.
Let us read the commandments of God in that way. “Thou shalt have no other gods before me.” I submit to that, let it be true in me, and God makes it true in my life by so revealing his own character, by so holding out before me the matchless charms of a Saviour’s love, that he takes from me the desire for other gods. He becomes to me the one altogether lovely. And this is done simply by my consenting to have him make this the experience of my life.
He says, “Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; and showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.” I say, Lord, let this be true in my life, and he so reveals to me his own character in the likeness of Jesus Christ, that I am amazed that the human mind should expect to make an image of God.
He says, “Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.” I submit myself to that, saying, I will not take thy name in vain; Lord, keep me from it. And he reveals to me that I may take his name, but it shall not be in vain. Jesus Christ is the very name of God, and when, submitting myself to God’s purpose that I shall not take his name in vain, I take the name of Jesus Christ and present it before the throne of God with my request, I learn indeed that I do not take the name of God in vain.
He tells me to remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy; for he has blessed and sanctified it. I say, Lord, I submit myself to this; carry it out in my life. And while I, on my part, co-operate with him in the part I can do, which is to refrain from labor on that day, he reveals himself then as on no other day as the very rest of the Sabbath. I cease from my own works on that day simply as a sign that I have ceased from the works of sin, that God is working in me; and he fulfils this in me by taking me from my own work, and letting me enjoy his work in me. This is the gospel of the Sabbath; the sign of the power of God in Jesus Christ to accomplish this work; the sign of our confidence that it is he who does this work, and that he will continue it till the day of Jesus Christ.
He says, “Thou shalt not kill,” but he has told me that to hate is to kill. “Thou shalt not steal,” “thou shalt not bear false witness,” “thou shalt not covet.” I say, Lord, I read that word through the life of Jesus Christ and the principle of love, as a statement of thy purpose concerning my life. I find that through the grace of Jesus Christ, I do not hate, because he keeps me in perfect peace. He becomes my keeper, and the principles of God’s holy law are made life unto me by my faith in the power of Jesus Christ.
Faith is simply that submission to God, that yielding to God, by which these principles become life-truth in our character. Faith is taking what God says, and saying, Lord, I submit; make it true in my life. And so God works in us by the power of his own word, by the power of his Holy Spirit, through the life of Jesus Christ, to make us like himself; and when this work is completed, and the image of God is restored in us, and the word, which was made flesh in Jesus Christ, is made flesh in us, then Christ comes to his own, and they receive him, and so shall we be forever with the Lord.
This is the grandest of all grand things in human experience,—the victory of faith, that overcomes the world, establishes the law, reveals Jesus in our life, and prepares us to see him as he is.