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The Victories of Faith

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Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Feb 21, 1907

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 84, No. 8.

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The Victories of Faith

Editorial

The Victories of Faith

“WHATSOEVER is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.”
When we talk about faith, we must necessarily talk about the victories of faith; for that is the only thing that faith knows. Whenever there is anything else than victory in the Christian life and experience, it is because of the lack of faith. Jesus Christ is the author and finisher of our faith, and he always “giveth us the victory,” so that we can say, “Thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ.”
It might be interesting to consider simply the cases wherein victory has come to individuals through faith; it might encourage us to do even this, but it always seems to me that the personal element should be strong in our instruction. We might be encouraged and comforted by considering at some length some of the grand examples of the victory of faith as set forth in Hebrews, of whom Paul says, “Who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of aliens. Women received their dead raised to life again: and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance; that they might obtain a better resurrection: and others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonments: they were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword: they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented (of whom the world was not worthy); they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth.”
What a catalogue! every one of them a victory of faith. But what I desire is that we as individuals shall enter into the experience of just such victories of faith. It will be worth a great deal more to us if we learn how to work righteousness by faith, than to hear of a hundred others who had wondrous success in that work. It will be more profitable to us to learn how to meet the enemy and conquer him by faith, than to know how many others have done the same thing.
The main object of this lesson will be to bring to your minds something of the practical experience of the victory of faith. All the victories of faith are not recorded in the Bible. On the daily history of the earnest Christian, who believes in the power of God as revealed in Jesus Christ, may be written the reward of faith.
Let me state first that what God can do, faith in God can do. Faith is that which so unites us to Christ, so brings him present to us as a living Saviour, that what was wrought when he was here in bodily form, shall be wrought by us by the power of his Holy Spirit working in us. The Scripture gives us a definition of faith. “Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” Faith takes those things which are unseen and brings them before us. Faith makes real to us the things which are not seen with the naked eye. Faith takes the unseen, though eternal things, and brings them to us in present experience. By faith we take possession of them. When God gave us Jesus Christ, he gave us everything; and when we receive Jesus Christ, we receive everything. Eternal life comes with him; for he says, “He that believeth on me hath everlasting life.” “When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.” “And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.” “He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.” Inasmuch as Jesus Christ is the revelation of the infinite God, finite man will spend the day of eternity in studying what he received when he received Jesus Christ. But God designs to reveal to us, even in this life, more and more of what we receive in Christ, and faith is that which makes these things real to us.
What God requires of us is the revelation of what he is, and the assurance of what he will do for us. Faith is that which lays hold of this experience, and works it out. Suppose we study carefully the details of this faith. Faith is the gift of God, and the faith God gives is a living faith, a living element that possesses in itself life and working power. “For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision; but faith which worketh by love.” It works by love. “And now abideth faith, hope, and charity [or love], these three; but the greatest of these is charity.” Love is the first fruit of the Spirit. “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance.” This love of God is nothing else than the very life of God. We can not separate one of the attributes of the character of God from God himself. We have just so much of love as we have of God, and no more. The revealing of God’s presence is simply the revealing to us of his attributes. When the love of God was revealed in Jesus Christ, it brought victory. I said before, that faith does just what God does. Christ said, “Be of good cheer; I have overcome the world,” and our first text reads, “This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.” What Christ did as an overcomer, that our faith working through love, can do. James says, “Resist the devil, and he will flee from you,” and Peter says, “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour: whom resist steadfast in the faith.”
“There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh.” There is no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, because in him sin,which brings condemnation, was itself condemned. In him the condemnation passed from the sinner to the sin. The sins of the repentant sinner are condemned in the flesh by the grace of Christ, because of Christ’s experience in victory over the flesh.
(To be continued)