Precious Faith by Independent

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, Cal. · May 21, 1885

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 11, No. 20.

Precious Faith.

By Independent

We cannot read the Bible with the least attention, without observing that faith, taken in its subjective meaning, is the most important factor in the Christian life. It characterized all the men of old who knew and walked with God, who were the objects of the divine favor, and his friends and witnesses on the earth. It was faith that bound Abel to God, and led him to obey him in the matter of the sacrifice, "by which he obtained witness that he was righteous." It was by faith that the ancient worthies, such as Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Joshua, David, the judges, Daniel, and the other prophets, obtained their distinguished places in the world, and secured to themselves that friendship of God and power from on high, which enabled them to live out their lives in righteousness in the midst of an alienated and wicked world, and do exploits which have made them more famous than all the rest of the heroes of the earth. So eminent is faith among the graces, that the prophet Habakkuk has set it down as a principle that "the just shall live by his faith," thus making faith the procuring and maintaining cause of spiritual life. To this sentiment the great apostle responds by quoting the declaration of the prophet in each of his three great epistles, to the Romans, to the Galatians, and to the Hebrews. With this text placed to his lips, like a trumpet, "Luther blew a blast that wakened a sleeping world to life, from Rome to the Orkneys."

Who that has considered well the sayings of our Lord but that has noticed how he emphasizes the necessity of faith. "All things are possible to him that believeth." "If thou canst believe." "Believest thou that I am able to do this?" "If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say," etc. Only twice during his earthly life and ministry was our Lord said to be surprised. Once at the unbelief of his own townsmen at Nazareth, on account of which he could do no mighty works among them; and once at the remarkable faith of the Roman centurion, who refused to suffer him to go down to his house to heal a favorite servant, on the ground that his word was quite sufficient. In the one case he "marveled at their unbelief," and in the other case, he "marveled at his faith," which he said he had not seen equaled in Israel. It was "slowness of heart to believe" that brought from the lips of the Master that stinging rebuke to his disciples after his resurrection. It is faith that lies at the foundation of our character, and into which all other virtues, such as knowledge and temperance, are to be mixed.

What startling and wonderful things are affirmed of faith. It procures for us what mountains of diamonds cannot buy. Silver and gold, which are but corruptible things, could not redeem us, but the precious blood of Christ. So no worldly wealth, nor human powers or virtue, can put the soul in possession of that great redemption, but faith only. "God gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." By faith in Christ we are justified; by faith we are born again; by faith we are enabled to overcome the world and resist the devil; by faith the vision of another world is opened to our view, and things not seen and spiritual are made substantial realities to us. Though we are still left in the flesh, we yet live so that it is "Christ that liveth in us;" and though we have yet to fight with the world, the flesh, and the devil, we are made strong by faith to fight a good fight and lay hold on eternal life. Amid all the restless uncertainty of this life the man of faith "knows that all things work together for good" to him; and while others are full of unrest, by reason of sin and uncertainty, by faith we are enabled to and "do enter into rest." The mighty power of faith makes it precious to him who possesses it, and should inspire a covetous desire on the part of those who have it not, to possess it; for without it, whatever else they may have or do, they cannot please God.

The preciousness of faith is heightened when we remember that it is not a new and extraordinary faculty given from God. Should a curious on-looker have observed the mighty wonders wrought by the rod of Moses, and desired to look at it as though in itself it were some wonderful thing, he would have been surprised to find that it was nothing more nor less than the shepherd's rod with which he had tended sheep in the back part of the desert, before the Lord called him to go down to Egypt. It is even so of faith. The faith that justifies, and regenerates, and makes the weakest man mighty with God and man, is nothing other than the common and ordinary faculty and disposition in man by which he transacts all the common and ordinary affairs of life. But this common and humble every-day power of the mind, which is found in the peasant as well as in the king, is raised to unspeakable glory and power when it is lifted up to and rests upon the Son of God, and transacts business with Heaven and the future through his unchangeable and oath-bound word. It is doubly precious, because of its mighty power, when used to lay hold on the precious promises of God, and because it is a power that is common to all.