p. 2 (66) | THE VICTORY OF FAITH by John Orr

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Feb 3, 1898

THE VICTORY OF FAITH.

By John Orr

God asks through His prophet, “Can two walk together, except they be agreed?” Amos 3 : 3. The question is one easily settled. Few care to associate with those whose minds are at variance with their own. Whoever has tried this knows that it is the source of endless bickerings and constant strife, which soon result in separation. It is the same in the service of God. No one gets along well there whose mind is not in accord with the will of the Master. If he performs certain required acts, all the time wishing that he were free from them, they soon become irksome, and are done in a perfunctory and imperfect way. The sure result of all this is that the person, in time, gives up the service of God altogether, to follow the bent of his own inclinations.

We have met those who reason on this wise: “Now I can not see any good to come from doing that thing; then why is it necessary?” They do not question that God, whom they say they love, has asked them to do it, but unless they can see why it should be done, they would rather do that which is more pleasing to their inclinations. We wish these were isolated cases, but they are not. Many who wish to be good and true, and sigh because they are not, have never learned to submit their judgments to the will of God, choosing rather to walk according to the sight of their own eyes. They say, “If I could only see that thing, I would not hesitate for a moment to do it.” Such can not have charged their minds with the thought that in spiritual things “we walk by faith, not by sight.” 2 Cor. 5 : 7. Had they done so, they would not have asked to see by physical sight, or to be able to reason out the matter by human logic, but would have said with one of old, “Speak, Lord, for Thy servant heareth,” and then to have unquestioningly moved in accordance with the word spoken.

God’s Word gives directions to be followed through every step of life’s journey, and, tho we may not see to the end of where it leads, faith comes in to enable us to follow its every detail, and trust that He who asks it will take care of the results. When one fully believes all that God has said, he can engage to carry it out, trusting the comforting promise, “I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.” Heb. 13 : 5. With this promise firmly fixed in mind, “we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me.” Verse 6.

Weak tho we may be in the life of humanity, there is a mighty Helper, the eternal Creator, who has pledged Himself to remain with us through every duty and trial in his service. Believing this, victory is in every thought of our minds from the very start, and we perform each day’s journey, looking back to only constant exhibitions of God’s love and keeping power. All this is but the fulfilment of that wonderful statement, “This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.” 1 John 5 : 4.

Faith, then, and not sight, is the victory. Had one to wait for victory in God’s service, as does the world in temporal things, until actual contact with an obstacle conquers it, that would be wholly a matter of sight. But, under God, we are expected to walk by that faith which claims victory before any real struggle with a day’s difficulties begins. We know at early dawn that they will come, but do not wait for them. Going to God in the quiet of retirement, we ask him for overcoming strength, and by faith then and there appropriate the certain victory of infinite power. Upon this we may go calmly and confidently to meet the trials of the day, knowing that victory was gained in the power added by simple trust in the promise of God. Such victory is not only sure, but comes as a matter of course to him who has true and steadfast faith.

It is this faith, too, which gives one the possession of heavenly righteousness. “Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness.” Rom. 4 : 3. Righteousness is right-being and right-doing. It always was, and always will be, right-doing to believe that God is right, that His Word is true and steadfast. To believe otherwise is wrong-doing, because it is opposition to God. So, then, to doubt in the least God’s Word, is just so far to sustain Satan in his hostility to God. Since his first contradiction of God’s truthfulness in Eden, the great question to be settled by all has been, Who is right, God or Satan? The most generally-besetting sin of every age has been to question God’s love and justice in his dealings with the human race, and so give indorsement to the words of Satan in his first great deception. To believe God’s Word, independent of attending circumstances, is to step upon His side of this great controversy, and by so doing be counted righteous because of faith. Whoever does this will ever be enabled to say that God is right, and will at last be permitted to join in that eternal refrain, “Just and true are Thy ways, Thou King of saints.” Rev. 15 : 3.

Abraham’s faith was one which “against hope believed in hope.” Rom. 4 : 18. God

had promised him a son, at a time of life when human hope was against such a thing. Abraham was a hundred years old, and his wife “well stricken” in age. Yet when God told him that his seed should be as the stars for multitude, Abraham “believed in the Lord.” Gen. 15 : 6. But the Common Version here does not convey the full force of the patriarch’s reply. As expressed in the original sentence, he exclaimed, “Amen,” which means, so let it be, but is here used in the sense of “to make sure to one’s self, and so lean upon, confide in, or trust to.” In other words, Abraham said, “Lord, I lay aside all human reasoning of probability, to lean upon, confide in, and trust to this Word.” This was his victory. Had human judgment swayed him then, how different would have been the history which followed. No son would have been embraced; the twelve patriarchs of Israel’s tribes would not have appeared, and Christ would have come to earth through another means. This, then, was not a victory for Abraham alone, but also for all of God’s people in all after time.

The Saviour has clearly announced the conditions upon which all may continue in this victorious faith: “If ye abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.” John 15 : 7. This, then, is the agreement: self must drop out, and the Word of Christ live in the heart. The mind of Christ, which is in perfect accord with the will of Jehovah, must be allowed to control the daily life. This done, victory is already assured, because then no desire will be pressed that is not in harmony with the mind of God; no course will be taken that He does not approve; and, best of all, we will not do or refrain from doing anything under restraint, but will be in perfect agreement with God, and so be able to “walk together” with Him. Perfect love will then have cast out all fear, and its possessor will naturally move and do in God’s work as one who serves a loving and beloved Father. In view of the many divine promises, and the certain victory attaching to them, is it not strange that so many are satisfied to lose the power they contain, by permitting doubts to be traitors within, debarring them the good they might win “by fearing to attempt”? JOHN ORR.