The Power and Victories of Faith
By D. T. Bourdeau
SAVING FAITH, OR FAITH SEEN IN WORKS. NO. 5.
The Power and Victories of Faith.
“All things are possible to him that believeth.” Mark 9: 23. O the power, efficacy, and victories of living faith, that it is our privilege to enjoy! By living faith we may unite to our weakness the power of Him who made heaven and earth, who breaks the power of sin and Satan upon the soul, sets the captives free, and makes the weakest of mortals like David to meet the giants that would impede their progress on their way to the heavenly country. Living faith opens to its possessor the treasures of divine knowledge and heavenly wisdom, sets before him a table of fat things upon which he truly feasts, and enables him to impart knowledge and wisdom to others, with humble and devout gratitude to Him from whom all blessings flow. By living faith, heaven, its riches, glories, and happiness, are made near, and are enjoyed by sweet anticipation. By this faith the life, death, resurrection, ascension, mediation, and second coming of Jesus are made living realities; and by it even the doctrine of the incarnation of the Son of God in behalf of a fallen race, is made, in a special sense, reflective of divine wisdom, power, love, and condescension, and a means of drawing the soul to Jesus. By this faith the scenes of the infancy, childhood, and manhood of Jesus, as predicted by holy prophets, and as related in the New Testament Scriptures, are, as it were, made to pass in panoramic view before us; and by it we receive Jesus as the promised Messiah, as the Saviour of the world, yearning after him with love that words can not express, and that God alone can implant in the soul. By this faith we see Jesus living among men as our Exemplar, and passing over a road rougher and more thorny than that which mortals tread; and by it we see him dispensing to the people the words of eternal life, and bearing their sorrows, their infirmities, and their diseases, and say in our hearts, This same spiritual food is for us, and we would have this same Jesus bear our sorrows, our infirmities, and our diseases; and we know that he is willing to do this for us; for his great heart of pity and love is ever the same; it changeth not. One thing which we observe in Jesus as we consider the events of his life, and which bears with it a mighty evidence of his Messiahship, causing faith in him to spring up in our hearts, and leading us to embrace him by faith as our Saviour, is the power to raise the dead. As we by faith see the dead spring to life and activity at his command, we recognize in him the divine “Word,” by whom “all things were made” (John 1: 3, etc.), and, by faith, cherish the hope that he will raise the righteous dead, and, for them, and for all the saints, “make all things new” and glorious in the fast-approaching day of God. By faith we see Jesus, after his temptations and sufferings in man’s behalf in the wilderness and during his ministry, drink his final cup of suffering in the Garden of Gethsemane, and on his way from that garden to Golgotha, and, last of all, at Golgotha. We first follow him in Gethsemane, and hear the agonizing cries that he there pours forth to his Father as he lies prostrate, sweating great drops of blood under the heavy weight of our sins; and we say in our hearts, Jesus, we know that thou lovest us, and we embrace thee. By faith we follow him from the garden to Calvary; we see him smitten, clad with the old purple robe, crowned with the crown of thorns, and made the subject of ridicule and cruel mockings; we see him forsaken even by his disciples, and fainting and falling while bearing his iron cross, and we involuntarily ask, Is it not enough? have we not sufficient proof of divine love? and has not divine justice been sufficiently honored and vindicated? only to be met with the sad but touching response, The cup must be drunk to its dregs; the divine, innocent Victim must be slain. By faith we see Jesus, all worn and emaciated, cruelly nailed to the cross; we then see him lifted up by wicked and rough hands, and see him bleeding, suffering, and dying for us between two malefactors, while those who have thirsted for his blood mock and rejoice; and we think of his own prophetic words to Nicodemus, “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up; that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life” (John 3: 14, 15); and the faith we already have is strengthened; and so as we read the repeated predictions of Jesus to his disciples and to others concerning his own death, especially the solemn one he made as he instituted the Lord’s supper (Matt. 16: 21–27; 26: 17–29, etc.); and the same effect is produced as we read the numerous prophecies of ancient seers concerning this event, and see that they even foretell such minute circumstances connected with the crucifixion as the following:— The betrayal of Jesus (Ps. 41: 9, etc.); the piercing of his hands and feet (Ps. 22: 16); his enemies laughing him to scorn, shaking their heads, and saying, “He trusted on the Lord that He would deliver him; let Him deliver him, seeing he delighteth in him” (Ps. 22: 7, 8); their giving him gall and vinegar (Ps. 69: 21); their parting his garments, and casting lots upon his vesture, or coat (Ps. 22: 18); not one of his bones being broken (Ps. 34: 20; Ex. 12: 46; Num. 9: 12)—all of which, and much more that might be noticed, has met an exact fulfilment in the events connected with the death of our Saviour. See the accounts of the betrayal and last scenes of Christ’s life in the closing portions of the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. We watch the motions of Jesus as he hangs upon the cross, and wait to catch every word that falls from his lips. We see him the same meek and lowly Jesus that he was when he said, “Learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart; and ye shall find rest unto your souls.” Matt. 11: 29. Not a murmur escapes from his lips. He is as forgetful of self and as interested for others as he was during his ministry. He provides a home for his dear mother with the meek and beloved apostle who used to lean on his breast (John 19: 26, 27); prays for his murderers, asking his Father to forgive them, because they know not what they do (Luke 23: 34); gives the penitent, believing thief ground to hope that he shall be saved (Luke 23: 42, 43); cries to his Father, as he tastes death for every man, and feels himself forsaken of God, as the wicked shall be at last, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” (Matt. 27: 46); and, finally, closes his life by manifesting his divine power through a voice that shakes the earth, rends rocks which have for ages defied the changes and convulsions of nature, and rends the veil of the temple from the top to the bottom. The enemies of Jesus are struck with terror, and honest souls, including the centurion who had the charge of the Roman soldiers on the occasion, exclaim, “Truly this was the Son of God” (Matt. 27: 50–54), etc. And how can we, with this array of evidence—as Jesus is thus set forth as crucified before our eyes—refrain from concurring with these honest witnesses in the decision that Jesus is the Son of God? And still the evidence accumulates, inviting and increasing faith. For as the plan of salvation as revealed in Holy Writ is the ground of faith, so faith springs in the heart as that plan is considered in the light of those events upon which it is based and through which God speaks to fallen man, that he may truly believe and be saved. And as evidence increases and the plan of salvation is taken in more and more fully, faith increases.