FAITH by Stephen Nelson Haskell

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · May 3, 1877

FAITH

By Stephen Nelson Haskell

Faith is that exercise of the mind, which applies the word of God to ourselves. God’s promises are always conditional. The Scriptures do not recognize faith where the conditions are not complied with. When the conditions are complied with, faith appropriates the promised blessings, and thus they are realized. And by this means we become “partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.” God quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were, from the fact that his word is immutable. “He spake, and it was done; he commanded and it stood fast.” The fiat of the Almighty goes forth, and then exists that which he has spoken. It exists because he has spoken.

The apostle describes faith as follows: “Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.” The world was not made, therefore, from any thing that is seen, or does appear. But God spake, and something existed as the result of his word, which did not exist previously. Faith credits this, believes it, does not doubt or reason, but at once acts as though it was so. “Casting down reasonings (margin), and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.”

It has ever been an effort of Satan to separate faith from works. When he fails to lead men to renounce God and the Bible, he enters the church of Christ, and exalts faith in Christ to the exclusion of works. When the law of God is enforced, frequently we hear it said, “You are to be saved by works, but we by faith.” Words in James 2 are a rebuke upon all such. “Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith and I have works. Show me thy faith without thy works, and I will show thee my faith by my works.” “Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered Isaac his son upon the altar? Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect?” “As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.” James 2: 14-26.

The works of faith are in harmony with divine law. We may not always comprehend the workings of that law; and with childlike simplicity we can only believe, and move forward. But to refuse to do any thing because we believe, would be as inconsistent as it would have been for those who were raised from the dead to refuse to breathe because they were raised by the power of God.

If faith in the blood of Christ gives the sinner a pardon for his sins, it is that he sin no more. If the faith that does this does not lead the sinner to a life of obedience, his works in the day of Judgment will prove the faith of no more avail than it would be to manifest great sympathy for the naked and hungry without taking steps to relieve them. When God hears prayer for the sick, it is that the life thus preserved may be in harmony with the laws of their being, which are God’s laws. There are no persons who can exercise faith with such assurance as can those who are seeking to live in harmony with all of God’s laws, both physical and moral.

Faith is therefore a handmaid to works; and the character of the works reveal the nature of the faith. “Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you; depart from me, ye that work iniquity.”

Faith is mighty. It has “subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions.” By it, “women received their dead raised to life again,” and every mighty work has been and can be accomplished by faith; but it always is found in the path of obedience. Hence it is a clear conception of what is right, with a heart ever ready to walk therein, that enables men to walk with God, and prepares them finally to be taken to the realms of glory, where faith is lost in sight, and prayer in praise. S. N. HASKELL.