3639—How Far Faith Goes
By Editor
Will you be so good as to tell me how far faith goes in the work of perfecting Christian character, and what part one has to do himself; or, in brief, where faith stops and works start? Faith goes all the way. Faith goes all the way with a person who never sinned; for "without faith it is impossible to please Him." He who is able to overcome anything without faith in God would take glory to himself; and if holy beings who had overcome by their own power were placed together, each glorying in himself, strife and confusion would immediately result. In the glad day of God, when all the redeemed come home, every soul will give honor and glory and praise to Jesus Christ, and to the Father, for all the salvation. Trusting in self in any way narrows heart and mind, dwarfs affection and intellect. Keeping the heart open toward the infinite God must expand both mind and heart. And so it is trusting Christ all the way. At the same time, God would not have us effortless. It is He Himself who has said, "Strive," "agonize," "work," "do," "walk," "run," "fight." It has been happily phrased this way,—that the Christian is to trust the Lord Jesus Christ as if he expected that God must do it all, and that he is to put forth such effort on his own part as if he expected he must do it all himself. He will not put forth the right effort without faith. His works will be the works of faith; he will yield himself to God because God requires it, because he loves Him who has redeemed him. And his whole life will be one constant service to duty, service to love. Let a man once grasp the great and eternal thought that God has redeemed him from eternal death, from sin and its curse, and he will yield every power of his being to the One who has so loved him. He may fail in his service because of ignorance, because of weaknesses which he did not know that he possessed, because of failure to feed upon the Word of Christ, to seek Him by prayer; but he will not turn back; he will persevere if he has faith, and persist to the end. God will not cut him off if he stumbles, or makes mistakes, any more than a father will his little child who stumbles and fails. Our correspondent says that when he takes his eyes off Christ he fails. Truly he does. God wants us to form the habit of having Christ in our life always. God has given him a taste of His blessings; let him persevere. Peter took his eyes off from Christ, and he sank; when he looked to Christ and forgot himself he walked on the stormy sea.