p. 2 | LIVING BY FAITH by C. P. Bollman

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Apr 18, 1900

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 26, No. 16.

LIVING BY FAITH.

By C. P. Bollman

THE people of God must live by faith, not by feeling. Heb. 10:38.

What then is faith?—“Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the proving of things not seen.” Heb. 11:1, R.V.

Assurance is defined by the “Standard Dictionary” as “the mental state or feeling of being assured; confidence; conviction; trust; reliance; as to have full assurance of safety.”

To have faith, then, is to have confidence in God; to feel sure that He is true; to trust His promises; to believe His Word. The latter part of the text—“the proving of things not seen”—is simply the complement of the first part. He who is sure that God’s Word is true will prove God; that is, he will put himself in line with God’s Word, and his experience will be a demonstration to himself, and his life will be a demonstration to others, that God is true.

Simply to hold truth as a theory is not faith. “Thou believest there is one God,” says the apostle; “thou doest well; the devils also believe, and tremble. But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead? Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar? Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect? And the scripture was fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed God; and it was imputed unto him for righteousness.”

Abraham had confidence in the divine promise, and he proved God; that is, by doing just what God said, he gave Him an opportunity to demonstrate that which Abraham already believed. And Abraham’s confidence, and the obedience which was the result of the confidence, taken together, afford an example of complete faith, entitling Abraham to be “called the friend of God,” “the father of the faithful.”

Faith, then, is not only feeling sure that God is true, but is acting in harmony with that conviction; it is not only believing, but obeying. And since the very first element in faith is belief, and since there can be no belief without something to believe, it is evident that the only basis of faith is the Word of God; and this is plainly taught in Rom. 10:17: “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.” Or, as we moderns would express it, Faith comes by hearing the Word of God. And here, too, we have the same thought as in Heb. 11:1, namely, confidence and proving, belief and obedience; for the “hearing” here spoken of is not simply perceiving the sound of words, but the receiving also of that which is spoken. See 1 John 4:6. Faith, then, is obeying God from the heart.

C. P. BOLLMAN.