THE GREAT BADGE OF FAITH.
By S.
We are constantly showing our faith by the things we do; our lack of faith by the things we neglect to do; and this is particularly true in our religious life. Have we faith in the atonement of Christ? If we have we will not become despondent through the fear that God will not forgive our sins; for thus we would declare His sacrifice insufficient for the purpose assigned it. Have we faith in His almighty power? If so, we will never forget that that power is at our service in the struggle against sin; and remembering that fact, and having that faith, how can we fail of drawing upon that power? The badge of our faith in this regard is our attitude toward that power. If we draw upon it, we prove our faith in its existence and in its virtue for us. If we have the assurance of friends that a fortune awaits us at a certain bank, and we give it no heed, we indicate a lack of faith in their truthfulness, as well as a lack of faith in the existence of the fortune itself. God has promised us, if faithful to Him, “an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth not away.” Have we faith in that promise? If so, the life we are living will be an outward token, a badge, of that faith. We will show by our life that we are planning to move into our eternal inheritance when it shall please the Father to place it at our disposal. But the Father requires of us certain things that are literally badges of our faith, and intended so to be. When we became Christians, we followed our Lord in baptism. In that act we declared to the world that we had renounced the old life, had died to sin, and had risen with our Lord to walk in a new life. That act declared our faith in the righteousness of the life of Jesus Christ and the efficacy of His sacrifice to purchase us from the dominion of sin. We were under the condemnation of death because of sin; He died for us, in our place, and passed through the portals of the tomb. Death could not hold Him, because death has no legal claim upon righteousness, no scintilla of jurisdiction over the soul untainted by sin. So He came forth from the tomb; and because He did, death has no scintilla of jurisdiction over, no legal claim upon, any who have accepted the atoning sacrifice, died to sin, and risen with Him to “walk in newness of life” in Him. “Buried with Him in baptism”—that is the badge of our faith. There are other badges. In the quarterly recurring ceremonies of the Lord’s Supper, “we do show forth our Lord’s death till He come.” That act is a token to the world that we have faith in the efficacy of the body that was “broken for us,” and the blood that was shed for the remission of our sins. That also is a badge of our faith. Jesus Himself, looking down through the ages to the close of time, and seeing the terrible conditions that would exist, asks in sadness, “When the Son of Man cometh, shall He find faith on the earth?” Luke 18:8. He has Himself answered that question in Rev. 14:12. In the midst of the outpourings of God’s judgments upon the wicked the eye of the Revelator is turned to a little company that has been standing loyally for the truth of God in spite of all the doubtings, the philosophies, the infidelity, the “higher criticism,” and the persecutions of the enemy; and the Word declares of this company: “Here is the patience of the saints, they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.” That badge of faith, most conspicuous of all badges in that time, is the keeping of the commandments of God. That has distinguished them from every other class of people. There will be only one class at that time of whom that can be said; for we learn from Rev. 13:7, 8 that the powers of evil, before the coming of Christ, will have secured control over every class, save those only whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life. They whom the Word specifically mentions as faith-possessors and commandment-keepers in opposition to all the powers of evil are certainly those whose names are there written. What a badge that is! God will have His witnesses in every land. In every land that badge of faith will be seen. It will excite the wrath of every power of evil in the world; and they who bear that badge will be subjected to every possible indignity, until even the decree of death is pronounced by that apostate power upon them. Rev. 13:8, 14-18. Still they stand; and because they do stand, they are sealed with the seal of God (Rev. 7:3, 4). What does it mean, then, to be found wearing that particular badge of faith at that time?—Eternal life. That keeping of the commandments means the keeping of them all. The breaking of one command is the breaking of the law (James 2:10); he who refuses to honor the Sabbath is not a keeper of the commandments of God, is not wearing that badge of a triumphant faith. It is a matter of eternal importance. Would you be among that company to whom God Himself calls attention as His own loyal ones? Then adopt that badge of loyalty, that token of faith, that God may hold you before the world as His faithful witness in the midst of a faithless world. S.