FAITH
[p. 214] FAITH
Romans 3: 21 - 31; Romans 4: 16 - 25
Man is looked at in these scriptures in relation to the righteousness of God; that is, in connection with responsibility. If man is looked at in relation to the love of God, the thought of responsibility does not come in, for that is not a natural basis of responsibility. Romans 3 brings in the thought of God morally, and chapter 4 brings in the thought of God in power. What I mean by God morally is the setting forth of God’s righteousness. In chapter 4 it is faith in the God who raises the dead, and calls things which be not as though they were. In that way we come into the line of Abraham; he believed in the God of resurrection, and so do we “if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead”.
Faith precedes what is properly the work of God in the soul, though there is a divine preparation before a man believes the gospel. Faith precedes the work of God, and becomes operative by love. Faith brings the light of God into the soul, and God works on that. The result of the work of God is that one is formed in spiritual affections but light must be there first. Abraham got accession of light, and God wrought in him according to it; he had continual testings. If God gives you light, He will test you. It is this that makes Abraham’s history of such interest to me; every test proved the work of God in him. The offering up of Isaac was an instance; it was faith operative by works.
Faith and light are synonymous; the light entering is faith. Light is the testimony of God; faith is that the light has entered into your heart. In the case of Cornelius and the Philippian jailer there was a preparation beforehand, and they received the light when it was presented to them. If God’s testimony is accepted there is faith, and I should identify the light which enters with faith;
[p. 215] faith is the measure of a man’s light from God. No one’s faith can go beyond the testimony he has received; what I have accepted is my faith. A man’s faith is his spiritual measure.
One great element of faith is that it is the acceptance of things which cannot be verified by the believer. If a historical fact were reported to me, and well substantiated, I should not doubt it, but I do not call that faith, for I could verify it if I wished to do so. Paley’s ‘Evidences’ and Butler’s ‘Analogy’ do not produce faith. Faith is the light of God entering into the heart; it is the acceptance of God’s testimony. If God addresses a testimony to men, it carries its own credentials; because it is of God it carries conviction to man. God’s testimony presents what a man cannot verify. For instance, you cannot verify the glory of the Lord, though by the Holy Spirit you may get the consciousness of it. We could not verify the resurrection of Christ. We have, of course, abundant testimony to the resurrection of Christ (1 Corinthians 15), but still we could not verify it. Christianity is a standing witness to Christ’s resurrection, and the dispersion of the Jews is also a witness to it.
I do not think that faith is viewed in Scripture as something to which substantive value is to be attached. When a testimony from God enters a man’s heart, it becomes light there, and that is faith. Light is accepted mentally in christendom, but then it is dead; it produces no effect.
Ques Would it be right to pray for more faith?
I should rather pray for more light, that I might be intelligent in God’s will. People sometimes ask for faith that they may distinguish themselves by doing some great thing. I do not regard confidence and faith as identical. Confidence is much further on than faith. I identify confidence with the knowledge of God’s love. I can understand a person believing in God, accepting His testimony, and yet not having much confidence. A great statesman once said, ‘Confidence is a plant of slow growth’, and this is true. Confidence arises from the knowledge of affection; it is so with a family; if children lack confidence, the secret lies in their not knowing the parents’ affection. When the apostle says, “This is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask anything according to his will, he heareth us” (1 John 5: 14), it is after he had expounded all as to the love of God in the former part of the epistle. I should connect “the shield of faith” (Ephesians 6: 16) with confidence. To “walk by faith” is to walk in divine light. Lot walked by sight, but Abraham walked by divine light. “Faith” is also spoken of as a special gift, in virtue of which a man could do something astounding, such as “remove mountains”. The “like precious faith” which Peter speaks of is what is common to all christians. “Your faith groweth exceedingly” refers to the increase of divine light.
There is responsibility on the part of man to hear the testimony which God presents. The effect of light coming in from God is to produce exercise in man. The Scriptures give us the truth in divinely given form and shape; if we had not the Scriptures we might get into all sorts of vagaries. I get the benefit of the word in some way or other, and then I go to Scripture to substantiate it. The “word of God” means God’s testimony. In hardly any scripture where the word of God is spoken of does it mean the Scriptures. The testimony of God is wonderful; it can adapt itself to any particular moment. Whatever be the state of things in the world, the Spirit of God can suit the testimony to that state. It was so in Mr. Darby’s time, and in Luther’s time. Mr. Darby and Luther received light as divine favour by the Spirit of God, and then the Spirit of God led them to Scripture that they might have it, and be able to give it out, in divinely given form. When Christ was here He was the Word. The Scriptures are the word of God because they are the truth in divinely inspired form, and they carry authority, and everything has to be subjected to [p. 217] them. No apprehension of mine carries authority, but Scripture has authority; therefore in answering a gainsayer I should quote Scripture.
If man has lost God, be can never be recovered to God save by a testimony which comes from God. A planet moving out of its appointed orbit is the best figure I know of man having become lawless. When a man bows to the righteousness of God, he comes, as it were, to his appointed orbit in relation to God.
Ques How is a man justified?
I think man wants a Head in the sense in which Adam was a head. Christ “was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification” (Romans 4: 25). We are justified in Christ; not in Adam, but in Christ. The next step is that we have life in the Head; then we have “justification of life” (Romans 5: 18). The divine way of grace in regard of man is to raise up a Head who can meet all man’s liabilities, and become to us a life-giving Spirit. We get righteousness, and then Christ imparts living water. We get justification by faith, and then we get continual accession of light as God’s mind and purpose in regard to us is made known, and received by faith. Every increase of light produces exercise, and the Spirit works through that exercise. Faith apprehends what is objective; we are called upon to believe what God has wrought and the mind of God. This produces exercise, and the Spirit of God works through that exercise.
The Head has been too much left out in preaching, and the effect is that people get the idea that man is restored on the footing of responsibility, and on the line of the first Adam. We do not get justification until we come to a risen Man, and hence we are justified in Christ. Israel will say in a coming day, “The Lord our righteousness”. Then Christ has not only met my responsibility, but I accept His death, and I am revived in the life of Christ. Nothing is more important than the place of Christ as Head in connection with the gospel. He has [p. 218] met the liabilities, and He is a life-giving Spirit. Forgiveness is preached in His Name in order that men may come to Christ and get living water.