The Omnipotence Of Faith
THE OMNIPOTENCE OF FAITH
“Jesus looking upon them saith, With men it is impossible, but not with God; for all things are possible with God.”—S. Mark 10:27.
The genius of New Testament teaching is in its prepositions. To ignore the significance and distinctions of such words as in, with, for and through, is to miss the essential qualities of the Christian faith. They contain the unique truths of Christianity, and set forth the most glorious realities of the soul’s experience in Christ. The core of the Gospel is that Christ died for our sins, the dynamic of salvation is in the fact that He lives in us, and the ultimate certainty of the triumph of the Kingdom of God in the world is that the indwelling Christ works through redeemed and sanctified humanity by His Spirit. Christ for us, Christ in us, Christ through us is the ground of our hope and the assurance of our faith.
I. Man with God
Perhaps in no passage has a preposition been more persistently misread than in this saying of Christ, “With man it is impossible, but not with God; for all things are possible with God.” It is usually interpreted as if “with” were the equivalent of “to.” This makes the passage read as if Christ said, It is impossible to man, but not to God; all things are possible to God. Jesus did not say “to” but “with”; and the distinction is important. One sets forth the contrast between man’s impotence and God’s power. It brings to his rescue a mighty ally, but it puts no strength into him. The impossible is accomplished for him, not by him. The other links the impotent man with the omnipotent God, and makes him strong in the strength of God. The one finds him helpless and provides him a great Helper; the other imparts power and makes man omnipotent for his task. He receives into his own soul the very energy of the Almighty, so that, strengthened with Divine might in his inner man, all things become possible to him with God. One emphasises the impotence of man; the other shows him the way to omnipotence by which the impossible can be made possible. With man, impossible; with God, that is, to man with God, all things are possible.
The subject under discussion is salvation. The sorrowful departure of the rich young ruler, so earnest, so eligible, so blameless, so influential, had filled the disciples with perplexity and amazement. If such as he are rejected, who then can be saved? The Master answers that salvation is impossible with man. All the resources of humanity at its best are inadequate for salvation; but in salvation we are dealing not with the resources of man but of God, and all things are possible with God. The power that saves is not within the command of man; it is of God. Apart from Him salvation is impossible to all; but with Him, to the weakest, impossibilities are no more. Linked with Omnipotence, the strength of man is as the strength of God. In the power of God all things become possible to man.
This truth is frequently on the lips of Jesus. In the preceding chapter we have the instructive incident of the father and his demoniac child. In the absence of Jesus he brought his lad to the disciples and besought them to heal him. They had been commissioned and accustomed to cast out devils, and unconscious of any loss of power they pronounced the usual formula, and expected the usual result. But the evil spirit ignored their authority and defied their commands. Their enemies were not slow to turn their failure to account, and to expose their humiliation. When Jesus returned He found His crestfallen disciples the objects of a jeering and malicious crowd, and He at once took possession of the field. In response to His inquiry, the father stated the case with brutal frankness. Jesus commanded the lad to be brought to Him. As he was being brought, the evil spirit threw him to the ground in violent paroxysms of agony, and he wallowed foaming. With characteristic composure Jesus asked how long he had been thus afflicted. The father answered that he had suffered from being a child, and told how he fell frequently into the fire and into the water, imperilling his life. Then with all the pent-up agony of a breaking heart, he cried: “If Thou canst do anything, have compassion on us and help us.” That if revealed the cause of delay. The if was not with Christ but with the father. It was not a question of Christ’s ability but of the father’s faith. Not if I can do, but if thou canst believe. All things are possible to him that believeth. Straightway the father of the child cried out and said, “I believe; help Thou mine unbelief.” Then Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit and healed the lad.
When the crowd had dispersed, the disciples came privately to Jesus and asked Him for the explanation of their failure, saying, “Why could not we cast it out?” and in St. Matthew’s account we have this answer: “And He saith unto them, Because of your little faith: for verily I say unto you, if ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.”
In Mark 11:22–24 we have the same teaching. Going up to Jerusalem from Bethany, Jesus hungered, and seeing a fig-tree in leaf, He came to gather of its fruit. The leaves of the fig-tree announce the presence of fruit, and are an invitation to come and eat. When He came to the tree He found it fruitless though full of leaves. It mocked His hunger with a lie, and He cursed it as He will ultimately curse every lie that mocks man’s need. “And as they passed by in the morning, they saw the fig-tree withered away from the roots. And Peter calling to remembrance saith unto Him, Rabbi, behold, the fig-tree which Thou cursedst is withered away. And Jesus answering saith unto them, Have faith in God. Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou taken up and cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that what he saith cometh to pass; he shall have it. Therefore I say unto you, All things whatsoever ye pray and ask for, believe that ye have received them, and ye shall have them.” Language could not be more explicit. Faith imparts to man a power, that turns petition into decree.
Consistently with this teaching Christ forecasts for His disciples a life full of works which transcend all human possibility. Through faith in His Name they were to find exemption from fatal perils, and to accomplish marvellous and miraculous things. “These signs shall follow them that believe: in My Name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; they shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall in no wise hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick and they shall recover.” And again: “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on Me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto the Father. And whatsoever ye shall ask in My Name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask Me anything in My name that will I do.” So complete is the identification of believers with Christ that His work becomes theirs, and for all the needs of that work they may command all the resources of eternal wisdom and power. To them that are with God the Lord of Hosts has said, “Concerning the work of My hands, command ye Me.” Thus the things impossible with men become possible with God. The Apostle Paul confirms this teaching out of his own experience. At the close of a long life full of peril, suffering, hardship, and heroic service, he summed up his testimony to the power of God in him in the memorable words: “I can do all things in Him that strengthened me.”
This is Christ’s teaching concerning man. He never belittled human nature; that is the Devil’s way. Neither was He under any misapprehension as to the limitation of man’s possibilities apart from God. Satan tempts men to play the god with their little stock of capacity. He tempts to self-sufficiency, and then taunts with weakness. Jesus reveals the impossibilities of man’s strength, and calls him to the source of infinite power. Made but a little lower than God, and God in Christ having taken hold of his nature, and lifted him above the angels, man is called into fellowship and partnership with God, and all things are made possible to him. If this teaching is anything but a mockery, it means that man with God is omnipotent.
II. The only Condition of this Fellowship in Power is Faith
The promise is to him that believes. To faith it is declared that nothing is impossible. Its sphere is without limit and its resources without reserve. Moving mountains and hurling them into the depths of the sea is a mere incident in its course of power. It is illimitable, irresistible, and inexhaustible. Miracles are its normal operations. The Scriptures attribute to faith the power of the Infinite. This is not true of all faith, for all faith is not all-powerful. The disciples had faith, but it was neither of the kind nor degree to cast out the evil spirit. “Because of your little faith” is the Master’s explanation of their failure. There were some who believed on His Name to whom Jesus did not trust Himself. Their trust was not to be trusted; not that it was false, but because its strength was not such as to warrant His confidence. There are some who trust God whom God cannot trust. It is the faith that commands confidence to which all things are possible.
There are three stages of faith. There is the faith that receives, the faith that reckons, and the faith that risks. By the first we are justified. “As many as received Him, to them gave He the right to become the children of God, even to them that believe on His Name.” By the second we are sanctified. “Even so reckon ye also yourselves to be dead unto sin, but alive unto God in Christ Jesus.” To reckon is not to assume what is not there, but to act upon assured fact. If we died in Christ, we may reckon ourselves dead unto sin, for Christ died for sin; and if we rose again in Him, we may reckon ourselves alive unto God in Him. Reckoning faith is sanctifying faith. By the third we are endued with the gift of power. Twice in the roll of honour among men of faith we are told that these believers had “witness borne to them.” That is, there was given an open demonstration of power, that testified to their faith and vindicated it. God endorsed and verified their faith by mighty works. The one thing common to their faith was the element of venture. They had a vision of the unseen; it became to them a promise and a prophecy; they embraced and confessed it, and put it to open proof. They risked everything on God. Enoch walked with God. Noah built the ark. Abraham left his country and afterwards risked Isaac’s life in which was the seed of the promise. Moses renounced his position, imperilled his life, and then risked an entire nation on the Word of the Lord.
In every age it has been the faith that risked that moved mountains, cast out devils, and healed the nations. That is where faith finds its test and its triumphs; and alas! that is where faith so often breaks down. We can trust God for receiving. We can trust even for sanctifying grace: but when it comes to risk! When obedience may mean loss of position, loss of money, loss of home, how many there are that shrink back. When faith involves risk of failure, the sorrow of reproach, and the sting of ridicule, what then? Is not the vision of faith too often abandoned with a sigh? Faith that goes forward triumphs. Seas divide at its touch and mountains move at its word. It spreads tables in the wilderness and turns desert sands into springs of water. Under its influence the weak become strong and the timid lose their fear. It subdues kingdoms, works righteousness, obtains promises, stops the mouths of lions, quenches the power of fire, delivers from the edge of the sword, and turns weaklings into invincible warriors, who put to flight the armies of the alien. By it men sing in the night, worship in caves, and pray in prisons. Nothing can daunt them; nothing can overcome them; nothing can resist them. Exultant, jubilant, triumphant, the men of faith are the hosts of God. He is their Leader, their Captain, their Father, and their Lord.
Faith commands God. He is pledged to its call. He has sealed the covenant with an oath. His word is as immutable as Himself. He challenges man to put Him to the proof, and the faith that ventures waxes mighty. George Müller is the most conspicuous example of venturing faith in this generation. On the strength of God’s promise he took two thousand orphan children to house, clothe, and feed. He had no backing but in God. Without money, social prestige, or organisation he cast two thousand hungry children daily upon the Word of the Father; and daily, God honoured his faith and paid his bills. Never once did one of his orphans go hungry, or a child want for any good thing. Sometimes they went to bed with the larder bare and the purse empty, but the breakfast was always on the table at the appointed hour next morning. George Müller told the Lord of his need, and the Lord kept some rich man awake till he had sent provisions for His children at the orphanage. When we hear of such miracles wrought by prayer, we sigh for a like faith in our own souls. But we do not take the orphans. We shrink from the risk; and while there is not faith enough to risk, there will never be faith enough to command. Jesus Christ meant what He said, “All things are possible with God.” The man of faith is omnipotent. Being with God, he becomes as God.
What do we mean by Omnipotence?
The explanation of this power in man must be the same as that given to the attribute of omnipotence in God. When we say all things are possible to God, we mean all things consistent with Himself and with the nature of that on which He works. There is nothing of the magician in God. He does not work by magic, but by law. The conception of Him as a conjuror of infinite skill is a caricature. There is nothing whimsical or arbitrary in His power. He can do nothing that involves a contradiction of Himself. He cannot lie. The Judge of all the earth must do right. There is a must even in the Infinite. He can do nothing that violates the rights of another. Having made man what he is, God cannot infringe a single right with which He has endowed him. He wills that all men should be saved, but He can compel no man to enter the Kingdom. Coercion is inconsistent with freedom. Even the rights of the Devil are respected.
So with man. When Jesus assures men that all things are possible through faith, because faith links man with God, He does not mean that there is given him unlimited power for capricious use. He cannot go through the world working miracles according to every whim and desire. It is not given to him that he may move mountains and work wonders at his will. Power is subject to law, and is to be exercised according to the will of God. Like Naaman, many expect to be saved by the occult operation of some mysterious power, and to see the work of the Lord done in the world by some spectacular demonstration of the supernatural. But there is nothing capricious in all His ways. This power of God in man works wherever possible through ordinary means and by known laws. When these are not sufficient, it works by means that are not ordinary and by laws that are not known; but whether the means are ordinary or extraordinary, and the laws natural or supernatural, the power is always limited in its operation to things within the sphere of the Divine will. That is the point always to be settled. Is it His will? If it is, then, for all the will of God, man with God is omnipotent. Apart from Him the demands of the Divine will are impossible, but “strengthened with all might according to His glorious power,” all things are possible to them that believe. Which means that,
With God, all Man ought to be he can be,
and
With God, all Man ought to do he can do.
III. The Impossible Demands of the Kingdom
The Kingdom makes impossible demands of all men. Turn again to the case of the young man, whose sorrowful refusal occasioned the words of the text. He was to all appearance an ideal seeker. He was rich without being lax in morality, influential yet earnest, religious but not rigid. So earnest was he, that he forgot the conventionalities of his position, and running to Jesus knelt at His feet in the open street. He was seeking Eternal Life. After questioning him about his manner of life Jesus loved him, and told him if he would be perfect and enter into that life he sought, he must go and sell all he had, give it to the poor, and follow Him. The young man regarded the conditions as impossible, and very reluctantly went away sorrowing. As Jesus watched his retreating figure He said with a sigh, “How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the Kingdom of God. And the disciples were amazed at His words.” They had never been taught to regard riches as a stumbling-block to goodness. Wealth had always been regarded as an advantage to religion and a very considerable proof of it. Instead of being a disqualification, it had always secured prestige and honour; instead of shutting out, it could always be relied upon to secure welcome and distinction. Indeed, the two great features of the Kingdom present to their minds were righteousness and prosperity, and it is to be feared prosperity was the goal, and righteousness the means to the end.
No wonder they were surprised. Jesus made it appear that if riches are not inconsistent with the Kingdom, they are certainly a disadvantage and a hindrance. If we read the words without amazement, it is because we have ceased to take them seriously. How many are there who really believe that riches are inimical to goodness? Do not multitudes of professed followers of Jesus believe they would be better Christians “if they were only better off”? The plain teaching of Jesus is that “the better off” we are the more difficult shall we find the life of the Kingdom. Jesus answered the surprise of His disciples with the statement that to enter the Kingdom for any man is no easy matter. The words, “for them that trust in riches,” in verse 24 should almost certainly be omitted. What He said was: “Children, how hard is it to enter the Kingdom of God”! They gasped with astonishment, and it was in answer to their inquiry, “Then who can be saved?” that Jesus, looking upon them, said, “With men it is impossible, but not with God: for all things are possible with God.”
Every man finds in his life that which corresponds to the young ruler’s possessions. Face to face with Christ and seeking eternal life, the kingdoms of the world take their final stand upon some one barrier between the soul and God. The last conflict is over some possession whose roots are buried in our hearts, or some call for which we have no strength. It may be a habit, a passion, a companionship, an idol, we are called to surrender; or it may be a duty which demands courage, a vocation that involves sacrifice, a path that means crucifixion. When the demand is made, the mind reels and the soul shrinks sorrowfully and helplessly away, saying over and over again, I cannot, I cannot! It is impossible! So it is; but not with God. With Him whatever ought to be can be. All things are possible with God. Surrender in His strength, step out at His command, and the impossible shall come to be. Do not be afraid; He is with you. Do not argue, do not parley, do not compromise. Obey. This is among the all things possible. It can be done. Do it now. Take hold of God, and nothing shall be impossible to you.
The Kingdom demands the Impossible in Character as well as in its Conditions of Entrance
The fig-tree that Jesus cursed is a parable. The Kingdom of Christ demands that every false and unholy thing shall be destroyed from the root. He did not come to regulate sin, but to destroy it. He does not seek to control evil, but to purge it away. Truth is required in the inward parts. Evil must be destroyed from the root. The Kingdom cannot tolerate any root of bitterness, malice, or sin. In thought, desire and motive the Christian must stand clear of sin; in the inward and hidden parts he must be clean. Who can cleanse his heart out of which are the issues of life, so that when his very roots are laid bare he can stand before God unafraid and unashamed? It cannot be! cries every man who has looked into the deep places of his own soul. It is impossible! Yes, with men it is impossible, but not with God. Even this is possible with God. At His word and by His power every false, selfish, and sinful thing shall die at the root.
If our salvation is to be the accomplishment of our own unaided powers, the task is utterly hopeless. When we look at the standard demanded and think of our own weakness, we are in despair; but when we turn our eyes to God and think of Him in all the glory of His wisdom, the manifoldness of His grace, and the greatness of His power, and remember He is with us, and working in us to will and to do His good pleasure, then faith exultant cries,—
The thing impossible shall be:
All things are possible to me.
The Impossible Service of the Kingdom. The service of the Kingdom is as impossible without God as is its standard of consecration and holiness. The discomfited and baffled disciples are still with us. The demons still mock our formulae and deride our attempts to dislodge them. Men stand helpless in the presence of the writhing agony of wallowing and devil-torn humanity. We are sent to deliver men from the dominion of evil, and to destroy the forces that wreck and rend human life. Who is sufficient for these things? Think of the forces devilish and human, social and personal, arrayed against those who seek the salvation of men. We are sent to save men who cannot be persuaded they are in peril; to deliver slaves who call their captivity freedom; to heal those who boast they have no need of a physician. The call to holiness is delivered to the sinful by nature, choice, and desire; and the standard of righteousness is urged upon wills ensnared and enfeebled by sin. The task is hopeless. Think of the missionary in lands for millenniums wedded to idolatry. He goes a stranger with a strange religion, without prestige, without bribes, and without civic protection. His avowed intention is to destroy the religion which has been the pride and solace of their fathers for generations, and to bring them the God who died as a criminal on a gibbet. There can be no compromise. To accept the Missionary’s Christ involves the rejection of every other god. The change is social as well as religious. The messenger of peace brings fire and sword. Domestic ties, social customs, and national traditions have to be abandoned that the Kingdom may be entered. What an undertaking! We are called of God to redeem the promise to His Son that He shall have the nation for His inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for His possession; and the only weapons placed in our hands are mercy and truth. Did ever man put his hand to so impossible a task?
At home the forces of evil are scarcely less formidable. Iniquity is entrenched behind impregnable barriers. Social unrighteousness is honoured and reverenced, if by it men increase in wealth and rise in power. Failure is the only offence men really condemn. If a man sin on a large enough scale and maintain the whip-hand, he is welcomed as a demi-god. Organised evil is buttressed by the State, patronised by the great, and condoned by the Church. Gold is a god, pleasure a passion, and religion an intolerable restraint. The follower of Christ is sent into the pandemonium of lust and passion, to quench their fires and to turn men from the delirium of insanity into the ways of virtue, sobriety, and reason. It is a battle between duty and desire, reason and pleasure, soul and flesh, man and beast, God and Devil, Heaven and Hell. Coercion is impossible; persuasion is our only method of war.
Let those who have striven longest and tried hardest to turn men from sin say whether the task is easy. It is hopeless. We have no power to lift men to the heights of truth and goodness. Human agencies may change the form and check the indecencies of evil, but they cannot save. With man the salvation of the world is impossible. It is utterly beyond our power. But with God! Not God without men, nor men without God! With God all things are possible. What wonders God-inspired men have wrought! In Africa, Fiji, India, China and the Islands of the sea, the messenger of God has conquered, prevailing against sin. The Gospel is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth. Man with God, and God with man; that is the secret of power. The Divine in earthen vessels is the invincible method of saving grace. The indwelling Spirit is the only adequate equipment for the service of the Kingdom. It is not by human wisdom, ingenuity, and strength we prevail, but by the Spirit of the Lord. The measure of the Divine in us is the measure of our effectiveness; and the world has yet to see what God can do with a man and by a man who is fully surrendered to His will, and endued with His Spirit. With God nothing is impossible; but without Him how helpless and foolish we are. With God! I with God and God with me in all the service of His will, makes the impossible possible to me. He can thresh mountains with a worm, and with Him a worm may beat the mountains small and make the hills as chaff.
Our Daily Calling with God
S. Paul, writing to the Corinthians, closes the discussion of a difficult subject with the exhortation: “Brethren, let each man, wherein he was called, therein abide with God.” There were Christians at Corinth who found their circumstances unfavourable to holy living. One had a wife who was an idolater, and another was in slavery. They wrote to the Apostle asking if the believer might not leave his unchristian wife, and the slave his heathen master. The Apostle’s answer was full of sagacity. If the unchristian partner was willing to stay, the Christian must not forsake her nor put her away. The slave was exhorted to prove his Christianity, not by breaking his bonds, but by proving the soul-freedom of his new life.
In settling the local difficulty he lays down the great and universal truth, that the Christian’s real environment is God. He dwells in God; and dwelling there, it is a small matter what his earthly surroundings may happen to be, and as time is short, every man would do well to abide with God where the grace of God found Him. It may not be palatable counsel to modern minds, but at any rate it makes it clear that with God the divine life is not conditioned upon material comforts and prosperity. We are all apt to think our circumstances unfavourable to grace. So they are. In every earthly condition there is something hostile to spirituality. There is no calling or lot in life where the life of Heaven is possible with men apart from God; but there is no condition where it is not possible with God. Wherever God puts us we can be just there all He wants us to be. There is no need to whine over our circumstances. Unbelief murmurs, faith triumphs. Nothing can harm the soul that abides in its lot with God. God is able to keep wherever He locates. The darker the place the greater the need for the light, and the fiercer the battle the greater the glory to be won. God’s call is always to the impossible, but He blots the word out of the Christian’s vocabulary by making all things possible with Him. For life and godliness, character and service, all things are possible with God.
“I can do all things in Him that strengtheneth me.”