Chapter 2: The Marks Of Genuine Faith
Chapter 2: The Marks Of Genuine Faith
"He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life." - John 3:36
IT IS VERY necessary sometimes to ask, especially at the beginning of our Christian life, if we are really right - there are so many counterfeits in the world and the church, and when once we have received the stamp and imprimatur of some Christian body, we are apt to trust it as decisive in all after time, so that when appeals are addressed to the unconverted and halting, we at once pass them off to others, feeling sure that they cannot apply to ourselves. How often do souls sit in a very shower of Gospel blessing, covered by the umbrella of having been accepted by a church, or of the approval of the leaders of a Christian Endeavour Society, passing away to others what was meant for, and needed by, themselves. When once unconverted persons become dubbed as Christians, it is the hardest matter possible to convince them of their need of the Gospel. Again, I say, it is most necessary to be quite sure that we are really right.
There was a great ado some time ago, because foreign and inferior goods were being imported into England, and stamped with the mark of the Sheffield manufacturers. They went out into all the world as English make, when, in point of fact, they were the poorest of foreign goods. People did not think of questioning the genuineness of the articles, because they were assured by the Sheffield stamp. After a time had passed we can almost imagine the articles themselves, thus labeled, beginning to fancy that they were genuine; and if even their right to be accounted so were challenged by the other cutlery amidst which they lay, they would haughtily decline to enter into the discussion, content to quote the fact of having been properly stamped. "Do you question my right to call myself a Sheffield blade, when I have the Sheffield stamp so clearly indented?" So men ignore your appeals, if once they have been accounted truly regenerate by the recognised leaders of some Christian society.
The necessity for close self-scrutiny is the more obvious when we come face to face with the searching words of the apostle James. We have been wont to insist on faith as the essential of salvation; but he tells us that there are two kinds of faith, and it may be that, after all, we have the wrong one. It is not sufficient to say we have faith; we must be sure that it is saving faith, which links the soul with the Saviour.
True faith has Christ for its object. Many times the question is put by the inquirer, "Have I the right kind of faith?" To this there is only one answer: "When the soul moves towards Christ as its Saviour, when it turns even from the facts of His life and work to Himself, it is the faith of God's elect, which He hath Himself breathed into the soul." All faith that has Christ for its object is the right kind of faith. It may bring no conscious rapture; it may be weak as the woman's touch on his garment hem; it may be small and insignificant as a grain of mustard seed; it may be despairful as Peter's cry, "Lord, save, or I perish!" But if its deepest yearning is Christ-Christ-Christ, it is the tiny thread which will bring the lost one through the subterranean passages, in which it had surrendered itself as lost, into the light of life.
True faith is trust. Trust is a more personal word than faith. We believe the record of history; we have faith in our friend's word of honour: but we TRUST the one we love. In the beginning of Christian life, whilst yet the soul is looking around for help, it deals specially with statements about Christ, and perhaps with his precious promises; but afterwards it closes in with Christ Himself: and from that moment it rests, not on the deed, but on the Doer; not on the word, but on Him who uttered it; not on the Atonement, but on Him who died; not on the resurrection, but on Him who rose; not on the intercession, but on Him who ever liveth to make it.
True faith reckons on God's faith. Spurious faith tries to confirm itself by culling the favourable reports that others give it, or by considering the amount of religiousness with which it is accompanied. It is always eager to maintain a certain frame, or atmosphere, of this same religiousness, in order to assure itself that it is not a counterfeit. But a true faith looks away from all such considerations to God, and reckons that He is true; that He cannot disavow His offspring; that He cannot fail the soul He has attracted to Himself; that He must meet it when it is a great way off, and spread the feast. There is no better way of nurturing faith than by looking away from it to its object. When you believe not, He remaineth faithful. Give up estimating the force of your faith, or searching for the roots of it, or analysing its component parts. Begin to consider the impossibility of God denying Himself, and, as you do so, the true faith will stir within you; by considering God's faith, your faith will grow strong to remove mountains.
The true faith is followed by Penitence. Repentance and penitence differ vastly. Repentance precedes and accompanies faith; penitence follows it. Repentance has its seat in the will; penitence in the emotions. Repentance is the forsaking of sin; penitence the abhorring and grieving for it. Repentance may, therefore, take place once for all, as we turn from our evil life to God; penitence runs parallel with all Christian experience. The nearer we come to Christ, the more we grieve for the sorrow we have given Him. When the woman reached the feet of Christ, and knew herself forgiven, she covered them with tears and kisses. The faith which is dry-eyed is a very doubtful sort.
True faith detaches from the world and sin in proportion as it attaches to Christ. It clings to Him, and is so taken up with his love and beauty, that it loses a taste for what had before filled its horizon, and had seemed altogether essential to its existence. Its treasure is in heaven, and its heart is there also.
True faith bears fruit. We have said it is the link between Christ and the soul through which the living energy of Christ pours into us, as the sap from the root to the cluster of ruddy grapes swelling on the branch. It is impossible to be in true union with Christ without feeling the pulse of his glorious life; and where it enters like a tidal river, it can have but one result-it must manifest itself in fruit. When there is no fruit, either the channel is grievously choked, or has never been truly formed.
It is well, therefore, now and then, to take the enumeration of fruit given in Galatians v., and to stay prayerfully over each grace, questioning whether it is present, and, being present, if it is becoming more marked in our experience. Do not trouble about the roots; consider the fruit. Examine yourselves whether ye be in the faith.
If you have not faith, or fear that your faith is wrong, do not despair or give way to introspection. Look away to Jesus. Open your heart, that God may put into it the gift of the true faith. Believe He does so at the moment of your asking. Go forth and live in the power of that belief. Reckon that God is true. Feed your faith on its native bread-the Word of God. Nourish .it by climbing to the heights of communion, where it may breathe its native air.