THE WORK OF FAITH
‘Then said they unto Him, What shall we do, that we might work the works of God? Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on Him Whom He hath sent.’
Christ’s answer must have greatly surprised those who asked the question. As much as if one of you were to come to your clergyman, and were to say: ‘I want to do some “work” for God. Tell me, what shall I do?’ And he should answer you, and say: ‘ Believe! That is your work.’
I want you to look at faith as a work. Persons separate ‘faith’ and ‘work’ too much, as though a ‘work’ were a positive thing, done at a definite time and place, for a distinct object, and carrying a particular character, thoroughly real and practical; and ‘faith’ were not.
How is faith work? Why is faith not easy?
I. To have faith we must first clear the ground.—Faith cannot live with any one known sin. We must be prepared to give up anything which our conscience condemns. The condition is absolute. ‘If any man will do His will.’ And this is hard work; to be willing to give up everything for God; to conquer any wrong thing in the heart and life. But it is an essential prerequisite to faith.
II. What we have to believe is contrary to the natural bias and current of the mind.—Nature teaches, and our pride repeats it, that to be saved we must do something: we must be good. It is very hard to get this out of the mind, and to see that we must be saved in order that we may be good, and not that we must be good in order that we may be saved. It is hard to accept a doctrine which so ignores merit, and puts us, and all we do, nowhere.
III. Because it is difficult to bring the mind to receive anything so wonderful as that which we are required to believe. ‘What! if I only acknowledge my sins, and believe that Jesus Christ died for me, am I then and there forgiven and saved? It is too wonderful; it is too good to be true.’ It would be too good to be true if God had not said it. But He has said it. Nevertheless, the heart must be in a very childlike state to take it, and believe it, and to cast itself upon it without a doubt, without a fear; to live upon it, and to die upon it.
IV. Because faith is appropriation, and appropriation is the hardest thing a man ever has to do. It is difficult, indeed, to see and follow the arguments which prove the inspiration of the Bible; it requires thought—careful, accurate, honest thought. But it is essential at the outset. But this is intellectual. The intellectual is always easier than the moral. It is far easier to convince the mind, at this moment, than the heart. But to bring the matter home, to feel, ‘That promise means me. Christ is looking at me. That blood has washed out all my sins. My whole debt is paid. I am a free, forgiven, happy child of God’—that is the strain! Appropriation is the testing point. Shall I tell you how difficult it is? It touches the point of impossibility. It is impossible. You cannot do it. God must do it in you. Here comes the supernatural faith. It is the creation of God. It is the work of Omnipotence. ‘By grace are ye saved, through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God.’ If you cannot believe anything else, believe that. Ask for it. Use what you have.
—Rev. James Vaughan.
Illustration
‘A life of faith in the Son of God is a life which is guided and ruled by love to Him; a life in which the heart continually tastes the blessedness of pardon and of peace; a life in which the thought of Christ and of His love is ever present to deter us from sin, to incite us to holiness; a life in which every new sin and every new sorrow is brought to the feet of Jesus, and left with Him—the sins to be washed away, and the sorrows to be turned into joy.… We may well ask ourselves, Is ours a faith like this; a faith not merely to speak about, but a faith by which we live; a faith which worketh by love? What fruit do we see of our faith in our daily lives? Does it make us better men and women; does it make us care less about this passing world, and more about the everlasting joys of the world to come? Does our faith in Christ help us to love Christ? does it move us to give up our lives to Him Who gave up His life for us? What a blessed thing it would be for us if our lives were lives like this; if each of us could say in truth as St. Paul said, “I live by the faith of the Son of God, Who loved me, and gave Himself for me.” ’ (Galatians 2:20).