FAITH IN RELATION TO HOLINESS.
BY REV. EVAN H. HOPKINS.
Faith not
only seeks and accepts, but also claims. Let the believer investigate what are
the benefits of Christ’s death, and inquire whether he has received them all-
all those that are intended for his present reception. Redemption from sin’s
domination is one of those benefits, and he can claim it as his right in Christ
Jesus, as included in the Covenant. As a member of Christ, there is not a
blessing which Christ has purchased by His Precious death which does not belong
to the believer, and he glorifies God more when he claims all these blessings
than when, from a false humility, he takes only some of them. Every
grace is the purchase of Christ’s sufferings; pardon, justification, peace,
joy, communion, holiness, etc., all have been brought with the price of His own
blood, and they become ours, all in the same way, through the Spirit and by
faith. We receive them, not through working, or struggling, or by effort, but
by faith.
Unbelief
robs us of many of our rightful privileges; suggestions of the Evil One will
assail us with a view of keeping us in bondage; but Faith lays her hand upon
the word of God, and claims to the full what Christ has purchased for our
comfort and usefulness in this life. It is one thing to seek a blessing of which we have been
brought to feel our need; it is another thing to receive it. If our needs corresponds with God’s promise, what,
then, is to hinder our receiving? “I say unto you, what things so ever ye
desire, when ye pray believe that ye receive (or are receiving) them, and ye
shall have them.”-(Mark xi:24.) There is nothing more essential to our
sanctification than a receptive attitude
of soul.
Many who have received God’s gifts of pardon and justification are only seeking those other blessings of His
grace which are essential to their abiding communion and fullness of joy. We
know many anxious souls have spent months and years seeking forgiveness. At
last the happy moment came when, instead of seeking, they just accepted what God had all the while been
offering them, and they wonder how it was they were so blind as not to take it
before.
To those who are yearning for more
complete victory over sin, and a life of abiding peace and rest, I would say, “Endeavor
to remember how it was with you when you first came to the Lord for Pardon. You
laid hold, it may be, of one of the Saviour’s “I wills.” Perhaps it was that
precious invitation and promise “Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy
laden, and I will give you rest.” As you pleaded that promise, you believed
that He would give you rest. Still, it was a future thing to you, and you were not then at peace –you had no
rest. You were asking the Lord to be merciful to you, it may be, rather than
believing He was merciful.
When, however, you passed from the
Lord’s “I will” of forgiveness to His “I have,” seeking faith became resting
faith, and the hope of being forgiven
gave place to gratitude and praise for His having forgiven you. ‘I
have blotted out as a thick cloud thy transgressions, and as a cloud thy sins;
return unto Me, for I have redeemed thee.”
Take another passage: “Him that
cometh unto Me, I will in no wise cast out.” There are some trembling ones who
never rise above an humble hope that they will not be cast out. We dare not say
their faith is not genuine. But is it a faith that honors God, that enables them
to sing the new song, even praise unto their God? Can they thank Him for His
complete salvation? How little, comparatively, can they do in the way of
service, because of their feeble faith! But when the soul passes from the “I
will” to the “I have of acceptance, the faith which before was only seeking becomes now faith resting. “He hath made us accepted in
the Beloved.” We see this clearly as to pardon and justification. Do we see it
also as to the other needs of the soul?... Does my soul need power for service?
Jesus says, “I am the life.” He Who
gave Himself for me-now gives Himself to me.
Everything I can possibly need is bound up in
Him-my soul has received “Christ Jesus the Lord.” He is not only my “justification,”
but my sanctification. “I am this to
your soul,” says Jesus. Faith does not look ahead and wonder whether all the
soul’s wants will be met in days to come; but it deals with present needs, and rests in Christ as a
present Saviour, satisfying to the full all those needs. “The life which I now live.”-this present moment-this is
the great business of the believer; and the future he leaves with God, to Whom
it belongs.
Does my soul yearn after holiness-
is it the earnest longing of my heart to be walking without blame before my
Father in love? Then my soul must rest in the fact that I have the Lord Himself for this very end. And I shall
be holy in proportion as the life of Christ is manifest in my daily walk, just
in proportion as self is hid and Christ in me is seen. Do not seek yourself to
shine, but let Him shine. “I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.”
Let this, then, be our confidence;
let this quiet our fears. David could say, “Though a host should encamp against
me, my heart shall no fear; though war should rise against me, in this will I
be confident.” In what was he confident? In the fact not only that the Lord was
his light and his salvation, but also that the Lord was the strength of his life. “Of whom,” then,
he asks, “shall I be afraid?” This confidence in Him gives rest, liberty and
joy. And out of this resting faith there springs, as the fruit, all the works
of holy obedience. …”God is able to make all
grace abound towards you; that ye always
having all sufficiency in all
things, may abound to every good work.”-(2 Cor. ix:8.) –From “The Holy Life.”
