T. Austin-Sparks · 1 of 5

Faith

"For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?" 1 John 5:4-5.

"I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I that live, but Christ liveth in me: and that life which I now live in the flesh I live in faith, the faith which is in the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself up for me" Gal. 2:20.

"...That I may gain Christ, and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of mine own, even that which is of the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith" Phil. 3:9.

"...Even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ unto all them that believe" Rom. 3:22.

"...Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, even we believed on Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ, and not by the works of the law: because by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified. For ye are all sons of God, through faith, in Christ Jesus" Gal. 2:16; 3:26.

"Withal taking up the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the evil one" Eph. 6:16.

The passage in 1 John 5:4 supplies the key word of our meditation at this time: "This is the victory that overcometh... even our faith." There the word is given a specific application relating to overcoming the world. But it is of general application also, as we shall see, and relates to everything that has to be overcome; for there is no overcoming except by faith, and there are a good many things which have to be overcome, every one of which can be overcome by faith. So that we use the statement in its abbreviated form for our present meditation: "the victory that overcometh... even our faith."

At the outset our meditation will be of a very simple character. The Lord will no doubt lead us on into greater fullnesses, but we need to lay the foundation for everything in one or two observations about this faith which overcomes, the victory of faith.

1. The Quality of Faith

The first thing we need to see is the quality of faith. Wherever we touch faith in the Word of God, we touch something that is positive. That is something to take hold of and to follow out in connection with our reading of the Word; to note for ourselves that wherever we come upon faith, we shall find that it is characterised by a positive quality, a positive element. There is no such thing as passive faith.

Passivity is the opposite of faith in the Word of God. This does not mean that faith is always on the strain. We must be careful not to confuse positive faith with a mentally strenuous life. There is such a thing as an intensity and strenuousness of soul which leads to exhaustion and collapse, which brings eventually out into the wilderness, into desolation and barrenness, to a place where we can go no further, and where we think that our faith has been destroyed, broken, when it was not our faith at all, but our strenuous, intensive kind of soul life which we thought was faith.

Positive faith does not mean that faith is always a strain, but it does mean that faith is never neutral.

a) Faith may be aggressive

At times faith has to be aggressive; it has to advance, as a part of the equipment of a soldier, whose whole life is not a defensive life, and whose life is certainly not a passive life.

b) Faith may be resisting

While perhaps not attacking, very often faith has to take the positive position of sheer resistance. The very simile of "a shield of faith" implies that faith is a resisting instrument or means, something which refuses to let other things through, which positively sets itself against the inroads of certain things which are termed "the fiery darts of the evil one".

c) Faith may be waiting

Very often faith has to be a waiting faith.

d) Faith may be resting

Sometimes faith is resting; and there is such a thing as the rest of faith.

e) Faith is never quiescent

Faith may be characterised by all these other features, but it is never quiescent or motionless. Even a resting faith is never quiescent. It is always positive. There is such a thing as labouring to enter into rest. That means that faith is a positive and not a little thing that you fall back into, collapse or recline on, but something which calls for deliberateness of mind, and heart, and will.

Faith's quality is its positiveness. However it may be expressing itself, whatever the immediate exercise of it may be, whatever the situation, faith is always positive. If you turn to the Word of God with that thought in mind and read anywhere concerning faith, you will discover that that is its abiding, unvarying quality.

2. The Necessity of Faith

The second thing for us to remember (we know it well, and yet so often we forget or allow the fact to fall into the background to some degree) is the necessity of faith. One of the things which we have to settle, and to take for granted, and yet ever to have in mind, is that our life from centre to circumference in relation to God is a life of faith; and it will never be anything else.

We shall always be discovering new forms in which that truth holds good and is to express itself. It is very easy to talk about a life of faith, but to the end, should we go the way of most, to our last breath we shall discover new demands for the exercise of faith, and new forms in which faith is called out. And we shall never be beyond the place where faith is the basis of everything in relation to God. Indeed, one of the marks of spiritual maturity is the intensifying demand for faith. By contrast, one of the marks of spiritual immaturity or childhood is that the Lord encourages faith by supporting it from time to time with helps which are seen. The further we advance with the Lord, the less shall we have of the seen, and the fewer will be those things in the visible realm which help to strengthen faith.

Though we may see the results of faith, we shall never see them until faith has been tested to its last degree, and we shall come to this position, that although there may be lying behind us multitudes of miracles of faith which we know to be miracles, the next test will be such as to make them as very little. Sometimes we think that if only we had in the background a sufficient store of miracles of faith, we should never doubt again. That is not true to life. The people who have the most miracles of faith are the people who feel the keenness of the next trial in its nakedness, its bareness, as few others would feel it. We never get to the place in this life where faith is perfect, in the sense that God cannot put us to a test which is no test. Right to the end faith will be faith, simply because it is not anything else.

Faith is necessary from start to finish, it is the ground demanded by and indispensable to God for everything, and God never does anything in our lives only on the ground of faith. You may challenge me on that, but I shall bring you to the Word of God and show you that God does not begin His relationships except on the basis of faith, and does not continue His relationships except on the basis of faith, and does not consummate His work in us save on the basis of faith. The consummation of the nature of His work in us on this earth will therefore be final tests of faith.

It may be very nice to dream about an evening of our life when all the battle ceases and we pass out in perfect peace without conflict, but that does not happen in real life. Most of God's saints have met their greatest tests of faith in the closing moments of their lives, and found it manifested then as to how far faith had been a genuine thing all along. Nothing is possible in our relationship with God apart from faith.

That is set over against a false hope (for false hope it is) that God will independently do things with us, in us, through us, for us; that we have but to sit down and say, 'Oh Lord, we commit it all to you! You do it!' The Lord never does. If we get into a bad state, and cry to the Lord to get us out of it, the Lord never does until we have got on to a faith basis, until faith's quality has come into evidence; something positive towards God. It is only saying in another way what we said at the commencement, that passivity is a contradiction to faith and God does nothing save on that basis. All His works in us and through us are done by calling faith into evidence, by the exercise of positive faith.

Surely the word of God is plain enough on this matter for us. The gospels set it forth in a practical way. Nothing ever came from the Lord Jesus of His divine resource into another life, only as that life had the positive quality of faith drawn out. The Lord put faith to a practical test, and as the test was passed through, the values which were in Him became the possessions of the person in view. Nothing is possible apart from faith. "Without faith it is impossible to please God..." (Heb. 11:6). That is a very comprehensive statement.

It would be well for us to lay to heart this particular emphasis before we pass on, well-known and simple as it is. It will come back to us again and again in the presence of fresh situations, at new crises in our lives. "This is the victory that overcometh... our faith."

What has to be overcome? You may be aware of something in your own life which at this time needs to be overcome. There is a situation, a state of things, which holds for you the issue of defeat or victory, rising above or going under, going on or falling out, you are either going to triumph or you are going to be quenched; you are either going through or you are going out. That is perhaps the content of your present position, and you know that it is an utter one. There is no place for compromise. You know quite well that you cannot accept a halfway position, that it is all or nothing; and it may be that in relation to that particular issue you are crying to the Lord to do something and waiting for the Lord to do something. The Lord will wait for you. He will wait until that element of doubt and unbelief mixed up with the situation in our hearts is fully and finally thrust out, and our attitude towards Him is one of unwavering confidence without questions.

The positive quality of faith is the victory that overcomes. We may be looking for other means of victory, for sovereign acts of God altogether independent of ourselves, apart from ourselves. Where these can be, without involving our spiritual lives in danger and damage, the Lord may perform His sovereign acts; for He is not one who refuses such acts in situations where spiritual damage will not be done to any persons by His performing those acts; but if our spiritual life is involved, God will not act apart from co-operating faith, and God Himself is always paralyzed by our doubt. F. B. H. Meyer says: "God shall forgive thee all but thy despair"! I do not know that it would be right to say that that is the unpardonable sin in the scriptural sense, but it means that God can do nothing except on the basis of faith.