SANCTIFIED BY FAITH.
The faith-faculty was given to man at His first creation. Adam believed
God and was obedient and happy, and the first thing that the wily
tempter attacked, and, alas, with too much success, was man's faith.
"Yea," hath God said, and "Ye shall not surely die." First, a question.
Then, a doubt of God's truth; then, a doubt of His love, and the rest
was easy. Man stood so long as he did stand by faith. He fell when he
did fall by unbelief.
God could not be God if He did not have faith in Himself. Man could not
be the child of God if he did not have faith in God. Faith binds us in
the closest spiritual union with our Father in heaven. Unbelief severs
this bond of union and separates us from our Creator and Redeemer.
Beloved, let us have faith in God.
"Ye are all the children of God by faith in Jesus Christ." This is the
Christian's pedigree. It is true that in a broad and subordinate sense
all men are the children of God since He created them all. And this was
known even to a Greek poet, as quoted by Paul at Athens, "For we are
also His offspring." But we must not fail to remember that in John's
gospel we have this statement, viz: "As many as received Him, to them
gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on
His name." So that it is through faith that we become the children of
God, not only by creation, not only by adoption, but by birth, "Ye must
be born again." "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be
saved." "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he
that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God
abideth on him." Now, the faith-faculty, or the grace of faith, or the
power of believing God's truth, when it is presented, is given to all
mankind. But the exercise of that power which is actual and saving
faith, often requires the coöperation of the human will. And,
therefore, God commands us to believe, and holds us responsible for
obedience to that command. "He that believeth and is baptized shall be
saved; but he that disbelieveth shall be condemned." R.V.
Thus, it is that we are saved by faith. And this is true not only in
religion, but in science as well, and not in science only, but in daily
life and daily business as well. Many of the well-established truths
of science are matters of faith, and not of demonstration. All
intelligent people believe that there is a hidden force which they
call the attraction of gravitation. Nobody can tell what it is, nobody
can prove its existence. It is received and adopted by faith, and
serves as an excellent working hypothesis. That is all. Those who
accept the undulatory theory of light are necessitated to believe that
all space is pervaded by an exceedingly tenuous fluid which is called
ether, and that it is in this medium that the waves of light from
self-luminous bodies are produced. Nobody has demonstrated the existence
of this ether. It is, for the present, accepted by faith, and explains the
phenomena of light better than any other hypothesis propounded. Science
is saved by faith. The home is saved by faith. If want of confidence
comes between the husband and wife, or between parents and children,
farewell to all the enjoyment of home life.
Finance, commerce, trade are all saved by faith. When business men,
manufacturers or merchants lose faith in one another, or in their
government, investments cease, machinery stops, panics occur, and hard
times are complained of. As faith is the bond that binds men to God, so
it is the bond that binds men one to another. When confidence is lost,
all is lost. Even a solvent bank may be broken, from a sudden run upon
it, caused by want of faith. Now, as faith is the substance of things
hoped for, because it makes them real, as it is the evidence of things
not seen, because it convinces the mind of the actual existence of the
invisible, let us apply this thought to the matter in hand that,
namely, of entire sanctification.
Paul in his valedictory to the Ephesian elders said to them, "And now,
brethren, I commend you to God and to the word of His grace, which is
able to build you up and give you an inheritance among all them which
are sanctified," and in the commission to Paul himself the Saviour
says, "To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and
from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of
sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is
in me." And as mentioned elsewhere, sanctification of the Spirit is
used by the apostle in direct connection with belief of the truth.
There can be no doubt, therefore, that the instrumental means of entire
sanctification is faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. "This is the
confidence," says the beloved John, "that we have in Him, that if we
ask anything according to His will, He heareth us, and if we know that
He hear us whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that
we desired of Him."
Let the consecrated believer, then, ask for a clean heart, ask for
perfect love, ask for entire sanctification, ask for the baptism with
the Holy Ghost, and he knows he is asking according to the will of God.
Then, according to John, he knows that he is heard, and knows also by
faith, because it is God's promise that he has the petitions he desired
of Him. That is to say, when he thus prays, he is to put forth the act
of faith, by an actual volition and will to believe that he has the
clean heart, the perfect love, the entire sanctification, the Holy
Ghost baptism, which he asked for. And this will be honoring God by
taking Him at His word. It will be the first evidence that he is
sanctified wholly, the evidence of faith, and the other evidence, the
witness of the Spirit may be prayed for and waited for, but, in the
meantime, he can and must rely with unwavering confidence upon the
evidence or witness of faith alone. God never sends the witness of the
Spirit till we honor Him by accepting the witness of faith.
I said we must believe by an act of the will. And some reader may
object to this statement by asserting that faith or belief is not a
matter of volition, but a matter of evidence. But I am not asking any
one to believe without evidence. I am asking him simply to give its
rightful force to the evidence. It is not for want of evidence that any
earnest, consecrated seeker is failing to believe that Christ is able
and willing to sanctify him wholly, and to do it now. He asserts it in
many forms and repeats it again and again as His Divine will that His
people should be holy, and if He is not able to make them holy here and
now, His omnipotence is impugned, and if He is not willing to make them
holy here and now, He must desire them to continue longer in sin, which
thought would impugn His own holiness.
No, it is not for want of evidence, but because the faith-faculty has
become weakened and paralyzed by sin, and now we must determine to
believe, by putting our will on to the side of faith, and allowing it,
no longer, to remain on the side of unbelief. Many a seeking soul has
come out into the fullness of salvation by singing the hymn:
"I can, I will, I do believe
That Jesus saves me now."
The man who came to Jesus with his right hand withered, was told to
stretch it forth. He might have said where is my evidence that it will
do any good to try? But he put his will into the obedient attitude. He
willed to stretch it forth, and made the effort, and with the obedient
will the power came from Jesus, and he stretched it forth and was
restored. To every one of weak and paralyzed faith, I say, nay, Jesus
says, "Stretch forth thy hand of faith, I am here to be responsible
for the result." Believe and receive and confess and rejoice. Beloved,
we are sanctified by faith. Glory to the Lamb.