The real connection between us and Christ by faith, makes our
justification to be involved in His, so that it is no mere
accommodation but a profound perception of the real relation between
Christ and us, when Paul, in Romans viii. 34, triumphantly claims the
words of our text for Christ's disciples, and rings out their challenge
on behalf of all believers: 'It is God that justifieth, who is he that
condemneth?'
Do you trust in Christ? Then you too can dare to say: 'The Lord God
will help me; who is he that shall condemn me?'
'Who is among you that feareth the Lord, that obeyeth the voice of his
servant, that walketh in darkness, and hath no light? let him trust in
the name of the Lord, and stay upon his God.'--ISAIAH l. 10.
The persons addressed in this call to faith are 'those who fear the
Lord,' and 'obey the voice of His Servant.' In that collocation is
implied that these two things are necessarily connected, so that
obedience to Christ is the test of true religion, and the fear of the
Lord does not exist where the word of the Son is neglected or rejected.
But besides that most fruitful and instructive juxtaposition, other
important thoughts come into view here. The fact that the call to faith
is addressed to those who are regarded as already fearing God suggests
the need for renewed and constantly repeated acts of confidence, at
every stage of the Christian life, and opens up the whole subject of
the growth and progress of individual religion, as secured by the
continuous exercise of faith. The call is addressed to all at every
stage of advancement. Of course it is addressed also to those who are
disobedient and rebellious. But that wider aspect of the merciful
invitation does not come into view here.
But there is another clause in the description of the persons
addressed, 'Who walketh in darkness and hath no light.' This is, no
doubt, primarily a reference to the great sorrow that filled, like a
gloomy thundercloud, the horizon of Jewish prophets, small and
uninteresting as it seems to us, namely, the captivity of Israel and
their expulsion from their land. The faithful remnant are not to escape
their share in the national calamity. But while it lasts, they are to
wait patiently on the Lord, and not to cast away their confidence,
though all seems dark and dreary.
The exhortation thus regarded suggests the power and duty of faith even
in times of disaster and sorrow. But another meaning has often been
attached to these words, they have been lifted into another region, the
spiritual, and have been supposed to refer to a state of feeling not
unknown to devout hearts, in which the religious life is devoid of joy
and peace. That is a phase of Christian experience, which meets any one
who knows much of the workings of men's hearts, and of his own, when
faith is exercised with but little of the light of faith, and the fear
of the Lord is cherished with but scant joy in the Lord. Now if it be
remembered that such an application of the words is not their original
purpose, there can be no harm in using them so. Indeed we may say that,
as the words are perfectly general, they include a reference to all
darkness of life or soul, however produced, whether it come from the
night of sorrow falling on us from without, or from mists and gloom
rising like heavy vapours from our own hearts. So considered, the text
suggests the one remedy for all gloom and weakness in the spiritual
life.
Thus, then, we have three different sets of circumstances in which
faith is enforced as the source of true strength and our all-embracing
duty. In outward sorrow and trial, trust; in inward darkness and
sadness, trust; in every stage of Christian progress, trust. Or
I. Faith the light in the darkness of the world. II. Faith the light in
the darkness of the soul. III. Faith the light in every stage of
Christian progress.
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