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THE CHRISTIAN WALKING BY FAITH
IF we behold any wonderful effects, we naturally inquire after the cause that has produced them. Now in the preceding context we behold as extraordinary a phenomenon as can be conceived: a sinner, like ourselves, not only divested of all fear of death, but longing after it as the consummation of all his hopes, and the completion of all his desires. This is a frame of mind totally unknown to man by nature, and incapable of being produced by any natural means. How then was it produced in the Apostle Paul? He tells us, “He that hath wrought us to the self-same thing, is God.” But how did God work it? for it is certain that he works by means. I answer, By forming in his soul a principle of faith, and making that the great moving cause of all his actions. This is the account which St. Paul himself gives us in the words before us: “We are willing to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord; for we walk by faith, not by sight [Note: Compare the text with the preceding and following verses.].” It was by faith that he attained this blessed state: and if, like him, we cultivate that heavenly principle, and take it as the spring and source of all our conduct, we shall find it productive of similar blessedness in our souls. It is, in truth, this principle, which above all others distinguishes the true Christian from every other person under heaven.
To explain and vindicate his conduct in reference to this matter, we will shew,
I. The principle by which the Christian is actuated—
He fixes his eye, not on things visible and temporal, but on things invisible and eternal—
[This is declared at the close of the preceding chapter [Note: 2Co_4:18.]; and the same contrast is marked in our text. Faith is opposed to sight, and has respect entirely to things which are beyond the reach of mortal eyes. It looks upon an unseen God; even as Moses did, who feared not the wrath of Pharaoh, because “he saw him that is invisible [Note: Heb_11:27.].” This great and adorable Being it beholds, and contemplates all his glorious perfections. It sees all his mind and will in the book of revelation: it recognises his superintending providence in all events: it regards him as inspecting continually the most hidden recesses of our souls, and noting every thing in the book of his remembrance in order to a future judgment.
Faith also views an unseen Saviour as the supreme object of his people’s love, and the only foundation of all their hopes [Note: 1Pe_1:8.]. It beholds him dying for their sins, and rising again for their justification: yea, it sees him interceding for them at the right hand of God, and preserving for them that peace which by their sins and infirmities they would soon forfeit. It enters into the whole of the Saviour’s work and offices, surveying them in all their extent and variety; and particularly regards him as the fountain of life to all his people; as having in himself all fulness of spiritual blessings treasured up for them, and imparting to them continually out of that fulness according to their several necessities.
Faith views an unseen heaven also. It soars and penetrates into the very paradise of God, and surveys the crowns and kingdoms which God has there prepared for all that love him. There it beholds that glorious tabernacle which the soul shall inhabit as soon as this earthly house shall be dissolved: and in the promises recorded in the written word, it sees the possession of that glory assured to every believing soul, assured by an everlasting covenant, and by the oath of a “God that cannot lie.”
Such are the objects of faith! and such the objects on which the Christian’s eye is continually fixed!]
By these he regulates the whole of his life and conversation—
[These are the things which draw forth his regards; and in comparison of these all earthly things are but as dung and dross. For these he sighs, and groans, and weeps, and strives: to obtain an interest in them is more to him than ten thousand worlds. Whatever will endanger the loss of these, he flees from, as from the face of a serpent: and whatever has a tendency to secure his interest in them, he labours incessantly to perform. In these all his affections centre: his hopes and fears, his joys and sorrows, all terminate in these: and, in exact proportion as he is enabled by faith to realize and apprehend these, he is happy. In a word, “he walks by faith:” and every step he takes is under the influence of that principle. Faith is to the Christian what the compass is to the mariner in the trackless ocean: under all circumstances he consults its testimony, and follows its directions: and, in so doing, he fears not but that in due time he shall arrive at his destined haven.
This was the character of the Apostle Paul: and it is the character of every true Christian under heaven: “the life which he now lives in the flesh, he lives by the faith of the Son of God, who loved him, and gave himself for him [Note: Gal_2:20.]?”]
But as to those who understand not his views he appears to act absurdly, we will proceed to mark—
II. The reasonableness of his conduct in this respect—
Doubtless the people who are strangers to this principle must “gaze strangely at” the Christian, and account him almost mad. The overlooking with comparative contempt all that he has ever seen, and following with all possible ardour things which no mortal eye ever did see, must appear the height of folly and enthusiasm; and we wonder not if many should say to him, “Thou art beside thyself; much thoughtfulness hath made thee mad.” But we reply, that there is no comparison between the wisdom of walking by faith or of being actuated by sight.
The principle of faith is,
1. More exalted in its objects—
[The objects of sense are all poor, and mean, and worthless. Take all that eye ever saw, or ear heard, or heart conceived; and it would not weigh against one glimpse of the Saviour’s glory, or one taste of his love. Besides, it is all transient and of very short duration. But think of Almighty God and his covenant of grace; think of the Lord Jesus Christ, and all the wonders of redeeming love; think of heaven, and all its glory and blessedness; and then say, which are most deserving of our regard? In attaching ourselves to the one, we degrade ourselves to the state of unenlightened heathens, I had almost said, of the brute beasts; but by living wholly with a reference to the latter, we emulate, as it were, the glorified saints and angels. The one is as high above the other, as the heavens are above the earth.]
2. More certain in its testimony—
[Earthly things may dazzle us with their glare and glitter: but they are all a lie, a cheat, a shadow, a delusion: there is no substance in them. With whatever confidence we press forward for the attainment of them, the more they disappoint our endeavours: and, when we think we have secured thee prize, we no sooner stretch out our hands to lay hold on it, than it eludes our grasp: or, if we apprehend the object of our desires, it proves to us no better than vanity and vexation of spirit. But was ever any one deceived in apprehending the realities of the eternal world? Did ever any one who sought them by faith, fail in the pursuit of them, or find them, when attained, below his expectation? No truly: it is justly said by the Lord Jesus Christ under the character of wisdom, “I cause them that love me to inherit substance [Note: Pro_8:17.]:” and every promise that makes over these things to the believing soul, is as immutable as God himself.]
3. More excellent in its operations—
[The tendency of visible things is to sensualize and debase the soul: but the effect of heavenly things is to purify and exalt it. The more we contemplate the Divine Being, the more shall we be transformed into his blessed image. The more we exercise faith on the Lord Jesus Christ, the more will grace, and mercy, and peace be multiplied unto us. The more we breathe the atmosphere of heaven, the more shall we be fitted for the everlasting enjoyment of it. “Every man that has such hopes in him, purifieth. himself even as God is pure [Note: 1Jn_3:3.]:” and the very promises by which he apprehends them, lead him to “cleanse himself from all filthiness both of flesh and spirit, and to perfect holiness in the fear of God [Note: 2Co_7:1.].” Truly “by these he becomes a partaker of the divine nature [Note: 2Pe_1:4.],” and is progressively “changed into the divine image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of our God [Note: 2Co_3:18.].”]
4. More conducive to our true happiness—
[What does he possess who has the whole world at his command? A mere phantom: and, if he look for any solid happiness from it, he will find, that he has only “filled his belly with the east wind.” But who can describe the happiness of him, who, by faith, has already in his soul “the substance of things hoped for, as well as the evidence of things not seen [Note: Heb_11:1.]?” Who can declare the blessedness of him, who has God for his Father, Christ for his Saviour, the Holy Spirit for his Comforter, and heaven for his home? This man lives on “angels’ food.” He has grapes of Eshcol already by the way: he stands on Pisgah’s top, surveying in all its length and breadth the land of promise: he has already an earnest and foretaste of the heavenly bliss: and, when he goes hence, he will change neither his company nor his employment: he is already dwelling in, and with, his God; and tuning his harp ready to join the choirs above, as soon as ever his attendant angels shall have received their commission to bear him hence.]
Address—
1. Those who are walking by sight—
[You are reputed wise by the men of this world; but are worse than fools in the estimation of your God. What has the world ever yet done for you? Has it ever yet afforded you any solid satisfaction? Possess what ye may, will not a pain, a loss, a disappointment, be sufficient to rob you of all your enjoyment? And what can it do for you in a dying hour? Will it prolong your life, or assuage your anguish, or pacify your conscience, or take away the sting of death? But, above all, what will it do for you at the bar of judgment? Will it bribe your Judge, or avert the wrath of an offended God, or mitigate your torments in the world of woe? You think the Christian unwise in having respect to things which his eye has never seen. But who will be found the wise man in that great and awful day? Not he that neglected God and his own soul; not he that trampled under foot his dying Saviour, and poured contempt on all the glory and blessedness of heaven; but he who lived as a pilgrim and a sojourner here, and “looked for a city that hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.” O, that you “may be wise, and consider, ere it be too late, your latter end!”]
2. Those who profess to walk by faith—
[We thank our God that there are a goodly number of you who have learned to estimate things by their relation to eternity. O beg of God to “turn off your eyes from beholding vanity, and to quicken your souls in his way.” Pray to him to “increase your faith,” that your discernment of unseen things may be more clear, your enjoyment of them more rich, your improvement of them more uniform and abiding. Pray that your faith may be more and more influential on the whole of your life and conversation: and strive, in dependence on the Spirit of God, to walk more and more “worthy of your high calling.” St. Paul, in his most assured prospects of glory, “laboured, that, whether present in the body, or absent from it, he might be accepted of the Lord [Note: ver. 9.].” Do ye in this respect follow his example: “not setting your affections on any thing here below,” but “having your conversation altogether in heaven, from whence you look for the Lord Jesus Christ” “to come and take you to himself,” that you may “be with him, and like him “for ever [Note: 1Jn_3:2.].]