All through man’s history, no matter who had obtained a “good report,” it was by faith. Men will count us fools. We may give as a definition of folly: a man’s acting most consistently for an object that nobody sees and nobody believes to be true. The saint’s warrant is the Word of God. The moment he acts upon any object seen, he ceases to act as a Christian. Christ lived, in that sense, the life of faith. It is the life of faith we get here, not salvation, or the finding peace in the way of faith. Here faith is looked at as the power by which they walked.
There are these two things in faith: as it regards, first, peace of soul, and, second, power for walk. If I talk of faith, I may mean belief of a testimony — a person tells me a thing, and I believe him. But there is another sense in which I may have faith in that man; that is, I may put my trust in him. We often confound these things. There is the testimony of God, which I have to believe, and a trusting in God, which is the power of my walk. That which gives me peace is receiving the testimony of God. I need confidence in God for power of walk, but I must not confound this confidence in God with His testimony.
Abraham’s Faith
We shall find the two things in Abraham. God called Abraham and showed him the stars of heaven and said, “So shall thy seed be,” and Abraham “believed God.” In the offering up of Isaac (Gen. 22:99And they came to the place which God had told him of; and Abraham built an altar there, and laid the wood in order, and bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar upon the wood. (Genesis 22:9)) there was not the receiving of a testimony, but “believing in God.”
Abraham was strengthened by the practical, active manifestation of the power of faith. He trusted, so to speak, blindly in God. God called him by His grace, and he went out, not knowing whither he went. There comes in confidence in God; not simply the receiving a testimony, but blind, implicit confidence in God. A person might say, If I only knew what would be the consequences of my doing so, I could trust God. Then you will never go. Look at Adam. How did Adam act? He had present external things, but he took the devil’s word in faith. God turns around and says, You have believed the devil, when you had all My good things; now you must trust Me. You go out not knowing whither you go, because of trusting in the person that is leading you. God will give light enough to say, God wills this, and I do not see another step. When you have turned the corner, you will see what is around the corner.
Further, when we have taken a step, we shall find that the Lord never satisfies us: He blesses, but He does not satisfy. When Abraham comes into the place which he should afterwards receive for an inheritance, what has he got? Nothing. He is still a stranger. This the heart dislikes. Hence the disappointments often experienced. As regards our prospects, we have our own thoughts about them; we are thinking perhaps of what we are going to make them be twenty years hence. God is going to bring us into His rest.
He brings Abraham into the land, and then He begins to lead his thoughts to another country. He gets near God and is placed upon a high enough platform of faith to see it is all before him yet. The Lord reveals Himself to him in communion, speaks with him, unfolds to him His purposes, and Abraham worships. He has his tent and his altar.
The Christian’s Rest
And this is what God does with us; He makes Christians of us, brings us into the land of promise, and makes us see it is all before us yet. This is not the time for rest. The eye becomes clear in the ways of God, and we have the privilege of being strangers and sojourners with God, and we shall be strangers and sojourners until we get home in the home of God.
Beloved friends, how is it with you as regards this? Can you really say, My home is in God’s home (the home of your hearts, that is); I have no home till then, and I do not want one. There is not anything between us and God, no sin between us and God, for Christ has put it all away. Are your souls then resting on the Lord Jesus Christ? or are you working to settle something that has been settled already? The Lord give us to believe His testimony and to trust in His power.
In Spite of Impossibility
It is characteristic of faith to reckon on God, not simply spite of difficulty, but spite of impossibility. Faith concerns not itself about means; it counts upon the promise of God. To the natural man the believer may seem to lack prudence, nevertheless, from the moment it becomes a question of means which render the thing easy to man, it is no longer God acting; it is no longer His work where means are looked to. When with man there is impossibility, God must come in, and it is so much the more evidenced to be the right way, since God only does that which He wills. Faith has reference to His will, and to that only, thus it consults not either about means or circumstances, in other words, it consults not with flesh and blood. Where faith is weak, external means are beforehand reckoned on in the work of God. Let us remember that when things are feasible to man, there is no longer need of faith, because there is no longer need of the energy of the Spirit. This is why Christians do much and effect little.
J. N. Darby, adapted from
Collected Writings, Vol. 12:393-403