In the life of faith we do not merely look for the principle of dependence on God, or of confidence in Him, though that may be the thought immediately suggested by such words. It signifies much more. It is a life of large and various energies, for according to God, or Scripture, faith is that principle in the soul which not only trusts Him and believes Him; it is also that which apprehends His way, acts in concert with His principles and purposes, receives His promises, enjoys His favor, does His bidding, looks for His kingdom, in His strength gains victories, and by His light walks in light; and thus it is ever, though variously, exhibiting a life according to Him, or formed by communion with Him.
All this is strongly marked for our observation.
Hebrews 11 shows us all this -the life of faith in its vast diversity of exercise and action. Accordingly, we shall find, in the life of Abraham, occasions where confidence in God was the virtue exercised; occasions too where strength was put forth, and conflict endured; and again, where surrender of rights a n d submission to wrongs were the virtues. And the life of faith is beautiful in its variety, for this variety is but the changeful glowing of the same mind, the mind of Christ, in the saint.
But again. We are not to understand that we get nothing else than this light and power of faith in the believer or saint. Perfection in this variety of the life of faith is not to be found save in Him who is set before us as "the author and finisher of faith," and whose way from beginning to end, and in every incident of it, was the great exemplar of this life in full unsullied brightness. Still, however, the life of Abraham, or of David, or of Joseph, or of Paul, is to be called the life of faith; for it was the life of those in whom that principle was, though betraying again and again, and that too in different ways, the pravity of nature, the workings of unbelief, and the counsels of a heart prone to converse with flesh and blood, and to take the way of a revolted world.
This life of faith our Abraham entered upon with beautiful simplicity and earnestness. He "went forth to go into the land of Canaan" and into the land of Canaan he came. He went out, not knowing whither he went. He took God for his security and his portion; and, as another has said, "It is in this that the Spirit of God rests, as characteristic of his approved faith; for, by separation from the world, on the ground of implicit confidence in God, he lost everything, and got nothing but the word of God."
We do not like such conditions. The heart resents them, but the renewed mind approves them, and justifies God in them. The sufferings of Christ are first, and then the glories (1 Pet. 1:11). Job was nearer his good thing in God when he lay in ashes amid the potsherds than when he was happy in his nest. Israel did not enter Canaan after a fruitful journey, through a land of cities and villages, and corn and wine, and rivers and vineyards; but they paced it slowly, through one desert after another. And so Abraham was called out from all to go he knew not whither; but this he knew, that it was God who had called him. And this was faith's beginning. He went forth to go into the land of Canaan, and into the land of Canaan he came.