Mark 11:22

FAITH AND SPIRITUAL LIFE

‘Have faith in God.’

Mark 11:22

If we search the Word of God, we shall find that our spiritual life owes it commencement, its continuance, and its consummation to faith.

I. Spiritual life commences by an act of faith.—‘The just shall live by faith.’ The bestowal of spiritual life is, and ever must be regarded as, the gracious act of a loving God. But faith is the Divinely appointed link which brings this quickening power into our poor, dead souls, and makes us partakers of the life of God. ‘By grace are ye saved through faith.’

II. Faith is as necessary for the maintenance of our spiritual life—for its development, for its expansion, for its strengthening—as it ever was for its inception (Galatians 2:20; 2 Corinthians 1:24; Ephesians 6:16; Acts 21:13). Each day of our lives will bring its own song of victory, if each day, like St. Paul, we ‘live by the faith of the Son of God.’ Before that mighty principle of life the world with all its hostility will be despised, the flesh with all its unholy appetites will be quelled, and the devil with all his wiles will be trampled under foot. All things become possible to him that believeth.

III. Faith leads on to the final triumph of present discipline in the eternal glory that awaits the sons of God. Christians are ‘kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation.’ When their warfare is accomplished, when their race is run, when their work is finished here on earth, they ‘receive the end of their faith, even the salvation of their souls.’

—Rev. G. Arthur Sowter.

Illustrations

(1) ‘I was standing one summer afternoon in the very centre of the Rhine at Neuhausen. Above me the river swept along in its mighty course. Around me it thundered with a deafening roar as it leaped over the falls with an overwhelming force. Yet there I stood, in the heart of this mighty cataract, unharmed and void of fear. What prevented me from being swept away by the rushing waters? What gave me such security? A little point of rock which jutted above the waters and parted their torrent hither and thither. The river above me dashed fiercely against the rock, but it withstood the awful impact of the flood, it deflected the rushing current, and under its shadow I was safe. A single step beyond that shelter was death; beneath it, life and security. Such is the position of the soul which trusts in Christ.’

(2) ‘Lytton has beautifully said, “As mankind only learnt the science of navigation in proportion as they acquired the knowledge of the stars, so in order to steer our course wisely through the seas of life we must have fixed our hearts upon the more sublime and distant objects of heaven.” ’