Matthew 17:20

LIMITATIONS AND RANGES OF FAITH

‘If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed.’

Matthew 17:20

The passage is altogether a very important one, as throwing light upon a difficult subject,—the boundaries of the province of faith,—faith’s limitations, and faith’s ranges.

I. Its limitations.—It is evident that different ages of the Church have called for different kinds of faith.

(a) The faith of a miraculous age would not be quite the same with the faith of a period when God worked only by ordinary operations.

(b) The faith of different men must vary. A common man, at the time of Christ, would not have been reproved as the apostles were, for not being able to cast out an evil spirit, because it was an authority given only to the apostles. Neither would Christ have said, nor did He ever say, to any but His disciples, that if they had faith, they could ‘remove a mountain.’ The faith could only rise to the level of the commission which it had received, and of the promises with which it is conversant.

(c) Faith and its achievements must be as God is pleased to give it to every one. Faith is a pure creation of God in a man’s soul. And a man can only believe, as it is given to him to believe.

(d) The state of every man’s faith depends upon the condition of his heart, and the life which he is leading. If you are not living in personal communion with God, you cannot have faith. Now all these determine the boundaries of the province of faith, and are faith’s limitations.

II. The ranges of faith.—Christ’s words make it plain, that everything hinges upon faith; but that the success of faith does not depend upon the quantity, but upon the quality of faith.

(a) What is true faith? True faith simply takes God at His word; it does not stop to ask questions,—it does not question itself, but has faith in its faith. Now, such a faith may be but a ‘grain’; but the grain will be greater than the mountain. Let us see how it is.

(b) You can still ‘remove mountains,’—mountains of sin, mountains of care, mountains of fear, mountains of difficulty.

(c) Are we, then, to suppose that God puts into a man’s mind to believe just what He intends that man to do? Unquestionably. We have only to follow our faith.

(d) But may we not mistake the leadings of Faith? Yes. Where is the security? The security is in a Scriptural mind, in a heart really disciplined and trained to know and discriminate still, small speakings,—the Shepherd’s voices.

—The Rev. James Vaughan.

Illustration

‘Faith is in its essence the power by which we grasp the future, the unseen, the infinite, the eternal; and in its application, it is a principle of knowledge, a principle of power, a principle of action. It is then on man’s side the condition and the measure of Divine blessing. By faith we lift up the sightless eye and it is opened: by faith we stretch out the withered arm and it is made whole; by faith, bound hand and foot with grave-cloths, we come forth from the tomb of custom which lies upon us

“With a weight

Heavy as frost and deep almost as life.” ’