Matthew 8:13

FAITH AND ITS POWER

‘As thou hast believed, so be it done unto thee.’

Matthew 8:13

In some respects this centurion is one of the most interesting figures in the Gospel-history.

I. The characteristics of his faith.—It was:—

(a) Of gradual growth. He must somehow have been led to see that, however superior the Romans were to their Jewish subjects in all the qualities that build up empires and promote material success, the Jews were in possession of a higher truth than any known to their conquerors. Before the centurion made up his mind to apply to our Lord, he must have satisfied himself that he was making application to a superhuman person.

(b) Marked by thoroughness. There were no flaws running through it. The power of our Lord over disease was just as real to him as his own authority as an officer in the Roman army. It was a vigour and a degree of faith most remarkable in a man of heathen antecedents.

(c) Marked by humility. True faith is not insensible to the tenderness of God, but it is always alive to His awful majesty.

II. The power of faith. Here are some reasons of the power of religious faith:—

(a) It involves knowledge. Faith is a telescope which discovers to the beholder a world of facts not visible to the naked eye.

(b) It is a test of the disposition of the soul. Nothing blinds the spiritual eye so surely as a scornful temper. The habit of insincerity, too, is fatal to faith.

(c) It sets the soul in motion. It embodies the element of will.

III. Faith does not create, it only apprehends its object.—Divine facts are wholly independent of our consciousness. They are ‘objective,’ though they must be most assuredly apprehended by our consciousness if they are to be blessings to us.

IV. ‘As thou hast believed.’—These words are true to-day of (a) Nations; (b) Churches; (c) Souls.

—Canon Liddon.