Romans 11:20-21

STANDING BY FAITH

‘Thou standest by faith.’

Romans 11:20

All who ‘stand,’ ‘stand’ through mercy. There is no place where any one may ever judge or condemn a fallen brother. For if there is no ‘charity,’ there is no ‘faith’—for he who fell, fell from lack of ‘faith’; if you condemn another, you have no ‘charity,’ and therefore you have no ‘faith’; and if you have no ‘faith,’ you will not ‘stand.’ Every one that ever fell may trace his fall back, primarily, to the want of the realisation of the unseen. There came separation from God; there came low views of God; there came disparagement of the power, or the willingness, or the love of God—and so you fell. But the root of that bitterest of all things—a fall—is ‘unbelief.’

I. There is a distinction, which appears more in the original, than it does in the translation; that we are ‘justified through faith,’ but we ‘stand by it.’ For, in the great work of a man’s salvation, ‘faith’ is only a medium, simply to transmit to him the pardon of sin and the grace of God. But every saved man finds ‘faith’ the actual means and instrument which holds him up. In the one case, it is as the wire which conveys the message; in the other, it is the invisible chain which holds the planet in its course.

II. There is an inferior sense in which we may say that a man ‘stands by faith,’ since confidence is always the secret of composure, as composure is the secret of power; and therefore the more confidence a man has, the more surely can he do anything, and do it well. The little child will walk, and, what is much harder to the little child, the little child will ‘stand,’ as soon as he has confidence enough. And thus there is a meaning—not far remote from the highest and the spiritual, but still human—there is a sense in which ‘thou standest by faith.’

III. More accurately, and in its truer signification, to ‘stand by faith’ is to have thrown away every other dependence; it is to have no confidence in any creature; it is to have no confidence in yourselves, no confidence in any gifts, or talent, or power to possess, or attainments you have yet made, to have no confidence in anything you do, in any prayer you ever offer, in any service you ever render, in any ordinance of the Church you ever attend, in any fellowship of any man you ever enjoy. My peace, my safety, my life is in my nearness to God; in my contact with God. I am utterly unable, everything in the whole universe is utterly unable to keep me; ‘Hold thou me up, and I shall stand.’

IV. To ‘stand by faith’ is to believe, and not doubt, that you are in a state of full forgiveness and acceptance with God. That sense of peace is a simple act of ‘faith,’ to be obtained only by the thought, the assured thought, that it exists; that, by grace, it is yours, and that you have it. And this is essential to the very first act of the life of the new man, without which there never will be firmness of principle enough to make you ‘stand.’

Rev. James Vaughan.