In the passages quoted at the head of this chapter we find some divine suggestions of the true connexion between the repose of faith and resolute spiritual exertion.
i. In the words to the Galatians St. Paul puts before us, from his own experience, that delightful truth, dear to saints of all times and very specially called to remembrance in our own – the truth that the believer’s life “in the flesh,” amidst concrete conditions and surroundings in a fallen world, is to be continuously lived by faith. He is to “act, and grow, and thrive,” to deny self, and bear the cross, and bring forth fruit, by faith; by repose and reliance on his Lord and Head, by a perpetual turning to, and looking to, and receiving from, the Lord Jesus Christ, in all the fulness, and glory, and beauty, of His Person and Work.
The divine method of spiritual victory and service lies in this, that our life is by faith, by submissive trust.
By submissive trust we entered, at our spiritual new birth, at our true coming to Christ, beneath the blessed covert of Justification; and there we abide and remain, never to venture from beneath it for one moment to the end; never to step out on to the forbidden and fatal ground of acceptance for our works’ sake, for our state’s sake.
And now meantime, by the same way, by submissive trust, we who dwell beneath that covert are to gather up there this great treasure of power and peace. He who is our justifying and imputed Righteousness is also, by His Spirit, our sanctifying and inherent Life; and it is faith, mere and simple faith, submissive trust, that receives and feeds on Him as such. To His life and victory, to His holy fulness, we unite ourselves by faith, and by faith only. When temptation comes, our method is to fall back upon and to stand in our King who has conquered for us; to join ourselves, we may say, to His victory; to act upon the fact that we are joined to Him who has overcome, who is the Overcomer. So trusting, so living, His victory is for me, is mine, is as it were conveyed to His member, to me.
Here is our answer, for example, to the problem and torture of vain and evil thoughts, that stir as if uncontrollable in the mind. What are we to do? We entrust ourselves to the Son of God, who by His Spirit, by the Holy Comforter, dwells in us and we in Him. By implicit trust we unite our weary selves, in a special sense for the special need, to Him who in His impeccable and now glorified Manhood has won the victory over every form of evil, for us His members, His body. Again and again let us press home that truth upon our souls. Let nothing becloud it for us. Let no discussion over its details, nay, let no distortions, exaggerations, or parodies of it, make us doubt the thing itself, or forget to use it. The life of peace, of patience, of simplicity, of purity, of hope, of love – the holy lilfe – it is the gift, the ever present gift, of God; and it is given through faith in His blessed Son.
Not long ago I met with a passage to this purpose in the life of that truly great Christian, Dr. Thomas Chalmers; a man who certainly was no visionary, no dreamer. It occurs in his diary, of the year 1813 (Memoir, vol. i. p. 327): - “Was fatigued by exertion, and instead of following after God by hard straining of the mind, I gave myself to quietism, and feel that looking up for the Spirit through Jesus Christ is the only effectual attitude for obtaining love to God and filial confidence in Him.”*
Blessed is the reality of which Chalmers here speaks. Good and fruitful it is to look for life, love, and power altogether away from the processes and resources of self, to that fulness of the Spirit which dwells in Christ for us. Writer and reader, let us unite in making daily proof of this.
* I observe the following entry three days later, March 24, 1813: - “Began ‘
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