The psychology of faith ii -- Chambers, Oswald
1. Faith and the son of God
. . . Looking unto Jesus the author and perfecter of our faith. (Hebrews 12:2 RV)
He fought the battle, he proved the possibility of victory, he shewed us the place and revealed to us the secret of the power.
Forsyth
Jesus Christ is the captain of our faith; he has gained the victory, consequently for us Satan is a conquered foe. When we are sanctified and have become his brethren we are put, not in the place of the first Adam, but in the place of the last Adam, where we live by the power and might of the faith of the son of god. We have to get rid of the idea that because Jesus was god he could not be tempted. Almighty god cannot be tempted, but in Jesus Christ we deal with god as man, a unique being God-man. It was as son of man that he fought the battle, and proved the possibility of victory. After his baptism, Satan, by the direct permission of the holy ghost, tested the faith of Jesus: and straightway the spirit driveth him forth into the wilderness (mark 1:12 RV). Satan broke what Adam held straight off; but he could not break what Jesus held in his person though he tested him in every conceivable way; therefore having himself suffered being tempted, he is able to succour them that are tempted. When we are born again we get our first introduction into what god calls temptation. When we are sanctified we are not delivered from temptation, we are loosened into it; we are not free enough before either morally or spiritually to be tempted. Immediately we become his brethren we are free, and all these subtleties are at work. God does not shield any man or woman from any requirements of a full- grown man or woman. Luke 22:28 (but ye are they which have continued with me in my temptations) presents our lords view of his life as man, viz. , as one of temptations, not triumphs. When we are born again the son of god is submitted to temptations in our individual lives, are we remaining loyal to him in his temptations in us? When temptation comes, stand absolutely true to god no matter what it costs you, and you will find the onslaught leaves you with affinities higher and purer than ever before. Temptation overcome is the transfiguration of the natural into the spiritual and the establishment of conscious affinity with the purest and best.
2. Faith and the sons of God
Beloved, now are we the sons of god. (1 john 3:2)
Having been made sons of god does not absolve us from the lifelong task of actually making ourselves sons of God.
Forsyth
We have to take pains to make ourselves what god has taken pains to make us. You can take a horse to the trough, but you cant make him drink; you can send your child to school, but you cant make him study; and god can put a saint into a right relation- ship with himself, but he cannot make him work out that relationship, the saint must do that himself. We must take the pains to make ourselves visibly all that god has made us invisibly. God alters our disposition, but he does not make our character. When god alters my disposition the first thing the new disposi- tion will do is to stir up my brain to think along gods line. As i begin to think, begin to work out what god has worked in, it will become character. Character is consolidated thought. God makes me pure in heart; i must make myself pure in conduct. This point of working things out in actuality is apt to be lost sight of.
The business of faith is to convert truth into reality. What do you really believe? Take time and catalogue it up; are you converting your belief into reality? You say, i believe god has sanctified me does your actual life prove he has? I believe god has baptised me with the holy ghost why? Because you had cold shivers and visions and marvellous times of prayer? The proof that we are baptised with the holy ghost is that we bear a strong family likeness to Jesus, and men take knowledge of us, as they did of the disciples after pentecost, that we have been with jesus, they recognise the family likeness at once. True justification can only result in sanctification. By justification god anticipates that we are holy in his sight, and if we will obey the holy spirit we will prove in our actual life that god is justified in justifying us. Ask yourself is God justified in my justification? Do i prove by the way i live and talk and do my work that god has made me holy? Am i converting gods purpose in justifying me into actual experience, or only delighting in gods anticipation? There is a great snare especially in evangelical circles of knowing the will of god as expressed in the bible without the slightest practical working of it out in the life. The christian religion is the most practical thing on earth. If the holy spirit has given you a vision in your private bible study or during a meeting which made your heart glow, and your mind expand, and your will stir itself to grasp, you will have to pay to the last farthing in concentration along that line until all you saw in vision is made actual. During these past years there has been a terrific expansion in lives through bereavement and sorrow, everything in individual life has been altered, but there is the price to pay. The price is the same in national as in individual life.
The peculiar aspect of religious faith is that it is faith in a person who relates us to himself and commits us to his point of view, not faith in a point of view divorced from relationship to a person. If you would know my doctrine, said Jesus, do my will. Our lord never teaches first by principles, but by personal relationship to himself. When through his redemption we become rightly related to him personally, our hearts are unshakeably confident in him. That is the divine anticipation being participated in, the tremendous work of gods supernatural grace being manifested in our mortal flesh.