The Believer Living by Faith
Galatians ii. 20.
The life which I now live in the jiesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God.
YOU have heard, in two former discourses, some account of the life and death of a christian. It is his character, that he is crucified with Christ, and yet lives; although it is not so much he who lives, as Christ who lives in him. The apostle goes on further to explain the christian’s life in these words, For the life which I now live in the fleshy I live by the faith of Jesus
Christ, The doctrine, therefore, that is plainly dedaeed from these words, is this;
That faith in Jesus Christ, the Son of Grod, is the means of a believer’s new life.
I. I shall, in the first place, just mention to you the explication of what faith in Christ means;
II. Shew how it influences this new life; and,
III. Make some application.
I. I would shew what faith means.
But as you in this place have so often heard it described, and as in my frequent ministerial labours heretofore, I have taken occasion to explain it at lar^e, I need now only just speak a few words on this subject*
It consists, in general, in a belief of what IS spoken concerning our Lord Jesus Christ
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in the word of God, and in a firm trust in him, or depen dance upon him, for all that salvation which is laid up in him, and which he is commissioned by the Father to bestow upon sinners.
1. It implies, I say, an assent to all that the gospel reveals concerning Jesus Christ; what he is, what he has done, where he is, what he does, and what he will do; an inward conviction anil a full persuasion of his all sufficiency; as God and man, to suffer and die, to rise and save, to fulfil every thing that was necessary for a Mediator, in order to reconcile guilty creatures to an offended God, and to make them partakers of full giory and happiness; a belief of his atoning blood, of his becoming a satisfaction for sin, of his perfect righteousness to reinstate guilty creatures in the divine favour; a belief of his effectual power to subdue the hearts of sinners to himself, to guard them through all the dangers of their travel through this wilderness, and to ad-K
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vance them to an everlasting inheritance. And it includes in it,
3. A dependance or trust in the Lord Jesus Christ for all the purposes of salvation, for every thing that relates to our spiritual and our eternal life. As I have often told you, I know not one text of scripture that does singly by itself so fully explain the nature of faith, as that in St, Paul’s epistle to Timothy: I laioic whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day.^ It consists in a belief of all things that are revealed concerning Christ; and a committing of the soul, and all our immortal concerns, into the hands of this Lord Jesus, to keep them safe against the last day. I shall insist no longer, therefore, upon the first head; but,
II. How does this faith in Jesus Christ influence a believer’s new life?
* 2 Tim. i. 12.
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I told you before, that this life of a believer consists in his being alive to spiritual things, whereas he was once alive to sensur ality only; in his being alive to holiness, whereas once he was dead in sin 5 in his being alive to the gospel, and all the principles of grace and holiness contained therein, whereas he once lived merely by the law; and in his being free from all those bondages and yokes, which were once imposed by Grod himself on the Jewish nation, but which ever after have been imposed by men. These things I made plain to you by many quotations of scripture.
Now faith influences this new life of a believer,
1. As it changes his very nature and temper, alters his thoughts and judgment, and his appetites and passions. It gives him new pleasures, and shall I say, new pains too: for he mourns to think that sin dwells in him. Sin, that before was as a piece of his nature, as blood and spirits running in lia The Believer Serm. IV.
his arteries and veins, bow becomes as a thorn in his side like a very uneasy companion. Faith gives him new designs, and purposes, and actions.
An inward and hearty belief of all that is revealed concerning Jesus Christ in the gospel, makes a strange alteration in the soul of a man. Faith weans us from this world, that we no longer live a life of sense, but we live upon things invisible. The life of faith on things unseen is that which a christian now lives. St. Paul gives us an account of what a believer’s life of faith is in this respect; We having the same spirit of faithj according as it is ivritteiij I believed and therefore have I spoken: we also believcj and therefore spealc. We believe and know” that he tvhich raised up the Lord JesuSf shall raise up us also by Jesus and shall present us with you,* And this life of faith is maintained strong and bold in the christian, iphile ive look not at the things tvhich are seen that are temporal but at the things
* 12 Cor. iv. 13. 14.
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which are unseen, that are eternal,^ It is the very nature of faith to put the sensible world aside to turn the veil away, and to look into the invisible. This Lord Jesue is the brightest object of our faith.
Faith, again, influences this new life, as it purifies the heart from sin, and makes us no longer live in any love to those corruptions, which heretofore were our practice and our delight. In the Acts of the Apostles, when God is said to make no difference between the Gentiles and the Jews, the eX’- “pvQssmnis, he purified their hearts by faith, as well as ours,’ Having purified their hearts by faith, he makes no difference betwixt us and them, he makes us both his own people. Being united to Christ by faith, we are reckoned one with him. We are crucified with him, and dead to sin; risen with him, and alive to God and holiness; entered before hand, as it were, into glory in our fore-runner, and therefore we are of a-pieee with those in heaven one with the “^ 2 Cor. iv. 18. t Acts xv. 9.
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assembly of the first-born above; we belong to mount Sion citizens of that city of the living God where the innumerable company of angels are and all God’s first-born. We are delivered from the bondage of the law, for we live no longer now in our attempts of holiness by the terrors of the law, but by the sweet and attractive influences of the grace of God. I say, in our attempts of holiness, we are not. influenced by the terrors of the law, so much as by the sweet and kindly influences of the grace of the gospel. The love of Christ constraineih me, says the apostle, because I judge that he died for me; for me who was once dead, But, to in sist no longer on this first head,
3. As faith changes the very nature and temper of a man in these instances and many more, so it derives strength from Christ to perform all the duties of the new life. It is not so much I who live, as Christ tcho lives in me. Christ with his power, with his principle of life, the eternal Spirit, who is * % Cor. V. 14’.
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called the Spirit of the Father dwelling in the Son, lives in every believer, to produce all holiness there. Therefore it is that the apostle bids Timothy be strong; Be strong, my son Timothy, in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. ^- “Thou Art weakness, thou ‘’ art all weakness, my servant Paul, but my grace is sufficient for thee,-^^ ‘’ There- “fore,’’ says Paul, though I am all weak- ‘’ ness, yet I rest upon the strength of Christ,” and rejoice in him.’’ A perpetual sense of our own insufficiency to give and maintain this life, awakens our faith to go out of ourselves, to live upon another, even upon him who is almighty and all-suSicient.
3. As faith derives strength from Christ to perform the duties of a new life, so it encourages and supports the soul under all the difficulties that attend the new life.
The believer, when his faith is strong, acts with courage and joy in the face of a thousand oppositions. Who is he that over- * 2 Tim. ii. 1. t 2 Cor. xii. 9.
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Cometh the world, with all the smiles and all the frowns of it, all the dazzling temptations and all the terrors of it, hut he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God I This is our victory over the world, even our faith,^ While we believe in a dying, in a rising, in a reigning Saviour, that this Saviour is ours, that all this he has done for us, and all this he will do for us, how can we be terrified?
Here it would be a very delightful thing to me, and, I hope, not unpleasing to you, if I could run a long paraphrase upon the words of the apostle to you that have tasted the grace of God, and arrived at any degree of the apostle’s temper and faith. Take his words in your lips, and say, ‘’ This life that” I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith ^’ of the Son of God. I live now in the fleshy ^’ I am not banished out of the body, nor is this flesh yet dissolved, though I live in a new state, in a divine life. I still con- tinue dwelling in the flesh as in a taber- * 1 John V. 4, 5.
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‘’ iiaele; but I am born again, and brought ^’ into a spiritual world, though I dwell in a ‘’ fleshly tabernacle for a season. I was •“• once a slave to the flesh, to fulfil its lusts, ‘- but that state is ended. These old things ^■’ are passed av» ay, and all things are become ■’’ new. Though flesh is my habitation, my ^’ life is in God, and heaven, and Jesus my i’ Redeemer. He is gone to heaven as my fore-runner, and I trust I shall dwell there too. This habitation of flesh must ‘’ be broken down; there is so much sor- row and sin dwelling in it. I would not “have it stand for ever, and when ray faith “‘^ is lively I would not have it stand long. “It must be dissolved, and I care not how” soon it is dissolved, that I may ascend “near to my Redeemer the sooner. I live” in the flesh now, exposed to all the temp- “tations of it: sinful flesh that is continu-” ally leading me astray from my duty; per- verse flesh that is often turning my soul ‘’ away from Grod; obstinate, stubborn, and ‘’ rebellious principles of nature, that are ever ^’ diverting me from God, my glory, my
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hope, and my home. But ere long my Redeemer will give me a release from ‘’ these chains. The bonds shall be upon ^’ me no more; this obstinate enemy shall ‘^ have no more power in me. I shall be like him, for I shall see him as he is. Now I live in flesh, surrounded with sen- sual and sinful objects, in a sensual and sinful world; but I am borne up and supported under all the difficulties of it, by the hope that I shall live where my Redeemer is, in the world of spirits, and ‘^ have nothing round about me but what is divine and heavenly; in that assembly of *’ the first ‘horn J whom I long to be like, ^’ and whom I desire to be with; and in the innumerahle company of holy angels ^’ and above all, with Jesus the mediator of the new covenant,^ I live now in the flesh that divides me from God; this ^’ thick dark veil of flesh and blood, that separates me from the invisible world, and from God the light and glory of it. But I have faith in my Redeemer, that I
* Hob. xii. 2*.
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shall live where he is, near to the Father, to the fountain of life, to the spring of blessedness; and there shall never be a screen rise again, never again shall there ^’ be a wall of division between my God and me. I live in flesh that lias many “weaknesses, innumerable wants, many infirmities attending it, pains and an- guish, agonies and distresses, by reason of ^’ the distempers and perpetual disorders ^’ of this bodily nature. But I shall live where my Redeemer is, and as he lives. ^’ I have faith in him, that the body of my “life shall be changed into the likeness of ^’ the body of his glory; for my Lord is ^’ able to subdue all things to himself.’^ I ^’ live in flesh that is every moment dy-” ing, but my Saviour has an immortal •’ body, and his life is but the pattern of mine; he is but the great example of ^’ what I shall be. God has called him up to heaven a little before me, and bright as he reigns there, I shall reign with him too upon his throne, as he is set down * PhU. iii. 2i.
upon the throne of his Father. My ^’ fears of dying, my thoughts of losing, my terrors of ever being banished from that happiness and that place, will never in- tercept the felicity I shall experience there; it will be as durable and perpet- ual as my soul is, or as my Redeemer.’’ Oh! that we could all take this language into our lips. Oh! that we could all rejoice in the spirit of faith in this degree, that we could all speak this language of the apostle in this extensive meaning of it! Yet not J, but Christ liveth in me: the life which I now live in the fleshy I live by the faith of the Son of God.
I must mention a few words of use and they are such as these;
1. See why the Son of God is so valuable a Being, and faith so valuable u grace in the eyes of a believer. He lives by the faith of the Son of God; by the Son of God as the principle, and by his faith as the means. The believer lives by the faith of
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the Son of God, and therefore to you who believe he is precious,^ The builders are angry, and the foolish builders, the scribes and high priests, call him despised and afflicted, smitten of God, a root out of a dry ground, and a fruitless branch. They reject him, as one unfit to have any thing to do in God’s temple. But he is the living stone, the glorious corner stone, upon which the church is built; which, in the eyes of God, and in the eyes of every believer, is in every respect the most fit. Faith is for this reason called a precious grace; To them that have obtained like irrecious faith with us, through the righteousness of God, and our Saviour,- A christian w ould not part with his faith for all the w orld, for it is his life. If I part w ith my faith, T part with my all; I part with my support and plea- sure in this world, and all my hopes of ^’ immortality hereafter.’’
S. If a believer lives by the faith of the Son of God, there is no reason w hv a cliris- * 1 Pet. ii. r. t 2 Peter i. 1.
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tian should be ashamed of his faith, for he lives by it. Why should a man be ashamed of his way of living? It looks as if it “were not reputable or honest, when a man is ashamed of it. Let the world be ashamed of their sensuality; let the philosopher that has no life but that of reason, be ashamed of his vain wisdom, for it cannot save him; let the great ones of the earth be ashamed of their vanities, of their pomps, that perish with them, if they have no higher hope; but let not a christian, even in poverty, in chains, be ashamed of his faith, for it is the spring of divine life in him, and of his everlasting hope; ‘Therefore, says the apostle, I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for Iknaic whom I have believed, and I am persuaded he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day,^-
We are fallen into an age that pretends
to live so much by sense and reason, and to
deride faith in Christ, that we shall have
much ado to bear up against the terms of
* 2 Tim. 1.13.
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the modish world, if we do not endue our souls with some such thoughts of courage as these are; ^’ Why should we be fond of living like the men of this world who ^’ have a better life than they have?’^ Let those christians be reproved, that have faith, and yet live by sense. It is true, a. christian may fall into sin by temptation; a christian may fall into sinful actions, but he does not live in a sinful course. A sheep that lives in the meadow may fall into the mire, but the swine dwells in the mire all the days of his life. The same is the dfference betwixt a man of this world, and a man of faith. If he at any time falls into sin by the power of temptation, he arises, and recovers again; he shakes oflF the mire that hangs about him, and by faith in the Son of Grod he acquires new brightness. He is never easy till he goes to feed with the sheep in the meadow again, where Jesus the great shepherd is.
3. If the life of a christian be by dependapce oa another, then a weak and feeble na iM The Believer Serm. IV.
tare has some advantage above a healthy and strong one. For he that feels continually his own weakness, and is sensible how much dreadful influence the infirmities of the body have upon the mind, is constrained to go out continually to Jesus Christ for help and strength. The strong are tempted to live more upon themselves, and to forget Christ. When they feel something like a sufificiency in themselves, they are ready to go out in that strength to perform duties, and to bear up under difficulties. But one that is laden with the infirmities of animal nature, finds that he has thereby many disadvantages for the service of his God; yet he has this one advantage, that he is not so willing to venture in his own strength, he is ever ready to go out to another. He feels, I say, the unhappy and dismal influence that the infirmities of animal nature have upon the mind, therefore he runs to a better principle of life and strength, even to Jesus his Lord. Therefore, says the apostle, I glory in mine infirmities, that the foicer of Christ may rest iijpon me. When
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lam weaJCf then am I strong.^ When I feel myself all weakness, then I run out of myself to the all- sufficiency of another, and I find full strength in my Redeemer.
4*. Lastly; I would conclude with this use, that if a christian’s whole life in the flesh be by the faith of the Son of God, he may easily learn to depart from the flesh by the same faith. He that lives by faith, may easily learn to die by faith too; for he lives by the faith of an absent Saviour, and surely the same faith will assist him to enter into the presence of that same Saviour. What is death to a believer? It is but going once to see that which he has long believed; and if we believe in earnest, surely we shall be willing to go and see. Can a man be for ever contented to live in the belief of an absent Saviour, and never have a desire of seeing him? Do we fully, firmly believe there is a glorious habitation provided for us, and are we assured our Saviour is ready to receive us there, and can we be always cod
* 2 Cor. xii. 9, IQ.
tent to live below without seeing it? A poor faith indeed this must be; he that has faith in a lively manner may turn his back upon the world, and all things in it. Why? because lie walks already regardless of it; and he may say, ‘^ Farewell, I desire to see” you no more.’’’ By the same faith that the Israelites travelled through the wilderness, they passed over Jordan too to Canaan; over Jordan that was divided by their faith at the command of God. We know that our Redeemer lives on high; that he is ready to receive us when we are undrest from the flesh. Let us all then be ready for that dismission when the joyful hour comes, and believe that he in whom we have trusted will fulfil all his promises; that he upon whom we have lived in this lower world, will introduce us into his Fatheis presence with exceeding joy.