Faith,-And Its Pilgrim Spirit
Xi. — 13. These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but naving seen them and greeted them from afar, and having confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.
14. For they that say such things make it manifest that they are seeking after a country of their own.
15. And if indeed they had been mindful of that country from which they went out, they would have had opportunity to return.
16. But now they desire a better country, that is a heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed of them, to be called their God: for He hath prepared for them a city.
MOST instructive is the description given us here of the way in which faith prepared the saints of old for the fulfilment of God’s promises. First comes — Having seen them afar off: faith was to them the revelation of unseen things. Then follows — And having embraced them, they gladly greeted, welcomed, accepted, and appropriated them, and lived as those to whom they belonged. Then follows the receiving. Of the Old Testament saints it is here said, not having received the promises. Some of the promises they did indeed receive, as we have seen in the birth of Isaac. But the promises, in their full meaning, they did not receive; this is our privilege. Seeing, embracing, receiving are the three great steps in the life of faith.
On this follows a description of the life in which their faith was made manifest, Having confessed that they were strangers
1 Embraced.
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and pilgrims on the earth. Faith is such a power that it rules the whole life. It is the faith of a man that makes him forsake his home for our goldfields. If he sees his way to make a fortune, and return to some great centre of attraction, it is this faith maintains in him the spirit of a stranger and a pilgrim, whose heart is in the home land. So these saints proved that they were seeking after a country of their own, that they had no mind to return to that from which they went out, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly. Faith made them pilgrims and strangers, and secured them the divine blessing. Wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He hath prepared for them a city.
Our great lesson is: Faith makes us pilgrims and strangers here on earth. Such was Christ; such are we to be. The moment we begin to press home the message to our own heart, many questions arise. Will it not unfit us for daily life? What if all men were to live in this pilgrim spirit, as strangers and sojourners? What would become of the development of the world? Do we not see that in science and politics and literature the men who give themselves wholly to these things, accomplish most? Those who come to a colony, and return home to spend their money there, never take the interest those do who give themselves to settle here. Is the true, intense, pilgrim spirit, really a duty for all? There is no more subtle temptation than to wait with what God calls us to do till we are first informed what others are to do, or what God is to do with the rest of the world. We may safely leave to Him who is ruler of all, the All-wise, what will come of obedience to His commands. To every question, And what shall this man do? Christ’s answer is, What is that to thee! Follow thou Me. If we are disciples of Christ, each one of us must seek to have as
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much of His Spirit as can be. If we are to be led by Him in the new and living way, to live with Him in the Holiest of All, we must, like Him, live here as pilgrims and strangers.
Faith makes heavenly-minded. As partakers of a heavenly calling we look to Jesus, who endured the cross and despised the shame. Separation from the world is essential to a life of faith. Adam’s fall was a fall under the power and spirit of this visible world. Christ gave Himself that He might deliver us from this present evil world. The world we live in, the so-called Christian world, is still the same that rejected Christ. While professing His name, its spirit of devotion to the things that are seen, its pursuit of pleasure and riches and honour, its delight and its boasting of culture and prosperity, is a spirit utterly at variance with the Christlike, with the heavenly - minded spirit. This is the reason why so many seek to grow in faith, and fail. They would fain live in the Holiest, but they would do so without forsaking the world. Abraham and his seed lived as men seeking after a country of their own, as those who desire a better country, that is, a heavenly. Until the kingdom of heaven in its power, as it came down from the throne of God in heaven, becomes our one desire, and until we leave all and sell all for this pearl of great price, our faith cannot stand in the power of God, or overcome the world. If it be not our one desire to live as those who are partakers of a heavenly calling, yea, partakers of Christ, as those who are pilgrims and strangers, and make it manifest that they are seeking after a country of their own, as those who desire a heavenly country, no wonder if God is ashamed to be called our God, and our souls cannot taste the joy of a walk in His presence.
There is nothing so heart-searching as faith. If we profess
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to believe all that this Epistle has revealed, let us prove it by following our Leader in the new and living way, and by living with Him in the Holiest of All. As we give ourselves wholly to this our faith will grow; we shall become men of faith, marked by this one thing — a faith that lifts us into the heavenly world, and makes us pilgrims and strangers here.
The eye of faith will become ever clearer, seeing perhaps at first, afar off, what so many cannot see — the promise and the reality and the possibility of abiding continually in the Holiest of All in the power of an endless life, separated and made free from the world and its spirit. The boldness of faith will become ever stronger — we shall greet and embrace, we shall claim and hold fast, all that God hath spoken in Christ of a life in the city of the living God here below as our very own. And we shall in patience persevere in doing the will of God, knowing that the power of God Himself and the Son of God is surety that we shall receive the promise. True faith begins with counting upon what God has promised, but it does not end there — it leads into the actual possession and enjoyment, in the power of God, of all it had embraced in His word. What God hath spoken to faith, His hand will perform.
7. Note well the three steps of faith. I must first see what God has promised. I must belieue In the blessed life Christ can give and maintain within me. Let us pray for the Spirit’s enlightening (Eph. i. 14-20). Then I embrace, greet, welcome, claim as my own the promise, and expect its fulfilment. This in due time I receive, in heart and experience. Whatever God has promised me I must expect to experience.
2. The promise is ever the expression of what God’s omnipotence is going to work; our faith must ever be the expression of what we expect that omnipotence to work.
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