Believing or Drawing Back
X. — 36. For ye have need of patience, that, having done the will of God, ye may receive the promise.
37. For yet a very little while,
He that cometh shall come, and shall not tarry.
38. But my righteous one shall live by faith:
And if he shrink back,1 my soul hath no pleasure in Mm.
39. But we are not of them that shrink back unto perdition; but of them that have faith unto the saving of the soul.
IN the summary we had (19-25) of what life in the Holiest means, the last word, after we had been urged to exhort one another, was: And so much the more as ye see the day drawing nigh. And then came the warning of the fearful expectation of judgment, and the terror of falling into the hands of the living God. Here the warning closes with once again pointing to the Lord’s coming as not far off. Christian faith lives not only in the unseen present but also in the future; more especially in the future of the coming of Him who shall appear a second time to them that wait for Him, Him who is now seated on the throne, expecting till all His enemies be made His footstool. Let our faith so live in the future, that all our life may be in the power of eternity, and of Him in whom eternity has its glory.
The passage quoted is from Habakkuk, the same that forms the text of the Epistles to the Galatians and Romans. The
1 Draw back.
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prophet is told by God, in the midst of the oppression of Israel by the Chaldaeans, that the vision will surely come. Two classes among the people are spoken of. Of one it is said: His soul is puffed up, it is not upright in him. Of the other: But the righteous shall live by his faith. Our writer uses the words to contrast the two classes among the Hebrews. On the one side, those who are not upright; on the other, the righteous who live by faith. The righteous man will in the midst of trouble, and while the vision is delayed, put his trust in God, and live in that trust. He shall live by it too, the God whom He trusts will not fail him but send deliverance.
Our writer introduces the passage of set purpose, to serve as the text of the following chapter. He had in chaps, iii. and iv. spoken of unbelief as the great sin through which Israel had perished in the wilderness, of faith as the one thing needful if we are to enter into the rest of God. In chap. vi. of the faith by which the fathers inherited the promises. He had in our chapter, in his summing up of the Epistle, said: Let us draw nigh in the fulness of faith. He wishes, after his exposition of what the purpose and the work of Jesus can be to us, to show us the way to a full personal experience and enjoyment of it all, through faith alone. He proposes to do so by proving how all the Old Testament saints had lived and conquered through faith, and how it is the one only thing God asks if we are to experience His mighty saving power and the blessedness of His good pleasure. He is going to point out all the variety of circumstances and difficulties in which faith will give us God’s help and sure deliverance, as well as all the various tempers and dispositions with which it will be accompanied. For all this he finds a most suggestive text in the words: My righteous one shall live by faith.
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That means a great deal more than what many think — the sinner shall be counted righteous by faith; more, too, than the righteous shall have eternal life by faith. It means, the righteous shall live, his whole life shall be, by faith. This is just the lesson we need. The righteous who lives by faith is contrasted with him who draws back, of whom God says: My soul ‘shall have no pleasure in Him. The one cause of backsliding is the want of faith in the unseen, a yielding of the heart to the visible, and, in the battle against it, a trusting in our own strength and not in Christ. We see here again that there is no other alternative — either believing or drawing back. In the Christian life nothing will avail to keep us from backsliding but the fulness of faith — always and in everything to live the life of faith. It is only when faith gives itself up entirely to Christ for Him to do all in us, to keep us standing too, and when faith so dominates our life that every moment and every engagement shall all be under its influence, that we can hope to be safe from drawing back. If I am to be sure of salvation, if I am to be strong against every temptation, if I am to live daily as one in whom God’s soul has pleasure, I must see to one thing — to be a man of faith.
Let us prepare ourselves for the wonderful chapter that is coming, and all its blessed teaching, by looking back on what has been set before us of Christ and His redemption as the object of our faith. He is the Priest for ever, the Priest of God’s oath, able to save completely — shall we not throw our whole being wide open to Him in trust? We ftave Him, a Priest-King upon the throne, the Minister of the sanctuary He has opened for us, and where He presides, to bring us in — oh, shall we not be strong in faith, giving glory to God? We have Him, the Mediator of the new covenant, who with one sacrifice
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hath perfected Himself and us for evermore, and whose work it is to write and put God’s law within us as the power of a living obedience, — again, I say, shall we not believe, and allow this mighty Saviour to do His perfect work in us? We have entered the Holiest of All, we have in faith claimed God’s presence, and the life of abiding continually in it as our portion, and we have the great Priest over the house of God to make it all true and sure to us; surely it needs no words to urge us to make faith, faith alone, the faith of the heart, the unceasing sacrifice we bring our God. So may we too say, We are not of them that draw back, but of them that believe to the saving oi the soul.
1. The only cure for all the coldness and backsliding in the Church is “the preaching of faith.” Holiness by faith, standing by faith, being kept by the power of God through faith, having Christ dwell in our heart by faith, — this must be the daily food of the Christian. A preaching that insists upon salvation by faith chiefly as pardon and acceptance must produce feeble Christians. The fulness of faith is indispensable to the full Christian life.
2. Believing or drawing back — there is no other alternative. Look back over the warning of which these words form the conclusion, and let us fear at the terrible possibility for ourselves and others. And look forward to the coming chapter, with the one prayer that our whole life may be in the fulness of faith, in the very presence and power of God.
TENTH SECTION.-xi. 1-40.