“The Faith of Christ.”
Much is lost, in reading the Scriptures, by not noting exactly what they say. Here we have literally, “the faith of Christ,” just as in Rev. 14:12 we have “the faith of Jesus.” He is the Author and Finisher of faith. Heb. 12:2. God has “dealt to every man the measure of faith” (Rom. 12:3), in giving Christ to every man. “Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God” (Rom. 10:17), and Christ is the Word. All things are of God. It is He who gives repentance and forgiveness of sins.
There is, therefore, no opportunity for any one to plead that his faith is weak. He may not have accepted and made use of the gift, but there is no such thing as “weak faith.” A man may be “weak in faith,” that is, may be afraid to depend on faith, but faith itself is as strong as the Word of God. There is no faith but the faith of Christ; everything else professing to be faith is a spurious article. Christ alone is righteous; He has overcome the world, and He alone has power to do it; in Him dwelleth all the fulness of God, because the law—God Himself—was in His heart; He alone has kept and can keep the law to perfection; therefore, only by His faith,—living faith, that is, His life in us,—can we be made righteous.
But this is sufficient. He is a “tried Stone.” The faith which He gives to us is His own tried and approved faith, and it will not fail us in any contest. We are not exhorted to try to do as well as He did, or to try to exercise as much faith as He had, but simply to take His faith, and let it work by love, and purify the heart. It will do it; take it!
Believing Is Receiving.
“As many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name.” John 1:12. That is, as many as believed on His name received Him. To believe on His name is to believe that He is the Son of God; to believe that He is the Son of God, means to believe that He is come in the flesh, in human flesh, in our flesh, for His name is “God with us;” so to believe on His name means simply to believe that He dwells personally in every man,—in all flesh. We do not make it so by believing it; it is so, whether we believe it or not; we simply accept the fact, which all nature reveals to us.
It follows, then, as a matter of course that, believing in Christ, we are justified by the faith of Christ, since we have Him personally dwelling in us, exercising His own faith. All power in heaven and earth is in His hands, and, recognizing this, we simply allow Him to exercise His own power in His own way. God does “exceedingly abundantly,” by “the power that worketh in us.”
Christ Not the Minister of Sin.
Jesus Christ is “the Holy and Righteous One.” Acts 3:14, R. V. “He was manifested to take away our sins; and in Him is no sin.” 1 John 3:5. He not only “did no sin” (1 Peter 2:22), but He “knew no sin” (2 Cor. 5:21). Therefore, it is impossible that any sin can come from Him. He does not impart sin. In the stream of life that flows from the heart of Christ, through His wounded side, there is no trace of impurity. It is “a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal.” He is not the minister of sin, that is, He does not minister sin to anybody. If in any one who has sought—and not only sought, but found—righteousness through Christ, there is afterwards found sin, it is because the person has dammed up the stream, allowing the water to become stagnant. The Word has not been given free course, so that it could be glorified; and where there is no activity, there is death. No one is to blame for this but the person himself. Let no professed Christian take counsel of his own imperfections, and say that it is impossible for a Christian to live a sinless life. It is impossible for a true Christian, one who has full faith, to live any other kind of life. “How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?” Rom. 6:2. “Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for His seed remaineth in him; and he can not sin, because he is born of God.” 1 John 3:9. Therefore “abide in Him.”
What Was Destroyed?