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Home » Free Books » Bonar, Horatius » Light & Truth: The Gospels !

Chapter 35 - Mark 11:22 - Faith in God Light & Truth: The Gospels by Bonar, Horatius

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XXXV.

Faith In God.

 

"And Jesus answering, saith unto them, Have faith in God."-Mark 11:22.

Two things suggest themselves here, in connection with these words of the Lord: first, the command; and secondly, the reasons for compliance with it.

The command brings before us the obligation under which we lie to give to the God who made us, our entire and unreserved confidence in everything, great or small,-in regard to our own salvation, and in regard to every matter that comes before us, every duty that devolves on us, every plan that we form, every perplexity that overtakes us, every trial which comes down on us.

Have faith in God.

This is the Lord's counsel; nay, his command.

"Have faith in God."

Not in self, not in man, not in churches, not in princes, not in intellect, not in gold, not in the creature at all.

Have faith in God.

Everything else is a broken reed, on which if a man lean it shall not only give way beneath him, but pierce him through with many sorrows.

God's demand on us here, then, is for our complete and full trust, just as in the law his demand is for our absolute and undivided love.

This is Christ's demand upon us in behalf of the Father.

He had come to reveal the Father.

He had day by day been revealing Him and shewing how truly he was entitled to this confidence.

He had himself set the example of trusting Him, and that in the most adverse and untoward circumstances in which a son of Adam was ever placed.

And speaking to us as one who had faith in God, who had altogether trusted Him from the time that he was "made to hope upon his mother's breasts," he makes this solemn but most blessed demand in the Father's name and in the Father's behalf, "Have faith in God."

It is not, however, as if He were binding on us a burden; or issuing a new law, upon obedience to which life depended.

In these words He is proceeding upon the great truth that the life has come,-that God has given to us eternal life, and that this life is in his Son.

He is claiming our confidence, not for a God who is yet waiting to see if we will fulfill certain conditions, and comply with certain terms, and obey his whole code of laws (modified or unmodified); but for a God who without waiting for anything in us, has of his own infinite grace, without one stipulation or condition, sent his only begotten Son into the world, with the gift of everlasting life in his hand for the lost sons of Adam.

It is in behalf or this God that He is speaking; and it is by the declaration and exhibition of what this God has already done of his own free love, unsought by us, that he seeks to draw back our alienated affections from other objects, and to win our lost confidence from the worthless creature, to the infinitely worthy Creator,-the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

"Have faith in God."

Such is God's claim upon you now in his own behalf; such is the Son's claim upon you in the behalf of the Father.

The claim is made in the voice of authority, yet also of love.

It is truly both.

It is loving authority; and it is authoritative love.

He asks it without reservation; and in a way which plainly indicates that the claim is one which admits of no rivalship.

It is one which completely silences and sweeps away all competing claims, however venerable, however attractive these may seem to be.

No divided heart!

No divided obedience!

No divided love!

No divided confidence!

There cannot be two Masters,-two Saviours, two Christ's, two Gods.

If the creature be God, let us give it our trust; but if it be not, then woe to the man who leans on it.

If the church be God, then let us give it our trust, that it may save and bless us; but if it be not God, then woe, woe to the man whose trust is here.

If the world be God, then let us trust it as such, and trust it for our all; but if it be not, then woe, woe to the poor soul that gives to it that confidence which belongs to the living God alone.

In these days, when men are everywhere making or finding for themselves objects of trust, some in one thing and some in another, let us hold fast the words of Christ, "Have faith in God."

In these days, when men are forsaking the fountain of living water, and hewing out cisterns, broken cisterns which can hold no water, let us take our stand beside the one living, infinite, everlasting well.

There is nothing else that can quench our thirst for a single hour, or keep us from thirsting again.

"Have faith in God."

This is meant to apply to everything; for as there is nothing too small or common for God to guide, or keep, or bless us in, so there is nothing too small for us to trust Him in.

In things religious, things common, things domestic, things public, things national, things pertaining to the world,-let us have faith in God.

The less of faith that there seems to be in the world, the more let there be in us.

Nations do not trust Him; let us trust Him (as it were) for them, and go carrying their case to Him on our faith, since they refuse to carry it on their own!

Statesmen and politicians do not trust Him; let us trust Him for them, and take their cares, their burdens, their perplexities to Him, since they will not do it themselves.

It was the friends of the sick man that had faith, and that brought him to the Lord.

Their faith prevailed, and he was healed.

The world has no faith in God; few, very few, either rich or poor, have faith in God for anything; let us make this a reason for having stronger faith, that we may carry the world's wants, and the world's sins, and the world's sore maladies to God.

He will not overlook any case that is brought to Him by the hand of faith, whose faith soever it may be.

The world's great sin is not trusting God.

Cursed is the man that trusteth in man.

The world's great need is faith in God.

Let us take up the world's case while we take up our own.

But let us ask the reasons for our compliance with this.

Why are we thus urged to have faith in God ~~ What should lead us to this?

     (1) There is Christ's command itself.

This of it self would suffice.

As the Father's commandment is that we should believe on the Son, so the Son's commandment is that we should believe on the Father.

Christ here lays his solemn command on each one of you and says, "Have faith in God."

He makes this explicit demand upon you on behalf of the Father.

He knew what it is to have faith in God.

It was one great part of his low estate on earth that He should live by faith upon the Father.

This He had done in circumstances much more untoward, much more fitted to produce unbelief, much less calculated to cherish faith, than those in which you can possibly be placed.

Having done this Himself, He turns round on you and lays His injunction on you, that you should do the same.

More especially now, when He is gone up on high, should this command weigh with us.

For who is there on earth to comply with it now, if His followers do not.

He trusted in God when He was here, and He expects that now, when He is away, we should do what He did, and shew to an unbelieving, untrusting world, what it is to have faith in God.

Christ's command then, enforced by His example, urges on us this duty.

So that in declining it, or at least not complying with it, we are refusing to obey one of the most explicit injunctions ever laid on man.

Often we hear it said that it would be presumption to trust God thus implicitly, and that we have no warrant to do so.

No warrant!

You have much more than a warrant, you have a command which cannot be mistaken.

Presumption!

How can it be presumption to obey a command?

Is it presumption in you to keep the Sabbath, or to refrain from taking God's name in vain?

It is presumption not to trust, not to have faith in God,-it is the worst of all presumptions, the presumption of refusing to obey a divine command,-a presumption which nothing in or about you can possibly justify or extenuate.

(2.)

God's own character demands this faith.

It is not enough to say that God's character warrants and encourages us in this faith; we must say that it demands it.

For less than this is a refusal to recognize God's character as He has made it known to us; it is in having faith in Him that we make the true and proper recognition of God as the God of all grace.

To withhold this faith or confidence, is to say that God is not such a being as the Bible re-presents Him to be; not such a being as warrants our trust, or affords us reason for having faith in Him.

Now, we know that God has revealed to us his name and character.

That revelation exhibits Him as altogether trustworthy; altogether such an one as invites the sinner's confidence.

Nowhere in scripture is there any light cast upon God's character which has not this tendency.

No-where has He done or spoken anything which would repel our advances to Him, or would inspire suspicion or distrust.

All his words bear one uniform testimony to his character as the gracious Jehovah,-for-giving iniquity, transgression, and sin,-thrusting none away, but sincerely inviting all; reproving men for standing aloof, but upbraiding none for drawing near; discouraging none, but most kindly encouraging all; sending out messages of welcome the most generous, and loving, and honest, that ever proceeded from the most loving and large-hearted of the children of men.

Christ Jesus was Himself the exhibition and embodiment of this gracious character.