This is the first part of two answers to a Brother Varnes. We separate them for the sake of length. Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone (James 2:17)
In the first of these passages, the apostle James is treating upon the practicable effects of faith by which its nature is to be tested. If the faith is a genuine living faith, its vitality will be known by its activity, and its action will be in harmony with its nature. The apostle seems to admit that there are different kinds of faith; the faith of the Son of God, which works by love and purifies the heart, is a living faith. Being born of God, it partakes of the nature and vitality of its heavenly Author. Christ is the author and finisher of our faith if we have the faith of God’s elect. This faith is born of God, and though it encounters the world, and is opposed by the world, will overcome the world, and triumph ultimately over all opposition. “And this is the victory that overcometh the world, even your faith.” Natural faith, or the faith of the world, has no conflict with the world, and will not overcome the world, being in agreement with the world.
But the faith of the Son of God, by which the children of God live, walk and stand, is essentially different in its origin, nature, and development, from the faith of men, and from the faith of devils. Paul says of the living faith of the gospel, “And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me (Galatians 2:20).” Hence we live by faith; not by a dead or nominal faith, but by a vital principle, even by the faith of the Son of God; a faith pertaining to his Sonship, because begotten and born of God, it partakes of his Sonship, of his spirit, purity, and power. It can never, therefore, be dead or inactive. Those who possess it may not always feel its mighty power, because so far as they are led, or live after the flesh, they shall die, or fail to feel and enjoy its life-inspiring power. They not only live by faith, as we have shown but also walk by faith, not by sight.
To walk by faith is to move on confidently trusting in God, when all is dark and inscrutable to our sight or to our natural judgment. As when Abraham staggered not at the promise which seemed so unreasonable and so unnatural; yet he staggered not at the promise, because God had made it, and his faith inspired implicit confidence in, and unfaltering reliance on, God. At God’s command, he went forth, not knowing whether he went; it was enough for him to know that God had commanded; and in the same confidence, Enoch also walked with God. And all the saints shall know that in all their walks with God, they walk by faith, and not by sight, having no confidence in the flesh. The nature, power, and vitality of the faith of the Son of God is always the same; but we only enjoy it experimentally as the fruit of the Spirit, and as the gift of God; we only enjoy its saving manifestations when our spirit, which is born of the Spirit, triumphs over the flesh; and we are made fruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
All who have this faith in them will assuredly know of the Christian warfare; for the flesh, and all our fleshly powers, are as full of infidelity as they ever were. All the doubts, fears and unbelief that rises in opposition to our implicit confidence in God comes from our flesh, and inclines us to endeavor to walk by sight and objects strenuously against taking a step in the dark. This conflict of flesh and spirit, nature and grace, faith and unbelief, is more or less illustrated in every child of God. Faith points the new-born child of God to the yoke of Jesus, to his example and precepts, and bids him move on in obedience to the Savior’s great commands, saying, “Why tarriest thou? Arise and be baptized,” etc. But unbelief says, Better not be too fast; wait till this dark cloud shall pass; till you are satisfied that you are a fit subject for the ordinances and worthy to take a place in the church of God.
Chided for his disobedience or tardiness in following his Lord by the spirit of faith, which relies alone on Jesus, the convert sees a beauty in the lovely ordinance; while unbelief insists that he shall wait until he has sufficient light to walk by sight. Carnal reason too, believes that it is safer to walk by sight than to walk by faith; but the faith of the Son of God in the believer looks through the thickest cloud, and sees with delight the things which are within the veil, whether the forerunner is for us entered; and fixing its steadfast eye on him who has entered within the veil, desires to fly away from all human reason and carnal understanding, and be governed in all things by him.
Looking steadfastly not on the things which are seen, but on the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal (or things of time); but the things which are not seen are eternal, and therefore only looked upon by faith.
But we presume our brother Varnes desires our views on the apostle’s declaration, “Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone.” We have already intimated our firm conviction that the faith of the Son of God, which all who are born of the Spirit receive in that birth, is a vital and undying principle, which is never dead; nevertheless that vital principle in us may be dead practically, in the sense in which the apostle James has illustrated. “If a brother or sister be naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed, and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful for the body, what doth it profit?” If one of you who are recognized as brethren who possess the faith of the Son of God should thus treat a needy brother or sister, as to practical profit to the needy brother or sister, your faith would be dead to them in that particular sense. The life of genuine faith would fail to appear. Or, to express in other words, what we understand to be the meaning of the apostle, a professed disciple of the Lord Jesus, to treat a brother or sister in that heartless way would deny the faith, and act in opposition to all its teachings. Whatever we may believe, or whatever faith we may have, if it produces no action, is practically dead or dormant.
To illustrate the apostle’s meaning, he speaks of Abraham, and of Rahab the harlot. Abraham believed in God and his faith was perfected, or demonstrated by his obedience to God. Rahab the harlot believed that the city of Jericho, in which she lived, was to be given to the Hebrews; but her faith, however strong and sincere, would neither have profited her nor the Hebrews if it had not been practically demonstrated by her receiving the spies, and concealing them, and sending them out another way. It is only in this sense that we understand our apostle to be speaking of faith being dead; that is, destitute of practicable results. What if we have faith to believe there is one God, if we do not love and serve him, devils are equally orthodox, for they also believe and tremble.
Again, we may understand James as speaking of the doctrine of the gospel; what though we vainly believe it to be the truth of God that shall stand forever, what practicable benefit have we from our correct, or orthodox, profession of faith, if we do not walk in it, and contend earnestly for it, as it was once delivered to the saints? All kinds of faith must be made manifest by works. The husbandman has faith in the order of nature, seedtime, and harvest, and his faith inclines him to plow his fields and sow his grain because he has faith that the harvest will come when he shall reap if he faints not.
In the application of the admonitions of the apostle to the children of God, we are not to understand that to profess faith in God, in Christ, while in works we deny him, such profession can be accepted by the saints as an evidence that those who so profess are entitled to their fellowship or confidence. The disciple who says he has faith in Jesus must show his faith, that is the evidence of it, by following him. In the commission to the apostles, as a mark by which they should know the called and quickened people of God, Jesus said to them, “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved.” Not merely he that believeth. Living faith will lead its possessor to obey, as well as to believe. How many there are in the vicinity of all our churches who give us every other evidence that they believe and love the truth, and love the people of God. The sincerity of their convictions and their love, we cannot discredit; but their faith is dead to us, that is, it is unavailing, because it is alone, not manifested by obedience to the gospel of the Son of God. Their faith is not so strong as to subdue their doubts, fears, and unbelief; nor is their love so ardent as to draw them with willing feet to walk in the footsteps of our glorious Leader. “If ye love me, (says Jesus) keep my commandments.” “By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples if ye have love one for another.” But where these evidences of love and obedience are not found, whatever of faith or love a person may have, it is dormant, or we may say, dead, as to the production of the true and legitimate fruits of vitality. In short, the church of God must judge of the vitality of one’s faith, by his conduct. If one says he loves the cause, but on every occasion will betray it, that he believes our doctrine, but will not walk in it; that he regards us as the church of God, but walks with, builds up, and strengthens the hands of our adversaries; we may safely say to such, as the apostle has said, “Show me thy faith without thy works, and I will show thee my faith by my works.”
Middletown. N. Y. December 1, 1868.
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