The Trial and Triumph of Faith

“Grace, grace is now the only oil to our wheels. Christ has taken the castle... when he has taken the will. When Saul rendered his will, he rendered his weapon. This is mortification, when Christ runs away with your will.”

— SAMUEL RUTHERFORD (1600–1661)

Faith is a knife’s edge, better get it right,

“No holding back, I hope,” says the Almighty Lord,

“I hope you walk by faith and certainly not by sight,

For, it’s only by grace that my will’s in you, safe and securely shored.”

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Still so many don’t get it: faith. So many so-called believers who have not relinquished, with finalising effect, their long-cherished will. Their glory is in their shame right-abouts. I don’t boast in this, but it’s the truth if people insist on having their way at the expense of Christ. We have little part in grace – and maybe none at all – when we insist on having things our own way – all under the concealment of, “This is God’s will.”

We cannot continue actively in conflict, and without seeking some significant part of reconciliation, and say that it is God’s will. God wills none of our pride, disobedience, or stubbornness. God’s will is that all of the flesh is mortified; taken captive to the Spirit.

“There is no goodness in our will now, except what it has from grace.”

— SAMUEL RUTHERFORD (1600–1661)

Grace must make all the difference in our lives if our lives are to be lived for God to the extension of the Divine will. It is no longer us who lives, but Christ in and through us.

We can no sooner give up our will by our own accord than we can disobey and be possessed of the Spirit of God. Both are heinous and laughable incongruencies.

Faith is simple. It always has been and always will be. Faith is tested by the holy acquisition of grace – the ‘God gift’ at the surrender of our pathetic will. Faith is nothing without it; everything with it. When faith takes to the dock it relies on grace in order to testify truthfully – not an iota out of keeping with a wholesome integrity; a divine dignity.

Faith’s trial is its triumph – the achievement of God’s exacting will. Faith’s triumph is the work of glory made manifest in mortified, humbled flesh.

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The trial of faith is the situated in the will – have we yet given it over to God? The triumph of faith is when the will is deliberately, intentionally and sacrificially given to God – by the divine movement of grace –where our flesh has been mortified. The triumph of faith is the continual seeking and doing of God’s will.

© 2013 S. J. Wickham.