The Letters of Ruth Bryan, 1805-1860
Faith the gift of God
To Miss M., January 12,
1852.
My beloved friend,
Permit me to greet you affectionately this new year in the name of our
glorious Emmanuel, of whom it was truly said, "This man receives sinners,
and eats with them." I know you feel yourself the chief of sinners; be
encouraged then, for He is Jesus, "the same yesterday, today, and forever."
Sinners He still receives graciously, loves freely, pardons fully, and
justifies from all things past, present, or to come. Oh! that this might be
the year of meeting between your soul and your Surety; then would you find
the glad release from all those heavy debts which you feel to be hourly
increasing. "The great trumpet shall be blown, and they shall come who were
ready to perish." You know when the jubilee blast was sounded every
Israelite was free. They might not only have wasted their inheritance—but
have sold even themselves, yet it mattered not, in either case they became
free in the glorious year of release. Mortgaged lands, burdensome debts, and
toilsome servitude, all came to an end on that happy morn. The spiritual
Israel have their jubilee too—the general one, when the Archangel's trumpet
shall awake their sleeping dust, and the purchased possession shall return
in glory to Him who redeemed it with blood; and the inward personal one,
when each soul hears for itself, "Fear not, for I have redeemed you! I have
called you by your name, you are mine!" Ah! then the mountains of guilt are
cast into the depths of the sea—that red sea of blood, whose waves overtop
them all. Then the mighty debt is known to be cancelled, so that the poor
debtor can sing of "sovereign grace over sin abounding," for "where sin
abounded, grace did much more abound." Who knows but this very year may be
the one of jubilee in your experience, my beloved? There is a set time to
favor Zion individually as well as Zion collectively, and when the time of
the promise arrives, nothing shall prevent its accomplishment. Sin, Satan,
unbelief, shall all give way; those gates of brass shall open, the fetters
fall off, and the imprisoned soul come forth to the light of day, scarcely
believing for joy and wondering.
The Lord lift up your head, and may your manifested
redemption draw near, which all your sense of poverty and misery will make
doubly welcome. My poor namesake had lost all, and was in great destitution;
but she found a near kinsman who owned the relationship, and was willing to
redeem, though first she had somewhat boldly to make her suit for his
kindness. "Spread your skirt over your handmaid, for you are a near
kinsman." This looks like the plea of faith and necessity; when the poor
soul feels its poverty and nakedness, and entreats the heavenly Boaz to
cover it with His skirt—that justifying righteousness which alone can hide
its shame. He is never offended with such apparent presuming; and never
rejects such a forsaken and desolate one. As surely as Boaz did redeem and
marry the Moabitish damsel, so surely Jesus has redeemed and will
acknowledge every coming sinner. (John 6:37) "Ah!" say you, "this matter of
faith is one thing which troubles me; the blessings of salvation are enjoyed
by faith—but I cannot get at it. I seem shut up in unbelief, and I cannot
come forth."
"Oh! could I but believe,
Then all would easy be!
I would—but cannot; Lord, you know
My help must come from Thee."
Well, my loved friend, I feel most incompetent to speak
to you upon the important but dear subject of precious faith; and when I
read your question upon Eph. 1:13, a sense of inability to answer almost
deterred me from writing at all. But, however, I can speak from experience,
that I once felt exactly as I have described; seeing the importance of
faith, and that without it I could not be saved, and yet finding it
impossible to believe to the saving of my soul, so that I said with deep
feeling, "I thought that I could as soon make a world as believe." But, say
you, "Is it thus still?" Nay, truly. I was then shut up—but not unto
despair; it was unto the faith which has since been revealed. Christ as the
object of faith was yet to be revealed in His glorious person, finished
work, and amazing love; and power put into the soul to receive, take hold
of, and enjoy Him and His benefits as its personal portion. Living faith is,
indeed, as you say, something more than a "declaration of belief," or mere
"assent to the truth of the written Word," or belief in the divinity of the
Savior. All this I had many times when painfully feeling I had not the faith
which enters into rest, (Heb. 4:10, 11) and is accompanied with joy and
peace, (Rom. 15:13) or I had it not so in exercise as to be followed by
those blessed effects: for I humbly conceive all the graces of the Spirit
(of which faith is one) are communicated in regeneration; but, like the
powers of an infant, they must have growth and development before they come
to strong exercise. Moreover, when living faith is implanted it must have an
object; and the effects in the soul will be correspondent to that object.
Oftentimes, at the first, faith has to do with the law,
justice, and holiness of Jehovah, and His threatenings against sin. These it
may fully believe with personal application; and as the soul falls down
condemned before Him, not only in the judgment—but also in feeling,
believing its own vileness, and that He will be righteous in casting it out
of His sight, faith justifies the Lord, and ascribes righteousness to its
Maker, while the soul is filled with compunction, and abhors itself in dust
and ashes. Here is repentance towards God, and here is faith—but not that
faith in Jesus which has the sealing of the Spirit. No living soul is,
however, left here. Faith is caused to grow, in hearing (Rom. 10:17)—in
hearing that there is a way of escape, that God can still be just, and yet
justify the ungodly who believe in Jesus. Faith, receiving this report of
the great salvation through a great Savior, and of the exact suitability
thereof to the soul's case, there is a growing confidence that if He will He
can pardon the sin, heal the leper, loose the prisoner, and forgive the
arrested debtor who has "nothing to pay."
Now the soul begins to feel a love and tenderness towards
this Friend of sinners, and says, "Oh, that He were my friend! Oh, that He
would save and speak comfortably to me! Oh, that I could know He loves me!
This would be heaven below! There is now full faith in His ability and His
suitability; but there is not the spirit of adoption, or the sealing of the
Spirit. There is not the venture of faith, casting the whole weight of soul
and sins upon Him or believing in Him for the personal benefit of His blood
and righteousness, His life, death, and resurrection, or, as Hart so
expressively calls it in his 79th hymn, "Believing into Him." This is the
"work of faith with power;" and they who thus believe are manifestly saved
(1 John 4:13)—do know that they have eternal life, and by the renewings of
the Holy Spirit are kept believing, for they live by the faith of the Son of
God. The justified shall live by faith, and they are sealed by the Spirit of
promise unto the day of redemption; which redemption plainly refers to the
resurrection of the body, see also Rom. 8:23.
By this sealing they have manifestly to their own
consciences God's mark upon them as His property, and thereby they are
assured of a glorious resurrection to life eternal. Though now they carry
this body as a body of sin and death, and often groan under its burden, and
though soon it shall be laid in the grave as a body of corruption, yet it is
a "purchased possession." They are sealed unto the day of redemption. God
has wrought them for the self-same thing. (2 Cor. 5:4, 5)
The Spirit witnesses to it with or in their
spirits, and they joyfully look for their Redeemer, who is mighty, and "who
shall change their vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto His
glorious body, according to the working whereby He is able even to subdue
all things unto Himself." Truly, this sealed state is an immense privilege,
and a free one—the gift of Heaven—the work of God—a royal grant of grace and
love, as all will most joyfully acknowledge who do truly possess it. True,
the Spirit seals the soul (Eph. 1:13) after believing, (Gal. 3:14) but not
for it. By the appointment of Heaven the seal is annexed to the
faith—but in nowise conditionally, for both are a free gift—both the work of
God. Faith honors God by its seal, and God honors faith by His. John 3:33; 2
Cor. 1:22.
Let this make the poor heart cry more importunately,
"Lord, increase my faith," for He who is its Author is its Finisher, and He
will have respect to the work of His own hands. It is also true that the
Spirit (1 John 5:10; Rom. 8:16) witnesses to the soul's adoption in
believing, and thus we are manifestly children of God by faith in Christ
Jesus. (Gal. 3:26) This is not because faith is a creature work, and the
witnessing of the Spirit a rewarding the creature for that work; but is
because it is the pleasure of our heavenly Father that His children, while
in the body, shall walk in the way of faith, not by sight and sense. He is
much honored in every believing soul who is brought by His Spirit, not only
to felt need—but felt nothingness, and enabled to glory in His Son as the
"Lord our righteousness;" and therefore He has in the written Word very
abundantly set forth the spiritual blessings which are experimentally
enjoyed (Gal. 3:9) in this way of faith, (Rom. 1:16, 17) and in no other
way, that His people may be the more encouraged to seek for this good old
path, and inquire for it.
Also, He has given abundance of "wills" and "shalls" to
insure their finding it, and all are most needful, for it is a way most
contrary to our fallen nature and legal minds. Everything that is in us by
nature opposes it; and, when quickened by the Spirit, how do unbelief, self,
and Satan, strive to hold us back. We might say, in the words of Job, "There
is a path which no fowl knows, and which the vulture's eye has not seen: the
lion's whelps have not trodden it, nor the fierce lion passed by it." Ah!
indeed, in the pathway of faith all nature's keenness, swiftness, and
strength are in vain; but those ransomed of the Lord, who feel themselves as
"fools," shall find it, and shall not err therein. (Isa. 35:8, 10) The
promise is sure to all the seed—"He that believes shall be saved;" "for by
grace you are saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the
gift of God."
Therefore, be not discouraged, dearest, because you
cannot work faith out of your own barren heart; it was never intended you
should. Jesus gives it freely, and He will increase it. You cannot say you
have not the buddings of it as first described: you have faith in a holy
sin-avenging God; and you have faith in a holy sin-atoning Savior, as able
to save you, and just the Savior you need. Do you want to believe in Him
more fully and firmly, venturing the weight of all upon His obedience and
sacrifice? What can you do better than ask Him to reveal Himself more
clearly in your soul, like him of old, who said, "Who is the Lord, that I
might believe on Him?" Hearken to the gracious answer: "You have both seen
Him, and it is He who talks with you;" and he said, "Lord, I believe; and he
worshiped Him." Now I think this is just your case. Jesus has been talking
to you, and you know Him not, just as He talked to the woman of Samaria, and
told her all things that ever she did. May He open your eyes and your heart
that you may receive Him, believe on His name, (John 1:12) and have
privilege to know that you are a child of God. Faith is the very outgoing of
heart and soul upon the person and work, blood and righteousness of Jehovah
Jesus, and that under a deep sense of unworthiness, guiltiness, and
hell-deserving. Unbelief would put these things as obstacles and barriers in
the way—but faith will not have it so, seeing such richness and efficacy in
the blood and obedience of Him who is mighty to save, that it says,
"Therefore He is able to save to the uttermost--all who come unto God by
Him. And now farewell; I trust the Lord will bruise Satan under your feet
shortly.
With much affection, I remain your unworthy friend,
Ruth
"And in view of this, we always pray for you that our God
will consider you worthy of His calling, and will, by His power, fulfill
every desire for goodness and the work of faith, so that the name of our
Lord Jesus will be glorified by you, and you by Him, according to the grace
of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ." 2 Thessalonians 1:11-12
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