The Life of Faith

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. HEBREWS 11:1

Baxter preached a sermon before the king in 1660 on the life of faith, and afterwards expanded it into one of his most useful books. Its thesis is a diagnosis of the ordinary Christian’s real problem, and it is not the one we usually name.

The problem is not doubt

We assume that a believer’s difficulty is intellectual — that he is troubled by objections and needs his questions answered. Baxter thought this was true of very few. The great majority of Christians, he argued, do not doubt the doctrines at all. They affirm them sincerely, would defend them if challenged, and are entirely unaffected by them. The problem is not disbelief but unreality. We hold that God is present, that heaven is coming, that souls are eternal — and we live as though the visible world were the only solid one, because it is the one that presses on our senses every waking moment.

While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal. 2 CORINTHIANS 4:18

Baxter’s illustration was the difference between a man who knows there is a fire in the next street and a man who can see it. Both believe the same fact. Only one is moving.

Faith as a second sight

His definition of faith follows from this. Faith is the faculty by which the unseen world becomes as real to us as the seen one — not more certain, since God’s word is more certain than our eyes, but as present. The chapter he worked from is Hebrews 11, and he pointed out what is said of Moses.

By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king: for he endured, as seeing him who is invisible. HEBREWS 11:27

As seeing him who is invisible. That is the whole matter in a phrase. Moses acted against every visible consideration because something invisible was more real to him. And of the patriarchs:

These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them. HEBREWS 11:13

Baxter drew out the sequence: they saw, they were persuaded, they embraced. Sight first — the sight faith gives — and conduct followed from it.

Where it bites

The practical value of this analysis is that it redirects our efforts. If our problem were doubt, the remedy would be argument. Since our problem is unreality, the remedy is attention — and this is exactly why Baxter placed such weight on meditation. The unseen becomes real to the person who deliberately attends to it, and stays theoretical for everyone else. He applied it in several directions. To money. A man who genuinely saw the two worlds would find the calculations easy. The difficulty is not that we think the heavenly treasure inferior; it is that we cannot see it, and the visible pound is here in the hand. To suffering. Paul’s arithmetic in 2 Corinthians 4 — a light affliction, working an eternal weight of glory — is not consolation offered against the evidence. It is a sober comparison, available to anyone who can see both terms. To death. Baxter, who expected his own for fifty years, held that the fear of dying is largely a failure of sight. What is feared is a vacancy, because the other side is not being looked at.

Living by faith daily

He was practical about how faith is exercised, and it comes down to a habit of recall. The believer, several times a day, deliberately calls to mind what is actually the case: that God is present in this room; that the person in front of him will exist for ever; that this hour is being recorded; that Christ is at the right hand of God and is not indifferent to what is happening here. None of that is new information. It is the deliberate application of information already held, and Baxter thought the whole difference between a vigorous Christian and a dull one lies in whether it is done.

I have set the Lord always before me: because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved. PSALM 16:8

There is a test in this that anyone can apply honestly. Consider something you say you believe — that God sees you, or that you will give account, or that heaven is real. Then look at your last week and ask what you would have done differently if you had not believed it. If the answer is nothing, the belief is not yet operative, and the remedy is not more information.

Faith and the promises

If faith is living by the unseen, the question is what it holds on to — and Baxter’s answer was: particular promises, in particular words. He was impatient with a faith that consisted of general good feeling about God’s character. Feelings about God fluctuate; a sentence He has spoken does not.

Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature. 2 PETER 1:4

His counsel was to gather promises deliberately — to know where they are, to write them down, to have particular ones for particular troubles, so that when the trouble arrives the search does not have to begin then. Abraham is the model, and Paul is careful about the mechanism.

He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God; and being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform. ROMANS 4:20–21

Two things anchor him: a promise that was made, and a God who is able. Nothing in the account depends on Abraham’s feelings, which by the evidence of Genesis were frequently poor. Baxter added a distinction that saves a good deal of confusion. Some promises are absolute and belong to every believer without condition — forgiveness, the Spirit’s indwelling, final preservation. Others are attached to conditions, and some concern outcomes God has not committed Himself to in any particular case. Claiming the second sort as though they were the first produces disappointment and, eventually, the conclusion that God does not keep His word. Know which is which. Then hold the first without any hesitation at all.

FOR REFLECTION AND ACTION

1. Take one doctrine you affirm and ask what you would have done differently last week had you not believed it. Sit with the answer. 2. Practise deliberate recall three times tomorrow: God is present here; this person is eternal; this hour is being recorded. 3. Where a decision about money is difficult, name both terms of the comparison honestly. The difficulty is usually one of sight, not of principle. 4. When afraid, ask whether you are looking at the trouble and not at God. Then look. 5. Stop treating your problem as intellectual if it is not. Give the time you would have spent on arguments to attention instead.

A PRAYER

Lord, I believe a great many things that have made no difference to me, and I have called that faith.

My trouble is not that I doubt You. It is that You are not real to me in the way this room is real, and so I live by what I can see.

Give me the sight that faith gives. Let me endure as seeing Him who is invisible.

Bring the unseen close today — Your presence, the worth of the people around me, the account I shall give — and let it change what I actually do. Amen.