Faith as a Masticator. 2
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While we may not be able to fully analyze and understand the whole process of bodily nutrition—yet there is no mystery about it—for it is regulated by certain laws of dietetics appointed by our Maker. The growth and development, the health and strength of the body is determined, in the first instance, by our regular partaking of food—wholesome food properly masticated. The analogy holds good spiritually. The food which God has provided for our souls—is His own Word, the heavenly manna; and that Word does not act upon us magically—but according to fixed principles instituted by God—the first of which is that it must be received by faith. For that reason, it is called "the Word of faith" (Romans 10:8), it is the Word to which faith is due, the Word which profits us not until received by faith. For the same reason, we read of being "nourished up in the word of faith" (1 Timothy 4:6), that is, the Word broken up into words and "mixed with faith."
Seed which is cast into the earth brings forth no fruit, unless it incorporates the fructifying virtues of the soil. And the Word of God, as it falls on our ears, or beneath our eyes, will produce no fruit—unless it be mixed with faith. It is faith which admits the Word into our hearts and gives it a subsistence in the soul.
"Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen" (Hebrews 11:1). That is not a definition of what faith is—but adescription of what faith produces. The Divine, spiritual heavenly and supernatural objects, which are presented to us in the Word, appear intangible and nebulous to the unbeliever —but faith gives them substance and reality! Though the things hoped for are invisible and future—faith makes them sure and solid and gives them a real subsistence in the soul. Faith does for us spiritually, what imagination does for us naturally. Faith gives the things promised by God—a present actuality in the heart, and makes Christ and Heaven more certain than if seen by the physical eye.
The material food that we eat only advantages us—as it is duly mixed with our saliva, swallowed, and then digested by the juices of the stomach. When that food is masticated and assimilated, it becomes a means of strength within us, being made a part of our bodies. In like manner, when the Word is properly meditated upon, "mixed with faith" and assimilated, it is a means of spiritual energy within us and becomes a part of our lives. When Truth is really believed, it becomes so united to the faith which receives it, that it is incorporated with it, is realized in the soul, and is taken up into that new nature whereby we live unto God. Only as the words of God are personally appropriated and spiritually digested, do they become a living principle within us, energizing unto obedience. Faith is not a mere assent to the truth of the things presented—but is such a reception thereof, as gives them a real in-being in the soul, so that they produce their proper effects.
We are bidden to "get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and receive with meekness the engrafted Word" (James 1:21). As a "graft" draws all the sap of the stock unto itself, so when the Word is "engrafted" into us, it causes the faculties of the soul—our thoughts, affections, energies and wills—to serve God. When Christ spoke of His disciples as branches of the Vine, He said, "the branch cannot bear fruit of itself—unless it abides in the vine." To which, He added, "If you abide in me, and my words abide in you" (John 15:4, 7), not only do our persons need to be engrafted into Christ—but in order to be fruitful—His words must be engrafted into us. By receiving the Word in faith and meekness, it becomes incorporated with the soul; and as the nature of the stock and graft become one common principle of fruit bearing, so the Word received by faith into the soul becomes one common principle of obedience.
We are also exhorted to "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly" (Colossians 3:16), and that can only be done by "mixing faith" with it. One great aid to that is to ruminate frequently upon some portion of Scripture.
The word "ruminate" signifies to "chew the cud," as all clean animals do—that is, those that were "clean" under the Mosaic law. But the counterpart in us is to muse upon what we have heard or read, which is the best aid there is for a weak memory. Meditation stands to reading—as mastication does to eating. If we are to "mix faith" with the Words of God, we must fix the mind on them. That is the force of the contrast presented in James 1:23-25: the profitless hearer of the Word is likened "unto a man beholding his natural face in a mirror," but "immediately forgets what manner of man he was." "But whoever looks [bows down and inquires] into the perfect law of liberty, and continues therein, he being not a forgetful hearer—but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed."
As we meditate upon the Word and mix faith therewith (appropriating it to ourselves), it sets love to work: "While I was musing—the fire burned!" (Psalm 39:3) As the Truth is believed, and its purity, its sweetness, its value, its suitability unto our case is realized in the soul—under such a consideration of it—love is drawn forth unto its Author, and obedience becomes easy. In this way, a delight for the things of God is increased within us, and we perceive them to be excellent and precious. Faith makes the soul in love with spiritual things, and love fills us with the desires after them. By the Word being incorporated into the soul, its natural operations are changed and moved to the production of spiritual effects; unto which, previously, it had no virtue, no desire, no strength. Finally, as faith is mixed with the Word of God—it transmutes it into earnest prayer.
What has been pointed out above of the Word in general, pertains to each part of it in particular. Take its doctrinal parts: They will profit you nothing, unless faith be mixed with them; that is, until carnal reasoning on them is completely set aside, and I receive them unhesitatingly as a part of Divine revelation unto me personally. So it is with its precepts. Said the Psalmist, "I have believed your commandments" (Psalm 119:66); that is, he regarded them as addressed to himself personally, as Divine laws which must regulate his life, and he applied them to his own walk. So with thepromises: Where they are given in the plural number, faith puts in its claim and individualizes them; and for the personal pronouns, substitutes my own name! Equally so with the Divine warnings and threatenings. Not until I view them as meaning what they say, and as addressed to myself individually, do they have any effect upon me; but when I mix faith with them—I tremble at God's Word! (Isaiah 66:2).
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