The Simplicity of Faith
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Dear friend,
Your letter touches my heart very deeply. It is not often that I have known such an experience as yours. Indeed, no two experiences ever are identical. But it is not often that one accepts the truth about Christ as you have done, in such simplicity, with such avidity, allowing it to enter into your heart and possess your life.
That is precisely the ideal for Christian faith. Christ complained once to his people that his words did not have free course in them. He meant that they did not let his words into their lives, were not interested by them, did not follow them. The only test of saving faith, is obedience. A great many people read the New Testament and enjoy it in a certain way, and yet it has but very little effect upon them. Last New Year's Day a young man said to his pastor:
"I have gone through the Bible five times the past year."
The pastor quietly asked him: "How often has the Bible gone through you during the year?"
That is the test. When I hear people talking about reading the Scriptures, I want to know what effect the Scriptures have had upon them. In your case, you have accepted the teachings of Christ in their literalness, and have followed them implicitly.
You probably have read of Lady Aberdeen and how she came to accept Christ. She was trying to settle the question of Christ's personality and place in life intellectually — but could not do it satisfactorily. She could not yield her heart to Christ because she could not understand everything.
She wanted to know — before she would believe and follow. Sitting one day in her garden, pondering the great questions, she seemed to hear a voice, as if from Heaven, saying to her, "Act as if I were — and you will learn that I am." The words seemed a real message from the Master to her, and she at once said, "I will." She began to act as if the things that the Scriptures said were literally true, and at every point she found that they were true. Every promise that she tested and proved was fulfilled to her.
I do not know that you had any such struggle in your own experience before you accepted Christ — but it is just in this way that you have been doing. No doubt you have yourquestions. There are difficulties which you cannot solve. There are mysteries in the gospel which you cannot understand. But none of these things are troubling you or holding you back — you are acting as if the things that Christ says about himself are literally true, and you are finding them true at every point. It has been a great comfort to me to know of your trust and following of Christ, and to be able to help you even a little.
There came into the church of which I am pastor, a young woman, a teacher in a girls' high school, who had almost lost her faith. She had become entangled in all manner of questions — the questions which are being raised by critics about the person of Christ and his life and work. I never saw a sadder person than she was.
I remember very well my first talk with her, when she came to tell me of her doubts and questions. I asked her to lay all these things aside, and let them wait until she had more light for them, meanwhile accepting Christ just as he offered himself to her in the Gospels. I asked her to read the Four Gospels over carefully with this one question in mind: "What does Jesus say that he is and that he wants me to do?"
She did it honestly and sincerely, and in a very short time the change in her face became apparent. She was laying aside her doubts and questions and difficulties, and was letting Christ into her life in just the way he wanted to come, with love and grace and help and guidance. Easter Sunday evening I preached on the way Christ dealt with the doubts of Thomas, and then Thomas' confession, "My Lord and my God!" The next morning I received a letter from her, telling me that she was a living illustration of what I had been trying to say to the people — that the simple acceptance of Christ without question or doubt, was the sure way to peace and gladness, to light and perfect liberty.
Excuse all this long letter about matters that do not really affect you. But I was thinking of the way you avoided the troubles and struggles and difficulties which so many people make for themselves in demanding to know, before they will trust. That was the trouble with Thomas, you remember. He must see the print of the nails for himself before he would believe.
You ask if I would accept you as a church member in your present condition of mind. Indeed I would. As I explained to you, our church does not require anything more than a child-like trust of Jesus Christ as Saviour, Master and Friend — and the devotion of the life to him. This does not mean that we do not expect people to learn more about Christ than just these simple things. They are to go on learning all the while.
The church is a school in which they are to be trained. But for the beginning, this is all we require. No matter what questions or difficulties one may have, if one is willing to receive Christ and begin to follow him sincerely and truly — that is all we desire. It would be a great joy indeed to welcome you into the membership, and to have you come to the Lord's Table with us.
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