Faith and surrender

1 / 4

Use two. Above all graces set faith to work on Christ. ‘That whosoever believeth in him should not perish.’ John 3: 15. ‘Above all, taking the shield of faith.’ Eph 6: 16. Say as queen Esther, ‘I will go in unto the king: and if I perish, I perish.’ She had nothing to encourage her; she ventured against law, yet the golden sceptre was held forth to her. We have promises to encourage our faith. ‘Him that comes unto me, I will in no wise cast out.’ John 6: 37. Let us then advance faith by a holy recumbency on Christ’s merits. Christ’s blood will not justify without believing; they are both put together in the text, ‘Faith in his blood.’ The blood of God, without faith in Christ, will not save. Christ’s sufferings are the plaister to heal a sin-sick soul, but this plaister must be applied by faith. It is not money in a rich man’s hand, though offered to us, that will enrich us, unless we receive it. So Christ’s virtues or benefits will do us no good unless we receive them by the hand of faith. Above all graces set faith on work. It is a faith most acceptable to God upon many accounts.

Thomas Watson

2 / 4

(2) Faith lives in a broken heart. ‘The father cried out with tears, Lord, I believe.’ Mark 9: 24. True faith is always in a heart bruised for sin. They, therefore, whose hearts were never touched for sin, have no faith. If a physician should tell us there was a herb that would help us against all infections, but it always grows in a watery place; if we should see a herb like it in colour, leaf, smell, blossom, but growing upon a rock, we should conclude that it was the wrong herb. So saving faith always grows in a heart humbled for sin, in a weeping eye and a tearful conscience. If, therefore, there be a show of faith, but it grows upon the rock of a hard impenitent heart, it is not the true faith.

Thomas Watson

3 / 4

Examine: Dost thou labor after those qualifications that the Scriptures describe a child of God by-that is, faith, yea, the right faith, the most holy faith, the faith of the operation of God? And also, dost thou examine whether there is a real growth of grace in thy soul, as love, zeal, self-denial, and a seeking by all means to attain, if possible, to the resurrection of the dead; that is, not to satisfy thyself until thou be dissolved and rid of this body of death, and be transformed into that glory that the saints shall be in after the resurrection-day?

John Bunyan

4 / 4

There are but few when they come to the cross, cry, Welcome, cross! as some of the martyrs did to the stake they were burned at. Therefore, if you meet with the cross in thy journey, in what manner soever it be, be not daunted and say, Alas, what shall I do now? but rather take courage, knowing that by the cross is the way to the kingdom. Can a man believe in Christ, and not be hated by the devil? Can he make a profession of Christ, and that sweetly and convincingly, and the children of Satan hold their tongue? Can darkness agree with light?

John Bunyan