Dear Ones:
How simple is faith? Someone has said that the Gospel of John is so deep that an elephant can bathe in it, and shallow, safe enough for a child to play in its shallows. Is this not the case with faith? We find children in the old testament and the new who had true, vital faith…and experienced the reality of Christ, His life in their hearts. They may not have understood the deep things of Christ, but they reveled to play, and live in the shallows of His love. Then we look at older believers, and we examine their faith. We find that they were not perfect people, but, according to their calling, they exercised faith. And it seems that the farther they went in their walk, with the increasing knowledge of Christ, the more simple their faith became. It has been related that when Charles Spurgeon, the “prince of preachers,” lay dying, that someone asked him concerning his theology. You would think that, with all the knowledge he had of Christ, the Bible, and things to come, he would have mustered up his last amount of strength to expound on the great truths of Scripture. And this he did, but in a surprising manner. His answer to the inquiry was that his theology had become very simple, “Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so.” And so it is…all of His hope was in one Person, one who had always loved him…”for the Bible tells him so.” This is simplicity.
How did Spurgeon come to this place in his faith, a faith that was so simple? It is because, as was the case of believers that preceded him, he learned that truth was absolute, and that all truth led to Christ, the absolutely faithful One. It is at this point that a choice is made. How much is one to trust, believe? We are all creatures of “sight,” rather than truth. But when the light of the truth of/in Christ begins to fill our hearts, we are brought face to face again and again with the aforementioned question..”How much is one to trust Christ?” In the case of Spurgeon, he not only put his foot on the bedrock of truth, but the weight of his whole being. He rested WHOLLY upon the Rock of All Ages, Everlasting Love. He had learned the reality of the old hymn which says, “They who trust Him wholly find Him wholly true.”
What is the testimony of those who trust Him wholly? The answer again is very simple. Isaiah writes, “…Of the increase of His government and peace there shall be no end.” (Is. 9:7) Or as the hymn writer puts it, “…And as His kingdom doth increase, so does His everlasting peace.” Spurgeon knew the peace of God because He trusted wholly in Christ, His love, His power, His resurrection. What a testimony to the grace and goodness of God!
Dear Lord Jesus, be our King this day. Strengthen our hearts to trust Thee wholly, to find increasingly that Thou art wholly true. May we know Thy peace in an ever-increasing manner as we put the whole weight of our existence upon Thy shoulders, to find that Thou art truly the Rock of ALL Ages, our peace in the storm, and comfort for time and eternity. In Thy name, Amen.
Love, Dad