The Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, Vol. 79

1902

January 21, 1902

“Health by Faith” The Advent Review and Sabbath Herald 79, 3.

EJW

E. J. Waggoner

Every Christian is familiar with the statement that “the just shall live by faith,” but very few have any idea that it is more than a statement of a theological dogma. They imagine that the life which the Lord Jesus gives us is something apart from eating and drinking, and the daily round of duties. In fact, there is unconsciously in the minds of many people a great deal of the notion that religion is chiefly an affair of going to meeting, and observing certain forms and ceremonies, and of professing belief in certain “points of doctrine.” If they would remember that Jesus Christ was Saviour from His birth, just as much when a child at play, and a young man working at the carpenter’s bench in Nazareth, as when preaching to the multitudes, they would learn differently. ARSH January 21, 1902, page 37.1

Every manifestation of life is proof of the presence of God. The blood is the life; and we receive the blood of Christ by every means by which He conveys to us our daily life. ARSH January 21, 1902, page 37.2

We must exercise ourselves to discern the Lord’s body; we must learn to know the Lord in whatever form He reveals Himself, and to accept him, and give him a welcome. The Holy Spirit is invisible, but He affects us through the medium of our senses. It is true that God has much more life for us than our minds can ever comprehend, or than we can ever consciously grasp; but if we do not appreciate the least, we can never expect the greatest. It is God who has given us our senses, in order that we may comprehend Him; and if we do not use them for that purpose, we can never expect any greater manifestation of himself. ARSH January 21, 1902, page 37.3

God is one, and so all life is one. There is only one life, although there are multitudinous forms of it. Christ is not divided, and He does not deal out his life in sections. When we receive his life, we have it for everything, if we will but accept it. The life of Christ-the blood-which cleanses from all sin, is the very same life that keeps us alive and in health from day to day. He did not live two lives on this earth. The life with which He healed the poor paralytic, was the very same life with which He cleansed him from his sins. The life which He gave on Calvary, is the very same life by which He we are supplied with “life, and breath, and all things.” When the Scripture tells us that we are to live by faith, the word “life” is to be taken in its natural meaning. There is nothing secret about it. Life is life. The teaching is that we are to eat, drink, sleep, move, and have our being, by faith. Everything that goes to make up life, is to be done by faith. In short, we are to live by faith. ARSH January 21, 1902, page 37.4

All the difference between the Christian and the sinner is that one lives in the right way, and the other lives in a perverted way; the one has perfect life, while the other has only partial life, in fact, has not real life at all. “He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.” ARSH January 21, 1902, page 37.5

The life of faith has to do with our flesh, our body. Read the words of the Apostle Paul: “I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.” Galatians 2:20. ARSH January 21, 1902, page 37.6

Read again: “If ye live after the flesh, ye shall die; but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.” Romans 8:13. ARSH January 21, 1902, page 37.7

Again: “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.” Romans 12:1. ARSH January 21, 1902, page 37.8

Still further: “Know ye not that they which run in a race, run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run that ye may obtain. And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible. I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air; but I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection; lest that, by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.” 1 Corinthians 9:24-27. ARSH January 21, 1902, page 37.9

It is plain upon the face of this scripture, that the Christian is to give his body the same kind of discipline that the athlete does when he is in training for a race, only from a far higher motive. Every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things; very good; but while they do it for a corruptible crown, we do it for an incorruptible crown. What is it that we do? Why, we are temperate in all things, keeping our body under, and bringing it into subjection, disciplining it, so that it will obey the mind of the Spirit. ARSH January 21, 1902, page 37.10

Our bodies are the temples of God, and as such are to be under the direct control of the Spirit of God. God himself is to quicken (make alive) our mortal bodies by His indwelling Spirit. See Romans 8:11. The Spirit is to supply all the life that we have. The life of Jesus is to be manifested in our mortal flesh. This means health, for we read: “My son, attend to my words; incline thine ear to my sayings. Let them not depart from thine eyes; keep them in the midst of thine heart. For they are life unto those that find them, and health to all their flesh.” Proverbs 4:20-22. ARSH January 21, 1902, page 37.11

With this agree the words of the Lord to Israel of old: “Behold, I send an Angel before thee, to keep thee in the way, and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared. Beware of him, and obey His voice, and provoke Him not; ... If thou shalt indeed obey His voice, and do all that I speak; then I will be an enemy unto thine enemies, and an adversary unto thine adversaries.... Ye shall serve the Lord your God, and He shall bless thy bread, and thy water; and I will take sickness away from the midst of thee.” Exodus 23:20-25. Nothing could be more explicit than this. But it throws upon us the duty of seeking to learn the ways of the Lord. This is not a difficult matter, if we are sincere, for “if any man willeth to do his will, he shall know.” He will show us the way of life, for He will reveal himself unto us, and He is the life. ARSH January 21, 1902, page 37.12

Jesus bore our sicknesses, in order that we might be freed from them, just as He bore our sins, in order that we might be saved from sin. The sins of the world were upon Him, yet nobody ever saw a single sin in His life. So all the diseases of mankind were upon Him, yet nobody ever saw Him unfitted by them for daily labor. The life that was in Him, which He continually received from the Father of all, swallowed up both sin and sickness. It is, to say the least, as easy for Him to give us health in His life, as to give us righteousness. In fact, that is what He does, since His life is undivided, and comprehends everything; but so many fail to take it for health, just as many fail to take it for righteousness. ARSH January 21, 1902, page 37.13

When the woman with the issue of blood touched Jesus, He said, “I perceive that power is gone forth from me.” As great a demand was made upon His life, as would supply the woman’s lack of life. That is to say, the vacancy in the woman’s life, was transferred to Him. He took her disease upon Himself, yet He did not die because He was constantly in touch with the Source of life, and allowed it to flow through Him unhindered; and by her faith the woman put herself in touch with that same Source. When Jesus said to her, “Thy faith hath made thee whole,” He really said, “Thy faith hath saved thee.” He used the same words that He did to the sinner who washed His feet and anointed them. See Luke 7:50. So likewise, when the blind man believed to the receiving of his sight, Jesus said the same words to him: “Thy faith hath saved thee; go in peace.” Luke 18:42. With forgiveness of sins, He gave healing of body, or in the healing of the body He imparted righteousness. In short, He makes the recipient of His grace “every whit whole,” giving him “perfect soundness.” ARSH January 21, 1902, page 37.14

The only argument that anybody can bring against this is, that they have not experienced it. That proves nothing. Many lepers were in Israel in the days of Elisha, and none of them were healed, but only Naaman the Syrian; but that, instead of proving that there was no healing for lepers in Israel, showed that every leper in Israel might have been cleansed, if he had only appreciated the presence of the Lord in His accredited prophet. ARSH January 21, 1902, page 37.15

In this article we have not tried to point out how to apply this truth in our own lives; we must first see that there is indeed something real to grasp, before we will lay hold of it. What we are first anxious for all to see is that Jesus has one life, a life filled with all the fullness of God, to give to us; that with Him God freely gives us all things, since all things are in Him. In His earth life He was superior to disease, just as He was to sin, although the flesh that He took was our human flesh, and He was made in all things like unto His brethren. He has “power over all flesh,” and therefore He can in our sinful, mortal flesh, exercise the same control over sin and disease that He did in His own. ARSH January 21, 1902, page 37.16

E. J. WAGGONER.