The Victory That Overcomes

by T. Austin-Sparks

Chapter 1 - Faith

"For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?" 1 John 5:4-5.

"I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I that live, but Christ liveth in me: and that life which I now live in the flesh I live in faith, the faith which is in the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself up for me" Gal. 2:20.

"...That I may gain Christ, and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of mine own, even that which is of the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith" Phil. 3:9.

"...Even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ unto all them that believe" Rom. 3:22.

"...Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, even we believed on Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ, and not by the works of the law: because by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified. For ye are all sons of God, through faith, in Christ Jesus" Gal. 2:16; 3:26.

"Withal taking up the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the evil one" Eph. 6:16.

The passage in 1 John 5:4 supplies the key word of our meditation at this time: "This is the victory that overcometh... even our faith." There the word is given a specific application relating to overcoming the world. But it is of general application also, as we shall see, and relates to everything that has to be overcome; for there is no overcoming except by faith, and there are a good many things which have to be overcome, every one of which can be overcome by faith. So that we use the statement in its abbreviated form for our present meditation: "the victory that overcometh... even our faith."

At the outset our meditation will be of a very simple character. The Lord will no doubt lead us on into greater fullnesses, but we need to lay the foundation for everything in one or two observations about this faith which overcomes, the victory of faith.

1. The Quality of Faith

The first thing we need to see is the quality of faith. Wherever we touch faith in the Word of God, we touch something that is positive. That is something to take hold of and to follow out in connection with our reading of the Word; to note for ourselves that wherever we come upon faith, we shall find that it is characterised by a positive quality, a positive element. There is no such thing as passive faith.

Passivity is the opposite of faith in the Word of God. This does not mean that faith is always on the strain. We must be careful not to confuse positive faith with a mentally strenuous life. There is such a thing as an intensity and strenuousness of soul which leads to exhaustion and collapse, which brings eventually out into the wilderness, into desolation and barrenness, to a place where we can go no further, and where we think that our faith has been destroyed, broken, when it was not our faith at all, but our strenuous, intensive kind of soul life which we thought was faith.

Positive faith does not mean that faith is always a strain, but it does mean that faith is never neutral.

a) Faith may be aggressive

At times faith has to be aggressive; it has to advance, as a part of the equipment of a soldier, whose whole life is not a defensive life, and whose life is certainly not a passive life.

b) Faith may be resisting

While perhaps not attacking, very often faith has to take the positive position of sheer resistance. The very simile of "a shield of faith" implies that faith is a resisting instrument or means, something which refuses to let other things through, which positively sets itself against the inroads of certain things which are termed "the fiery darts of the evil one".

c) Faith may be waiting

Very often faith has to be a waiting faith.

d) Faith may be resting

Sometimes faith is resting; and there is such a thing as the rest of faith.

e) Faith is never quiescent

Faith may be characterised by all these other features, but it is never quiescent or motionless. Even a resting faith is never quiescent. It is always positive. There is such a thing as labouring to enter into rest. That means that faith is a positive and not a little thing that you fall back into, collapse or recline on, but something which calls for deliberateness of mind, and heart, and will.

Faith's quality is its positiveness. However it may be expressing itself, whatever the immediate exercise of it may be, whatever the situation, faith is always positive. If you turn to the Word of God with that thought in mind and read anywhere concerning faith, you will discover that that is its abiding, unvarying quality.

2. The Necessity of Faith

The second thing for us to remember (we know it well, and yet so often we forget or allow the fact to fall into the background to some degree) is the necessity of faith. One of the things which we have to settle, and to take for granted, and yet ever to have in mind, is that our life from centre to circumference in relation to God is a life of faith; and it will never be anything else.

We shall always be discovering new forms in which that truth holds good and is to express itself. It is very easy to talk about a life of faith, but to the end, should we go the way of most, to our last breath we shall discover new demands for the exercise of faith, and new forms in which faith is called out. And we shall never be beyond the place where faith is the basis of everything in relation to God. Indeed, one of the marks of spiritual maturity is the intensifying demand for faith. By contrast, one of the marks of spiritual immaturity or childhood is that the Lord encourages faith by supporting it from time to time with helps which are seen. The further we advance with the Lord, the less shall we have of the seen, and the fewer will be those things in the visible realm which help to strengthen faith.

Though we may see the results of faith, we shall never see them until faith has been tested to its last degree, and we shall come to this position, that although there may be lying behind us multitudes of miracles of faith which we know to be miracles, the next test will be such as to make them as very little. Sometimes we think that if only we had in the background a sufficient store of miracles of faith, we should never doubt again. That is not true to life. The people who have the most miracles of faith are the people who feel the keenness of the next trial in its nakedness, its bareness, as few others would feel it. We never get to the place in this life where faith is perfect, in the sense that God cannot put us to a test which is no test. Right to the end faith will be faith, simply because it is not anything else.

Faith is necessary from start to finish, it is the ground demanded by and indispensable to God for everything, and God never does anything in our lives only on the ground of faith. You may challenge me on that, but I shall bring you to the Word of God and show you that God does not begin His relationships except on the basis of faith, and does not continue His relationships except on the basis of faith, and does not consummate His work in us save on the basis of faith. The consummation of the nature of His work in us on this earth will therefore be final tests of faith.

It may be very nice to dream about an evening of our life when all the battle ceases and we pass out in perfect peace without conflict, but that does not happen in real life. Most of God's saints have met their greatest tests of faith in the closing moments of their lives, and found it manifested then as to how far faith had been a genuine thing all along. Nothing is possible in our relationship with God apart from faith.

That is set over against a false hope (for false hope it is) that God will independently do things with us, in us, through us, for us; that we have but to sit down and say, 'Oh Lord, we commit it all to you! You do it!' The Lord never does. If we get into a bad state, and cry to the Lord to get us out of it, the Lord never does until we have got on to a faith basis, until faith's quality has come into evidence; something positive towards God. It is only saying in another way what we said at the commencement, that passivity is a contradiction to faith and God does nothing save on that basis. All His works in us and through us are done by calling faith into evidence, by the exercise of positive faith.

Surely the word of God is plain enough on this matter for us. The gospels set it forth in a practical way. Nothing ever came from the Lord Jesus of His divine resource into another life, only as that life had the positive quality of faith drawn out. The Lord put faith to a practical test, and as the test was passed through, the values which were in Him became the possessions of the person in view. Nothing is possible apart from faith. "Without faith it is impossible to please God..." (Heb. 11:6). That is a very comprehensive statement.

It would be well for us to lay to heart this particular emphasis before we pass on, well-known and simple as it is. It will come back to us again and again in the presence of fresh situations, at new crises in our lives. "This is the victory that overcometh... our faith."

What has to be overcome? You may be aware of something in your own life which at this time needs to be overcome. There is a situation, a state of things, which holds for you the issue of defeat or victory, rising above or going under, going on or falling out, you are either going to triumph or you are going to be quenched; you are either going through or you are going out. That is perhaps the content of your present position, and you know that it is an utter one. There is no place for compromise. You know quite well that you cannot accept a halfway position, that it is all or nothing; and it may be that in relation to that particular issue you are crying to the Lord to do something and waiting for the Lord to do something. The Lord will wait for you. He will wait until that element of doubt and unbelief mixed up with the situation in our hearts is fully and finally thrust out, and our attitude towards Him is one of unwavering confidence without questions.

The positive quality of faith is the victory that overcomes. We may be looking for other means of victory, for sovereign acts of God altogether independent of ourselves, apart from ourselves. Where these can be, without involving our spiritual lives in danger and damage, the Lord may perform His sovereign acts; for He is not one who refuses such acts in situations where spiritual damage will not be done to any persons by His performing those acts; but if our spiritual life is involved, God will not act apart from co-operating faith, and God Himself is always paralyzed by our doubt. F. B. H. Meyer says: "God shall forgive thee all but thy despair"! I do not know that it would be right to say that that is the unpardonable sin in the scriptural sense, but it means that God can do nothing except on the basis of faith.

3. The Sphere and Source of Faith

The passages to which we have referred have one common feature. That common feature is the little phrase, so very much used by Paul, "in Christ". You notice that wherever in these passages he speaks of faith, he speaks of faith "in Christ": "That life which I now live in the flesh I live in faith which is in the Son of God..."; "Faith which is in Christ Jesus". What does that mean?

I want you to recognise that it is something more than objective. It is not merely that Christ stands over there and you or I stand here, and we say we believe in Christ, just as we could say of any man whom we see, utterly trusted and highly esteemed, "I believe in him"! That is not the meaning of faith in Christ. Faith in Christ goes a long way beyond that. It is not just believing in the Person of Christ, the trustworthiness of Christ, the work of Christ; neither all these together, nor any one of them apart. Faith in Christ is more than objective; it is union. It is utter self-abandonment to God as revealed in Christ, and that utter self-abandonment is union. Faith is obedience, nothing less, nothing more; and obedience is committing yourself wholly, utterly, to another. That kind of commitment in the New Testament is union. You will notice that the Lord Jesus demanded what amounted to that in every case in the days of His flesh. He was never satisfied with an objective declaration of believing in Him. He always demanded some active expression of committal, leaving an independent and personal ground for His ground.

Take the case of the man who has become popularly termed, 'the rich young ruler'. He made a profession, an advance, he indicated a belief in Christ, but the Lord did not accept him on that ground. That was his ground, and he still had his ground. The Lord finished the whole thing with that man by demanding a forsaking of his own ground and all that belonged to it and coming on to His (Christ's) ground in an utterness which meant that Christ was his all: Christ his riches, Christ his possessions, Christ his life, Christ his ambitions, Christ his future; that Christ took the place of everything that was his. That finished the whole thing.

That is the meaning of faith in Christ. Christ becomes the sphere of faith in a living way, and therefore the source of faith. Faith rises, so to speak, like a spring in Christ, and you have to come into union with Christ on the basis of that faith.

Faith is an act to begin with. "Now is our salvation nearer than when we believed" (Rom. 13:11). That is the act. But it begins a life. "That life which I now live I live by faith which is in the Son of God" (Gal. 2:20). It is an act to begin with, and it becomes a life. Faith is not merely objective. Faith is the utter commitment, without a reservation, to the Lord.

Where our own ground has been removed, taken away, and we are on the Lord's ground, that is faith. Faith is being on the Lord's ground, and not on our own, and we shall never stand apart from the Lord and get through to victory. We can only get through to victory as we stand in the Lord. It is faith in Christ. The preposition "in" does not suggest an objective faith. The preposition is "in", which is "in Christ". That faith is at the centre of Christ. Christ becomes a sphere, and that faith is within that sphere, and we in true faith in Christ are within the sphere where that faith is.

I have heard it said concerning Galatians 2:20 that the words: "I live by faith, the faith which is in the Son of God" means Christ's faith. It means nothing of the kind, not in the sense in which it is said; it does not mean that Christ has faith and we live by Christ's faith. We do not live by Christ's faith in that sense that we cast ourselves upon His faith. It means that we, in a certain relationship with Him, draw faith from Him, take His faith, that faith becomes our faith. It may seem a fine distinction, but the grammar there makes it perfectly clear that it does not mean that it is just Christ's faith that we are living by, that is, that Christ has faith for us and we believe that Christ's faith for us will triumph, and so we are living by His faith. It does not mean that, it means that by relationship with Him we become partakers of His faith in an active and energetic way, and that faith has to be tested out in us. His faith has gone through, it is true. His faith has fully triumphed, and is a perfect faith, but that does not mean that we simply, so to speak, impinge upon that perfect faith and that is all that is necessary. That faith has to be perfected in us just as it was perfected in Him, but all this depends upon our relationship to Him, our union with Him.

This union means several things. It means, on the negative side, a departure from our natural basis of life.

Faith in Christ means that we have departed from our natural basis of life, our natural unbelief, and have come on to a new ground of life. That ground is Christ. It is a different realm, a different basis for life. If we are going to stand upon our natural basis, we are not going to get anywhere. If our natural unbelief is going to prevail and hold the field in any matter with the Lord, a serious deadlock at once arises, we come to an impasse, and the Lord says, "Until you forsake that ground, I cannot go on, and we cannot go on together! You are on your natural ground and must forsake it!" Then we may say, "But that means stepping out onto nothing!" "Yes," He says, "that is just it! That is faith, stepping out on to what to you in nature looks like nothing!" It is something. "He hangeth the world upon nothing"! But it is a mighty "nothing"! Abraham went out not knowing whither he went. So far as he knew he went out to nothing. It is a departure from our natural state, which demanded a certain basis for action, a certain sentient evidence, proof for proceeding, and the Lord never does anything until we have forsaken that ground. He calls upon us to do something which naturally is altogether out of the question. Nature clings to a certain basis. He demands that we forsake it.

This union with Christ means, on the positive side, a link with Him by the Spirit. The negative side is a departure from our natural basis, the positive side is a link with Him by the Spirit, and that makes everything possible because the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of faith.

Union with Christ is an imparting of Christ in His victory to us by the Spirit as we proceed in faith. The first step may be very simple. The Lord graduates our course according to our state, and the first steps may be elementary, kindergarten, helped, but as we take that first step, the only step we have ever taken, with all the terrors associated with a first step, we find the Holy Spirit is there linking us with Christ.

Take the case of the child and the parent, and the first step. There is a gap, and yet there is no gap. That gap, which to sense, to sight, has nothing in it, is already filled. All that that child sees is that it is here and the parent is there, and between there is a pace, and that pace is filled with terrors because it is a vacant place apparently. But we know quite well that that pace is already bridged, that gap is already filled. It is not an empty one. There are all the forces, the potentialities, all the love, the concern of the parent already projected into that gap, unseen by the child but there, and when that child takes the step, it is only a matter of less than an instant, quicker than thought, and the child discovers that the strength is in the gap.

That is the link of the Spirit. The unseen, the invisible Spirit, linking us with Christ, and then, as the step is taken in faith, what does that invisible Spirit do? He brings the strength to the child, and the Spirit ministers that way of Christ to faith every time. Sometimes the child may begin to go down, but that invisible link draws, takes, applies the strength, and saves from the crash.

That is extended through life in much more complicated situations, much more definite positions. There is never a time when the gap does not exist where nature is concerned; to nature there is always that gap. To faith that gap is already filled, and faith goes on, taking it that really the gap does not exist in reality. It looks like it to sense, so it appears to all natural proof, there is nothing to work upon, yet faith says in that gap there is an invisible link; and as faith steps into what to nature is a void, but believing that it will find God, that Spirit ministers Christ, and faith is ministered from Christ, victory is ministered from Christ, until bigger gaps are capable of being entered into. Faith grows, and there are bigger undertakings all the time. It is the imparting of Christ's victory of faith to us by the Spirit, as we are exercised towards it.

God Never Gives up His Plan

I hope that does not disturb you. Have you settled that, or are you still asking for the plan, and wanting the pattern of the future? God never gives us His plan. He teaches us to know Himself. We ask to know His way. He seeks to make us know Himself. That is very important from His point of view, and very important for us.

God is never satisfied with having a lot of people occupied with His plans. He wants people occupied with Himself, knowing Himself: "I am the Lord"! What is the way, Lord? "I am"! How can we know the way? "I am"! The strange thing is that the more we know the Lord the more we are able to go on. We might say that if only we knew the plan we could go on, but I am not so sure about that. We should discover that we wanted to know the Lord to go on in the plan. It might be impossible without a knowledge of the Lord, but if we know the Lord, we have both.

God Never Tells Us His Times

He calls upon us to believingly rest in Him. If we try to take things out of God's time, we shall lose our rest. If we fret over things that are not yet in the Lord's time, we shall destroy rest. He never tells His times. When God's time comes, things happen, and there is no fret about it. "It is not for you to know the times or the seasons..." (Acts 1:7). When the time comes you will know. Until the time comes, you have to believe and believe that when the time comes you will know. God is faithful. God is never too late. God is never too early. If we had our way, very often we should make God too early. That would only complicate things.

God Never Makes Common-sense His Basis of Procedure

He works on the ground of the impossible. We may take the historic illustration of Abraham as being a true spiritual guide. By faith he went out, and we shall always find that faith calls us to go out, not always geographically, or necessarily physically, but we shall find that faith always demands that we go out, that we have to leave a certain position. It may mean "common sense" as man calls it, the way of reasoning on the part of our friends, man's way of looking at things, all the opinion of the best we know around us, every kind of argument of nature. We have to go out from thence, not knowing. From the knowing to the un-knowing is very often the way of faith unto fuller knowing.

These things are easily said. They are not so many things collected to say at this time. They are born out of exercise of heart. The time comes, as we go on, when a maturity is essential to the winding up of the dispensation. God has appointed a dispensation in which to accomplish something. That must be accomplished.

If it is not accomplished in all His people, it makes no difference. God must and will have His end, the end which is to mark the close of the dispensation. And God's object for the end of the dispensation, as the result of all His dealings with His people through the dispensation, is the faith which overcomes the ultimate forces of the enemy; not the faith which trusts God for daily supplies of temporal things, but something infinitely above that. It is the faith which meets the naked forces of this universe in antagonism to Christ and His Body. The question is justified, and has behind it a tremendous significance, "When the Son of man cometh, shall He find the faith on the earth?" (Luke 18:8). It means surely that the strain, the test, the pressure, the antagonism, will at the end be so intense that only an ultimate faith will go through. These are they which "overcame... because of the blood of the Lamb, and because of the word of their testimony..." (Rev. 12:11 ASV).

I think it needs very little discernment to see that we are moving now into a time when faith in God's elect is being openly opposed by the powers of darkness. It is not even the test of whether you are prepared to lay down your life for Christ. It has gone beyond that. The test is as to whether you are prepared to live a life of dying with Christ. Paul's last days in prison are an illustration of an end time faith; with all saints leaving, departing, the work of a lifetime seeming to have broken down, alone after the most utter devotion to the Lord, and yet triumphant. This is the victory that overcomes!

May the Lord strengthen and increase our faith.