The question for everyone is, “Do you know that Christ lives in you? Are you joined to Him?” There are many who are workers for Him professedly, who dare not say that Christ lives in them; they do not know that Christ is one with them. When we were bearing crosses after the manner we have described, we could not say, “Christ lives in me.” So we were separated from Him, and thus separated from His cross.
Much is lost, in reading the Scriptures, by not noting exactly what they say. Here we have literally, "the faith of Christ," just as in Rev. 14:12 we have "the faith of Jesus." He is the Author and Finisher of faith. Heb. 12:2. God has "dealt to every man the measure of faith" (Rom. 12:3), in giving Christ to every man. "Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God" (Rom. 10:17), and Christ is the Word. All things are of God. It is He who gives repentance and forgiveness of sins. {80}
The Faith of the Son of God.
The Law Can Not Justify.
At the annual meeting of the London Nonconformist Council, the president, Dr. Clifford, said in the course of his address that the business of the Free Churches is "to inform as well as to quicken the conscience of men everywhere, . . . to put into the category of sins all violations of the laws of God, though they might be sanctioned by the customs and upheld by the inherited prejudices and traditions of men."
“God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by His Son, whom He hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also He made the worlds.” Heb. 1:1, 2. “Us” means each one, each individual, to whom the words that are spoken come.
In a talk at the late Keswick Convention, Dr. A. T. Pierson called attention in the following words to a most alarming state of things in the Christian church, and its cause:—
"OUT of the depths have I cried unto Thee, 0 Lord." Ps. 130:1. And he did not cry in vain. The depths from which he cried were the depths of sin; for he said, "If Thou, Lord, shouldst mark iniquity, 0 Lord, who shall stand? But there is forgiveness with Thee, that Thou mayest be feared." "Let Israel hope in the Lord; for with the Lord there is mercy, and with Him is plenteous redemption. And He shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities." So out of the depths of iniquity we may cry to the Lord, with the assurance that He will gladly help us.
We can not deceive God, and it is useless to deceive ourselves or others. "The Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart." 1 Sam. 16:7. The circumcision in which the "false brethren" were seeking to induce the Galatians to trust, meant self-righteousness, instead of righteousness by faith. They had the law only as "the form of righteousness and of truth." With their works they could make "a fair show in the flesh," but it was only an empty show; there was no reality in it.