eHence, we again infer what had been explained before? that faith needs the Word as much as fruit needs the living root of a tree. For no others, as David witnesses, can hope in God but those who know his name
[<190910>Psalm 9:10]. But this knowledge does not arise out of anyone’s
imagination, but only so far as God himself is witness to his goodness.
This the prophet confirms in another place: “Thy salvation according to thy word” [<19B941>
Psalm 119:41]. Likewise, “I have hoped in thy word;
make me safe.” [<191904>Psalm 19:42, 40, 94.] Here we must first note the relation of faith to the Word, then its consequence, salvation.
Yet in the meantime we do not exclude God’s power in respect to which, unless faith sustains itself, it can never render to God the honor due him.
Paul seems to apply to Abraham a barren commonplace: that he believed God, who had promised him blessed offspring, to be mighty
[<450421>Romans 4:21]. Likewise, he says elsewhere concerning himself: “I
know whom I have believed, and I am sure that he is mighty to guard until that day what has been entrusted to me” [<550112>2 Timothy 1:12]. But if anyone considers in himself how many doubts concerning the power of God often creep in, he will sufficiently recognize that they who magnify it as it deserves have made no slight progress in faith. All of us will confess that God is able to do whatever he wills; but when the slightest temptation strikes us down in fear and stuns us with fright, from this it is plain that we detract from God’s might, preferring to it the threatening of Satan against His promises. This is the reason why Isaiah, when he wishes to impress the certainty of salvation upon the hearts of the people, so grandly discusses God’s boundless power [<234025>
Isaiah 40:25 ff., and often in Isaiah, chs. 40 to 45]. It often seems that, when he begins to speak concerning the hope of pardon and reconciliation, he turns to something else and wanders through long and superfluous mazes, recalling how wonderfully God governs the frame of heaven and earth together with the whole order of nature. Yet there is nothing here that does not serve the present circumstance. For unless the power of God, by which he can do all things, confronts our eyes, our ears will barely receive the Word or not esteem it at its true value.
Besides this, his effectual might is here declared, since piety — as has appeared elsewhere F55 — always adapts God’s might to use and need; and especially sets before itself the works of God by which he has testified that he is the Father. Hence comes the very frequent mention of
redemption in the Scriptures, from which the Israelites could learn that God, who had once for all been the Author of salvation, was to be its eternal guardian. By his example David, also, reminds us that those benefits which God bestows individually upon each man serve to confirm faith in him for the future. Indeed, when it seems that he has deserted us we must stretch our thoughts farther, that his former benefits may revive us, as is said in another psalm: “I remember the days of old, I have meditated on all thy deeds…” [<19E305>
Psalm 143:5; 142:5, Vg.]. Likewise,
“I will remember the works of the Lord…and his wonders from the beginning.” [<197711>
Psalm 77:11, Comm.]
But because whatever we conceive concerning God’s might and works is fleeting without the Word, we declare with good reason that there is no faith until God illumines it by the testimony of his grace.
Yet here it would be possible to raise the question What should we think of Sarah and Rebecca? both of whom, it seems, were fired with a zealous faith and went beyond the limits of the Word. Sarah, passionately desiring the promised offspring, yielded her maidservant to her husband
[<011602>
Genesis 16:2, 5]. We must not deny that she sinned in many ways; but I am now dealing with her failure, when carried away with zeal, to confine herself within the limits of God’s Word. Yet it is certain that that desire arose out of faith. Rebecca, assured by divine oracle of the choice of her son Jacob, obtains the blessing for him by a wicked
subterfuge [<012709>Genesis 27:9]: She deceives her husband, the witness and minister of God’s grace. She compels her son to lie. She corrupts God’s truth by various guiles and deceits. In short, in scorning his promise, she destroys it as far as she can [Genesis 27].
Yet this act, although a failing and deserving of rebuke, was not devoid of faith. For it was necessary that she overcome many little obstacles that she might stoutly strive after something that offered no hope of earthly benefit, and was teeming with huge troubles and dangers. In the same way, we do not regard the patriarch Isaac as entirely devoid of faith for the reason that, admonished by the same oracle concerning the honor transferred to his younger son, he still did not cease to be inclined to his first-born son, Esau. These examples surely teach that errors are often mingled with faith, yet in such a way that when it is a true faith it always holds the upper hand. For just as Rebecca’s particular error did not render void the effect of the blessing, so it did not render void her faith, which generally held mastery in her mind and was the beginning and cause of that action. Nonetheless, Rebecca betrayed in this how slippery are the
turnings of the human mind, as soon as it relaxes its control in the slightest degree. But even though man’s default and weakness obscure faith, they do not extinguish it. In the meantime, they warn us how carefully we ought to wait upon God’s voice; and at the same time they confirm what
we have taught: that faith vanishes unless it is supported by the Word.
The minds of Sarah and Isaac and Rebecca would have vanished in their devious shiftings if they had not been kept in obedience to the Word by God’s secret bridle.