Romans 12:6-8 Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, whether prophecy… I. WHAT IS "FAITH" HERE? 1. If we are to understand the trust of the heart towards God, then the passage will mean, that "if any man prophesy," or preach, he must do it "according to the spiritual experience which God has given him." The measure of the faith is the measure of the life; and if we wish to raise the standard of our life, we must begin by elevating our faith. We cannot go beyond our faith; and we must not fall short of it. The great business of life is to square our words and actions to the faith which God has given us. 2. But we are to take "faith" here rather as signifying not the belief, but the things believed — our creed — "the faith once delivered to the saints." II. WE MUST KEEP THE GENERAL SYMMETRY OF THE WHOLE BODY OF "THE TRUTH AS IT IS IN JESUS." 1. There is no greater danger than disproportion — the source of almost all error. For the enemy of truth to present what is palpably false would at once startle and offend! But he secures his end much better, by putting before us what is in itself perfectly true, but which becomes false when not balanced by another and equal truth. 2. God has been pleased to give us a revelation; but He has given us also common sense. The Bible was never intended to be cut up into isolated texts. No book would bear it. If you take single sentences you may prove Socinianism, Popery, anything. What we have to do is to know all; to collate all; and to gather, from the Bible, in its integrity, the mind of God. III. ONE OR TWO THINGS IN WHICH IT IS MOST IMPORTANT TO KEEP "THE PROPORTION OF FAITH." 1. Each Person in the Blessed Trinity has His own prerogative, office, and dispensation. Some persons' religion is all of the Father, others' all of the Son, others' all of the Spirit. See, however, how the works of each stand related to each other in the proportion of faith. The Father loved the world, and gave His Son to save it. The Son wrought out for us a complete salvation, and with Him we have union by faith. That union is our strength, and our life. That union once made, the Holy Spirit flows into us as the blood flows into a member of the body; or, as the sap flows into a branch, grafted into the tree. So that it is impossible to say to which we owe most. 2. According to "the proportion of faith," there is a wide distinction between the process of our justification and our sanctification. We are justified at once, and perfectly, by a single act of faith; hut we are sanctified by degrees with effort, and even painfulness. (J. Vaughan, M.A.) Parallel Verses KJV: Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith; |
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