Chapter 1 A Consecrated Life - Far Eastern Bible College

get myself saved.” Those who say this are in fact showing that they are
not trusting in God alone for salvation, but in their own efforts.
Was Abraham like that? Not at all. He believed in the Lord. He was
persuaded and fully convinced that God will fulfil the promises He had
made to him. Those who come to God today must have faith in the
completed work of Jesus Christ alone. For us that is all that we need to
be saved. And what is faith? Faith is a deep-seated assurance in the soul
that comes from trusting totally in God, trusting particularly in His
Word, in His power and in His love. Faith is resting totally upon God.
Faith lays down its whole weight and expectation of mercy upon Him,
willing to be fully submitted to His purpose and His power.
In 1860 there was a famous tight-rope walker called Charles
Blondin. He was so good that he could walk, run, and do all kinds of
things on a rope stretched across the Niagara falls—a span of 1,000 feet,
160 feet above the raging waters. Blondin had a wheelbarrow and asked
a crowd: “Do you believe that I can carry a man across this rope to the
other side in this wheelbarrow?” The crowd said “Yes!” Blondin then
turned to the man who shouted the loudest and asked, “Sir will you
kindly step into this wheelbarrow and let me take you across this rope to
the other side?” And he said “No!” vehemently. Faith is not just
believing that God can save us. Faith is actually entrusting ourselves
fully to God alone to save us. To make this commitment we must
abandon any other ground of hope and confidence.
On the other hand, however, there are many who claim that they are
saved by the same faith that Abraham had, and yet their lives do not
show any change at all. They think that as long as they agree in their
minds to the truths of the Bible, that there is one God in three persons,
that His son Jesus Christ died on the cross and was resurrected, they
have their ticket to heaven, and can now proceed to be indifferent to
God’s Word and careless about how they live. But they are sadly
mistaken. Their faith is not true biblical faith. According to James 2:19,
even the demons have this kind of faith—they also believe and tremble.
So those who just merely agree with these truths are fooling themselves
if they think they are saved like Abraham. The Bible tells us that
Abraham’s faith in God was a faith that naturally produced a changed
42 A Consecrated Life