Faith: The Bridge of the Great Gulf
Faith
The
Bridge of the Great Gulf
(Eph
2:1-10)
When we examine our lives in this
easter season, where does faith fit into the mix? We have so many burdens that
beset us, and we have so many things that occupy our minds. This is the season
when we celebrate the journey Jesus took to the cross and the sacrifice he made
to restore us to the Father. Paul writes in Ephesians 2:8-9, “For you are saved by grace through
faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God’s gift, not from works, so that no one can boast.”
Jonathan Edwards edited and
published the biography The Life and Diary of David Brainerd. David
Brainerd was a young man who was a missionary to the Native Americans until he
died at age 29. John Wesley wrote, “Let every preacher read carefully over the
life of David Brainerd. Let us be followers
of him, as he was of Christ, in absolute self-devotion, in total deadness
to the world, and in fervent love to God and man”.[1]
David Brainerd wrote about his life
before his conversion and transcribed the following,
Another thing was that I
could not find out what faith was; or what it was to believe, and come to
Christ. I read the calls of Christ to the weary and heavy laden; but could find
no way that he directed them to come in. I thought I would gladly come, if I
knew how, though the path of duty were never so difficult. I read Mr.
Stoddard’s Guide to Christ (which I
trust was, in the hand of God, the happy means of my conversion), and my heart
rose against the author; for though he told me my very heart all along under
convictions, and seemed to be very beneficial to me in his directions. Yet here
he failed—he did not tell me anything I could do that would bring me to Christ, but left me, as it were, with a
great gulf between, without any direction to get through. For I was not yet
effectually and experimentally taught that there could be no way prescribed, whereby a natural
man could, of his own strength, obtain
that which is supernatural, and which the highest angel cannot give.[2]
David Brainerd was clearly trusting in the works that he
performed to determine his salvation.
Through those works, he found no
comfort in his life. He found no ease to his guilt, the internal testament of
his sinful state, and it wasn't until he was walking by himself that we have
this account,
I thought the Spirit of God had quite left me; but still was
not distressed: yet disconsolate, as if there was nothing in heaven or earth
could make me happy. Having been thus endeavoring to pray though, as I thought,
very stupid and senseless for near half an hour, then, as I was walking in a
dark thick grove, unspeakable glory seemed to open to the view and apprehension
of my soul. I do not mean any external brightness, for I saw no such thing; nor
do I intend any imagination of a body of light, somewhere in the third heavens,
or anything of that nature; but it was a new inward apprehension or view that I
had of God, such as I never had before, nor anything which had the least
resemblance of it. I stood still, wondered, and admired! I knew that I never had
seen before anything comparable to it for excellency and beauty; it was widely
different from all the conceptions that ever I had of God, or things divine. I
had no particular apprehension of any one person in the Trinity, either the
Father, the Son, or the Holy Ghost; but it appeared to be divine glory. My soul
rejoiced with joy unspeakable, to see such a God, such a glorious Divine Being;
and I was inwardly pleased and satisfied that he should be God over all forever
and ever. My soul was so captivated and delighted with the excellency,
loveliness, greatness, and other perfections of God, that I was even swallowed
up in him; at least to that degree, that I had no thought (as I remember) at
first about my own salvation, and scarce reflected there was such a creature as
myself. Thus God, I trust, brought me to a hearty disposition to
exalt him, and set him on the throne, and principally and ultimately to aim at
his honor and glory, as King of the universe. I continued in this state of
inward joy, peace, and astonishment, till near dark, without any sensible
abatement; and then began to think and examine what I had seen; and felt
sweetly composed in my mind all the evening following. I felt myself in a new
world, and every thing about me appeared with a different aspect from what it
was wont to do. At this time, the way of salvation opened to me with such
infinite wisdom, suitableness, and excellency, that I wondered [if] I should
ever think of any other way of salvation; was amazed that I had not dropped my
own contrivances, and complied with this lovely, blessed, and excellent way
before. If I could have been saved by my own duties, or any other way that I
had formerly contrived, my whole soul would now have refused it. I wondered
that all the world did not see and comply with this way of salvation, entirely
by the righteousness of Christ.[3]
David Brainerd had an encounter with the grace of God that
brought him out of the darkness of his works.
Where does
this fit in with Easter? There was nothing that man could do about his state of
sin. The Hebrew sacrificial system operated by faith, but was not sufficient to
address the problem indefinitely. The
author of Hebrews writes:
Since the law has only a shadow of the good things to come,
and not the reality itself of those things, it can never perfect the worshipers
by the same sacrifices they continually offer year after year. Otherwise, wouldn’t
they have stopped being offered, since the worshipers, purified once and for
all, would no longer have any consciousness of sins? But in the sacrifices there is a reminder of sins
year after year. For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take
away sins (Heb 10:1–4, CSB).
Jesus came down and became that perfect sacrifice.
We
celebrate Easter and remember the travail that Jesus endured to be that
sacrifice for us. There was nothing that could be done to earn it. There is no
price we can pay; we can only come to salvation through grace and faith.
Paul
writes,
And you were dead in your trespasses and sins in which you
previously walked according to the ways of this world, according to the ruler
of the power of the air, the spirit now working in the disobedient. We too all previously
lived among them in our fleshly desires, carrying out the inclinations of our
flesh and thoughts, and we were by nature children under wrath as the others
were also. But God,
who is rich in mercy, because of his great love that he had for us, made us alive with
Christ even though we were dead in trespasses. You are saved by grace! He also raised us up
with him and seated us with him in the heavens in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming
ages he might display the immeasurable riches of his grace through his kindness
to us in Christ Jesus. For you are saved by grace through faith, and this is
not from yourselves; it is God’s gift not
from works, so that no one can boast. For we are his workmanship, created in
Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared ahead of time for us to do (Eph
2:1-10, CSB).
We see that salvation comes completely from God’s grace and
mercy. Only those could bridge the great gulf that he felt.
David
Brainerd found that only the righteousness of Christ could atone for him, and I
would implore all those who have a fear of the future and their standing before
God to trust in the finished work of Christ and Christ alone.
[1] George
Bourne, The Life of the Rev. John Wesley,
A. M. with Memoirs of the Wesley Family. To Which Are Subjoined, Dr.
Whitehead’s Funeral Sermon, and a Comprehensive History of American Methodism
(Baltimore: George Dobbin and Murphy; John Hagerty and Abner Neal, 1807), 249.
[2] Jonathan
Edwards, The Life and Diary of David
Brainerd (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 2022).
[3] Ibid.
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