A French Pastor of the 1800’s, Adolphe Monod, gives us these encouraging words—“Looking unto Jesus and to the apparent success of our efforts…Apparent success is not the measure of real success, and besides, God has not commanded us to success, but to work. It is our work that He will require an account and not our success; why then take thought about it before time? It is for us to sow the seed; it is for God to gather the fruit; if not today, it will be tomorrow; if not by us, it will by others. Even when success is granted, it is always dangerous to let our eyes rest upon it complacently; on the one hand we are tempted to attribute something of it to ourselves; on the other hand we thus accustom ourselves to give way to relaxing our zeal when we cease to perceive its effects, that is to say, at the very time when we ought to redouble our energy. To look to success is to walk by sight; to look to Jesus, and to persevere in following and serving Him in spite of all discouragements, is to walk by faith.” “If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit” (Gal.5:25). Adolphe Monod knew this as he learned to ‘look unto Jesus.’ The two most important things in our walk with Christ are the life of faith and the walk of faith. When we understand these we are not far from being a master in experimental success, for they are vital points to a believer. We will never find true faith unattended by true Godliness; on the other hand, you will never discover a truly holy life that has not for its root a living faith upon the righteousness of Christ. “Woe unto those who seek after the one without the other! There are some who cultivate faith and forget holiness; these may be very high in orthodoxy, but they shall be very deep in condemnation, for they hold the truth in unrighteousness; and there are others who have strained after holiness of life, but have denied the faith, like the Pharisees of old, of whom the Master said, they were whitewashed sepulchers. “We must have faith, for this is the foundation; we must have holiness of life, for this is the superstructure. Of what service is the mere foundation of a building to a man in the day of tempest? Can he hide himself therein? He needs a house to cover him, as well as a foundation for that house. Even so we need that superstructure of spiritual life if we would have comfort in the day of doubt. But seek not a holy life without faith, for that would be to erect a house which can afford no permanent shelter, because it has no foundation on a rock.” (C.H. Spurgoen, 1834-1892) “Look unto Jesus” who is our foundation, and walk in Jesus who is our life. In doing so we have both faith and holiness of life, and at the end of our earthly journey we’ll have the comfort of receiving these words, “Well done thou good and faithful servant.”
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