- Faith Values the Pilgrim Journey

06 - Faith Values the Pilgrim Journey
YOU ARE A CHRISTIAN. THAT you admit. You go to church nearly every Sunday. “Just ask the minister; he will confirm it.”
You have been working and earning, getting and spending, and now you are enjoying the creature comforts known to modern human beings in this land.
You bristle a little and ask, “Is there anything wrong with being comfortable?”
Let me answer in this way: If you are a Christian and you are comfortably “at home” in Chicago or Toronto, in Iowa or Alberta—or any other address on planet earth—the signs are evident that you are in spiritual trouble.
The spiritual equation reads like this: The greater your contentment with your daily circumstances in this world, the greater your defection from the ranks of God’s pilgrims en route to a city whose architect and builder is God Himself!
The writer of the Letter to the Hebrews centuries ago described the long-range faith of the many victorious pilgrims who could never really feel at home in this world:
All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth. People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.(Hebrews 11:13-16)
One of the most telling indictments against many of us who comprise our Christian churches today is the almost complete acceptance of the contemporary scene as our permanent home. We say that we are followers of Christ, but we have already settled down and we are comfortably at home. We are satisfied to be natives and citizens of this world’s society—we are no longer” aliens and strangers.”
If we can feel that we have put down our roots in this present world, if we have a true sense of belonging, then our Lord still has much to teach us about faith and attachment to our Savior.
Our citizenship is in heaven
The apostle Paul emphasized an important New Testament teaching concerning our true citizenship as believing Christians when he declared:
Our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body. (Philippians 3:20-21)
Those are not just comforting words to be recited at the graveside. They are words of truth and hope for aliens and strangers, walking by faith on this earth, who know that their true citizenship is in heaven.
We are speaking of genuine, abiding faith in God. And I want to note with you an interesting observation. In Hebrews 11 there are three prepositions used with the word faith. Each has something to do with our Christian pilgrimage.
How did God’s heroes live? How did they meet temptations and sufferings? How did they die? Everything was “by faith,” “through faith” or “in faith.”
Throughout the ages, this has been the pattern of God’s methodology for His faithful men and women. We do certain things by faith. We accomplish certain things through faith. Some things we do in faith, trusting and believing even in dark times. I emphasize these prepositions here as a contrast to the philosophies of the worldlings around us—those who tell us that they live and operate “on faith.”
All adult my life I have been a minister in The Christian and Missionary Alliance. When I started out, many of the Alliance pastors did not receive a regular weekly salary. Rather, they lived “by faith.” Members of their congregations would contribute a part of their weekly tithes and offerings direct to their minister’s support. Whatever they gave, that the pastor had as his income. And so these ministers lived “by faith” without a fixed remuneration.
Living by faith versus living on faith
Often members of the group would comment that their pastor was “living on faith.” Some of the pastors were sure their people knew only the one preposition—living “on” faith. It was reported by one of the early evangelists that an Alliance woman was critical of her pastor for buying a piece of beefsteak “when everyone knows that he is living on faith.” Apparently they thought that because the pastor was willing to live by faith he could exist on faith.
A thousand times no! None of us should be living on faith, for if we rest on faith we have a complete misunderstanding of what faith is. The purpose of faith is to get us to rest completely on God—on God Himself!
It is only by faith that we can rest on God. It is through faith that we can trust the promises of God. It is in faith that we can daily live our lives in dependence upon God, His Word and His promises.
These are the Christian contrasts to the worldly philosophy of human activity and presumption on faith. “Just go ahead bravely on faith. Never say die!”—that is the self-courageous attitude of this world.
“Never say die!” But then they die.
“You can if you will—it is all up to you,” is the world’s refrain. “He who thinks he can, can!”
Since I have been a Christian, I have had a negative reaction to that kind of human psychology. I do not mind saying that my favorite hymns are not those that exhort me to rise up, bare my chest to the elements, flex my biceps and tell the world where to get off. That is not my philosophy because it would put my confidence in the wrong place. If my faith, my belief, my confidence are in myself, then they cannot at the same time be resting in God.
The Bible tells us to believe in God and to put our trust in Him. It warns us against having any confidence in the flesh. So I do not want some voice exhorting me to “Rise up, O man of God, go forth to face the foe”—and all of that. I would rather go to the place of prayer, meet God there and then let Him face the world for me.
To meet the kinds of temptations and enemies confronting us, it is not enough for us to stick out our chins, inflate our chests and mutter the old refrain, “Never say die!” We do not operate on faith; rather, we rest our case completely on God. Then our experiences proceed by faith, through faith and in faith. That is the way victory comes, because our victory must be God’s victory first!
Two kinds of faith
I see two kinds of faith in these verses from Hebrews 11. The more important, by far, is the long-range, unchanging faith in God’s person and in God’s plan no matter how long His plan takes. I call this long-range faith. It is the quality of being able to trust God far into the future.
The other kind of faith is short-range. It is the faith of the beginner, the eager new believer who wants everything to happen now! These new creations in Christ Jesus have confessed their faith in Him Christ and have sensed the joy of being forgiven for their sins. They are likely to be taken up with today’s blessings, today’s provision, today’s expectations. As yet, they know little of persecution, temptations, the wiles of the devil, the loneliness of the minority.
So far, their faith in God is short-range, immediate. They have not yet heard of all those heroes of faith who believed, persevered, suffered, clung to all of God’s promises and died in faith not having seen the fulfillment of God’s great plan.
Generally in our Christian circles when we talk about the promises of God, we refer to God’s immediate provision and to blessings for our present needs. But in effect, Christ has said to us, “I have a long-range plan for you! I am asking you to forsake all for Me, transfer every allegiance to Me, trust completely in Me. Then in the day of My triumph and vindication, you will triumph with Me. When I come into My ultimate glory, you will share in that glory!”
Pilgrims and strangers
Let me tell you something that is very evident in God’s dealings with us. Anyone who truly knows the demands of faith, anyone who is genuinely committed to the Christian life is both a pilgrim and a stranger in this world. (I like that term pilgrim, used in some translations, better than alien, so I will use it.)
The words pilgrim and stranger are synonymous, yet they are not identical. A pilgrim is generally a religious traveler who is determined to visit some holy place. History tells us about people making pilgrimages. Many individuals and many groups endured hardships and sufferings in order to reach the places on earth that they considered sacred.
Pilgrims are never pictured as seeking some commercial gain. They are intent upon a higher motive, and they keep traveling and seeking because they have not yet found that place they can call home.
Simply, pilgrims who are still pilgrims have not arrived at that place to which they are going. They are still moving toward their objective.
What, then, is a stranger? A stranger is one who has found a place of residence but who cannot truly consider himself or herself a part of the new culture. He or she may be of another race and speak a different language. The culture that surrounds him or her is completely different from that which he or she has known.
If we are genuine, committed Christians, intent upon walking by faith with our Lord Jesus Christ, then we are continually confessing that we are pilgrims and that we are strangers!
The Holy Spirit, who is the real author of this Letter to the Hebrews, uses the terms pilgrims and strangers to remind the early Christians that they were not yet at their final home.
The message still reads the same today. Christian pilgrims are journeying by faith from an old city that is cursed and under threat of judgment to a blessed and celestial city where dwells Immanuel!
As Christian pilgrims and strangers, we are never borne along by force or compulsion. We remain free moral agents. We have not been squeezed or coerced into a profession of faith. Christ has chosen us, and we have followed Him gladly and freely.
Why do I speak of that here? Because the writer to the Hebrews has told us that the heroes of faith, the pilgrims and strangers of old, could have turned back to their native city and home.
Abraham could have gone back. If he had found that he was longing for Ur of the Chaldees and that his pilgrimage with God was no longer his soul’s desire, he could have turned around and said, “I am going back!”
Not everyone follows through
In the New Testament, that man described as a rich young ruler in the national and religious life of Israel came to Jesus to inquire about faith and choice. Jesus said to him, “Leave all; become a pilgrim and follow Me!”
That young man was free to choose, free to believe, free to follow the Son of Man. But he turned back. He walked away. There is nothing in the New Testament record to indicate that Jesus ever came in contact with him again.
Demas was a Christian brother in the company of the apostle Paul. With Luke, he was actually linked as a loyal prison companion of Paul in Rome. Yet when Paul wrote his final letter from prison, he regretfully reported to Timothy, “Demas, because he loved this world, has deserted me.” That is the last we hear of Demas in the New Testament record.
In this life, we will never have a complete record of pilgrims who became weary and discouraged and decided to turn back.
I am not seeking to raise any theological controversy here. I think there are those who may be described as “borderline Christians.” We might well ask them, “Will you also go back? Do you think your treasure is still lying back there in some of your old practices and pleasures?” The truth is that none of us can ever really go back to yesterday. It has crumbled and is gone!
Some, perhaps like Demas, are tempted to turn back for money or business or gain. But what good is money when the doctor announces, “Your cancer is far advanced. You have only a short time to live”?
Others are tempted to turn back by their memories of pleasures and “good times” with worldly and sinful friends. I remember a young man who was with us for a while in our fellowship in Chicago. He was frank about it—he told me that he was not really happy with us. He said he was looking for a church where dancing was offered as a social attraction.
Our Lord Jesus Christ asks us to believe, to trust, to follow. My only judgment of those who turn back, those who no longer are pilgrims in the way, is the sad knowledge that they will find that the enemy of their souls has sold them out, deceived them, embittered them.
Certainly Saul of Tarsus became a pilgrim when he met the Lord on the road to Damascus. Saul the persecutor became Paul the apostle. Later he wrote with confidence concerning the exact location of his life’s lasting treasure:
Of this gospel I was appointed a herald and an apostle and a teacher. That is why I am suffering as I am. Yet I am not ashamed, because I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him for that day. (2 Timothy 1:11-12)
Paul, the pilgrim, knew that the Lord had his treasure—and that He would hold it for him. If Paul had gone back, what treasure would he claim throughout eternity?
We who are involved in the upward gaze of this long-range faith identify ourselves with Jesus Christ forever! We are satisfied that God is at work. We are satisfied to be misunderstood for Christ’s sake. We are willing to be treated as the minority, for the people of God are always in the minority in this earthly context.
Our true identity is with Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord. We have taken His cause as our cause. We have taken His way as our way. We have taken His place as our place. We have taken His future as our future. We have taken His life as our life. We have taken the long look of faith to the day of His triumph, and we know it will be our triumph as well.
Let me remind you again of the nature of our earthly pilgrimage in the example set by the saintly Samuel Rutherford. His faith shone brightly in one of Scotland’s crisis times.
Rutherford had refused to bow to the demands and strictures of the powerful leaders of the time. He was exiled by the state church, driven from his pastorate and the flock of God. His religious and political enemies finally dispatched a summons, setting the date for him to appear before their tribunal and face the charges of opposing and ignoring the state church.
Already advanced in years and knowing the illness that was about to claim his mortal life, Rutherford answered the summons with one of the most victorious letters ever written:
I have received your summons. However, I have received a higher summons, which will be honored before yours. When the day set for me to appear before you comes, I will already be in yonder land where few kings and great men ever come.
Men and women committed to long-range faith can die with blessing and satisfaction even if they have not received the fulfillment of the promises. They have confessed themselves to be strangers and pilgrims on the earth. Their waiting is blessed because it is a waiting on God.
The Bible tells us that one of these days Jesus Christ, our Prince-Leader and Elder Brother, will return to reign on earth. He whose name is the Word of God will appear. The nations of this world will be called into account. The righteous Judge will separate the sheep from the goats.
By faith we have the assurance of God’s favor and welcome in that wonderful hour when Jesus returns. It will be a glad day for the pilgrims—the pilgrims of eternity—their eyes fixed on heaven above.
That is the long-range kind of faith. Let us humbly, confidently ask God for it!