Faith and Unbelief And their Effects
by Cornelius R. Stam
A glance at Young's Analytical Concordance will indicate that the word "walk" here does not mean to walk on, but to walk about. These disciples had started out to go to Emmaus but here, in their deep sorrow and disappointment, they were wandering about aimlessly. Some translations render the words "and are sad": "And they stood still, looking sad."
Poor, broken-hearted souls! And what was it that had overwhelmed them with grief? Listen to their own explanation:
"But we trusted that it had been He which should have redeemed Israel: and beside all this, today is the third day since these things were done" (Luke 24:21). The third day! Should not this fact have reminded them of our Lord's oft-repeated promise that He would arise on the third day?
"Oh, what peace we often forfeit! Oh, what needless pain we bear!"
And all because we do not take God at His Word!
Mary weeps because the tomb is empty! The two disciples despair because it is now "the third day" since their Lord was crucified! Such is the irony of unbelief.
The Resurrection and UsShall we not now apply these lessons to ourselves? If unbelief brings sorrow and defeat, and closes our mouths; if faith brings joy and victory, and opens our mouths in praise and testimony, how, specifically, does this apply to God's people today?
To find the answer, listen to Paul's impassioned prayer that we might know, among other things:
"...what is the exceeding greatness of His [God's] power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of His mighty power, which He wrought in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead, and set Him at His own right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world [age], but also in that which is to come" (Eph. 1:19-21). The resurrection and exaltation of our Lord Jesus Christ was the greatest demonstration of power in all history. He did not die the death of a sinner; He died the death that would have sunk us all to hell. And it was from that death that He was raised and exalted to the Father's right hand in the epouranios, "far above all."
But the amazing fact which God holds out to our faith is that this limitless power is now offered to us! He calls it "the exceeding greatness of His power to us-ward who believe"!
Why, then, are so many of us defeated and weak in our Christian experience? Is it not because like Zacharias and Mary Magdalene and the two on the way to Emmaus, we have failed to accept in faith His Word to us?
God says that He would have us understand "what is the hope of His calling, and what the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power to us-ward" (Eph. 1:17-20), and many of us scarcely show an interest in these riches of grace.
God says that He would have His saints know "what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles" (Col. 1:27), and many of us do not care enough to search the Scriptures to learn about "the riches of the glory of this mystery."
God declares that believers in Christ have been crucified, buried, raised and exalted with Him (Rom. 6:3; Gal. 2:20; Eph. 2:4-7) to be "blessed with all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies in Christ" (Eph. 1:3), and the vast majority do not even bother to look into these glorious truths, committed by the ascended Lord to Paul for us (Eph. 3:1-3).
Is it strange in the light of these facts that God's people as a whole are confused and divided, and that their witness for Christ evidences so little of the power of the Spirit?
Let us, then, be the exceptions to this rule, the "remnant," who do care about what God has to say to us and who take Him at His word. Thus alone can we be "well adjusted" and enjoy the power of the Spirit in our witness for Christ.
"Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing..." (Rom. 15:13). 
Author