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The Nature of Faith
Sep 16, 10:36 AM
Monday, September 17, 2007
Hebrews 11 is renowned for its consideration of the nature of faith. It deepens and broadens our understanding of that without which it is impossible to please God. (6) Faith is more than believing in an unseen God, although that is certainly a good beginning. Faith is more than believing that God will work everything out for the best, or that God will provide, or that God will make a way where there is no way. All of these precepts may be true and worthy of our trust. Hebrews 11 invites us to a deeper understanding of and faithfulness to the dynamic of faith. It invites us to build our word around it.
From Hebrews 11 we begin to understand that faith is:
1, the conviction, the absolute and unwavering assurance in the reality of the unseen God. And if God is real, so are a God’s purposes, God’s future, God’s words, God’s Kingdom, and God’s way of life. (1)
2. the alignment of our hearts and minds with the heart and mind of God so that the offerings we make to God genuinely bless God and do not serve our own self-interest.(4)
3. our desire to walk with God and to always do what is pleasing to God. (5)
4. taking action and making decisions based on what we believe to be true about the will and purpose of God. It is one thing to believe the Bible. It is quite another to make life decisions based on the supposition of its veracity. (7)
5. obeying God even when we do not understand why or how the outcome will be beneficial. Faith prompts obedience when it costs us or robs us of our own immediate comfort or earthly security. (8-9)
6. becoming a vessel through which the miraculous purposes of God are released and realized. As God incarnated the world through Jesus Christ, so God’s purposes inhabit and are realized through those who obey God by faith. (11)
There is another aspect of faith which is of vital importance: not all of the dynamics of faith are packaged for us in the here and now. The Kingdom of God always exists in the “now” and the “not yet.” The great people of faith did not see the fulfillment of all they believed in. (13) They saw it from afar. Abraham saw the Cross and Resurrection from Mt. Moriah. Moses saw the land from Mt. Nebo. Yet none of them felt cheated. Moses saw the Day of Christ from afar. He did not get to live in it. He did not see it fulfilled. But He saw it and rejoiced in it. Just the thought of one day seeing that Day was enough for him. (John 8:56)
Concerning the prophets who by faith spoke of the things to come, 1 Peter 1:12 tells us that “It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves but you, when they spoke of the things that have now been told you by the Holy Spirit from heaven.” Those of us who are privileged to live in the age of the Gospel have seen the fulfillment of what the prophets foretold. We live in the age of resurrection life. We see the Cross and are recipients of the full measure of its grace. Nonetheless, there is still much which is outstanding in the fulfillment of the plans of God for the world. If Jesus tarries, we too will die from this earth having not seen the Kingdom come in its completion. Therefore we take our own place in the litany of Hebrews 11. We have heard the prophesy of what is to come. We see, feel, and taste mere glimpses of Kingdom life. We see now Jesus as Lord of some things, but await the coronation of Jesus as Lord of all things. We groan with all nature as we await the revealing of the children of God and the regeneration (re-genesis) of the natural order. It is not all about us in the here and now. We rejoice in seeing the Day from afar. We live as if that day has already come. We rejoice in all of it. Thy Kingdom come. Thy will be done.