The Reality of Faith

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it the elders obtained a good testimony.  – Heb 11:1-2

I think in many ways faith is misunderstood in the Christian culture we live in today.  Some see it as some invisible force through which we can make things happen (if you have faith, you’ll be healed!).  Others see it as a noun to describe religion, “The Christian Faith.”  Some see it as “believing something to be true” which comes closer to the real meaning, but still lacks the complete picture.

The thing is, faith seems to be very important to God, for the bible tell us in Hebrews 11:6 “…without faith it is impossible to please Him.” So if as Christians we want to please God, it is incumbent on us to attempt to fully understand not only what faith is, but how it should be exemplified in our lives, what it should look like.   

As we being this next section of Hebrews, we are going to be confronted with the reality of faith. We will see examples of faith.  We will have men and women held up before us as heroes of the faith. God doesn’t want to keep us in the dark, but wants us to be able to wrap our arms around this simple yet elusive term.  One of the first things we are going to see is that faith changes us.  It is an action word. 

A.W. Tozier wrote:

“Plain horse sense ought to tell us that anything that makes no change in the man who professes it makes no difference to God either, and it is an easily observable fact that for countless numbers of persons the change from no-faith to faith makes no actual difference in the life.”

In other words, if faith is at work in a persons life, there will be a visible, unmistakable change in the nature, character, and actions of that person.  A comment in my Nelson study bible sums it up quite nicely:

“Those who do not have faith cannot see past the physical world around them. They are limited by their temporal circumstances and are blind to what God is doing. But those who open their spiritual eyes can see the spiritual realities which transcend this world.”

Join us Sunday, as we begin our journey of learning about faith!

Pastor Clay