“Have a little faith.” How many times have you heard that? Perhaps the idea is losing traction in our society today and you haven’t heard it so much. In any case, when you hear it, if you do, or when you read it, as you surely just did, the question should arise, “In what?”
People who believe in God, more particularly in the God of the Christian Bible, are often told that “blind faith” is nothing to base your life upon. I know that I have been. I’ve been ridiculed for believing in an imaginary friend in the sky. I’ve been told that having faith in God was merely blind faith and unreasonable, because there is no evidence that the bible is true and that it is contradictory to science.
These people simply don’t understand, or are unwilling to understand what faith is. They don’t want to know God, especially the God that they understand Christians to believe in.
God is not our imaginary friend in the sky. And the bible is not contradictory to science. Science is merely a method of observation and reasoning about what is observed. Science proves nothing, but it helps to provide a consistent basis for describing what we see, and helping us to exploit that description.
Where there is a contradiction with the bible, it’s with the bible and the man-made philosophy of naturalism. This philosophy would tell us that there is nothing beyond the observable natural world, and that nothing supernatural exists. Many who claim the mantle of science today begin with this philosophy before coming to science and conflate the two.
The philosophical naturalist, the atheist, the post-modern man who doesn’t even accept the notion of “truth” begins with a vested interest in there not being a God, particularly the God of the bible. For, if God exists and is as the bible declares him to be, every man has much to answer for. Better for them then if he doesn’t exist, for then they can go about their merry way without fear of retribution or punishment for their choices. For that matter, if he doesn’t exist, who can say that their choices are wrong?
So both the believer and the atheist, both the believer and the philosophical naturalist, both the believer and the post-modern man have faith, and they live by that faith. The question is, what do they have faith in?
Jesus said a lot about faith and what a man could do with it. Today’s prosperity or “word of faith” preachers treat faith as if it were a magical force, relying upon a twisting of the bible’s teaching about faith. You might say that they have faith “in faith”. I’m pretty sure that they’re wrong.
Faith must have an object. Either you believe in the God of the bible, or you believe in something else. Whether it be Allah, Krishna, Zeus, Thor, or quantum fluctuations and tens of billions of years, you still have faith in it if you don’t believe in the singular God who created the universe.
It’s not enough to say “have faith,” or “I have faith.” Faith must have an object.
I have faith in Jesus. As the bible described him. Not a mere milquetoast who was always meek and mild, carrying a sheep over his shoulders as he played with little children. I believe in the Jesus who overthrew the money changers tables in the temple. I believe in the Jesus who spent time with a Samaritan woman explaining that God is looking for worshipers who will worship him in truth and in spirit, and not just in some place.
He is the Son of God. He died for my sins, and not just mine, but those of the whole world. He was raised from the dead, seen by those who knew him, well over 500 persons, and ascended into the heavens and now sits at the right hand of the Father making intercession for me.
He is coming again to take me up so that I can be with him forever, not because of anything I have done, but because of who he is. He is coming again to judge the earth one final time, to set things right with perfect justice. Many who are crying out for justice today will see true justice and quail, for he is no respecter of persons.
He is just and merciful. He is wise and all-knowing. There is nothing that is done in the dark that he does not see, there is no thought in the heart of man that he is not intimately aware of. He is full of loving kindness and forgiveness, but he will in no way acquit the guilty.
He will one day remake all of creation, restoring it to perfection.
There is only one way to know this in this life. That is through faith. Faith in God’s word. Faith in the Word of God, Jesus. If you repent of your sin and have that faith in him, he will save you. He promises that.
That’s where my faith lies. Where does yours?
Wait for the Lord, seek mercy while it may be found, for his patience will not last forever.
“Now, faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. . . ”
Faith is not one-sided, nor is it just a noun. The New Testament words translated as “faith” and “believe” are simply different forms of the same word: pistis and pisteuo, one a noun and the other a verb. I have become convinced over time that biblical faith is a covenant, essentially our trusting obedience in response to God’s faithfulness, His provision for our salvation and sanctification.
Our trusting obedience has this substance, this evidence to rely on: His faithfulness. So, we walk by [obedience, trusting His faithfulness] not by sight. Not blind at all.