Faith, Confidence, and the Universe
I've been reading over Hebrews 11 in my quiet times lately, and really mulling over how "faith" is defined and explained in this essay...
An essay about:
1.) What faith is.
2.) How faith is lived out.
The book of Hebrews is essentially an apologetic argument that being made right with God through grace by faith didn't start when Jesus Christ put his sandals down on the ground, lived a perfect life, and died for us on the cross. This writer makes the point in a lot of detail that grace and faith has been God's M.O. with human beings since Day 1, since even before Moses yelled to Pharaoh "LET MY PEOPLE GO!" It's always been about a relationship based on trust in God, and never about Law or rules.
But what is faith? There are as many definitions of this word as there are religions, and even groups of Christians. What is it and how do we live it out practically?
I'm sure if the writer of Hebrews heard you say that, he'd probably say "Glad you asked!" He starts out this essay by saying this simple statement:
"Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see." - Hebrews 11:1
In other words, God promises something for or to us and we are confident that He will deliver on His promises. Faith = Confidence in the character and promises of God.
Given that it's been raining so much around Atlanta and all of the "ark" jokes that have been thrown around, I'll use Noah as an example to illustrate the "how do you live it out?" Noah received a promise from God and he was confident that God was going to bring about the thing He promised. So, what did Noah do? Did he give a bunch of lectures? Did he tuck away this knowledge and keep doing his thing?
No.
He went out and built a boat. He was not only confident in the promises of God but he also acted upon it. If Noah didn't build a boat, then his confidence in this promise probably wouldn't have done him (or us) any good.
In other words, let's add to the definition: Faith is confidence in the character and promises of God and then taking action to align yourself to the truth (or the promise) He has delivered.
For example: Noah: a.) Heard God tell him that he was going to flood the world, b.) believed that God would do what He promised, and c.) went out and built a boat and collected animals.
------------------
Now that's cool and all, but if you've read the first example in this essay it sounds really confusing. It says this:
"By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God's command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible." - Hebrews 11:3
Now, I believe that there are about a hundred (maybe more) angles that you can take this, but here's the angle that my mind has been chasing lately and it relates the the definition of faith that the writer builds out.
When we believe that God formed the universe, and that everything that we see was put in place and designed by God, then we eventually (excuse the oversimplification here) come to the conclusion that everything we see was put in place and designed for a purpose. This includes the stars in the sky, the rain that's flooding our city, and specifically mine and your existence on planet Earth. Essentially, in this light faith that we understand that everything was created, designed, and purposed by God is to have confidence that you were specifically planned by God - which means that we can have confidence that a.) you and I are intrinsically people of incredible value, b.) you and I are no accident, not only that but we were put here for the awesome purpose of bringing joy to the heart of God, and c.) God's declaration about creation is the same declaration He gives to you and me: we are VERY GOOD.
It also means that everything that God designed into us as human beings, men and women, with all of our diversity and uniqueness; and as a result we can be confident that we CAN perform, live, and grow as we are designed to do. When we live outside of that design, or if we cease to believe that we can actually accomplish something that God in his creative juices fashioned us to do, then we are not living in a posture of faith. To live in faith (or to "build the ark") is to discover and act upon - a.) Your calling and purpose in life, but it is also to b.) fulfill the universal command that God has given mankind to be fruitful and to rule the earth.
Sometimes I think that we have lost sight of some of these things in the world of civilized culture, technology, and pop psychology. We either believe that our life truly IS random -or- that we are somehow lesser than our high calling, do not live up to it, and settle for less.
I do not believe that this is a "health and wealth" vision - that's like saying that God owes you something that He did not promise (You mean He didn't promise us all Mercedes???? uh.. not so much) - but it is instead a realization that humanity as God created us is greater than what we have imagined us to be. As a result, when we do this we cease to live by faith and we live by "what can I get now to make me feel more important?" - when in reality God has already said you ARE important and would love it if you took Him at His word, believed it, leveraged the laws of sowing and reaping (most of what's in Proverbs can be boiled down to this principle), and confidently lived it out.
The great news is, because we all feel broken in some way in this regard, the faith we have in Christ through the Gospel is played out exactly the same way. We are broken from fellowship with God, every one of us, because of this thing called "sin" (which means that we don't live as God intended, basically... we all basically know what it means). To sinners like you and me, God promises that if we embrace what Christ did for us on the cross (substituting His perfect life in harmony with God for our broken out-of-touch life without God), then He will change us from the inside and put us into harmony with our Creator and able to live out our God-given design. Living out our faith is essentially embracing this love relationship with God that He initiates for us and allowing our lives to be transformed into the one that Jesus lived out - a life in harmony with God the Father. This... is essentially how we can "by faith understand that (we) were formed (by the design purpose of God) and crafted in God's image, which means there is more to us than meets the eye (Romans 8:19-21).
On that note, I want to live it out myself. I'm glad the sun is out (for now)... I'd hate to have to build an ark ;-)
An essay about:
1.) What faith is.
2.) How faith is lived out.
The book of Hebrews is essentially an apologetic argument that being made right with God through grace by faith didn't start when Jesus Christ put his sandals down on the ground, lived a perfect life, and died for us on the cross. This writer makes the point in a lot of detail that grace and faith has been God's M.O. with human beings since Day 1, since even before Moses yelled to Pharaoh "LET MY PEOPLE GO!" It's always been about a relationship based on trust in God, and never about Law or rules.
But what is faith? There are as many definitions of this word as there are religions, and even groups of Christians. What is it and how do we live it out practically?
I'm sure if the writer of Hebrews heard you say that, he'd probably say "Glad you asked!" He starts out this essay by saying this simple statement:
"Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see." - Hebrews 11:1
In other words, God promises something for or to us and we are confident that He will deliver on His promises. Faith = Confidence in the character and promises of God.
Given that it's been raining so much around Atlanta and all of the "ark" jokes that have been thrown around, I'll use Noah as an example to illustrate the "how do you live it out?" Noah received a promise from God and he was confident that God was going to bring about the thing He promised. So, what did Noah do? Did he give a bunch of lectures? Did he tuck away this knowledge and keep doing his thing?
No.
He went out and built a boat. He was not only confident in the promises of God but he also acted upon it. If Noah didn't build a boat, then his confidence in this promise probably wouldn't have done him (or us) any good.
In other words, let's add to the definition: Faith is confidence in the character and promises of God and then taking action to align yourself to the truth (or the promise) He has delivered.
For example: Noah: a.) Heard God tell him that he was going to flood the world, b.) believed that God would do what He promised, and c.) went out and built a boat and collected animals.
------------------
Now that's cool and all, but if you've read the first example in this essay it sounds really confusing. It says this:
"By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God's command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible." - Hebrews 11:3
Now, I believe that there are about a hundred (maybe more) angles that you can take this, but here's the angle that my mind has been chasing lately and it relates the the definition of faith that the writer builds out.
When we believe that God formed the universe, and that everything that we see was put in place and designed by God, then we eventually (excuse the oversimplification here) come to the conclusion that everything we see was put in place and designed for a purpose. This includes the stars in the sky, the rain that's flooding our city, and specifically mine and your existence on planet Earth. Essentially, in this light faith that we understand that everything was created, designed, and purposed by God is to have confidence that you were specifically planned by God - which means that we can have confidence that a.) you and I are intrinsically people of incredible value, b.) you and I are no accident, not only that but we were put here for the awesome purpose of bringing joy to the heart of God, and c.) God's declaration about creation is the same declaration He gives to you and me: we are VERY GOOD.
It also means that everything that God designed into us as human beings, men and women, with all of our diversity and uniqueness; and as a result we can be confident that we CAN perform, live, and grow as we are designed to do. When we live outside of that design, or if we cease to believe that we can actually accomplish something that God in his creative juices fashioned us to do, then we are not living in a posture of faith. To live in faith (or to "build the ark") is to discover and act upon - a.) Your calling and purpose in life, but it is also to b.) fulfill the universal command that God has given mankind to be fruitful and to rule the earth.
Sometimes I think that we have lost sight of some of these things in the world of civilized culture, technology, and pop psychology. We either believe that our life truly IS random -or- that we are somehow lesser than our high calling, do not live up to it, and settle for less.
I do not believe that this is a "health and wealth" vision - that's like saying that God owes you something that He did not promise (You mean He didn't promise us all Mercedes???? uh.. not so much) - but it is instead a realization that humanity as God created us is greater than what we have imagined us to be. As a result, when we do this we cease to live by faith and we live by "what can I get now to make me feel more important?" - when in reality God has already said you ARE important and would love it if you took Him at His word, believed it, leveraged the laws of sowing and reaping (most of what's in Proverbs can be boiled down to this principle), and confidently lived it out.
The great news is, because we all feel broken in some way in this regard, the faith we have in Christ through the Gospel is played out exactly the same way. We are broken from fellowship with God, every one of us, because of this thing called "sin" (which means that we don't live as God intended, basically... we all basically know what it means). To sinners like you and me, God promises that if we embrace what Christ did for us on the cross (substituting His perfect life in harmony with God for our broken out-of-touch life without God), then He will change us from the inside and put us into harmony with our Creator and able to live out our God-given design. Living out our faith is essentially embracing this love relationship with God that He initiates for us and allowing our lives to be transformed into the one that Jesus lived out - a life in harmony with God the Father. This... is essentially how we can "by faith understand that (we) were formed (by the design purpose of God) and crafted in God's image, which means there is more to us than meets the eye (Romans 8:19-21).
On that note, I want to live it out myself. I'm glad the sun is out (for now)... I'd hate to have to build an ark ;-)
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Thanks,
Karim - Creating Power