Faith As Substance
Did you know, some translations describe faith as a substance?
Not a substance in the same way that water can be chemically broken down to H2O.
Nor would you find faith on the periodic table of elements.
Watch last Sundays' sermon "Mary & Martha Encounter Jesus - Part 1" from our Becoming Real series.
Because faith exists in a higher realm.
Faith is sourced in the unseen.
And that's likely why we earthly creatures can have such trouble with it!
Hebrews 11:1 says, “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”
Faith means we're assured of something hoped-for...
Hoped-for means we don't see it, have it, or experience it yet.
But while we wait, we're assured--we're sure. We're confident in the current moment that this future thing is real and is coming to us.
And this assurance becomes a conviction of things unseen.
Through faith, we realize our lives and living are much more than physical reality, and through relationship with God, activate a lived-faith that moves the unseen realities into our real experience.
In short, we become real.
It's similar to pregnancy.
Our family has had the gift of being pregnant three times (with four kids!), and there's a sort of faith in that waiting, isn't there?
At first it begins in beautiful disbelief, then wonder at the little signs, then the little signs become bigger signs until the little coming life is taking up more and more room in our hearts and minds. Eventually, we're on the edge of our seat waiting weeks and days for that first little breath--all this before the baby is born!
Of course, along the way there is curiosity, concern, prayer, theories, a variety of questions, reading, getting the room ready, talking to friends, having family conversations, on and on to get ready for that new little life.
But all these things are done in the growing assurance that becomes a conviction, this unseen reality is certainly arriving soon!
Faith gives us assurances and convictions that the unseen reality of God's Kingdom is just as real as the seen reality around us.
God intended this reality, His Kingdom reign, to impact our seen realm around us: "Your Kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven" Matthew 6:10.
It could easily be paraphrased, "Your unseen Kingdom come in our seen realm, Your unseen will be seen through us in our earthly living and working."
Check out these other translations of Hebrews 11:1 -
“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen" Heb 11:1 NKJV.
“The fundamental fact of existence is that this trust in God, this faith, is the firm foundation under everything that makes life worth living. It’s our handle on what we can’t see” Heb 11:1 MSG.
“Faith shows the reality of what we hope for; it is the evidence of things we cannot see” Heb 11:1 NLT.
As we continue Becoming Real, we must know that faith is essential for the journey.
It is the way we see reality in its fullness.
It's the way we're shaped, the way we become real.
Of all the flawed saints in the Bible, all those who pleased God, who were called of Him, used of Him, shaped by Him, all shared this one simple thing: faith.
Faith takes us where our natural mind would never go (Rom 8:5-9 & 1 Cor 2:12-16).
Faith allows us to trust a God who made all things (Heb 11:3).
To believe that Jesus is truly the Son of God (Rom 10:9-10).
That His cross was a sacrifice that paid for our sin and suffering (Rom 8:31-35).
That His Spirit really does indwell us who believe in Him (Rom 8:23-27).
As Christians, faith is our reality.
It's unseen.
Yet, so real.
So real, Jesus would give His life for faith to fill us.
So real, Christians through the centuries would be martyred rather than relent on the unseen God.
And someday, we will walk the fields of heaven, resting with Jesus, living in perfect love in ways that will be our final reality--the most real thing, our forever thing.
So, are you ready?
Let's let Jesus' reality shape us, over and over again.
Let's become real.
See you Sunday,
Pastor Dave