Faith: Seeing What is Not Yet
Romans 4:13-25
Introduction
Are you a person of faith? And what does that even mean? For some people, they might take that as someone who is trusting or hopeful. Another person might equate that with belonging to a religious tradition. Faith is one of those words like love that has expanded into so many meanings that it is difficult to use with precision. And yet it is so central to Christianity, again like love, that we do not have the option to just deny it.
So again, what is faith? When I look at my own life, my understanding of faith has changed and evolved over time. Growing up in church, I think I saw faith as loyalty to my church tradition. Not that I saw other traditions as bad, but for me, I would stick with our ways and do the things that were expected of me. In my late teens, I would have said that I had abandoned faith. Not only did I quit going to church, I stopped believing. But again, what does that mean? Looking back, I would say that the lack of answers for certain important issues led to an overall lack of confidence in the entire system. If I struggled in believing in part, I had to abandon believing in all of it. While faith and believing are not exactly the same thing, it is true that when you give up one belief, you replace it with another belief. And yet for me, the naturalistic beliefs that I had replaced Christianity with did not hold up to scrutiny. Aspects of a spiritual faith, including a belief in God, returned to my life. This was based on observation and reasoning. Having an experience of God added a new element to my faith and I found myself back in church. We speak of faith’s role in conversion but it also has a role in the ongoing Christian life. At the church that I was attending, faith was a prominent topic of conversation. Here, faith had a very specific meaning. Faith was the means to get from God that which you desired. Whether it was getting that dream job that you had always wanted or getting a healing for yourself or a loved one, faith was the key. You could motivate God to act in the way that you wish by using faith. This could be by getting really worked up and praying in a very fervent manner, while shoving down any emerging questions or doubts. There were ways to demonstrate how serious you were about faith, ranging from long periods of fasting to rejecting medical treatments to spending large amounts of money that you could not afford to spend. Over time, my understanding of faith developed again. I saw faith as being about theological correctness. There was a list of theological doctrines and if you held to the right set with enough conviction, then you were a person of faith. Where am I now? I think that will become clear as we continue our look at faith. But I will say that aspects of everything I have said so far is representative of the church as a whole. Not everyone moves along the continuum but most Christians can find themselves somewhere along there.
When looking at faith, one of our best resources is the Apostle Paul. Paul, as a person whose own understanding faith greatly changed over his life, spoke much about faith. Paul went from loyalty to the Law, which he legitimately understood as coming from God, to trusting in Jesus. Paul explains faith in a way that is helpful for us, no matter where our starting point.
The Faith of Abraham
In Paul’s letter to the Romans, he is writing to a mixed church of Jewish and Gentile Christians. Both groups are critical of each other because each thinks that they have the edge when it comes to faith. Paul has been arguing for the first number of chapters about why they are actually starting from the same place and that no one has an advantage.
Paul is brilliant here as he continues to navigate this highly contentious issue. Paul chooses the Old Testament figure of Abraham as the model of faith. This is incredibly significant. Abraham is one of the most important of the Old Testament patriarchs and was often thought of as the first Hebrew. But Abraham was also born centuries before the giving of the Law during the time of Moses. Also Abraham was the father of many nations (that is actually what Abraham means) and Israel was only one of those nations. So in many ways, Abraham is the perfect bridge between the Jewish and Gentile Christians.
But what makes Abraham especially important is that Abraham was known for his faith. The key verse that everything hinges on here is that Abraham believed God and it was reckoned unto him as righteousness. But what exactly did Abraham believe? It was not just general faith in God. God had just promised to not only give Abraham a son, which was incredible enough because both Abraham and Sarah were old and Sarah was barren, but also that from Abraham would come many nations. His descendants would be more than the stars in the sky. Abraham heard that promise and chose to believe that God was trustworthy. Even though looking at just the facts that this would seem unlikely, if God said this was going to happen, then it was going to happen. For Abraham, faith was about believing more than what he could see with his eyes.
How much did Abraham believe this? You may be aware of the story of the sacrifice of Isaac. God commanded Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac, the very child from the promise that we have been discussing. Abraham planned to obey. We often interpret this as a test of whether Abraham loved his son more than God. The actual test was whether Abraham really believed that God was going to bring about many nations, something that would require Isaac to be alive. James uses this story to illustrate the role of works in faith.
The point Paul is making is that Abraham was justified by faith long before the Law and that this is the example we are to look to.
Faith in the Church
When I look at the principles taught in Scripture, I try to look at them through two lenses. One is about what it means for us an individual and the other is what it means for us as a church. We are going to look at both. But first, what is the principle that Paul teaches here? It is not, as some atheists claim, that faith is believing in something against all evidence. I actually think there is quite a bit of evidence for the Christian faith. Even so, that is not what Paul is teaching. Going back briefly to the story of Abraham, we see that God had been working in his life for sometime. Abraham believed the big promise after God had shown his trustworthiness in smaller ways. The principle that Paul is sharing is that what we see is not all that there is. I think Paul would have agreed with the definition given by the author of Hebrews: “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” (Hebrews 11:1)
This is not the same thing as blind faith. Blind faith ignores what we see. Biblical faith says there is more than what we see. What we see is part of the story but it is not the whole story. What it comes down to is not about pretending we don’t have questions or doubts, nor is it about giving mental assent to the most accurate list of doctrines. Faith is about trusting in God as revealed in Jesus Christ and believing that God is at work even if we cannot see it in the moment.
Every single one of you has some challenge in your life. I have no doubt of that. What does faith look like in your circumstances? It is not about manipulating God to get your desired outcome. It is about trusting that God is at work and believing that what you see is not the full story.
The same is true for us as a congregation. It is often tempting to see us only as an organization like any other organization. There are our resources, in terms of people, finances, and building, and then there are the ministry opportunities available to us. That is part of the story, because remember Christianity is not about blind faith. But we also have to factor God into the equation. But think back to the limitations that Abraham was facing when he was told that he would become the father of many nations. God was not bound by those limitations. Not that it is easy for us. I encourage you to go back and read the story of Abraham. You will see that it took much longer than Abraham expected and he attempted to guess God’s plans along the way. Even so, God was faithful. What does it mean for us to have faith as a congregation? We can acknowledge our limitations and challenges. But we should also trust in God that God is at work beyond those things that we can see.
Conclusion
What is biblical faith? To answer that, I want to describe a very common scene that we find in many movies. There is one character who is in danger and does not see any way out. Then out of no where appears a rescuer who offers to save them. The rescuer does not have time to explain the plan but they need the other character to come with them right away. The endangered person hesitates because of the uncertainty and the risks. Then the rescuer will bypass all the fears and simply say, “Will you trust me?” And they grasp hands. I cannot count how many movies I have seen some variant of that scene.
That is biblical faith. We see all the challenges around us in whatever context we are in and we are afraid. God does not offer all the details of how he will intervene but God offers his hand and asks “Will you trust me?” That is what happened with Abraham. That is what happened with Paul. That is what happens with us. That is what happens with Brookfield Baptist Church. It is not about getting God to bless our plans but for us to trust in God’s plans, even if the things that we see suggest that it will be more difficult than we want it to be. Trust in God.
