Monday, June 08, 2015

Hebrews 11:3 By faith, we understand

We understand emotions through emotions. We understand rational things through rational and logical mental systems. We understand spiritual things through using spiritual things. As Paul writes, "comparing spiritual things with spiritual."
It is very difficult to understand that the universe was made by God's words if we do not understand either the spiritual substance of God's words or the spiritual substance of faith.  A scientist may say for instance that the visible world is made from invisible atoms, or that earthly elements are created from tiny minute atoms, protons, quarks, and the like. But even if atoms, protons, etc are unseen by the human eye, they are still products of this physical world. To base the existence of the world on even the tiniest physical particle is still to be using human reasoning. Faith is of an entirely different order. A person or animal who is an object of love understands that he is loved by sensing and feeling the Beloved's love. This is emotional understanding. We understand God's power and being through faith, which is a spiritual understanding.  
By faith we also understand God's faith. We understand that God had faith in His own words. God had faith in the system He made. By faith we understand that God has given to all his children "the measure of faith."
There can be no understanding of God's power, or of the true nature and reality of the cosmos if we do not understand what faith is and how it operates.
When Adam sinned against God, he sinned against his Creator, his Father, and his king. This brokenness has continued through all the generations. Humans bristle at the idea of having a creator who made them, they don't understand the love in God's heart that caused God to make them or their own uniqueness to God. They don't understand God as a loving father. And they don't understand God has a king who rules the universe or their place as one of God's subect. Faith comes from the tree of life and not from the tree of the knowedge of good and evil.
This verse shows us that faith underlies and undergirds the universe. It also teaches us that faith is connected to a Divine Person and to the actions of that Divine Person. The verse also clearly states that the world was made by God. All true faith is rooted in faith in God; faith in one's faith is merely mechanical. It does not take the personality of God and the believer's relationship to God into consideration. Faith is trust in a powerful Being whose character is love and whose power is great. But faith is much more. We will understand this more and more as we continue reading the chapter.  


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.
by faith we understand the ages to have been prepared by a saying of God, in regard to the things seen not having come out of things appearing.
Through faith we understand that the worlds came into being, and still exist, at the command of God, so that what is seen does not owe its existence to that which is visible.
Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.

No comments:

Blog Archive

Popular Posts