Faith is what sets a child of God apart from everyone else.  While human beings need five senses to operate in this world (sight, touch, taste, smell, hearing), we need only one sense to operate in God’s world: spiritual eyesight, or faith as it is called in the Scriptures.

For the classic definition of faith we are directed to Hebrews 11, where the writer departs from his exhortations that we remain faithful because of the sacrifice of Christ once for all, to explain what he means by faithful.  And because of our ignorance it is well that he does.  Whenever I hear the tired old sermon adage that belief means knowing the chair will hold you, and faith means actually plopping yourself down in it, I can’t help but cringe inwardly (and probably outwardly too).  Any pagan can be convinced that his god will protect him, and be willing to live a life that proves beyond a doubt his belief in that deity.  The zeal of many Muslims puts us to shame in this category.  But faith is something unique to Christianity.  It is not merely belief, it is not merely zeal, it is not merely dependence.  Faith is perceiving and sharing in the life of God’s world.

Jesus said his kingdom was not of this world.  That statement, made as it was on the eve of his own death, threw open the doors of a great dichotomy; and laid the first building block from Heaven on the site of the new temple of his Body, the Church.  For although his kingdom is truly otherworldly and does not function as we would naturally expect it to, yet he taught us to pray saying: “Thy kingdom come; thy will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven.”  Our God is a God who redeems, and the Creation’s groans do not go unheeded by its Creator.  But he keeps his own counsel as to how he will go about accomplishing salvation (you can see a picture of this in Genesis 45), and it is this wisdom that we gain by faith.

Faith prompted Abel to offer God a sacrifice of blood.  Only one instructed by the Spirit could have known that such an offering would be a picture of what the second person of that God who walked with his parents in the garden would someday do, thousands of years later.  But faith does not originate with us, and so is never in this life a complete picture.  The sense of faith is a gift from God because of our weakness, because the lines of communication which once existed between us and him have been severed.  Abel knew that something had to die to satisfy the Law.  He did not know what happened after that.  What can be done when jealousy and rage overtake the faithful, and murder is done?  Thanks be to God for the mediator of a new covenant, for the sprinkled blood of a new sacrifice that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.  And thanks be to God that our faith, greater than the faith of Abel as sight is greater than touch, has yet to be transformed into a relationship that makes our Christian faith seem like looking through a glass darkly.

Next time, Deo volente, we will look at how our faith is tested.  Till then consider what it means that you have been chosen by God to share in the life of his world.  Tremble with me at that thought! and trembling, lay hold of that life with boldness.

Author: Jeremy Vogan

My name is Jeremy Vogan. I live in Staunton, VA with my wife and four kids. I love to write, and seek to honestly explore the intellectual and emotional implications of following Jesus as a deeply broken person in a twisted, cruel world that is full of veiled beauty and meaning. Writing is part of how I faithfully look for Jesus Christ to someday make all things new. I'd enjoy hearing your feedback! JV