Faith
20
Death is a large part of life, and a larger part the older we get. We are forced to deal with the death of those around us. We find ourselves faced with the necessity for preparing for our own, both spiritually and practically. At the same time, we strenuously try to avoid it. Without death our concept of life would be a very different thing, especially eternal life. Some people struggle with these concepts very much, some few all the time but all of us struggle with it at some point. Thus it is that Paul aims in this chapter to remove our fear of death.
2
Corinthians 5:1–10
1
For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we
have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.
2
For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house
which is from heaven:
3
If so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked.
4
For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we
would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of
life.
5
Now he that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is God, who also hath given
unto us the earnest of the Spirit.
6
Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the
body, we are absent from the Lord:
7
(For we walk by faith, not by sight:)
8 We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.
It is illogical to be confident in the
face of death. It is illogical to be confident regarding our certain future
blessing in the afterlife. It is illogical to structure out lives now in
relation to what is impossible to see but which immediately follows this life.
Such illogical confidence is the blessing and the challenge of the Christian
life.
I began this series months ago by
proposing that faith is seeing with our heart. Generally, we identify
what is going on around us via our senses – sight, hearing, touch, etc. – and
make adjustments accordingly. In a decision making context we use sensible
logic combined with observation and experience. For example, I look out the
window and see the sky darkening and the trees blowing. It just makes sense
that it is about rain so I take an umbrella with me. Yet in the spiritual
realm, faith ignores all of that. Faith sees, instead, with our heart. It
believes and acts on something regardless of whether our
logic/senses/experience agrees with that belief. And it continues to maintain
that belief in spite of all evidence to the contrary. We walk by faith, not
by sight.
When Peter’s mind conceived the idea of stepping out of the safety of the boat and walking on the stormy seas to Jesus his senses told him it was a bad idea. His experience told him it was a bad idea. His logic told him it was a bad idea. But his faith drove him to step out of the boat anyway. Faith is making decisions based on what you believe. It is making decisions based not on what you see with your experience or your logic but what you see with what you believe down deep in your heart.
This is precisely how God’s people are
to live. “Walk” is routinely used in the Word of God as a descriptive term for
the course of our daily life. Abraham was told by God to walk before me, and
be thou perfect (Genesis 17.1). The sweet psalmist of Israel implores us to
walk uprightly (Psalm 84.11). Our Saviour told us that if we follow Him
we will not walk in darkness (John 8.12). Understanding this then, we
understand what it means to walk by faith and not by sight. We are to live our
lives by faith. We are not trust the evidence of our senses or our mind. We are
not base our decisions on them or structure our lives around them. No, we are
to live our life by faith, seeing with our heart, believing in God and in God’s
Word, and structuring our life according to these things.
If I am going to do this thing, to
walk by faith, I must then acknowledge God’s will instead of my own as first in
every area of my life. Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; And lean not
unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, And he shall
direct thy paths (Proverbs 3.5-6) These paths are the way in which we are
to walk. I trust in my heart. I do not trust what my own understanding, what my
senses and reason tell me. I acknowledge Him, which means I recognize His claim
of authority over me. And I am instructed to do this in all my ways, all my
paths, the totality of my walk.
There is a career path that makes
sense to you and another that makes sense to Him. Choose His. There is a dating
path that makes sense to you and another that makes sense to Him. Choose His.
There is a way to spend money, a way to parent, and a way to do a thousand
other things that makes sense to you. Do not choose your own. Choose His. We
are not called to live our life according to what we think is best or according
to what makes sense to us. We are to walk by faith, seeing with our heart not
with our sight.
In so doing, we will discover that not
only is our daily life rearranged but so is our approach to that most human and
divine of subjects, death. To walk by faith is to live and die in confidence.
It is to live untroubled by worry, uncertainty, fear, discouragement, or
frustration. It is to live confident in the Lord’s timing, in the Lord’s
provision, in the Lord’s power, in the Lord’s will, and in the Lord as the
master of the harvest i.e. the result. It is to say, “God’s got this. I’m going
to sit down over there, have a lemonade, and watch to see how He will handle
this.” Such is not a self-confidence birthed out of my experience in my own
abilities, rather it is a God-confidence birthed out of my faith in His
abilities.
By the same token, to walk by faith is
just as much to die well as it is to live well. The same man who penned II
Corinthians 5.7 wrote the end of his own story in II Timothy 4.7-8. I
have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith.
Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord,
the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto
all them also that love his appearing. What confidence at the end!
There may be some reading this who
have no faith and lots of confidence. If there are some such, I pity them. They
are in for a disaster and a face full of dirt. Others perhaps reading this have
no faith and no confidence. I hurt for them. They are missing out on the hope
and delight of the Christian life. Like the children of Israel in the
wilderness they murmur, Can God furnish a table in the wilderness? (Psalm
78.19) Of course He can. Have a little confidence. Have some faith in God.
Beloved, trust Him today. See in
belief with your heart rather than your mind. And then roll your burdens off
onto the Lord. Walk by faith and live in confidence.
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