Substance and Evidence

Faith 23

 

          I like the word “is” in the Bible. It often defines for us what God thinks about something. Grace is sufficient. Mercy is everlasting. God is, well, nearly three-score specific things in Scripture. There’s a blog series there, for sure. At the moment, however, we are studying faith. Nine times in the King James Version we find the phrase “faith is”. Only one of them is a definition. Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen (Hebrews 11.1).

          Faith, then, is two things. First, it is the substance of things hoped for. Allow me to illustrate the meaning of substance here with a foundation. Before you raise a house, you dig a foundation. The foundation supports all else you place upon it. I have a solid hope of eternal life (Titus 1.2, 3.7). What puts the foundation under that hope? Only faith. When I am soul-winning and I ask the question, “What is your hope for eternal life based on?” I rarely receive the right answer, sadly. The only right answer, the only possible foundation is faith. Things hoped for without a sure foundation under them are only wishes. I can dream of salvation or I can have a solid hope for it founded upon obediently placing my faith in Christ. Like the psalmist, I will take the latter. Lord, I have hoped for thy salvation, And done thy commandments (Psalm 119.166).

          This is why “hope” is used in the KJV in a different sense than how we use it in 21^st century America. We use the word as the equivalent of desire or wish. I hope the Cubs win the World Series, for example. But in the Bible the word implies not wish but rather expectation. Hope is something I expect to obtain. Why does the Word of God use it in the stronger sense? Because Scripture puts a sure foundation under it, an actual substance – faith in God.

          There are, of course, examples of hope used in the Bible that imply wish or desire rather than expectation. Herod comes to mind here. When Herod saw Jesus, he was exceeding glad: for he was desirous to see him of a long season, because he had heard many things of him; and he hoped to have seen some miracle done by him. Then he questioned him with many words; but he answered him nothing (Luke 23.8-9). Herod had a desire that went unrealized. Why? Because he did not put faith underneath of it. Jesus came looking for belief. He did not find it in Herod. So Herod’s hopes went unfulfilled.

          On the other hand, we find the beauty of this truth well displayed in our expectation of our Lord’s return. Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ (Titus 2.13). I desire the Lord’s return but that is not what I mean when I talk about the Blessed Hope. No, I mean I expect it to happen. Indeed, I am counting upon it. All my eggs are in that basket. What gives me such surety? I have placed the foundation of faith underneath of it.

          Second, faith is the evidence of things not seen. A few nights ago a storm blew through overnight. I could not see the wind as I lay in bed but I heard it howling in the eaves. When I got up the next morning I found the yard covered in twigs and branches. What were those branches? Visible evidence of the passing of the wind which I did not see.

          Evidence is a term usually used in a criminal sense. In the Chicago suburb of Palatine in 1993 two men robbed a Brown’s Chicken restaurant. In the process, they murdered five employees and two customers. Unsolved for fourteen years, the case was finally broken open when DNA techniques progressed to the point that a half-eaten piece of chicken could finally be tested. It had been frozen in an evidence locker all that time. There were no witnesses alive to testify at the trial but Juan Luna’s DNA on that chicken was evidence of things not seen.

          Evidence is something we can see that points to the existence, reality, or fact of what we cannot see. Evidence is proof.

          Where is the proof of God’s existence? In the hundreds of millions of souls who have placed their faith in Him, in every generation, in every culture, and in every social class. In every condition, whether it be war or peace, happiness or heartbreak, victory or defeat, wealth or poverty, sickness or health, we find God’s people by the millions have faith in Him. That is evidence indeed.

          As a teenage boy I had to decide if the religion of my childhood was going to become the religion of my adulthood. Was I going to make it mine? I did not understand apologetics then. I had not yet read the thousands of books I have since read of Biblical commentary and study. What evidence did I have that God existed, that the Scripture was the inspired Word of God, that Heaven and Hell were real, that the miracles happened, that this thing called Christianity was real? I had the faith of my parents, and it spoke eloquently to me.

          In Chattanooga, Tennessee my oldest sister lost her bubble gum ring in a leaf pile. Child-like, she asked my Dad to find it. He prayed with her, walked up to the leaf pile, parted them, and picked up the ring. Twenty years later I was swimming with my family in Lake Erie. Another one of my sister’s felt her class ring slip from her finger and descend into the muck of the lake floor. Again, my father prayed. Again, the ring was found. 

          My mother has never worked outside the home, and as a pastor my father never made very much money. I have seen groceries, appliances, and cars show up as gifts in our driveway more times than I can count. I saw the Lord pay for my sisters’ college educations. I saw my parents somehow end up with a beautiful home. For the past ten years, during their retirement, I have seen the Lord provide for them even though they had no retirement funds, not even Social Security. For nearly five decades now I have seen in their life an evidence of a real Bible and a real God. My life in God’s service is a direct result of their faith. I call to remembrance the unfeigned faith that is in thee, which dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois, and thy mother Eunice; and I am persuaded that in thee also (II Timothy 1.5).

          “Ok, Bro. Brennan, but people can be fooled. They can believe in something with sincerity all the while it isn’t actually true.” I agree, people can be fooled. For a while. The anti-christ will offer people a lie that they will gladly believe. But not over thousands of years, in every culture, in every condition, up to and including martyrdom. The lives of my parents, my Sunday School teachers, my Christian school teachers, and the adults around me at the church in which I grew up pointed like an arrow toward God. They did not point perfectly, but they did point constantly. And I found that to be compelling evidence indeed.

          Does your life point anyone toward God? Is your faith anyone else’s evidence? At school? At work? Online? Anyone? Anywhere? Ever?

          Is your hope of eternal life a wish or an expectation? It must be founded upon Christ or it is nothing. Are you doubting the truth contained in Scripture about God? I invite you to consider the evidence of the faith of millions. Is someone around you in need of God? Let your faith in Him shine like a beacon.

          I will walk on golden streets. I will have a mansion on Hallelujah Square. I will leave behind sickness, sorrow, death, and sin. I will love forever and never grow old. I will hold my daughter’s hand again. I will be face to face with my Saviour. The testimony of millions is evidence of these unseen things. And the faith in my heart is the foundation I put under my hope that makes this hope not just a wish but an expectation.

          What is faith? It is substance and evidence.