On Faith
September 5, 2021
For some reason, I’ve never had a great handle on what faith meant. Growing up, it always essentially meant, “do you believe Jesus died and was resurrected?” or “do you believe God exists?” Well, yes, but then again, I could just as easily believe he didn’t, and God doesn’t. That is the context in which I read Heb. 11.1—the resurrection and existence of God are “things hoped for,” “things not seen.” Faith meant I was assured of them, convicted about them, even though I had no evidence to substantiate that belief. Faith is a head-game, something that I do intellectually.
The problem is, when you play that game, at some point you start adding up evidence for and against and, to me, it becomes clear that there is no winner. For every philosophical argument for God, there are a host of counter-arguments. For every explanation for the resurrection, there is literally every other human experience of death proclaiming “resurrection doesn’t happen.” God really doesn’t come out very well in this game. At the very least, he isn’t a clear winner.
If faith isn’t intellectual belief in things you can’t prove, then is it emotional feeling? I hope not, because my emotions are all over the place! Besides, a lot of people have talked about some divine experience they had within them, but I’ve never had it. Is God just not very interested in me? Does he think I’m so naive that he doesn’t need to waste an experience like that on me, because he knows I’ll believe in him without it? Seems kind of rude.
In more recent years, there has been a significant push in evangelical circles to define “faith” more historically. They have begun to talk about faith less as belief, and more as fidelity, loyalty, or allegiance. This is a way at highlighting the active nature of faith. It cannot simply remain in your head or your heart.
This makes a lot of sense when we think about Jesus as a king. You may have faith in a king, but that doesn’t mean you have beliefs about his existence or get the warm fuzzies when you see him. Your faith is shown by your loyalty. You believe in his existence, therefore you live in a way that shows your allegiance to him. It’s not something you “feel” like doing. If loyalty is based on your emotional state, it is, by definition, not loyalty. That said, I hope you have a stirring in your heart whenever you see a person you are loyal towards.
All this said—faith goes beyond belief and emotion and has a lot to do with loyalty—I’m still not sure how Heb. 11.1 applies. The “things hoped for” throws me. It seems weird to say “faith is the assurance of the existence of God, even though you can’t see him.” I think it has more to do with trusting that God is at work, trusting that God will work things out. Faith is living in light of the promises of God, even when he seems far off. Perhaps we might say faith is believing in the nature of God, and being loyal enough to live in light of it.
—John Coffey
