"Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen." (Hebrews 11:1)
Beloved, So far in our journey we have seen that there is nothing within us that is of any benefit when it comes to the issue of salvation. As a matter of fact, we have painted a pretty dismal picture of who we really are and how not only our behavior but more importantly, who we are at our very core has offended God’s holiness and righteousness. As a result, we have seen that all mankind is alienated from the very presence of God and is desperately lost in corruption. We have also seen that God in His graciousness has initiated the redemptive process by sending a mediator to bring the two sides back together again. This mediator, Jesus Christ, not only opens the dialogue between God and man, He did so by appeasing the wrath of God toward sinful rebellion by dying in the place of those who had transgressed God’s holy law. In short, Jesus willfully died so that people like you and me could be restored into a right fellowship with God. Sounds pretty amazing doesn’t it? Maybe too amazing? Perhaps all of this sounds a little too neat; a little too clean or easy. You may be saying to yourself, “What’s the catch?” There certainly has to be more to it than that? Well, yes and no. What we are dealing with is faith. The simple fact that no matter how much research you do (and you should do as much as you can) you will come to a point where you will not fully understand all that you have learned. You will come to a point where what you have learned contradicts what seems reasonable or even likely. You probably will think that all of this is naive or simplistic and that it all sounds like some sort of story that was cooked up to control our behavior. But, after all that, you are still strangely drawn into accepting as absolute truth all that you have been shown even though you have some reservations. This beloved is what is meant when the Bible says, "Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” You are not going to be able to put all the pieces together; you are not going to be able to understand everything. If you did, it would not be faith, it would be your intellect; in short you would be completing a work and therefore your salvation would be what was rightfully due you and not a gift from God. So what is the end result of faith? It is complete and utter dependence upon God to save you from your corruption and rebellion. Faith moves you to accept unconditionally what God has already said as absolutely true and it motivates you to abandon what you may think you know and trust what God has promised even though it makes no sense to you. It is in fact to accept by faith; the assurance and hope of things not seen.
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