It occurred to me today what an amazingly beautiful verse is Luke 16:31. The context is that this rich man has died and gone to hell, and he’s begging Abraham to resurrect a poor man named Lazarus (who was in heaven) so that the rich man’s family might see the resurrection and believe and avoid hell. Abraham responds, “If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.”

That is such amazing evidence of God’s sovereignty over our souls! How many lost people have we had say to us, “if only I could see with my own eyes,” or “I’ll believe if I see a real miracle,” or “I’d believe if science couldn’t explain everything”? And the right response to that–the response we should have in our heads if not in our mouths–is you still wouldn’t believe. All of the “evidence” any of us needs is painted all around us: creation, our consciences, and, most importantly, the Word of God. These are all miraculous things, and as believers we can pause in awe as we witness the supernaturalness. In creation, we see marvelous complexity and irrefutable evidence of design. In our conscience, we see that there is plainly a law written on our hearts that is without explanation apart from God. And in the Word, we see the power of God (1 Corinthians 1:18) itself. But all of these things are non-obvious to the lost person. They see evolution, they see societal impressions; they see an old book.

It is God and God alone who opens our eyes. We could parade the most miraculous of all miracles in front of our depraved minds, and in our sin we would still fail to see a Miracle-Maker. It isn’t “proof” that changes our mind, it’s grace. Grace unmeasured.

My soul delights in the Lord! Apart from Him I am as blind and dead as one can possibly imagine; apart from Him, truth could have no impact on me.

Tags: faith the sovereignty of God theology verses wretchedness

This is part of a series. You can read the introduction first or view all the posts together.

And Lord, haste the day when my faith shall be sight,
The clouds be rolled back as a scroll;
The trump shall resound, and the Lord shall descend,
Even so, it is well with my soul.

Thus goes my favorite verse from one of my favorite hymns, and the source for today’s title. (By the way–if you don’t know the story behind that hymn, it’s worth reading.)

After the last entry, I hope it doesn’t sound contradictory for me to say that I want to go to heaven so that my faith shall be sight! Hebrews 11:1 is the ever-famous “faith verse”: “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” In other words, faith is, by very definition, not-yet-fulfilled. 1 Corinthians 5:6b-7a makes this explicit: “We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord, for we walk by faith, not by sight.” We aren’t walking by sight yet. But the verse in Hebrews doesn’t say “Now faith is something we hope for, the desire of things not seen” — instead it uses words like assurance (in the Greek, literally, a “setting under”, i.e. a support) and conviction (also translated proof, or evidence; the only other occurrence of the word is in [bible]2 Timothy 3:16[/bible], “All Scripture is…profitable…for reproof“). Faith, then, is that which enables us to “know” the things we don’t “know.”

There’s a common youth-group-type illustration that says faith is what you have in the instant before you sit on a chair: you have faith that the chair will hold you. Honestly, I think that definition comes a little short–because you don’t know that the chair will hold, you just assume that it will (and even that assumption is based on external evidence and personal experience). Faith, according to Hebrews, is much stronger than that. Faith assures. Faith convicts. In Ephesians 3:12, Paul explains that through our faith in Christ, “we have boldness and access with confidence.”

Faith is sufficient for action. But our faith here is not at its maximum: we can grow in our faith ([bible]2 Timothy 2:22[/bible], [bible]2 Thessalonians 1:3[/bible]).

In heaven, those things we hope for will be! And those things we have not seen will be seen! As Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 13:10,12: “When the perfect comes, the partial will pass away… Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.” We’ll be with the Lord, and we’ll be walking by sight! Our faith will be perfected.

Strong’s Greek Dictionary translates pistos (faith) as “objectively trustworthy,” which fits perfectly with Hebrews 11 and with the observation that God Himself is faithful–faith is that which convinces us that the things we haven’t yet seen are trustworthy, and clearly God is Himself the epitome of trustworthiness. In heaven, then, we have another cause to rejoice, not only in the perfecting of our own faith, but in the faithfulness of God! We will at last observe that the truths He makes known to our hearts now through the Holy Spirit and through Scripture are true… we will observe through all eternity how trustworthy our God has been to us!

Tags: cultivating heavenwardness faith ten reasons why I want to go to heaven theology verses