Faith: How We Walk

Sermon preached on February 5, 2023 – 2 Corinthians 5:1-9; Hebrews 11:1-3 – Faith: How We Walk

The Bible uses the word “walk” in both the literal and metaphorical senses of the word. In the literal sense, it means to transport your body from one place to another by repeatedly putting one foot in front of the other. This is what Jesus did when He “walked” on water. And this is what the paralytic did when Jesus told him to rise up and “walk.”

In the metaphorical sense, however, “walk” has a different meaning. The Bible uses this word to describe one’s adherence to a particular rule of life. It refers to the way a person conducts himself, whether good or bad. For example:

Genesis 5:21 says that “Enoch walked with God three hundred years.” We understand this metaphorically. It’s saying that Enoch was obediently submissive to God for three hundred years.

Similarly, Psalm 1:1 says, “Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly.” We understand this to be teaching us that God blesses the person who rejects unrighteous counsel because he’s commitment to living in obedience to the Lord.

Ephesians 4:17 says not to walk as the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind.

And to give one more example, 2 John 6 says, “This is love, that we walk according to His commandments.” In other words, the evidence of your love for God and your neighbor is that you live in obedience to God’s commandments.

So when 2 Corinthians 5:7 says that Christians “walk” by faith and not by sight, we understand this in the metaphorical sense; we understand this to be describing something distinct about the way we Christians conduct ourselves in our daily affairs. It’s saying that our lives are ordered, not by our perceptions of what’s happening in the material world around us, but by a sincere desire to live in God-honoring ways and make God-honoring decisions that are established in the spiritual realities that can only be understood by faith.

The context helps is understand that this is what the apostle means when he writes that we walk by faith and not by sight. In the first eight verses of 2 Corinthians 5, Paul is saying that there’s more to life than what meets the eye. Specifically, he’s reminding us that God has prepared a heavenly habitation for those who die in Christ.

Other passages of the Bible give us more details about this heavenly habitation. It’s the place where God the Father is enthroned. It’s the place where Jesus went to prepare a mansion for those who love Him. It’s the place where there are no more tears, no more diseases, no more suffering, no more sin, no more death. It’s the place where the redeemed in Christ have eternal and unhindered communion with our triune God.

The point that Paul makes in the beginning of 2 Corinthians 5 is that we’re not residing in that heavenly habitation right now. We’re residing in “our earthly house,” he writes in verse 1. This earthly house, which is really nothing more than a portable tent, is being destroyed. “We groan,” Paul writes in verse 2. We groan because we’re subjected to the bondage of corruption that comes from living in a sinful and cursed world. But even as we groan, we have the promise from God that He has prepared a heavenly home for us where death is swallowed up by life; where mortality is swallowed up by immortality. So we long for that heavenly home. Verse 4 says…

For we who are in this tent groan, being burdened, not because we want to be unclothed, but further clothed, that mortality may be swallowed up by life.

When Paul writes that we don’t want to be “unclothed,” he’s saying that Christians don’t try to get rid of all the pain and suffering of this world by ceasing to exist, but rather, we want to be “further clothed,” meaning, we want to be clothed with our glorified bodies. We want to enter into that glorious heavenly habitation where death and suffering are replaced with life and peace. Then in verses 6 and 8, Paul writes about when we’ll begin to experience the blessed joys of living in our heavenly habitation. In verse 6, he writes…

So we are always confident, knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord.

Then he writes in verse 8…

We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord.

So if we merge verses 6 and 8 together, Paul is saying that when we’re present in this body, then we’re absent from the Lord, but when we’re absent from this body, then we’ll be present with the Lord. So it’s when we die—when our earthly tent is eventually destroyed—that we’ll immediately go to be with the Lord in our heavenly habitation.

Yet, right in the middle of explaining this, Paul inserts verse 7. You might think that verse 7 breaks up the natural flow of the point he’s making. You might think that verse 7 is a distraction to the point he’s making. But when we take a closer look, we realize that verse 7 is the point he’s making. Verse 7 says…

“For we walk by faith, not by sight.”

We were reminded last Sunday that God’s general revelation is made known to all people and His special revelation is only made known to some people. Here in 2 Corinthians 5, that dichotomy is being applied to the everyday situations we experience on this earth. Because we’re presently at home in these earthly tents, we’re “absent from the Lord.” This means that God is not visible to our natural sight. We do not see God, in the literal sense of the word.

What we do see, however, is a lot of death and suffering in this fallen world. We see the whole creation groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And we see ourselves groaning along with the rest of creation. Anybody can see the death and suffering in this world. That’s part of God’s general revelation. There’s no speech nor language where the voice of death and suffering is not heard. The voice of death and suffering shouts into the ears of every living person, declaring to them that the wages of their sin is death.

But because God has made His special revelation known to those who are indwelt by His Spirit, believers don’t have to walk according to the limitations of our natural sight. We walk by faith, which means, we walk through this fallen world according to the hope we have in the gracious and merciful promises that have been revealed to us through God’s special revelation.

Please turn on your Bibles to Hebrews 11. Verse 1 of Hebrews 11 is a helpful description of the faith by which we walk. This verse tells us how faith operates in the lives of believers. It says…

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

Notice the word “hope” in this description. When the Bible uses the word hope, it’s not using it in the way we use the word today in our common vernacular. We speak of hope as something that might come true, but there’s no guarantee that it’ll come true, so we cross our fingers and “hope” it comes true.

Biblical hope is different. Biblical hope is a sure confidence that the promises God has declared in His special revelation will indeed come true. There are no if’s, and’s, or but’s about it. It’s a sure confidence that the promises God has declared in His special revelation will come true. One of the ways we know this is because God has sealed these promises by giving us the Holy Spirit as a guarantee, or as a down payment.

So biblical hope is the confident anticipation of that God is going to fulfill His promises to us. As such, hope is always future oriented. It’s the confidence we possess right now concerning something that God has not yet brought to pass. We see this in Hebrews 11:1. You may have noticed that Hebrews 11:1 is written in the poetic form of parallelism. Parallelism is when a one point is stated two times, using slightly different words. There are parallelisms all throughout the Old Testament, but especially in the wisdom literature. Take Proverbs 16:18 as an example…

Pride goes before destruction,

And a haughty spirit before a fall.

There’s only one point that’s being made in this proverb, yet it’s stated two times with slightly different words. By matching the parallel terms, we gain a better understanding of the point that’s being made. We can see that it’s not just the most obvious forms of pride that lead to a person’s fall, like bragging and boasting and parading oneself before others, but it’s also the forms of pride we try to conceal, like a condescending attitude toward people we think are inferior to us.

Well, Hebrews 11:1 is a parallelism. When we match the parallel terms, we understand the singular point of this verse to be that people who possess faith have hope. People who possess faith have a sure confidence that the promises God has declared to them will indeed come true. It’s worth noting that ibn this parallelism, the things Christians “hope for” are described as “things not seen.” This is a recurring theme in Hebrews 11. Over and over again, we’re told that so-and-so’s faith allowed him to believe in things that could not be seen. Let me show you just a few of the highlights. Look at verse 7. It reads…

7 By faith Noah, being divinely warned of things not yet seen, moved with godly fear, prepared an ark for the saving of his household, by which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith.

So what is it that Noah could not see but still believed by faith? It was God’s divine warnings of condemnation upon the world. It was the rain and floods and world-wide catastrophe that had not happened yet, but were such a sure conviction in Noah’s heart that he spent 100 years building an ark on dry land.

Now look at verse 8…

8 By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he would receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. 9 By faith he dwelt in the land of promise as in a foreign country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise; 10 for he waited for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God.

What is that Abraham could not see but still believed by faith? That he would eventually possess the land that was promised to him. God called Abraham into the land, but he dwelt there as a foreigner. He didn’t actually take possession of the land during his lifetime. Nevertheless, he believed by faith that God’s promise would come true, so he “waited for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God.”

In verse 11, we read about Sarah’s faith…

11 By faith Sarah herself also received strength to conceive seed, and she bore a child when she was past the age, because she judged Him faithful who had promised.

What is it that Sarah believed by faith, even though she couldn’t see it? That she would conceive a son in her old age.

Now drop down to verse 24…

24 By faith Moses, when he became of age, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, 25 choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin, 26 esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt; for he looked to the reward.

What did Moses believe by faith, even though he couldn’t see it? He believed that the reward for suffering the reproach of Christ is greater riches than all the treasures of Egypt. Moses could have lived very comfortable and opulent life in Pharaoh’s palace, but God had revealed to him the even greater riches of suffering for the reproach of Jesus Christ. So Moses chose to suffer the reproach of Christ, even though Jesus would not become incarnate on the earth for another 1,500 years.

I could go on to cite other examples from Hebrews 11, but I think you get the point. This chapter is demonstrating through real-life examples of people who have walk by faith that we have hope; hope in things not seen; a sure confidence that God will fulfill every one of His promises to us in His good timing. Romans 8:24-25 says…

24 …but hope that is seen is not hope; for why does one still hope for what he sees? 25 But if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with perseverance.

So in 2 Corinthians 5, Paul is writing about how we groan in these earthly tents, but in our groaning, we’re not overcome by grief and despair. Why not? Because we have hope. Because we have hope in the promises of God. Even though the fulfillment of many of these promises will be in the future, which means our natural means of perception cannot “see” them right now, that doesn’t bother us because we don’t walk by sight, we walk by faith. Like Noah, Abraham, Sarah, Moses, and all the other people listed in Hebrews 11, we walk by faith. In so doing, we possess a sure conviction that the things God has promises to us will come true in His good timing. Or as Romans 8:25 puts it, we hope for what we do not see, eagerly waiting for it with perseverance.

Contrast that with the way unbelievers walk. Unbelievers can only walk by sight. They can only know what’s been made manifest to them through God’s general revelation. Their natural eyes see all the death, suffering, and other problems that exist in this world, but they can only process these things according to their naturalistic perceptions. Once again, Hebrews 11 gives us a good example of this. Verse 3 makes a very relevant to what we’re witnessing today in our modern age of science. Verse 3 says…

3 By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible.

This is talking about God’s creation. This is talking about God speaking the creation into existence. Genesis 1:1 says…

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

And then, eight times over the course of the six creations days, we read of God speaking His creation into existence and order. John 1:1-3 adds to our understanding of the creation account by explaining the role of the Second Person of the Trinity…

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.

Colossians 1:16-17 also speaks of the role of Christ in creation. As I read these two verses, listen for the words “all things.” You hear these words four time. They speak of the total and comprehensive work of Christ in creation…

16 For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. 17 And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist.

Brothers and sisters, this is special revelation, explaining that the worlds were framed by the word of God. Hebrews 11:3 is saying that the only people who can believe this is true are those who have faith in the living God. Because unbelievers don’t have faith in the living God, it’s no wonder they don’t believe the biblical account of creation. For how could they?!?! They don’t have the Holy Spirit who makes the deep things of God known to them (1 Cor 2:10). All they can know is that which they perceive with their natural senses.

It’s not a surprise, then, that when we discuss the origins of the universe with unbelievers, they always insist that we only consider empirical evidence. That’s not just a debate tactic to try to limit the scope of evidence; they truly cannot know anything that does not come to them through their natural senses! So they try in vain to make sense of a world that can only be understood by God’s special revelation.

When Paul writes that Christians walk by faith and not by sight, he’s telling us that God has graciously made His special revelation known to us. God has graciously shown us that there’s more to life than what meets the eye. There’s an eternity of rewards that God has promised to us, but we cannot see them right now. Nevertheless, we have hope in these unseen things because we walk by faith.

So as people who are walking by faith and not by sight, we don’t get overwhelmed by the problems that are visible because we know the promises that are invisible. We don’t build our lives around things that have no eternal significance because we have knowledge of the eternal realities that transcend this world. We don’t determine the quality of our lives according to our emotions that fluctuate with our current circumstances because we know that we’re loved by God and He’s working all things out for our good. And we don’t listen the lies and deceptions of the evil one because our hearts are tuned to the voice of the Holy Spirit and the truth of His eternal Word. Like Noah who was certain that God would send a flood upon the earth, and Abraham who was certain of possessing the promised land, and Sarah who was certain that she would conceive a son in her old age, and Moses who certain that suffering the reproach of Christ is a greater reward than all the riches of Egypt, we are certain that God’s unseen promises will soon become reality. So we walk according to these promises. By faith, we choose to live in the light of what God has revealed to us by His Spirit rather than trusting in our natural perception of things. We submit ourselves to God and patiently wait for Him to fulfill His promises.

1 Peter 1:8 puts it this way. Speaking of your relationship with Jesus...

8 Though you have not seen Him, you love Him. Though you do not now see Him, you believe in Him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory (ESV)

What are some of these promises that bring us inexpressible joy that’s filled with glory? Let’s start with 2 Corinthians 4:17-18…

17 For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, 18 while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.

Notice the contrast Paul is making here between what is temporary and eternal. He says that our afflictions are momentary while the things God is working for us through those afflictions are eternal. Then he says the things that are seen are temporary while the things that are not seen are eternal.

Make no mistake about it, brothers and sisters, the afflictions we experience in this life can be very burdensome. And they can be very painful. Think of Lazarus who was afflicted with persistent poverty and sickness. He died in that affliction. Yet then he was carried by the angels to Abraham’s bosom where he spent all of eternity in undefiled glory. When he’s been there ten thousand years, bright shining as the sun, he’s no less days to sing God’s praise than when he first begun. So after ten thousand years of living in paradise, Lazarus could certainly look back at his earthly life and see with perfect vision how his afflictions were but for a moment.

We don’t have that perfect vision yet, but by faith, we receive this truth from the word of God. So however many years you groan under the affliction you’re presently suffering in your earthly tent, it’s but a moment in the perspective of eternity. Moreover, this promise from 2 Corinthians 4:17 tells us that God is using your current afflictions to work in you a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.

Have you ever seen the pain scale in doctor’s offices and emergency rooms? It’s a little chart that ranges from 1 to 10, 1 indicating only mild discomfort and 10 indicating excruciating pain. What Paul is telling us in 2 Corinthians 4:17 is that if you could quantify all the pain of the afflictions you suffer on this earth, multiply that number by eternity and that’s the weight of glory God is working in you. This promise brings us inexpressible joy that’s filled with glory.

Other promises from God that bring us inexpressible joy are those that are declared to us in the form of benedictions. Consider 1 Peter 5:10-11...

May the God of all grace, who called us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a while, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you. To Him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen.

When Peter writes that the God of all grace has “called” us to His eternal glory, he’s not writing about a mere invitation which a person can accept or reject as he pleases. It’s a divine summons. It’s a royal command. And the assuring part is that this calling is effectual because it’s the consequence of our election. Moreover, Peter tells us that God is in the process of perfecting us, establishing us, strengthening us, and settling us in eternal glory by Christ Jesus, so there’s no possibility that anyone who has been called by God will fail to enter into that eternal glory. This promise brings us inexpressible joy that’s filled with glory.

Another benediction from God is in Hebrews 13:20-21…

Now may the God of peace who brought up our Lord Jesus from the dead, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you complete in every good work to do His will, working in you what is well pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.

Notice the reference to the God of peace “who brought up our Lord Jesus from the dead.” The significance of this is that the exceeding greatness of His power which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places is at work in us who believe, making us complete in every good work to do His will. This is an amazing promise! This gives us confidence that He who has begun a good work in us will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ. This promise brings us inexpressible joy that’s filled with glory.

I’ll mention one more benediction. It’s found in 1 Peter 1:3-4…

…the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you

This is reminding us of what we read in our sermon text in 2 Corinthians 5…

For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens… We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord.

Brothers and sisters, when we get to the heavenly habitation that the Lord has promised us, we shall “see” the Lord face to face. And we will “see” the things that we presently cannot see. But in this present world, we walk with God by faith. While we’re in these mortal tents, we’re hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; we’re persecuted, but not forsaken; we’re struck down, but not destroyed, because we walk by faith.