Sight to the Blind

Hebrews 11:1 ESV

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

Last week we looked at the first part of this verse and this week we will look at the second.

We are looking here at how faith behaves or what faith does. We’re given two descriptions of what faith is in this text. The first is that it is the substance of things hoped for. We looked at this last week. This first description tells us that faith has some work in our wills. Faith in this description, if you will, acts like an arm that grabs onto the promises of God which is called things hoped for.

This second description is that faith is the evidence of things not seen. You can see in the first that it is sort of forward looking (or grabbing) to the promises we receive. It takes them and grabs onto them and brings them into us. This second description speaks of things present. But present and not seen. And so this second description of faith works in our minds or our understanding. In the first faith is an arm that grabs onto the promises of God and in this second description faith is the eye of the soul looking to what cannot be seen.

Now in the ESV translation the word is translated conviction, that is a great word to use. Aristotle used this greek word to talk about a convincing argument, Jesus says in John 16:8 that the Spirit shall *this word* the world concerning sin righteousness and judgment. So what faith is here is the conviction or the evidence. Faith does a work of convincing us in our souls about the things we cannot see.

Another way to say this is Faith is a grace that represents the things of God with such clearness, that a believer is compelled to subscribe to the truth and worth of them; as a man yields when he sees clear evidence.

Faith does this in 2 ways

Clear Light

As soon as God converts the soul he puts light into it. We’ve talked about seeing the Glory of Christ, that’s what this is. But the way scripture describes it is darkness illuminated. Eph 5:8 “for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light.” “The devil carries on his kingdom by blindness and darkness, and Christ governs by light” - Thomas Manton.

But now think of how light works. I get pretty good at walking through my house with the lights off because I know the layout. But if you move stuff around without me knowing, I’ll break my nose. So when the lights are turned on the do a certain work don’t they? They evidence to me that I shouldn’t walk straight into the wall.

There’s a rationality to light. It lays out the case for me that the wall is in the way. Faith works as light in the soul. They illuminate that which cannot be seen by our eyes to our souls and by that convince us to live accordingly. This means that “walk by faith” or “take a leap of faith” doesn’t mean hold your breath this is going to hurt, you’re probably wrong. It means “you see the reality of life and death, good and evil, the things of God.”

Changing Our Minds/Convictions

You see many people who have opinions about God in the world. Watch them over the course of the next 20 years and see where those opinions take them. You’ll find out if they have truly seen Christ by faith by whether or not their love for him disappears.

This is what Peter said of the Mt of Transfiguration. We’ve seen him. John in 1 John says right there at the beginning, i’m telling you of what i’ve seen. People base the patterns of their life based on what they have seen. If you haven’t seen him you won’t follow him when things get hard. On the other side if you’re headed down one path, when you see him, you’ll change your whole life to follow him.

“Many men like pardon of sin, and eternal life, and come and cheapen the great things of the gospel, but they do not go through with the bargain. This is the conviction of faith when it makes us sell all to buy the pearl of great price, and sways the whole man to pursue and look after those things God hath propounded.” - Thomas Manton.

He goes on to say “Faith brings the soul to a consent; it convinces not only of the truth, but of the worth of Christ.”

Psalm 111:10 “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; all those who practice it have a good understanding. His praise endures forever!” Those that know God, love God… They know him as they are loved by him.

Paul explains in 2 Tim 3 the main issue with the false teachers. They haven’t seen Christ. They have an appearance of godliness, they may even asset to the truth of the word, but they deny that it has any power for them. Oh that he would open our eyes and we would turn an follow him.

Application

Quickly… Three applications

1. Faith that sees Christ will cause our judgment of unseen things to be altered. At one time we look upon the things not seen as myth or fantasy, but in seeing them, Eph 1:18 “having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints.” Our hearts are moved and pierced. Don’t stop your pursuit of Christ until you see him. Lord reveal yourself to us.

2. Our hearts will be altered. Affection follows persuasion. If you love Christ you will love his people. If you have seen the one who died for sinners, you will love the sinners he died for. May Christ open our hearts to love one another.

3. Our lives will be altered. The course of our lives will not be the pursuit of things which will burn and rust and pass away but we will make provision for eternity. The most visible and sensible effect of a sound conviction is a diligent pursuit, when a person is set at work by the sight he has of Christ.

Are your judgment, your hearts, your lives altered? By this we may know if we have beheld Christ.