Blind Faith
Not From Around Here: The Complected Life of a Sojourner • Sermon • Submitted
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If faith never encounters doubt, if truth never struggles with error, if good never battles with evil, how can faith know its own power. In my own pilgrimage, if I have to choose between a faith that has stared doubt in the eye and made it blink, or a naïve faith that has never known the firing line of doubt, I will choose the former every time.
Gary Parker as quoted by Lee Strobel, The Case for Faith (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Pub. House, 2000), 243.
As Peter continues to comfort the suffering saints who have been scattered throughout the land, away from their homes, he focuses on a truth that we can use even today. These folks had never seen Jesus or His miracles… yet they were bound by him… they did not require physical evidence to enter into a relationship with Jesus.. they had trials that God gave them grace to endure… they did not need an image of Jesus they saw Him by blind faith.
Love Jesus Blindly
Love Jesus Blindly
Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory:
The Christians to whom Peter was writing were not personal disciples of Jesus, but converts of the apostles. They had not seen the Lord Jesus on earth during His incarnate residence here, either while in His humiliation or at the time of His post-resurrection ministry. The Greek has it, “Of whom not having had a glimpse.” Yet they loved Him. They never saw the Lord Jesus with the physical sense of sight, but ah, what a vivid portrait of Him did the Holy Spirit paint for them on the canvas of their spiritual vision. And that is the perfectly proper order for this Age of Grace. Paul says “Though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more” (). The picture of the earthly Lord Jesus in His mortal body, seen by human eyes, is supplanted now by the picture of the glorified Man in the Glory, painted by the Holy Spirit for the spiritual vision of the saint. - Wuest
Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
For by it the elders obtained a good report.
You See Him By Faith
You See Him By Faith
Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory:
(For we walk by faith, not by sight:)
By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king: for he endured, as seeing him who is invisible.
These saints loved the Lord Jesus, even though they had never had a glimpse of Him with their physical sense of sight. But one cannot love another unless one has some clear-cut conception of that person. One must know the person in order to love him. It was the clear-cut conception of the Lord Jesus which the Holy Spirit had given these saints through the Word, that caused them to love Him. The distinctive Greek word for “love” here, agape (ἀγαπε), refers to a love that is called out of one’s heart by the preciousness of the person loved. But even the preciousness of the Lord Jesus would not have made these individuals love Him if God in salvation had not produced in them that divine love which He Himself is, with which to love Him (; , ). One must have the nature of an artist to really appreciate and love art. One must have the nature of God () to appreciate and love the Lord Jesus. It is this ideal combination of a study of God’s Word and a definite subjection to the Holy Spirit that results in the clear, vivid portrait of the Lord Jesus in the spiritual vision of the saint. To know Him is to love Him. To know Him better, is to love Him better. The secret of an intimate, loving fellowship with the Lord Jesus, the secret of knowing Him in an intimate way, is in the moment-by-moment control of the Holy Spirit over the life of the Christian believer.
Kenneth S. Wuest, Wuest’s Word Studies from the Greek New Testament: For the English Reader, vol. 11 (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1997), 28–29.
Your Belief Leads to Unspeakable Joy.
Your Belief Leads to Unspeakable Joy.
Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory:
Their commitment to Jesus (“believing”) causes them to rejoice. The verb is present (although some copyists later changed it to a future, misunderstanding the paradox), for Peter’s point is that in the midst of outward trials we can already experience by faith and rejoice in our coming Lord. Thus the joy is “unspeakable” or inexpressible, for it defies outward circumstances (and thus is hard to explain) and is rooted in a realm that is beyond our physical experience (cf. citing )
Peter H. Davids, The First Epistle of Peter, The New International Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1990), 59.
For since the beginning of the world men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, Neither hath the eye seen, O God, beside thee, What he hath prepared for him that waiteth for him.
For to this end also did I write, that I might know the proof of you, whether ye be obedient in all things.
Great is my boldness of speech toward you, great is my glorying of you: I am filled with comfort, I am exceeding joyful in all our tribulation.
isa 64
Your Belief Will Save Your Soul.
Your Belief Will Save Your Soul.
Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls.
As they love and serve the coming Christ, they will receive the goal of their faith. The verb for “receiving” is frequently used for obtaining a prize or reward (; ; ; cf. ). Here the prize is the goal or consummation toward which their faith is directed, that is, “the salvation of [their] souls.” That that salvation or deliverance is not simply a present possession but a future consummation or goal is evident both from their present experience of suffering and (had the readers had it available) the NT (e.g., ; ).1
1 Peter H. Davids, The First Epistle of Peter, The New International Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1990), 59–60.
For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.
Knowing that whatsoever good thing any man doeth, the same shall he receive of the Lord, whether he be bond or free.
And when the chief Shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away.
A man who has a layover at an airport does not go into the bathroom, frown at its decor, and start redecorating! Why? Because he doesn’t live there. He has a home in another place. While he is away he will get by with only what he absolutely needs, to have more money with which to furnish his permanent home.
Why do we Christians work hard at trying to make our life in this world more comfortable? This is just the airport and we are in transit. We should spend our energy on enhancing our eternal reward, and not worry so much about the bare walls in the airport restrooms.