Living by Faith

Paul told us how Christians should live.

We live by faith, not by sight (1 Cor 5:7).

We should not live according to the things that we can see. We live by faith, which is certain about the things see we cannot see.

If I have money in my bank account, I cannot see a heap of notes and coins with my name attached to them. I will have a bank statement that is evidence of what I have in my account. My wallet may be empty, but I can go into a shop and buy something using my bankcard with full confidence that I can pay for it. I have faith to make purchases, based on the evidence of my statement. I do not act on the basis of the empty wallet that I can see, but on the basis of the money in my bank account that I cannot see. I will only run into problems if the bank does not keep its promises, or if I spend more than is in my account.

Christians know that God will keep his promises. For example, his word states that Jesus has earned healing for us. If Jesus has put healing “in the bank” for us, we can start living as if we have it. In this context, faith is acting as if I have received the healing that Jesus earned for me. My symptoms may say that I am sick, but the Word of God says that I am healed. This is the conflict between what is seen and what is unseen. Faith is certain of what is unseen.

If I continue to walk everywhere, after someone has bought me a car, most people would say that I am a fool. This suggests that there is something wrong with the church continuing to be full of sickness, when we have a bank statement declaring that Jesus has purchased healing for us. We need faith to appropriate the health that Jesus has put onto our statements.

On the other hand, faith is not presumption. Belief in the heart must come first. If we have faith, action will follow; but action will not produce faith. Confessing or acting without faith is presumption. Faith is a gift from God. We must receive faith from him before we can do anything.