Faith
Versus Sight
by Derek Prince
Faith!
Who can fully measure or express the
potential represented by that short,
simple word – FAITH?
Perhaps the clearest way to bring faith’s
potential into focus is to examine two
statements made by Jesus:
With
God all things are possible.(Matthew
19:26)
All things are
possible to him who believes.(Mark
9:23)
In each of these
statements, we find the words “all things
are possible.” In the first passage, they
are applied to God; in the second, they
are applied to the one who believes. It is
not too difficult, perhaps, to accept that
all things are possible to God. Can we
equally accept that all things are
possible to the one who believes? This is
what Jesus told us.
In practical terms, what does this mean?
It means that, through faith, the things
that are possible to God are made equally
possible to the one who believes. Faith is
the channel that makes God’s possibilities
available to us. Through faith, all that
is possible to God becomes equally
possible to us. No wonder that the Bible,
from beginning to end, consistently
emphasizes the unique and supreme
importance of faith.
Problems of
Translation
Before we go further with our study, it
will be helpful to clear up a linguistic
misunderstanding that often causes
difficulties in understanding faith. In
English, we have two different words for
faith: a noun, faith, and a verb,
to believe. The connection between
these two words is not always obvious. As
a result, preachers sometimes try to make
a distinction between “believing” and
“having faith.” However, there is no basis
for this distinction in the original Greek
of the New Testament.
In Greek, the word for faith is pistis,
and the word for believe is pisteuo.
We see that the verb is formed directly
from the noun. The stem of each word is
made up of the same four letters
–
pist. As far as the
Bible is concerned, believing is
exercising faith. Conversely, exercising
faith is believing.
When we look at the words that express the
opposite of faith, we again find a
difference between English and Greek. In
English, the opposite of faith is
unbelief. We have no such word as
“unfaith.” But, in Greek, there is a
direct connection between faith and its
opposite. Faith is pistis;
unbelief is apistia. (In Greek,
the negative prefix “a” corresponds to the
English prefix “un.”) The same four-letter
stem pist occurs in both Greek words:
faith, pistis; unbelief, apistia.
Also connected with this four-letter stem
pist, we have the adjective pistos,
which means faithful, believing. From
this, the negative prefix “a” gives us the
opposite adjective, apistos, which
means unfaithful, unbelieving.
For the sake of clarity, we will set these
five words side by side in two parallel
columns:
|
Greek
|
English
|
Noun
|
pistis
|
faith
|
Noun
|
apistia
|
unbelief
|
Adjective
|
pistos
|
faithful,
believing
|
Adjective
|
apistos
|
unfaithful,
unbelieving
|
Verb
|
pisteuo
|
believe
|
We see
that all five Greek words are visibly
linked by the stem pist that
occurs in each of them. Altogether, these
five words occur almost six hundred times
in the original text of the New Testament.
On this basis alone, it is clear that
these words represent a theme that is
central to the Bible’s total revelation.
Faith Defined
The eleventh chapter of Hebrews deals
exclusively with the theme of faith. Its
opening verse provides us with a
definition of faith as the term is used in
the Bible: “Now faith is the substance of
things hoped for, the evidence of things
not seen” (Hebrews 11:1 kjv).
This verse tells us two main things about
faith. First, “faith is the substance of
things hoped for.” Faith is so real that
it is actually called a substance. The
Greek word used here for substance is hupostasis.
It literally means “that which stands
under” something else or “provides the
basis for” something else.
The same word, hupostasis, occurs
in Hebrews 1:3, where we are told that
Jesus is “the exact representation of His
[the Father’s] nature.” The word here
translated “nature” is hupostasis.
The meaning is that God the Father is the
eternal, invisible, underlying reality of
which Jesus Christ the Son is the visible
expression. Applying this meaning to
Hebrews 11:1, we may say that faith is the
underlying reality of things hoped for.
Faith is real; faith is a substance.
Second, faith is “the evidence of things
not seen” (Hebrews 11:1 kjv). The New
American Standard Bible says,“the
conviction of things not seen.” Regardless
of which translation we prefer, the vital
point is that faith deals with things we
cannot see. Faith relates to the
invisible.
Two verses later, the writer again
stressed faith’s relationship to the
invisible:
By
faith we understand that the worlds were
prepared by the word of God, so that
what is seen was not made out of things
which are visible.(Hebrews 11:3)
The writer here pointed
out a contrast between the things that are
seen and the things that are not seen,
between the visible and the invisible. Our
senses connect us to the visible world, to
“what is seen.” But faith takes us behind
the visible to the invisible – to
the underlying reality by which the whole
universe was formed, that is, the reality
of the Word of God.
Thus, faith relates to two eternal,
invisible realities: to God Himself and to
His Word. Biblical faith has only these
two objects. In secular speech, of course,
we speak of faith in many other contexts.
We can talk about having faith in the
economy, in a medicine, or in a political
leader. But faith is not used that way in
the Bible. In Scripture, faith is related
solely and exclusively to two realities we
cannot see with the natural eye: to God
and to God’s Word.
By Faith, Not by
Sight
Paul brought out the opposition between
faith and sight in 2 Corinthians 5:7: “For
we walk by faith, not by sight.” If we
walk by sight, we do not need faith. If we
walk by faith, we do not need sight. Each
excludes the other.
This is contrary to our natural way of
thinking. The world says, “Seeing is
believing.” But the Bible reverses the
order: First we must believe, then we will
see. This principle is so important that
we will look at some passages of Scripture
that illustrate it. In Psalm 27:13, David
said, “I would have despaired unless I had
believed that I would see the goodness of
the Lord in the land of the living.” Which
came first, believing or seeing?
Believing. What was true for David is true
for all of us. If we cannot believe that
we will see the goodness of the Lord, we
will despair. The thing that keeps us from
despairing is not what we see, but what we
believe.
This agrees with the statement made about
Moses in Hebrews 11:27: “By faith he left
Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king;
for he endured, as seeing Him who is
unseen.” Nothing in Moses’ visible
circumstances at this time could have
given him any hope or encouragement. But
in spite of all that was against him, he
endured because he was able to see the
unseen. How did he do this? By faith.
Faith enables us to see the unseen and
thus enables us to endure when the visible
world offers us no hope or encouragement.
Now we turn to the record of Jesus raising
Lazarus from the dead in the eleventh
chapter of John. We read,
Jesus said, “Remove
the stone.” Martha, the sister of the
deceased, said to Him, “Lord, by this
time there will be a stench, for he
has been dead four days.” Jesus said
to her, “Did I not say to you, if you
believe, you will see the glory of
God?”(John 11:39–40)
What
Jesus asked here of Martha, He asks of
all who desire to see the glory of God.
We must believe that we will see. We do
not see first, then believe. We believe
first; then, as a result of believing,
we see. Faith comes before sight.
Here, then, is the basic conflict
between the old nature and the new
nature. The old nature demands to see,
since the old nature lives by the
senses. God has to deliver us from that
old nature and that old way of life and
bring us to a new nature and a new way
of life. Then we will say, “I am content
not to see. I do not walk by sight, but
by faith.”
In the book of 2 Corinthians, we are
challenged once more by the contrast
between the visible and the invisible:
For momentary, light
affliction is producing for us an
eternal weight of glory far beyond all
comparison, while we look not at the
things which are seen, but at the
things which are not seen; for the
things which are seen are temporal,
but the things which are not seen are
eternal. (2 Corinthians 4:17–18)
Paul’s
language in these verses contains a
deliberate paradox. He spoke about
looking at things that are not seen. How
can we do this? There is only one way – by
faith!
There is great significance in the word
“while”: “while we look not at the
things which are seen.” It stresses the
same lesson that Moses learned in his
test of endurance. He learned that, in
the providence of God, affliction serves
a useful purpose for believers. It forms
and strengthens our character and
prepares us for the eternal glory that
lies ahead. But the lesson that the word
“while” teaches us is this: Affliction
serves us only while we keep our eyes on
the invisible realm. If we lose sight of
it and become preoccupied with the world
of time and of the senses, we are no
longer able to receive the benefits that
affliction is intended to provide for
us.
So we are caught between two worlds: the
temporal and the eternal. The temporal
is what we can see; we contact it with
our senses. But the eternal is the world
God wants us to be at home in. And we
can be at home in that world by only one
means: faith. Faith is the one thing
that connects us to the unseen realities
of God and His Word.
Summary
Faith lifts us above the realm of our
own abilities and makes God’s
possibilities available to us. Faith
connects us to two unseen realities: God
and His Word. As we maintain a
relationship with God through faith, we
are enabled to endure and to overcome
the tests and the hardships that
confront us in our daily lives. These,
in turn, become opportunities for God to
reveal His goodness and His glory.
There is an ongoing tension between
faith and sight. Our old nature is at
home in the world of the senses, and it
demands to see. As Christians, we need
to cultivate the new nature, which is
able to trust God and His Word without
demanding other evidence.
[This article is excerpted from
Faith to Live By, written by (c) 1977
Derek Prince Ministries - International,
first published in 1977 by Servant Books,
Ann Arbor, Michigan, and republished in 1997
by Whitaker House, New Kensington,
Pennsylvania, USA.]
Derek
Prince (1915–2003) was born in India of
British parents. Educated as a scholar of
Greek and Latin at Eton College and
Cambridge University, England, he held a
Fellowship in Ancient and Modern Philosophy
at King’s College. He also studied Hebrew
and Aramaic, at Cambridge University and the
Hebrew University in Jerusalem. While
serving with the British army in World War
II, he began to study the Bible and
experienced a life-changing encounter with
Jesus Christ. Out of this encounter he
formed two conclusions: first, that Jesus
Christ is alive; second, that the Bible is a
true, relevant, up-to-date book. These
conclusions altered the whole course of his
life, which he then devoted to studying and
teaching the Bible.
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