Faith Is Not Complete Understanding

“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” Hebrews‬ ‭11‬:‭1‬

Our pastor, Dr. John Taylor Brantley, said this today: “One great flaw in the study of theology is caused by man's compulsive desire to understand and rationalize every aspect of every thing. That doesn't mean that we should not try to understand, but it does mean that we must be willing to accept that some things are simply not meant to be understood.”

It made me think of Hebrews 11:1, as well as II Corinthians 5:7, “For we walk by faith, not by sight.” Faith is about trusting God fully. Trusting God, trusting anyone, fully means believing completely in what we know to be true about them even if we can’t always see it. 

We exercise faith daily in many ways. Sometimes we put our faith in the wrong things or people - we can end up hurt or disappointed. We trust the weatherman when he says it will or won’t rain. We get frustrated when he’s wrong. We trust our friends will always have our backs when the going gets tough. We are hurt when we hit a storm of life and many so called friends fall away. Some of us put our trust in our spouses when we agreed to love each other until death do us part…only to be irrevocably broken by their abuse or adultery. 

Putting our trust in people, that we can physically see and touch, can often lead to small or big disappointments. So how do we have faith in a God we cannot see? People are flawed. Only one Man ever walked this earth that was completely perfect - and no it isn’t your favorite celebrity or president or even your favorite pastor. Jesus came to this son broken world to show us He is real! He is fully Man and fully God AND fully REAL! He came to fulfill every single promise God made to His people, and to all people. 

We trust fully in God because He is perfect. We will let Him down time and time again. Yet not only does God never let us down - He is always ready to forgive us when we repent. The prodigal son story grants us a beautiful picture of how our loving, gracious Father in heaven reacts when we humbly approach Him in repentance:

““And he arose and came to his father. But when he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight, and am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ “But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring out the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet. And bring the fatted calf here and kill it, and let us eat and be merry; for this my son was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ And they began to be merry.” Luke‬ ‭15‬:‭20‬-‭24‬ 

I want you to remember a time when you messed up big. The biggest foul of your life. You were possibly scared of how your parents, or maybe your boss, or a teacher, or whoever you had to fess up to, would react. They might have been harsh when you confessed your transgression to them or maybe they surprised you by offering grace. I am willing to guess they probably didn’t throw you a redemption celebration. But God is waiting to do just that! 

““I say to you that likewise there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine just persons who need no repentance.” Luke‬ ‭15‬:‭7‬

It doesn’t make sense, right? Forgiveness is as solemn as the repentance…isn’t it? I am here to tell you that forgiveness is so much more than we will ever comprehend! Dive into God’s Word and see for yourself how incredible His mercy, His patience, and ultimately His forgiveness truly is! We can’t wrap our heads around it! 

So what do we do? How do we overcome the need to understand everything about God, the Bible, and our future eternity with Him? Faith. We lean into what we do know, what we do understand. We stand firm on the promises He has made, both already fulfilled and yet to come. We acknowledge and accept that the mystery of God is what keeps us seeking to know Him more and more all the days of our lives. Then we stop trying to “make it make sense,” choosing rather to fully trust that which we don’t know because that which we do know is good, perfect, merciful, and overwhelmingly generous. 

Let’s pray together:

Almighty God in heaven, we praise and glorify Your most holy name. We seek You, Your kingdom, and Your will all the days of our lives. We don’t fully understand all that You have revealed to us, but we trust in You, in Your goodness, in Your gracious forgiveness, and in all Your promises. Jesus we thank You for showing us Your goodness, for giving us tangible hope in the flesh. Holy Spirit, please help us when we are tempted to doubt, or to try to make sense of things You have divinely chosen to keep a mystery to us. Forgive us for the times we twisted Your Word to make it make better sense to our sin broken minds. Lead us on Your path, that we may fulfill our purpose to bring You glory in all that we say and do. We pray these things in the precious name of Your One and only Son, Jesus Christ, Amen.