Friends: That faith is somehow separate from truth and reality is one of Satan’s great lies.  See the column below.  Blessings, Bob

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Spirituality Column #904

March 12, 2024

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

Faith as Truth

By Bob Walters

“Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” – Hebrews 11:1

“Truth” for the secular world is that which one can see, touch, explain, predict with confidence, and which generally, it thinks, does not require faith.

I mean, it DOES require faith, but only in one’s opinion or imagination; not God.

The whole ball game with God, Jesus, and the Spirit – in other words, with the idea of eternity, eternal life, eternal divine relationship, and humanity’s eternal participation in that relationship – requires little else but faith.

Life with God surprises us at every turn, and it is faith that allows us to see, touch, and explain God.  Maybe only to ourselves, but with the certainty of truth.

Humanity can and does have a zillion opinions about this eternal thing called God, but it all adds up, or rather combines in, manifests, and is known through, our life with Jesus and the central instruction of the Spirit: Love God, and love others.

That, my friends, is truth.  God’s truth.  Real Truth. True virtue sits at that table.

The secular world, by all accounts, hates this idea of being only a franchise of the truth, not the Holy Truth itself. It is faith, sureness, and hope in something we cannot see in a looking glass, philosophy tract, or lab experiment.  We imagine a “truth” abiding in our hearts, minds, and souls, but it is a table where the chairs constantly change.

Humans wonder what animates us, gives us life, gives us yearnings, creativity, aspirations, and a wonderful freedom filled with responsibility and purpose. In the life of a Christian, that’s easy: God does that with Jesus and the Spirit.  We get to participate.

In a life without God, these questions are worse than unanswerable: they seem irrelevant, silly, lacking in gravitas … unhelpful.  As if divine faith is unimportant, God is unproven, Jesus is a myth, the Spirit is a superstition, and the Bible is just an old book.

I know because that was once my life; it was my long-time intellectual narrative.

It is not a bad thing to reassess ones overall intellectual motivation, but I must confess that I didn’t arrive in church one day because I had some notion there was “more to life” than I already knew.  It just turned out it was there waiting for me.

First Peter 3:15 says we are supposed to “Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you the reason for the hope that you have.” In myself I’m satisfied with this reason: Jesus.  Why someone else may have faith is for them to decide, and for me to nurture and help them with as I can.  I certainly want to help, but faith is funny about who any particular soul allows into the inmost part of ones being. The Spirit rules.

It is easy for me to say that my life’s purpose is to glorify God, to participate personally in that glory, and to share, give, promote, exemplify, and help deliver God’s glory to others in love; ideally with kindness, gentleness, and respect.  I think that is the outworking of Matthew 22:39: “Love God, and love others as you love yourself.” 

Easy to share, yes, but it is the Holy Spirit’s job to imprint that truth on another soul.

The great thinkers of all religions, philosophies, generations, and cultures surround this notion of faith with the cloak of virtue: What is best for mankind?  Satan and his minions of course want broken virtue and chaos amid lies, but God’s great creative gift to humanity is a mind that wonders, “What is good? How do I know truth?”

It is this trust that virtue exists, is knowable, actionable, and true that is the gift of Jesus to all mankind. Thankfully, Jesus’ virtue is not a wavering human guidepost.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) can explain his own faith, but probably not yours.