Thoughts on Discipleship by Dr. W. A. Dillard - HTML preview

THE ESSENCE OF FAITH

Embraced by millions over the vicissitudes of time, but understood by none, the life-altering, heaven connection of faith, abounds greater than the sum of all the ugliness, hideous, and condemning factors of sin in a largely God-rejecting world. Just think about it!

Hebrews 11:1 calls this spiritual avenue, “. . . the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” The blessedness, power, and essence of faith follows throughout that tremendous chapter as the responsible agent of triumph over the overwhelming agents of sin and death. It is arguably the greatest chapter of Christian sustainment in the Bible.

Faith, hope, and love are a triad of very real intangibles which defy the test tubes and microscopes of science, and also the understanding of those who are the recipients of them. They are the provisions of grace: the Creator to the created that rectifies, even excels the Edenic cosmos that our federal parents cast down so long ago.

It all has to do with the decision making processes. Adam and Eve decided to transgress the commands of the Creator thus adding sin inexorably to the makeup of the species.

Paul argues in I Corinthians chapter fifteen, that as the decision of Adam brought condemnation, the decision and perfect work of Jesus brings light and life; albeit not to the species, but by every individual who is exercised thereby. The greatest wonder of it all is its possibility. It took the death and subsequent resurrection of Jesus to do it. But death is the direct result of sin, and Jesus had no sin—no not one. How then could the sinless become sin for us, and pay the penalty for sin that we could not? Again, it is the decision making process, and specifically of one Who is qualified to make the decision with the wherewithal to pay the uttermost.

Thus are we blessed with the substantiating of eternal things. That substantiation creates the intangible reality of hope in the human heart. Hope is the earnest, intense expectation of knowing and experiencing the physical realities so intangibly planted. It is by faith that we understand creation, Heb. 11:3. So, the essence is reserved in faith: without it, it is impossible to please God for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. Heb. 11:6. Truly, a faithless life is a life that would be better served had it never existed.

FOR THOUGHT: What do you think to be the difference between faith and a wish? How deeply into the psyche do you think decisions must reach to allow entrance into, or the acquisition of faith? Does mental acquiescence qualify as faith? Why? Why not?