Hearing IS Believing

So, if seeing is not believing, how can I believe in God? One of the wonderful things about God is that he never leaves us in the dark. He doesn’t just tell us where to go but also how to get there. And the same is true for faith. Consistently throughout the bible, God teaches us that seeing is not believing: Hearing is believing. This is what Paul says: “Faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ.” (Romans 10:17). You could not get a more unambiguous verse about how to believe in God. God tells us plainly: Faith comes from hearing!

When we struggle with our faith, we can often forget that God instructs us in how to believe in him. And He teaches us that real faith comes from hearing the words of Christ. This doesn’t mean that all who hear will believe. Many heard Jesus’ words and still rejected him. But this is how the Holy Spirit brings people to faith and maintains our faith: Not by seeing Christ, but by hearing the words of Christ.

In John 4, we see a contrast between those who hear and those who see. An entire Samaritan village come to faith in Jesus, and they explain to the Samarian woman how this happened: “We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world.” (John 4:42).

Not one miracle is recorded while Jesus stayed in that village. And yet they believed in him when they heard the words of Christ for themselves. Hearing is believing. Contrast this with the Jewish village that Jesus visits next. An official begs Jesus to heal his son, and Jesus rebukes them: “Unless you people see signs and wonders … you will never believe”. (John 4:48). The Jewish town would not believe without seeing. But the Samaritans show us that faith comes through hearing. The organ of faith is not the eye, but the ears.

 

Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed

 

Jesus offers an incredible promise at the end of John’s gospel: “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” (John 20:21)

Do we really believe that? It is so easy to think that if I could just see God, that would solve all my problems. But it won’t. It won’t actually help you to believe in him. But hearing the word of Christ will. When we struggle to believe, we need to look to the bible and not to the heavens. Immediately after Jesus’ words to Thomas, John explains that He wrote this gospel “…so that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.” 

The gospel is what God has given us to believe. This is so liberating because you have the gospel. You don’t need look anywhere else. You don’t need anything more. You can believe in God without seeing him. Faith comes through hearing. And those who hear and believe will be blessed.

This concludes our look at Tom Habib’s article of how to believe in God when we cannot see Him. I hope you enjoyed these 3 posts as much as I did. Until next time, walk with the King & be a blessing.

In His Name & for His Glory,

RL Keller

Bread of Life Ministries

 

This is a Part 3 of a 3 part series taken from an article written by Tom Habib for the Bible Coalition. Tom is a lectures on the New Testament and Greek at Moore Theological College.

Seeing is NOT Believing

First, we need to dispel the myth that seeing is believing. It isn’t and it never has been. The evidence for this is found in the people who did see Jesus. Many people have said to me before, “If I could just see Jesus I would believe in him.” In my braver moments I reply, “No you wouldn’t—if you saw Jesus, you would kill him!” Because that’s what people did. Thousands of people witnessed Jesus perform miracles that were impossible for a mortal man. And yet it was those same crowds that cried out for his crucifixion. Seeing is not believing: just look at those who saw Jesus and did not believe.

Jesus demonstrates this himself in the parable of Lazarus and the rich man. The rich man descends into hell and pleads with Father Abraham to let him go back and warn his brothers, so that they will not end up there,

Abraham replied, “They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.’
‘No, Father Abraham,’ he said, ‘but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’
He said to them, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’ (Luke 16:29-31)

In this parable, Jesus makes clear that someone could witness the resurrection and still not believe. Why? Because seeing is not believing. But this raises a question. If seeing is not believing—then what is the real reason why people don’t believe in God? And Jesus tells us: people don’t believe because they simply don’t want to believe.

In John 7, Jesus’ brothers urge him to “show himself to the world”. They thought that if people just saw Jesus—and in particular his miracles—they would believe and follow him. This is what we often think as well. But Jesus rebukes them: “the world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify that its works are evil.” (John 7:7)

Jesus knows that the world will not accept him, and He knows that it has nothing to do with whether they see him and his miracles or not. The real reason that the world will not believe in Jesus is that it hates Jesus. If Jesus were to sing to the world’s tune, it would believe in him in a second. But because Jesus testifies that their works are evil, they hate him. And that is the real reason why they don’t believe in him. They don’t want to.

Later in the same chapter Jesus challenges the religious leaders with this truth: “My teaching is not my own. It comes from him who sent me. If anyone chooses to do God’s will, he will find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own.” (John 7:16-17)

The person who wants to do God’s will believes in Jesus. The person who wants to live their own way won’t. And this is exactly what we see in the rest of the chapter. The Pharisees’ rejection of Jesus is shown to be completely unfounded. Even one of their own, Nicodemus, thinks they are being unfair. Despite all the evidence, they refuse to believe simply because they don’t want to believe. Their unbelief is not based on reason but rebellion. They want to live life their own way.

And this is true for our world today. You could see Jesus every day of your life and still not believe in him. The Pharisees didn’t. Jesus’ own brothers didn’t. Isn’t the real reason people don’t believe in Jesus simply because they don’t want to?

The final part is coming with the next post. Until then, walk with the King & be a blessing.

In His Name & for His Glory,

RL Keller

Bread of Life Ministries

 

This is a Part 2 of a 3 part series taken from an article written by Tom Habib for the Bible Coalition. Tom is a lectures on the New Testament and Greek at Moore Theological College.