A Word in Season: Faith Over Sight (2 Corinthians 5:7)

We walk by faith and not by sight. So said the Apostle Paul in 2

Corinthians chapter 5 and verse 7. This was the text that the great

Baptist theologian and pastor preacher Andrew Fuller used when he arrived at a gathering of churches once.

He'd been traveling there by horseback and had reached a part of his journey where the land in front of him was flooded, and Fuller thought he would have to turn back.

But a local man standing by said that if he just followed a particular path then he would be safe, would not be swept away or submerged, and so Fuller guided his horse into the water.

The water became yet deeper and the man standing on dry land urged him, Go on sir, you are quite safe.

Fuller obeyed the instructions, made it through the flood safely and so continued on his journey before preaching that sermon.

Now it's a quaint story, a quaint illustration, but it does give us at least some glimpse into what's taking place in this life of faith over sight.

It seems that what the Apostle is telling us is that we are not governed by the things that are so apparent to the eyes of the flesh, but that we live in the light of what is not yet seen, the light of the glory which is to come for those who know and follow the

Lord Jesus Christ. And that's a challenge for most of us because sight is such a vivid sense.

When we see things that make us afraid, when we see things that draw out our affections, see things that perhaps draw our hearts after them, see things that cause us to shudder, those are things which press in upon our consciousness.

We are easily governed by the things that we see and yet we're called here to live not by sight but rather by faith.

We are not simply to make our assessments, our investments, not to make our judgments, not to act simply on the basis of the things that we can see.

If we do that we're going to be governed largely by the fear of man, by the opinions of others, whether or not they applaud us for what we do or they condemn us for it, or applaud us for what we don't and condemn us for that also.

If we are governed by what we see we'll probably never attempt anything because everything will seem too dark and too difficult for us.

We will be acting out of carnal fear, we will be constrained, we will be hopeless, we'll even be moved perhaps to despair if we're simply governed by sight.

But the Christian is governed by faith and he walks accordingly, that is he conducts his life in this world on the principle of things that are not seen.

We are always confident, said the Apostle, knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the

Lord for we walk by faith not by sight. The Christian understands that this world is not everything, the

Christian appreciates that even if this body, this earthly house, this tent is destroyed, that we have a resurrection body to come, that we will be temporarily absent from the body and present with the

Lord and then ultimately and eternally body and soul reunited forever with Christ and worshipping the

God of our salvation. And with that prospect in mind we walk accordingly.

And so this is the call that we have, a courage that is founded not on the things that are seen but on the things that are not seen.

Perhaps you are living entirely on the basis of what you can see, perhaps that means you're not even a

Christian, that you don't know what hope is, that you don't know how to live in the light of eternity.

If that's the case you should pray and we would pray with you if we're believers that God would open your eyes to understand that the things of this world are passing away but the things which are not seen are the things which are eternal.

Perhaps if you're a Christian you're becoming too much governed by the things that you see. You read news reports and so forth, you hear things coming in on the emails or internet or texts and it terrifies you.

Perhaps you're troubled for the future of the church when you see its apparent smallness and weakness.

But let us be governed not by what we see but by what we know by faith and in that way live to the praise of the glory of God in all things.