GREATER THAN (A STUDY IN THE BOOK OF HEBREWS) SUBSERIES: FOUNDATIONS - WEEK 2 - FAITH PART 1

This past week I was doing a lot of thinking and meditation and discussing with other people about the concept of faith. You know, even if you claim to be a person without faith, the fact remains that you have faith in SOMETHING. And you can have 100% of faith in something.
 
Don’t believe me? People do it everyday when they get on an airplane…this multi-ton metal tube that hurtles through the air at an insane speed. And it comes to land on three points of rubber… don’t tell me you don’t have faith. Obviously you do - otherwise you’d never get on a plane.

We live by faith. In fact, I don’t think you can get through a single day without demonstrating faith in SOMETHING. When you flip a light switch you put faith in the electrical wiring. When you turn the ignition switch in your car, you trust the motor. When you mail a letter you have faith in the US Mail Service. Well….okay….maybe there’s a limit with somethings. 

I KID! But, seriously…when you THINK you can trust things, and it turns out bad, there is a better chance that you just placed your faith in the wrong thing rather than that thing doesn’t exist. IOW, faith SEEMS to be only as valuable as WHAT (or WHO) you put your faith in.

Now that’s true in human relationships, in commercial companies; and it’s ALSO true when it comes to SPIRITUAL faith. And there are many, many things and entities that people have put their faith in over the course of human history. Buddhists have put their faith in the idea of getting to do things over and over and over until you get it right, according to the teaching of the Buddha. Muslims have put their trust in Mohammed, the prophet, and his insights into God (whom they call Allah). Hindus have put their trust in thousands of gods. Even when people claim no religion at all, they still live by faith. Faith that their system of belief is actually real.

And at the heart of most religions, interestingly enough, is the faith that people are by-and-large generally GOOD. Humans seem to have faith in human potential. And that may manifest itself in the preeminence of science or politics, or it may well be expressed as a harmony with nature.

Last week we began a mini-series in the New Testament Book of Hebrews based on what the Author of Hebrews refers to as “the elementary” things of God - the Basics, if you will. Things that you should probably understand before moving on to some deeper understanding of how God works in our lives, and how He leads us. In fact, the Author of Hebrews is frustrated that the Hebrew converts to Christianity to whom he is writing aren’t able to withstand the temptation to go back to try to be justified by the Old Testament Law, rather than to trust in the sufficiency of Jesus for their right standing with God.

He tells them that by this time, they ought to be teachers (Heb. 5:12), but instead they are on shaky ground because they still need someone to teach them the basics yet again.

The basics shouldn’t be shunned or thought less of. That’s why I decided we should pause our Hebrews study to go back to the basics. And for some of you, that might be frustrating; you want to get past all this elementary stuff and get to the Master’s courses. But please note there are others here who have never even heard about the basics EVER - and this is the first time they are hearing about things like repentance, and faith, and baptism, and the Holy Spirit, and Eternal Life.

And then there are the majority of us who find ourselves somewhere in the middle of those extremes; folks who THINK they know the game, but who need to be sat down every once in a while and have a coach pick up a Bible and say, “Church, this is the Gospel. This is the Faith.”

For the next two weeks we are looking at the second foundational truth the Author of Hebrews mentions in chapter 6, verses 1-3. Last week we talked about repentance, this week and next will be all about