The “origins” of the world is a subject that’s in constant debate in the educated circles. There are so many scientific theories as to how we came to be as we are today that it’s very difficult to keep up. There always seems to be a new one all the time. One headline I read earlier this year was on an asteroid that crashed into the earth billions of years ago and brought with it moisture and some biologic. From that we evolved into what we are today. I couldn’t help but wonder where the asteroid came from? None of that makes sense to me and it didn’t make sense to the writer of Hebrews either. In his discussion on faith in Hebrews 11, he argues that the subject of origins is always a matter of “faith” not of “science.” Hebrews 11:3 says, “By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.”
Pfeiffer comments on this verse and says, “The material universe is understandable only on the basis of faith. How did it come into being? By the creative word of God. He said, ‘Let there be light: and there was light’ (Gen. 1:3). Faith sees God as the prime Source and responsible Agent in creation. He brought into being that which previously did not exist: ‘things which are seen were not made of things which do appear’ (11:3). Faith may not understand all of the processes by which the world was brought to its present condition, but it sees God behind them all. Faith may not know how long it took God to create the present world, but it rests in God as Creator.”[1] Long observes in his commentary on this verse, “To the eye of faith, the universe is not simply an aimless swirl of energy and matter but a creation, an expression of the love of God sustained by God’s hidden providence.”[2]
Your existence along with the existence of everything in the universe, including the universe itself, is an expression of God’s love for man. His love found its ultimate expression on Calvary in His only Son. But as Long goes on to say, “What the naked eye can see, of course, is a world of suffering and setback, violence and hardship. Given the harsh realities of the world, faith is the ability to see with the inner eye, to see what cannot be seen with the natural eye. In Saint-Exupéry’s classic story The Little Prince, a mysterious fox promises to tell a little boy the greatest of life’s secrets. When at long last the secret is told, it is this: ‘It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye’” [3] Love is the subject of the heart. Paul tells us in Romans 10:10, that it’s “with the heart that one believes…” Faith in Jesus is a matter of the heart!
[1] Charles F. Pfeiffer, The Epistle to the Hebrews, Everyman’s Bible Commentary (Chicago, IL: Moody Press, 1962), 92.
[2] Thomas G. Long, Hebrews, Interpretation, a Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching (Louisville, KY: John Knox Press, 1997), 114.
[3] Thomas G. Long, Hebrews, Interpretation, a Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching (Louisville, KY: John Knox Press, 1997), 114.