Living by Faith: Clinging to the Word of God

In the last two posts in this series, I’ve said that faith is hoping in God and trusting in God which are really just two ways of saying the same thing. Along the way, I’ve regularly hinted at something I want to make explicit in this post. Specifically, the practical way we trust in God is by clinging to his promises as communicated in his Word and ultimately in his Son. In Hebrews 1:1-2, the author teaches us that in the former days God spoke to his people through the prophets in a host of ways and at a variety times, but that in these last days he has spoken to us finally and decisively in Jesus Christ. God has said all he has to say in and through his Son, and he has preserved the most crucial parts of that speech in the New Testament. And now, by the power of the Holy Spirit, God communicates his will and ways through his Word to his children around the world and over time. 

So again, the way we trust in God is by clinging to his promises as communicated in his Word and ultimately in his Son. God makes promises according to his purposes, by faith through grace we receive them, and by faith through grace we live our lives accordingly. This is what it means to live by faith: we hear the Word of God, believe the Word of God, and live according to the Word of God. This is not always an easy way of life but it’s a simple way of life, and it gives some focus to the saying I shared with you in the last post, namely, you can be sure of what you hope for when you hope for what is sure. For what is sure is the being of God and the purposes of God both of which are expressed through the promises of God. When we cling to God’s promises we are indeed living our lives on a Rock rather than on sand. 

Every example of faith offered to us in chapter 11 is designed to show us how this works, that is, how we trust in God by hoping in his words. This is true even in verse 3 where creation is in view because we get the idea that the universe came into existence by the power of the words of God from the Word of God. When we wake up and walk outside and see what we see, we believe that it was created by the speech of God because the Word of God tells us that this is so. We look upon creation and live by faith because we cling to our Fathers words about creation. 

Now, at one level, God has given us enough common sense to look at the created order and figure out that some massively powerful and intelligent being made all that we see. In fact, Romans 1 tells us that creation itself is enough to hold us accountable before God and condemn us as fools if we fail to believe in him. But faith is more than common sense. Faith is more than a series of intellectual processes. Faith trusts in God by clinging to his words, and so when our Father says that he created everything out of nothing by simply speaking it into existence, we believe him, and this is faith. Faith is trusting in God by clinging to his promises through his Word.