Dear Partner,

Over and over again the bible tells us, "The just shall live by faith." What is faith?

Heb 11:1   Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

Faith is the evidence of things "not seen." How does faith come?

Rom 10:17   So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

Faith comes by hearing God's Word. So let's put this altogether. God wants us to hear His Word so we can have faith that what He says is true even if what we "see" is contrary to what He has spoken. He wants us to hold His Word as being the only "evidence" we need to convince us that what He says is true. Jesus summed this up when He said,

John 17:17   Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.

Why does faith work like this? Why does faith have to be in something we cannot see, or touch, or smell? Faith seems to work completely opposite of all the rest of our human existence. Regarding every other thing in life, we normally believe what we can see, what we can touch, what we have physical evidence for. Why is God so adamant about requiring us to have faith in His Word when we have no physical evidence to support it?

The answer goes all the way back to Adam's transgression, the sin that caused the fall of man from the beginning. The fall of man was caused by Adam's lack of faith in God's Word. What had God said to Adam?

Gen 2:17   But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.

Adam had heard God's Word. He knew what God had said. Faith would believe God's Word no matter what any other evidence would say to the contrary. But then the serpent came and deceived Eve. The bible does not lay sin to Eve's account because she was deceived. However it plainly says Adam was not deceived.

1 Tim 2:14   And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression.

The devil came in the form of a serpent to deceive Eve through tempting her to believe his lies instead of God's Word. She was deceived in her mind and ate the fruit. Now notice carefully the sequence of events in Gen 3:6 when it says … "she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat."

The serpent did not deceive Adam. Adam made a deliberate choice based on physical "evidence." Like a judge he now had to render a verdict regarding "truth" based on what he could see and touch or on what God had spoken. When he saw that Eve did not drop dead after she ate the fruit, he made his decision; "The evidence my physical senses present to me is truth. God's Word is not truth." Based on that reasoning in the mind, Adam ate of the forbidden fruit. His sin was not based on the lies of a temper, but rather on a cold, logical decision produced from physical "evidence" he esteemed to be higher than God's Word. But God had not lied to Adam. The moment he disobeyed God's Word, the truth God had spoken manifested in him … and in all mankind ever since. Sin immediately entered into his nature, and death began working both in his spirit and his body.

Rom 5:12   Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.

Lack of faith in what God had spoken was the way "out" of God's grace. That's why the only way back into the grace of God is through faith in God's Word, no matter what our physical senses tell us! Without faith it is impossible to please Him!

Heb 11:6   But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.

Sue and I love you and appreciate you. We thank God for your generous and giving heart. God bless you!

Your friend and co-laborer,

Gary Carpenter

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