June 9th 2019 – Hebrews 11:3

When we studied this verse in detail in a Sunday morning service, we discovered three lessons in it. In the first place, it asserts a spiritual basis for existence and reminds us of the spiritual dimension that underlies all life. This is a simple, but much-needed lesson today, for one half of the world disputes it and in the other half there are multitudes who, while paying lip-service to the reality of spiritual things, live on an entirely materialistic level, to all intents and purposes in practical atheism. God is not in all their thoughts except perhaps on an odd Communion Sunday. God and their own hearts witness how think they think of Him

Secondly, in the words 'By faith we understand' we have a principle that applies to all spiritual life. True understanding of the meaning and mystery of life is possible only to one who has faith in Christ. Faith is the key to life, it is that which brings coherence to what is otherwise perplexing and baffling in human experience.

Thirdly - and this is one insight into the particularly difficult words at the end of the verse - the things which are seen (the visible creation) are not made out of other visible things, but out of nothing. This is the miracle of creation - God spoke matter into being, and before He spoke, there was nothing. This reveals a principle full of significance, for it tells us how God always works, whether in creation or redemption. When God comes to men in their sins, there is nothing in them to which He can appeal, so that when He visits them with salvation, something new is created, something that was not there before. As Paul says, "If any man be in Christ he is a new creation". It does not need much imagination to see what boundless possibilities there are for lives which allow the great Creator God to work in them, bringing into being in them all manner of beauty and loveliness, "Think what Spirit dwells within thee"!