Unseen Certainity

I'm originally from Missouri, the "Show Me State."  It is also called the "Mule State," which lends itself to a combined meaning of stubbornly refusing to believe anything until seen.  Jerry McGuire's famous "Show Me The Money!" would be restated as "show me the whatever it is you're trying to tell me is so.

I can't begin to tell you how many times I've heard "I won't believe it until I see it."  Further, in a tongue and cheek sort of way, I can remember hearing, "Don't believe what you hear and only half of what you see."  If it wasn't seen, it wasn't certain - that was for certain!

As culturally posited as the notion of unseen equals uncertain, that is unequivocally not in step with my Christian upbringing.  Contrary to Hillary's statement about the need of churches to get in step with democracy, which is to adopt the cultural mores of the day, Christianity rather is to be counter cultural just as Jesus proved to be.

Jesus was so counter cultural that the cultural leaders of the day put him to death on a cross.  He warned his disciples, "If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you" (Jn 15:18-19).  Yeah, no the church is not to get in step with the culture.

And, to the point of this message, Christians, perhaps in no more important way, are not to accept the cultural insistence of "seeing is believing."  Instead, the foundation of our life in Christ is embracing the truths taught in Scripture and imprinted in our hearts, not affirming what we can see, hear, touch, smell and taste: "Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see" (Heb 11:1).

Biblical faith is the "unseen certainty" provided by the Holy Spirit.  It is not blind trust as the Spirit gives evidence to our own spirits and provides truth in Holy Writ and displays God's glory in creation.  Seeing God, far from a physical sighting, is accomplished by the eye of faith which allows for an "unseen certainty" provided by the Spirit of Christ: "No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, who is at the Father's side, has made him known" (Jn 1:18).

Have I physically seen God?  No, no more than I've physically seen love or hope or oxygen or peace or so many other things that are not seen but are unseen certainty.  I don't need to see a thing to know it exists, I accept many things on evidence.  In legal terms is is called "circumstantial evidence," which connects an inference to a conclusion of fact.  The Holy Spirit, the Bible and design in creation  are the inferences that connect me to the conclusion of the fact of God.  Jus' Say'n.