Dearly loved by God in Christ,
What does focus mean? We could say it means to give all your attention to someone or something. Or, it means to concentrate without distraction from one’s surroundings. Focus also means to bring the picture into clarity. In an objective sense, “the focus” is the object of our full attention.
Think about those times in life when you need to focus. Where is the focus of your attention as a Christian? From Adam to Noah; from Abraham to Moses; from King David to John the Baptist; from Paul to us the Christian’s focus is the focus of faith. That “spirit of faith” is not on the now.
Paul shows us in these words to the Corinthian believers, Faith Focuses Above and Beyond the Now. Faith is greater than sight for it knows Christ’s resurrection. Faith looks to the eternal beyond the temporary.
Have you ever looked at one of those pictures that have a second picture hidden deep inside? You have to block out all you easily see and focus deep- beyond the superficial. That is a good metaphor for the Christian life. The apostle had been writing about being “a jar of clay…hard pressed on every side…perplexed…persecuted…struck down.” Rather than focusing on those superficial problems, Paul confessed those things showed “the all surpassing power is from God and not from us.”
Paul focused above and beyond the now. So had King David as Paul quoted from Psalm 116, “I believed therefore I have spoken.” The LORD had delivered David from death at the hands of his enemies just as he had delivered Paul when he preached the gospel. The spirit of faith sustained both Paul and David. While God's Word never quotes this Psalm as Messianic, we may attribute a faith that focuses above and beyond the now to Jesus during his life, and especially as he faced our death and damnation on Calvary’s cross.
Paul’s spirit of faith was greater than sight for it knows Christ’s resurrection. So is this our focus as we confess with Paul, “We know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will raise us with Jesus and present us with you in his presence.”
The verb “know” in Greek means even though I have not experienced something, I trust, or, believe it to be true. We speak our confession that Jesus Christ is Lord, and my only Savior from sin, death and hell by this “spirit of faith”. The hymn writer says in hymn 404, Faith is the living power from heaven That grasps the promise God has given. Christ’s resurrection is the promise that makes faith greater than sight. Christ’s resurrection focuses our attention above and beyond the now.
Every day for us Christians is like one of those 3D stereograms. All we can see on the surface are the aging, the decaying, and the dying of our own bodies and of those around us. We experience the wilting words and the hurtful attacks of the gospel’s enemies. The temptations and sins that threaten us and at times overtake us weary us, and make us frustrated with ourselves, and frustrated with our loved ones.
Our faith focuses above and beyond the now. Faith is greater than sight for it focuses on Christ’s resurrection. “Therefore,” Paul wrote in a form that assumes a condition true, “we do not lose heart,” literally, “We do not lose our courage.”
The spirit of faith focuses on Christ’s resurrection as its object. Our faith also makes a judgment between what we see with our eyes and what we hope for but have not received yet. Faith looks to the eternal beyond the temporary. Faith judges that the eternal glory far outweighs all of our “light and momentary troubles.”
In Acts 14, we read that the apostles “preached the good news” as they traveled around Asia Minor “strengthening the disciples and encouraging them to remain true to the faith.” They told the disciples, “We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God.”
Are you thinking, wait a minute, what kind of strengthening and encouraging is that? It would be like a doctor encouraging you before a procedure, “This going to really hurt!” At the same time, the doctor would let you know how much better you are going to feel afterward. A friend of mine went through a procedure so painful she begged the doctor to stop. He told her if he did, she would still have the same problem. She told him to go ahead because she wanted to be rid of the way she had felt with the problem.
Life really hurts. However, the hurt is light and momentary compared to the great and indescribable glory of eternity. We see and feel the pain and suffering; the weakness and decay; the burden and the guilt. We get what the apostle was talking about being jars of clay so that the we know the all-surpassing power to endure comes from God and not from us. We say amen to his words, “Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.”
Faith looks above and beyond the now. Faith looks above and beyond the fray. Faith looks above and beyond the light and immediate to the weighty and eternal glory of full redemption in the bodily resurrection from the dead. These light and momentary troubles are achieving glory for us just as the hard and tiring training of an athlete leads to the gold medal and the highest place on the victory stand.
“So,” Paul concluded, “we fix our eyes (focus) not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” Last Tuesday my cousins and I saw the urn that contained my aunt’s ashes ready to be placed into a grave. The pastor reminded us not to focus on this temporary condition. Rather we are to focus on eternal life both in our preparation for it through faith in Christ, and in the certainty of it in Christ’s promise to return. Then our Redeemer will take all believers home not only in the spirit but also in our glorified bodies.
God grant that each one of you always will believe and speak in the faith that focuses above and beyond the now as you take to heart Paul’s words in verse 15, “All this is for your benefit, so that the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God.” Amen. <SDG>