Bible Study

Faith is also the eye through which we see the unseen. Physical optics will not enable us to perceive God. He is a Spirit. Mortal eyes are too weak to discern “the invisible God,” “the King eternal, immortal, invisible” (Colossians 1:15; 1 Timothy 1:17). We have to relate to Him as He is. “He who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him” (Hebrews 11:6). In faith, we find a better way of seeing. Our eyes can play tricks. Even Plato, the greatest of the Greek philosophers, said nothing is ever actu¬ally how it looks to us. But Moses “endured as seeing Him who is invisible” (Hebrews 11:27). If he believed only what we saw, what would a blind man believe? Radio waves fill your room, but you might never know it if you didn’t have a receiver. One of God’s great Bible names is the Lord is there. God is invisible Spirit, and that is that. It is as useless to argue and expect God to be what He is not as it is to expect the moon to be made of green cheese. Jesus said, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed” (John 20:29). They are on the track of truth. If we want to know God, that is how, because that is what He is like. Wanting a visible God has led people to vast mistakes. People have made God in their own image, which the God of the Bible certainly is not and which contradicts the second commandment. (See Exodus 20:4.) It has led to idolatry and the setting up of images and icons. Today, some treat the living earth as God. They can see it, and they have a pretty big god, but the God of the whole earth is still much bigger. This desire for the invisible to become visible, of course, is where the gospel steps into the picture—because God did become visible. The apostle John wrote, “[He] became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). In fact, John’s Gospel is all about seeing. In the first chapter alone, he makes eighteen references to seeing, writing about knowing as seeing. Similarly, in one of his letters, he began: “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, concerning the Word of life” (1 John 1:1). John saw in Christ the Word of life, but some did not, and they crucified Him. Not seeing is no reason for not believing. Nobody sees radiation. We wait for its effects. Nobody sees God, but millions find the effects in their lives. Unexpected and miraculous things sometimes happen—things that can only be from Him. Even one answered prayer, one healing, one miracle, one deliverance from addiction is evidence of Him. But we do not have just one. Millions of people are healed, millions are delivered, millions of prayers are answered, and millions have experiences that can only be attributed to Jesus Christ, who is risen from the dead. When I step on a platform in Africa or India or anywhere else, often—without any touch from me—the blind begin to see, the deaf begin to hear, the dumb begin to speak, the cripples begin to walk, and those who were driven to madness by evil spirits are released. It is not psychology, for even babies are healed in the womb. The greatest result is deliverance from sin and guilt and the transformation of people’s attitudes and personalities. Truly, Jesus saves.