The Foundation Of Faith Series

In 1781 Sir William Herschel, the English astronomer,

discovered the planet Uranus. He plotted the course that this new

planet should follow, but for some mysterious reason Uranus did not

follow the predicted orbit. Other astronomers checked his

calculations and found no mistake. It was necessary for the

scientists to take a leap of faith and believe that some unknown and

unseen star was responsible for deflecting Uranus from its normal

orbit. For 60 years speculation about this unseen body was

developed.

One astronomer was so certain of its reality that he wrote in

1846, "We see it as Columbus saw America from the shores of

Spain." By faith he saw the unseen, and that very year a German

scientist named Galle gazing through a new telescope equipped with

more powerful lenses saw for the first time with the eye of flesh, the

planet Neptune, which was responsible for the movements of

Uranus. There it was, visible to the eye of sense in the very spot that

the eye of faith had said it must be for 60 years.

Faith is not a leap in the dark, but it is a leap in the direction

toward which the light is shining. Faith follows the path of evidence,

and then leaps out ahead of the evidence in the belief that the

evidence will eventually catch up and support, and justify the leap of

faith. Leslie Weatherhead defines this faith of the intellect as "An

attitude of complete sincerity, and loyalty to the trend of all the

available evidence, plus a leap in the direction of that trend."

Faith is the basis of all progress into the unknown. Faith

adventures into the unknown and unseen believing that there is

more to reality than is presently known. Faith is not opposed to

reason, but it is faster. It runs ahead and lays hold on truths which

reason is not yet capable of seeing. Reason travels by horse and

buggy, while faith flies as fast as the speed of light-the light of God's

Word and revelation. The man of faith is always ahead of his time

because he is always living on the basis of truths that go beyond the

best that reason and sight have developed.

This is the ideal that faith makes possible, but we need to be

careful not to make faith everything, and put all of our resources

into a foundation, and have nothing left with which to build. The

servant and Apostle Peter make it clear that faith is the foundation

of the Christian life. In verse 1 he addresses Christians as those who

have obtained like precious faith. In verse 5 where he begins the

climb up the ladder of Christian character and effectiveness, he

starts with faith, and says add to your faith virtue, and to virtue

knowledge etc. We see that faith is the foundation, and is absolutely

essential as a basis from which to begin the climb, but it is not

enough in itself for the full Christian experience.

We are saved by faith alone, and none of these additions are

necessary for salvation. Faith alone can receive the free gift of God's

grace, but no Christian can be content with being saved alone.

Salvation is just the start of what God has for us. To often people

are content to stop at the start. There is a life to be lived for the

glory of Him who saved us. We are to avoid barrenness and

unfruitfulness, and the danger of falling by diligently adding to the

foundation of faith all of these other values that Peter lists. Consider

an airport as an illustration of the Christian life. The first thing you

need is a runway. This is the foundation of an airport. It is to the

airport what faith is to the Christian life. Everything else is just to

increase the usefulness of an airport. If you build hangers, a tower,

and a restaurant, but have no runway, you do not have an airport.

The runway is the foundation, and all else must be built around it

and added to it.

Therefore, before we can take any flights into the atmosphere of

Christian experience we have to have the runway of faith, for it

alone is the only adequate launching pad for adventurous aviation

into the skies of God's blessings. Our runway of faith has already

been laid by Jesus Christ, but as every good pilot learns all he can

about the runway, so as wise Christians we should learn all we can

about the runway of faith. It is the foundation from which all our

flights to the higher Christian life must be launched. Peter tells us

two interesting and valuable things about faith in this first verse.

The first is-

I. THE EQUALITY OF FAITH.