Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.I don't recall reading this verse in this translation before. I grew up with the NIV and KJV, which use different words for "assurance" and "conviction." I think this version makes these more clear.
What this terms "assurance" I grew up knowing as "confidence" or "substance." With assurance, this shows that it's not something we make up ourselves; it's believing in a promise we were given. It's God telling us that what's coming is good, and that we have something to look forward to. The trick is not to replace what God promises with what we want it to be in our own selfish motivations.
Again, "conviction" I knew as "assurance" or more often "evidence." Rather than assurance of things unseen, which could mean anything, conviction is having the firm confidence in those things. Evidence is an even worse term, as anyone trying to put this into a court case comes up embarrassingly short (see Lee Strobel's books). We believe that the unseen God is real, and that He works for His and our ultimate good, even when we don't understand His methods or reasons.
Our faith is that God is good, and that He will bring ultimate good to us through Christ, even when we don't understand everything in between.
No comments:
Post a Comment