On Yaks and Other Matters of Faith

We have been talking about faith ever since the Lord came. It is not exhausted yet, and God forbid that I should think that I know yet what faith is; although I know a little what it is.—George MacDonald

Scripture: John 14:8–21

“There’s a yak,” my wife Carolyn said nonchalantly, as we sped down the highway. “Yeah, sure,” I replied, with more irony in my voice than I intended. “It was a yak!” Carolyn harrumphed, “I SAW IT WITH MY OWN EYES!” Then she lapsed into ominous silence.

“Well there’s one way to settle this matter,” I muttered and, so saying, turned the car around and drove back to the place she clamed to have seen the beast. “There,” she pointed and exclaimed as the animal came into sight, “See? Now do you believe me?”

It was indeed a yak of some sort. I was chastened in my unbelief. [1]

The exchange set me to thinking about faith and its properties. Like MacDonald, “I do not think that I know yet what faith is,” but I “learned a little what it is” through that exchange. It occurs to me now that faith means believing something, but it is more; it is believing someone. Let me explain.

Faith, by biblical definition, is “the conviction of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1). It is first “conviction”—unrestricted, unreserved, unconditional assent. “It is part of the concept of belief itself that a man is certain of that in which he believes.” [2]

But that conviction is based on “things not seen.” Faith’s certainty does not rest on empirical, firsthand evidence but on the basis of someone else’s observations. A believer, in the strictest sense of the word, accepts a matter as real and true on the testimony of someone else. When we have seen something for ourselves, we no longer believe; we know. Belief has to do with things not seen.

I know, for example, that there was a yak on the road that day, for I saw it with my own eyes. If Carolyn tells me these days that she has seen another yak, I may not know it, for I may not have seen it, but I will believe it (the fact of a yak), or, more exactly, I will believe her, for she has proved herself to be a credible witness, which brings me to the point: I believe the stories about Jesus because I believe His apostles who were eyewitnesses of the things He did and said, and I believe that their firsthand reports are true. As the apostle John put it, “What we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the Word of life [Jesus] . . . we declare to you” (1 John 1:1–3).

I believe something (the words and works of Jesus), but I also believe someone (those who were eyewitnesses of Jesus’ words and works). John concludes his gospel on that note: “Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God . . .” (John 20:30, 31). This is biblical faith: believing what John and the other apostles saw and then said about Jesus.

Therein lies our difficulty, for most of us are from Missouri; you have to show us. Seeing is believing. Like Thomas, we want to see the angry prints of the nails in Jesus’ hands; we want to touch the terrible wound in His side. We want to see and know for ourselves (John 20:24–29). We feel the rebuke of Jesus’ words: “Blessed are those who did not see and yet believe.” We hear ourselves say, “I believe . . . Help my unbelief!”

First, let me say that our Lord is not angry with us because we find it hard to believe. He shared our limitations and struggles when He too was flesh. He himself had moments of uncertainty and doubt and needed reassurance (Mark 15:34). How then could He be angry with us?

Angry? No, but He does want us to believe, for faith pleases him more than anything else we can do. How then can we know with complete assurance that what Jesus said and did is true?

By obeying Him. Jesus made this very clear: “Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him” (John 14:21). Again He said, “My teaching is not mine but his who sent me. Anyone who resolves to do the will of God will know whether the teaching is from God . . .” (John 7:16, 17).

How does Jesus “show himself” (make himself real)? How do we know that He is real? By acting on His word.

George MacDonald writes,

But I ask you, “Have you been trying the things not seen? Have you been testing them?” This is what God has put in your hands. He says, “I tell you I am. Act upon that for I know your conscience moves you to it. Act upon that and you will know whether I am or not and what I am.”

Do you see? Faith in its true sense does not belong to the intellect alone nor to the intellect first but to the conscience and to the will. That man is a faithful man who says, “I cannot prove that there is a God, but, O God, if you hear me anywhere, help me do your will . . .”

“Faith is the turning of the eye to the light; it is the sending of the feet into the path that is required; it is the putting of the hands to the task of doing the things which the conscience says ought to be done.”[3]

Faith, thus, is “proving” things that we have not seen and cannot, at first, be sure of. It is “trying” Jesus, putting His words to the test, “doing the very thing that you suppose to be the will of God” (MacDonald).

So, I say, whatever your uncertainties, act upon what Jesus is asking you to do today. Don’t wait for assurance; just do it. Has He asked you to love a difficult and demanding child or spouse, to bear patiently a painful disability, to be brave in the face of harsh criticism and misunderstanding? Do it! “What saves a man is to take a step. Then another step,” C. S. Lewis said.

You will not be able to obey perfectly. (That is something only One has ever been able to do.) But if you choose the right thing and try to do it, God will give you all the help you need to carry on. Then in time (I cannot say how or when) you will “see” and “know” for yourself. Then faith will be a thing forgotten, and your whole being will be caught up in the sheer delight of loving and being loved by our Lord.

And that, of course, is what we were made for.

[1] I took a photograph of the animal that you may believe.
[2] Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica II, II 112, 5
[3] George Macdonald, in an unpublished sermon: “Faith, the Proof of the Unseen”