Faith Is Better Than Sight

The righteous shall live by his faith.   Habakkuk 2:4, ESV

When Habakkuk talks about “the righteous,” he does not mean some people are in the right in every way. The Bible says, “No one is righteous—not even one” (Romans 3:10). But there are some people who desire it: “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled” (Matthew 5:6, NIV).

How are these people who, like Habakkuk, hunger and thirst after righteousness to make sense of this confusing world? And how are we to navigate our way through uncertain and unpredictable events? How are we to hold our course in the face of the great evils that arise throughout history? The answer is faith.

Sight is a wonderful gift, but it has a very limited capacity. It cannot look around corners. It can only look in one direction at a time, and when it turns to look in another direction, it loses the capacity to view what it saw before!

As long as we’re living in this fallen world, faith is much better than sight. Sight looks at evidence, forms opinions, and draws conclusions, but the problem with sight is that it’s only capable of looking at observable realities; it doesn’t have the capacity to see any further than the objects in front of it.

Sight cannot reckon the invisible power of God. That’s why sight is hopelessly inadequate when it comes to making sense of this world. By definition, sight leaves the invisible God out of the picture. So if you try to make sense of your life or the events of this world purely on the basis of sight, you’ll be very discouraged.

This does not mean that people who exercise faith go through life with their eyes closed. Our eyes should be wide open to the problems, but faith goes further. Faith sees beyond the difficulties and counts on God.

Now we see the abuse of power in high places, the weakness and worldliness of the church, appalling acts of violence and terrible abuse, but when we’re in the presence of Christ, sight will be altogether different. Then we will see him. Sight does not have that capacity now. So until then, we must walk by faith.

For further reading, see Romans 1