Seeing the Invisible (1)

 

 

“We look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal” (2 Corinthians 4:18).

 

“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1).

 

There is a sense in which the Christian life is life lived seeing the invisible. Preeminently, in this sense, it is life lived seeing the invisible God, living in Him as He lives within us. Hebrews 11:27 tells us that Moses “endured, as seeing Him who is invisible.”

 

This can be a hard thing to think about and experience in our materialistic society and church, nevertheless it is the life in Christ to which we are called. It is the life of faith in Jesus.

 

What is it to live “looking at the things which are not seen”? What is it to look through and beyond the visible world? I’d like to explore this with you through the lens of 2 Corinthians, beginning with three verses and working our way outward from them, to see what we can see. These verses are 4:18; 4:6; and 5:16.

 

Let’s read 4:18 again, but this time we’ll add a portion of its immediate context:

 

“Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal. For we know that if the earthly tent which is our house is torn down, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens” (2 Cor. 4:16 – 51).

 

It will be helpful if you will read at least 4:13 – 5:10 to better see the immediate context, I have quoted just a few verses since this is a blog and space is limited. 

 

How do you think 4:18 relates to its context?

 

In other words, how do Paul and his friends view the “momentary, light affliction” they are experiencing? How do they “see” the “decaying” of the “outer man,” their “earthly tent which is their house”?

 

To put it another way, how do Paul and his friends view hardship and tough times? How do they think about death, whether it is death due to persecution, or death from their bodies simply wearing down and giving out?

 

We may not need much help in thinking about the good times in life (though how we think of them is more important than we realize), but most of us would likely agree that we can use help thinking about tough times, including that great unknown for many of us – perhaps for all of us in one degree or another – death.

 

If we only see what the natural eye sees and what the heart and mind convey to us through natural seeing, then what might we expect as we approach death? If the experience of our physical senses is our sole experience, then what might we expect when we face sickness or hardship (physical, emotional, psychological)? That is, how do we think about these things? How do we react to them? How do we help others facing suffering and death?

 

We don’t normally think about these things in our society, which is driven by sensuous appetites and pleasures. Paul warns of false teachers in the church who are “enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose god is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who set their minds on earthly things” (Phil. 3:18 – 19).  

 

Regarding suffering and persecution, when Paul looked at them in the invisible, he saw “an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison” (2 Cor. 4:17). Paul saw through suffering, he saw beyond suffering, to the glory of God which was being produced in him, and which was awaiting him in eternity. As he writes in Romans 8:18, “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed in us.”

 

Paul was not hoping what he was writing was true, he knew it was true because he saw it; in a sense he could touch it, taste it, smell it, breathe it. Paul and his friends were not looking at things that were seen, but at things which were unseen – and the things that were unseen by the natural eye were things substantive (Heb. 11:1), more substantive than anything that could be seen by the natural eye for they were eternal.

 

No wonder Paul prays for the Ephesians that, “The eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe” (Ephesians 1:18 – 19).

 

Of course, this is how Jesus viewed the cross, “Who for the joy set before Him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God” (Heb. 12:2). Jesus saw through the Cross, beyond the Cross, to the joy that awaited Him in the Father’s presence with us around Him – He saw us as the fruit of His suffering and death…and of His resurrection (John 12:24).

 

The mocking crowd, the leering religious leaders, the Roman soldiers, saw the Cross one way, Jesus saw it another way. Even the dear weeping women and other disciples at the Crucifixion saw the Cross one way, while Jesus was seeing it another way. Jesus was seeing the invisible, while others were seeing what their eyes saw – some as a tragedy, others as the successful result of their conspiracy, others as just another day at work.

 

What can we learn about seeing the invisible from 2 Corinthians 4:13 – 5:10?