FAITH

🕊️ FAITH

Faith is what Adam lost back in Eden. It is also the only way back. Because this is how faith works, still little understood to this day.

🔹 Introduction

When Adam and Eve ate of the fruit, their eyes were opened, but it was a loss, not a gain. They lost the sight of the invisible. They stopped seeing with the eyes of the Spirit and began to see only the visible world, full of fear, shame and death.

But what was lost, above all, was faith, living trust in God. And it is by faith that man can be restored. Not by strength. Not by religion. For faith is a gift of God (Eph 2.8).

🔹 1. The fall was the loss of faith

The serpent's proposal was independence from God. To stop trusting. To stop depending. To walk by oneself.

By eating the fruit, Adam and Eve rejected faith. But immediately they felt fear and shame. It was the first time human beings tried to live without God.

🔹 2. Faith is the only way to see the invisible

Faith is not belief in what is irrational. It is the only means of seeing again what sin made us lose: the Spirit, the Kingdom, communion, eternity.

🔹 3. God hides, and only faith finds Him

Faith is like groping in the dark with the eyes of the heart open. Because God is not far away. But He remains invisible to the natural eye. We must be born again to see Him.

🔹 4. Only God can rekindle faith

Man cannot return by himself. God must take the initiative, and He did, by sending the True Light:

“The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world.” (John 1.9)

It is God who sanctifies us, it is he who justifies us and  also who works in us both to will and to do. (Phil 2.13)

Deep down, we think we are something, but from him, through him and for him are all things. (Rom 11.36)

And that is why he says he comes to seek and to save the lost, the one who recognizes his condition as a wretched one, when he is without the presence of God.

🔹 5. Revelation reveals the restored inner light

Faith begins with an inner glow, and ends with full and eternal light within us. Everything will be restored. What Adam lost, Christ gave back to us.

🔹 6. The curse of sin: trusting in oneself

When Adam broke with God, he began to trust in himself. This is the essence of the fall: self-confidence in the place of faith.

“Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes mortal flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from the Lord.” (Jer 17.5)

The consequence was immediate: having to struggle to sustain oneself.

“By the sweat of your brow you will eat your bread…” (Gen 3.19)

What was the Father's natural provision became anxiety and fear of the future. This is one of the greatest evils that afflict us today: worry about tomorrow.

Jesus warned us clearly:
“Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” (Matt 6.34)

This anxiety is the symptom of a life disconnected from the Spirit. But Jesus came to break this curse and lead us back to trust in the Father:

“Your Father knows that you need food, drink and clothing…”
“But seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” (Matt 6.32-33)

“The Kingdom of God is not food or drink, but righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.” (Rom 14.17)

🔹 Conclusion

Faith is the point of rupture and also the point of reconciliation. It was lost in Eden, and can only be recovered as a gift of the Spirit (1 Cor 12.9). It is not the work of reason, nor of religion, but a miracle of the Spirit.

That is why whoever believes sees again. Depends again. Walks with God again, no longer by the sweat of the brow, nor by anxiety about tomorrow, but by the leading of the Spirit.

Without eyes to see, we need to be guided by the ears, listening to the Spirit.

Because this is the victory that overcomes the world: our faith. (1 John 5.4)

The true curse was having to trust in oneself, and worry about tomorrow is its visible consequence.

True redemption is to trust again in the Father, who takes care of today, of tomorrow and of eternity.

“We live by faith, not by sight.” (2 Cor 5.7)

“What is essential is invisible to the eye.”, and can only be revealed by faith in the Christ in Jesus, and now in the Christ in us.