THINGS SEEN AND UNSEEN

In his second letter to the assembly at Corinth the apostle Paul wrote, “the things which are seen are temporary but the things which are unseen are eternal” (2 Cor. 4:18). Hence, creation, the things of nature and every living thing, including humanity, are all transient, a type or shadow of invisible, eternal things (Rom.1:20). It is the unseen things, the things of the spiritual realm, which are enduring, eternal.

Paul says it is these eternal things that the believer is concerned with in his christian walk; they constitute what Christianity is about. The world thinks that the Christian Faith is a religion of moral and social values aimed at improving society, a religion of everyday life, whereas in reality it is a divine system of the unseen, of spiritual precepts and values. In christian experience we look not at the things of nature, the realm of natural life, but at unseen spiritual things; it is a spiritual walk of faith, for in the divine system of Christianity its adherents walk by faith, not by sight.

It is a different matter in the world of secular life and natural relationships however; in this environment the believer does walk by sight, being concerned with the things that are seen. Effectively, he is involved in two spheres: like his fellow man he has a place and life at a natural level in the world, employment, family, etc. but unlike him, he also has a place and spiritual life in the house of God. In secular life he applies his natural talents and abilities, whereas in the divine sphere he exercises spiritual gifts and acquired sprititual ability.

In revealing the spiritual nature of The Faith, Paul was effectively confirming the Lord’s ministry to Nicodemus (John 3); only one born spiritually could see the Kingdom of God or enter it, for the simple (though to Nicodemus mysterious) reason that it was a spiritual kingdom. The different and separate natures of the natural and spiritual conditions were clearly defined and emphasised with the words “That which is flesh is flesh and that which is spirit is spirit” (John 3:6). The apostle Peter also recognised this truth for he wrote to Jewish believers that the local church or assembly is a spiritual house (1 Pet.2:5).

It is also instructive and most relevant in the context of distinguishing things that differ to recognise that, whilst God has established the spiritual system of Christianity, Satan has introduced his own counterfeit natural religious system – Christendom. Not being based on faith and a new man, it is concerned with the things that are seen, the temporal, a religion of secular life and all things natural because it has no means of seeing or understanding things which are spiritual. For centuries, Satan’s naturalistic Christendom, posing as Christianity, taught the world that the Christian Faith was a religion of natural, social things aimed at improving human nature and making the world a better place, a corruption of the truth that has   regrettably been accepted by many in the christian community.

This spiritually grotesque but seductive institution has been raised up to counter the true, to deceive, to delude mankind into thinking that a religious system devoted to natural man and the things that are seen is of God. In reality it is a religion of the old nature and the natural issues of daily life, whereas Christianity is a religion of the new nature and the spiritual issues of the Kingdom of God. Christendom uses the Bible but knows only the letter of Scripture and so presents The Faith in terms of moral and social principles in a highly visible, religious context designed to appeal to natural man.

That believers are deceived by it says a great deal about spiritual discernment, whether it be involvement with the religious systems of Christendom or subscribing to its naturalistic doctrine. The naturalistic interpretation of spiritual things is satanic.  The world says that seeing is believing but the truth is that believing is seeing.

The Lord Jesus told Nicodemus that the sphere of divine rule was unseen (spiritual) and the apostles repeated His teaching to the churches.  The message is simple and clear: the divine system of Christianity is a spiritual system about spiritual things, the unseen and eternal, not about the temporal things that are seen.