As you read through Hebrews, it does not take long to realise that the author was writing to help a unique group of people. What he writes is of great importance and helpful to all, but his immediate audience was historically niche. Jewish men and women who had recognised Jesus as the promised Messiah were moving from the familiar structures of Judaism into the blessings of the New Covenant. The writer has spent much of the letter demonstrating that what God has introduced in Christ is better. The Lord Jesus is better, His sacrifice is better, His priesthood is better, and the covenant established through Him is better.
Sadly, the Judaism seen in the New Testament and led by religious groups such as the Pharisees had drifted from the basic principles of the Old Covenant into a works-based religion. How would anyone be able to move away from that works-based system with the priesthood, temple, sacrifices and religious structure to the New Covenant which had none of this? No dietary requirement, no religious festivals, no pomp and ceremony and all that went on in Jerusalem.
The answer was not new. God’s people had always been called to live by faith. Quoting Habakkuk, the writer reminds his readers, “Now the just shall live by faith” (Heb 10:38).1 Hebrews 11 reaches back into Israel’s history to demonstrate that faith had always been the principle upon which men and women lived for God.
The Substance of Faith
“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” (v1).
A helpful paraphrase could be, “Faith makes real in our experience the promises that God has given about the future. Faith proves to us the fact that the things we presently cannot see – God, angels, demons, heaven, hell – are very much true and real.” Faith brings to life the reality of God’s promises and makes the unseen world visible.
A.W. Pink uses the analogy of two men standing on the deck of a ship and looking towards the horizon. One sees nothing. The other, looking through a telescope, can see a distant vessel. The telescope does not create the ship; it simply enables the man to see what was already there but beyond the range of his natural sight. Faith functions in a similar way. It brings into focus realities which cannot presently be naturally seen. This is not a description of positivity or an optimistic feeling. Faith rests upon the sure foundation of God and what God has said.
The word translated “substance” carries the thought of essence or assurance. Faith gives a present reality to something God has promised for the future. The men and women of the Old Testament often possessed little more than the promise of God. They had not yet seen what He had promised, but His Word was so dependable that they ordered their lives on the belief that it was true.
One striking example of faith is found in the book of Daniel. Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were faced with obeying Nebuchadnezzar while disobeying God. There was every reason to do so as they faced the most powerful man in Babylon. He was visible and no doubt terrifying. However, they chose to obey God, who is invisible to the natural man. They understood by faith that the most powerful person in Babylon was their God. His presence in the room was every bit as real to them as the presence of Nebuchadnezzar was to the Babylonians. Faith brought the unseen reality of God into their circumstances as a present reality.
The second part of Hebrews 11:1 speaks about “the evidence of things not seen.” Genuine faith does more than acknowledge truth intellectually. It produces conviction, and conviction leads to action. Noah provides an obvious illustration. He was “warned of God of things not seen as yet” and, “moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house” (v7). Noah had never seen the judgment that God described, but he believed what God said. The future judgment became a present reality to him, and consequently he acted. It is one thing to believe that judgment is coming; it is another to spend years building an enormous ark because God has said that it will.
The principle of belief and action runs throughout Hebrews 11. Faith believes God and then acts upon what God has said. Abel offered; Enoch walked; Noah prepared; Abraham went out. Repeatedly, belief resulted in action. This is quite a challenge for us. It is possible to speak of heaven, hell, eternity and the return of Christ while allowing these truths to have little influence upon our life choices. Biblical faith is more than a verbal agreement or intellectual assent to future realities. True faith makes decisions in the light of what God has revealed in His Word.
The Approval of Faith
“For by it the elders obtained a good report” (v2).
The commendation these OT elders received from God related to their faith. Later, the writer makes the principle explicit: “But without faith it is impossible to please him” (v6). This goes against the natural tendency of the human heart and is reflected in many religions. The emphasis is placed upon what we do: how much we pray, how hard we work, how well we live, or how faithfully we perform religious duties. The focus is on our performance rather than on God and His sufficiency.
This was the Judaism confronted by the Lord Jesus time and again in Jerusalem. Israel had a system that was built upon confidence in human righteousness. The writer to the Hebrews directs the reader away from self and back to God.
The Understanding of Faith
“Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear” (v3).
Biblical faith is not the abandonment of intelligence, as so many critics like to say. Faith enables us to perceive reality from the standpoint of divine revelation rather than scientific theory.
The “worlds” encompass more than the material earth and carry the thought of the ages. All have been ordered by God. They were “framed by the word of God.” The Greek word used here is rhema, emphasising the spoken utterance of God. He spoke, and creation came into being. No human being witnessed the beginning of the universe. Science observes the universe as it presently exists and structures the observations into laws. Scientific theory is the proposed explanation of the observed phenomena. History has proved that science cannot put a full stop to any explanation of their observations, for scientific discovery is an ongoing pursuit.
The writer takes us to the ultimate origin of all things. The God whom Abel, Noah, Abraham and Moses trusted is the God who called the universe into existence by His Word. If His Word possesses such creative power, can He fail to fulfil anything He has promised? The creation around is evidence of the power of the God in whom our faith rests. The God who spoke the worlds into existence is entirely capable of bringing every one of His promises to fulfilment.
1 Bible quotations in this article are from the KJV.
