START WITH SCRIPTURE:
Hebrews 11:1-3, 8-16
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OBSERVE:
This excerpt from the magnificent passage in Hebrews 11 defies simple exposition. It would be like looking at the Grand Canyon and saying, “that’s a big gorge!” Of course that is true, but there is too much depth and too much complexity to simply leave it there. And yet, trying to sum up what a person sees from the edge of that natural wonder is boggling.
Hebrews 11 presents the same problem. The first sentence alone requires at least a chapter in a book all to itself!
Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
What kind of faith is the writer speaking of here? Justifying faith that depends upon radical trust in the grace of God revealed in Christ? Or is this faith of the creeds, relating to the content of faith revealed in the Scriptures? One thing is absolutely clear — the faith that is explored here is dynamic and deeply personal.
The words that are used to define faith are strong words. Assurance is from the Greek upostasis, which can also be translated substance. This implies a sense of certainty and confidence, especially in the future of things hoped for.
And conviction, from the Greek elengkos can also be translated persuasion, evidence, demonstration. Faith isn’t something gossamer and vague — it is an inward evidence that transcends what can be experienced with the physical senses. It makes us think of what Paul says about the witness of the Spirit in Romans 8:16:
…it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God…
There is the sense that even though I cannot see those things that are described in the Scriptures — angels, demons, miracles, even God — they exist. I cannot see oxygen, and yet I am convinced that it does exist and sustains me. And until the last century or so it was impossible to “see” the atoms that make O2. In fact one student of physics says this of the inability to “see” electrons and protons:
… seeing something is not required to determine its properties, in fact many properties cannot be understood simply by processing the light that bounces off of an object…And as intellectual beings, we have developed other ways to study our environment, such as the electron microscope. So just because we use alternative apparatus or techniques to determine the features of atomic particles, does not make our conclusions any less valid.
Similarly, we can say of the spiritual realm that though we are now dependent on faith, there will come a time that faith becomes sight:
For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known (1 Corinthians 13:12).
The entire chapter of Hebrews 11 might be called the “Faith Chapter” in much the way 1 Corinthians 13 may be titled “the Love Chapter.”
The chapter lists the people of faith that trusted in God despite adversity, and looked forward to the fulfillment of God’s promises. The passage is framed almost as a kind of litany — each Biblical character or their actions is introduced by the same phrase — by faith. In each instance, the impetus of their action and obedience is by faith.
Although Hebrews never uses the Pauline language of justification by faith to describe God’s act of salvation by grace, it comes very close here:
Indeed, by faith our ancestors received approval.
Clearly, it isn’t because of their election as God’s people, or their adherence to the law, or their proper sacrifices (the only perfect sacrifice in Hebrews is Jesus Christ), or their works that they are approved — it is by faith!
And in verse 3, Hebrews begins with the very first principle of faith — that God is the one and only Creator, who created all things from nothing:
By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was made from things that are not visible.
Notice also that the word of God is the agent of creation. It is impossible not to hear echoes of John 1 and Colossians when they describe Christ as the agent of creation:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being (John 1:1-3).
He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation; for in him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers—all things have been created through him and for him (Colossians 1:15-16).
Our lectionary reading skips from verse 3 to verse 8 in order to focus on the Old Testament figure who is most famous in the New Testament as “our human father in the faith” (Romans 4:16) — Abraham.
In this section, Hebrews focuses on the broad outline of Abraham’s life and faith. His faith is described as “faithful obedience” as he left his familiar home to go to an unknown land which would be given him as an inheritance. But even that land, which of course we know to be the land of Canaan, is only a provisional inheritance. The real inheritance is to be a heavenly city:
For he looked forward to the city that has foundations, whose architect and builder is God.
Hebrews continues by addressing the miraculous birth of a child to an elderly couple, and to a woman who was barren during her normal childbearing years — Abraham and Sarah. Hebrews offers a vivid and somewhat witty description of the great promise of God that was originally given to Abraham (Genesis 22:17):
Therefore from one person, and this one as good as dead, descendants were born, “as many as the stars of heaven and as the innumerable grains of sand by the seashore.”
Hebrews pauses to sum up all of those who had been mentioned so far in this “faith chapter,” some of whom today’s lectionary Scripture selection doesn’t cover — Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Sarah, Isaac and Jacob. Of them, Hebrews says:
All of these died in faith without having received the promises, but from a distance they saw and greeted them.
These Old Testament saints understood that their sojourn on this earth was transient:
They confessed that they were strangers and foreigners on the earth, for people who speak in this way make it clear that they are seeking a homeland.
One theme comes through very clearly — the promises in which these saints believed were not yet fulfilled. But they knew that what was to come would be vastly superior to the provisional fulfillment they had experienced:
But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God; indeed, he has prepared a city for them.
APPLY:
Believers are by definition optimists. We really can’t continue to believe that everything will get worse and worse, because ultimately faith is about what God is going to do. God is preparing a heavenly city as the fulfillment of our faith.
Hebrews 11 reminds us that faith is about a vision of the future that transcends doubt, suffering, persecution, torture, and even death. This is why these Old Testament saints were able to persevere even though they did not see the goal of their faith.
And as the closing verses of Hebrews 11 tell us, our faithful response to Christ is essential to the completion of their faith journey:
Yet all these, though they were commended for their faith, did not receive what was promised, since God had provided something better so that they would not, apart from us, be made perfect (Hebrews 11:39-40).
RESPOND:
I was having a very civil debate with a non-believer who was raised in the church but consciously has departed from faith in Christ. He has read Hitchens and Dawkins and others who have declared themselves “anti-theists,” but my friend doesn’t consider himself anti-theist or atheist — he has said he believes in “a god” but not the Christian God.
But as our debate began, he declared to me that he could predict where we would end up. He would dismantle the traditional arguments against the Christian revelation scientifically and epistemologically, and it would end up that I would say the same thing every Christian says to him — “it all comes down to faith.”
Actually, I couldn’t really argue with that. I could argue that religious truth is like scientific truth in that the truth itself doesn’t ever change. We may come to understand the truth that already exists, but none of us invents or creates it. The scientist may come to understand it by discovery and experimentation, whereas the believer comes to understand by revelation and Scripture. But none of us “invents” the truth.
As I reflected on our conversation later, it struck me that of course he was right. By definition, my understanding of the truth is grounded in faith. There is no way that I can know all the truths revealed in Scripture without faith. However, I would argue that scientists also sometimes employ a kind of “scientific faith” about certain hypotheses that they cannot prove by empirical observation while they await confirmation by experimentation. But is that all that different from Abraham and people of faith? We are those who:
… looked forward to the city that has foundations, whose architect and builder is God.
Our Lord, by faith I look forward to the fulfillment of your promises, and your holy city. In the faith of your saints I see the vision that sustains me and gives me hope — the assurance and conviction of those things not yet seen. Amen.
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