You have probably had an experience similar to this one. You are out with a friend and the friend sees something amazing. "Look over there!" Perhaps the stupendous sight is in the woods. You hurriedly scan the area with your eyes, but are unable to see what your friend sees. Instead your eyes and brain are processing, focusing on other distracting things. And.....you miss it. Too late. It's gone. Sigh!
A similar thing occurs with skeptics of faith. They focus on the wrong things, namely, "proving" the truths of God. The whole point is that, even though powerful evidences exist to verify them, God never designed "fact" to take the place of "faith". He never intended for "seeing" to be the basis of "believing". You don't need faith when you have all the facts. You don't need God when you have all the answers.
My last post was about the mark of the Christian: a faith that perseveres. This echoed the last verse in chapter 10, verse 39. The writer of Hebrews goes on from there, then, in chapter 11, to list various people from the Old Testament who evidenced that type of faith. All along, God has proclaimed that it is faith which makes a person right with God - - nothing more, nothing less. Hebrews 11:2 is just one verse affirming that truth.
2For by it the men of old gained approval.
(NASB)
Whole books have been written on the persons mentioned in Hebrews 11. I won't attempt that, lol, for which I'm sure you are grateful! This chapter has been called "the roll call of faith", but I want to mention "the preface" to the roll call, verses 1-3.
Verses 1 and 3 contain one of the best definitions of faith in the Bible. Let's look at vs. 3 first, because it expounds on verse 1.
3By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible. (ESV)
What a wonderful model God gave us! He created our entire "reality" out of nothing, out of things not "visible". In other words, the very foundations of our world cannot be seen. Such is the relative unimportance of our powers of "sight".
Unbelieving scientists rely completely on their senses, their "powers of observation" in order to make their scientific findings, which has led, in the past, to some truly bone-headed theories (later enshrined as "facts").
Faith is God's way, the superior way. Faith is not ignorance; rather, it is a reasoned belief/trust based on the revelations given to us in God's Word.
Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
(ESV and NASB)
To claim we understand all of the Bible's revelation would be, not only foolish, but also contrary to the ways of God. He desires we NOT understand it all. If we did, we would misplace some or most of our faith - - putting it in ourselves, rather than in Him.
Faith is the calm assurance, the rock-solid certainty that God will do as He promised. Whether we can "see" it....is irrelevant. To Christians, faith is the firm foundation that undergirds our every area of life. The Message version of Hebrews 11:1 describes faith as "our handle on what we cannot see."
How powerful is godly faith? Well, it ....
- makes the unrighteous, the sordid and soiled, clean and in perfect relationship with a holy God (vs. 4)
- cheats death completely (vs. 5-6)
- saves entire families....and through the Great Flood, saved the entire human race. (vs. 7)
- creates missionaries, takes faithful ones to new lands in order to fulfill God's calling on their lives (vs. 8-10)
- brings about physical miracles in our bodies, supernatural healings (vs. 11-12)
- creates entire people groups (vs. 11-12)
- conquers governments (vs. 23-30)
- makes a harlot a princess (vs. 31), because Rahab married into the royal Messianic line
- can change the topography of the Earth (Matthew 17:20)
I'll take faith over sight, any day.
In closing, let's meditate on these verses from The Message Translation (vs. 32-28 and 13-16), and follow the examples of those who have gone before us, our exemplary examples.
Through acts of faith, they toppled kingdoms, made justice work, took the promises for themselves. They were protected from lions, fires, and sword thrusts, turned disadvantage to advantage, won battles, routed alien armies. Women received their loved ones back from the dead. There were those who, under torture, refused to give in and go free, preferring something better: resurrection. Others braved abuse and whips, and, yes, chains and dungeons. We have stories of those who were stoned, sawed in two, murdered in cold blood; stories of vagrants wandering the earth in animal skins, homeless, friendless, powerless—the world didn’t deserve them!—making their way as best they could on the cruel edges of the world.
Each one of these people of faith died not yet having in hand what was promised, but still believing.
How did they do it? They saw it way off in the distance, waved their greeting, and accepted the fact that they were transients in this world. People who live this way make it plain that they are looking for their true home. If they were homesick for the old country, they could have gone back any time they wanted. But they were after a far better country than that—heaven country. You can see why God is so proud of them, and has a City waiting for them.
Hallelujah!
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