Now Faith is – Hebrews 11: 1 – 6

This morning and also next Sunday we are going to consider something all of God’s people have in common, and that is faith. Because most, if not all of us, sitting in this church this morning believe in Jesus, collectively we are a people of faith. But have you ever given any thought to what faith actually is?

Earlier Tom and Camilla publicly declared their faith in Jesus, but do you know what constitutes faith? Well, during my preparations for this morning, I Googled the question ‘what is faith’, and it led me to a very helpful dictionary definition which read, ‘An unquestioning belief specifically in God; Complete trust and confidence’.

From this definition two words stand out – unquestioning and complete. Unquestioning means you do NOT question, doubt, or dispute. So with regard to our faith in God and in particular, in God’s Son Jesus, it means everything we are told about Him from the Scriptures – even if we do not fully understand everything we are told – we do NOT question, doubt, or dispute.

And complete means ‘to be full or fullness’. So again, with regard to our faith in God and Jesus, it means we are to demonstrate fullness of faith in Him. Our faith in Him is to be complete..

Brothers and sisters, my faith and your faith in God is to be unquestioning, and it is to be complete. And in verse 1 of our reading which I now want to turn too, the writer says a similar thing. He wrote, ‘Now faith is being SURE of what we hope for, and CERTAIN of what we do not see’.

You will notice the writer begins the verse with the word ‘Now’, and I read that in using the word ‘Now, he is giving identification to a point in time, namely the present. In the opening verses to the previous Chapter, the writer discusses the problem with the Jewish Law, and how animal sacrifices can never take away the sins of the Jews, following which he reminds his readers how Jesus solved the problem of sin through the Cross, and how believers in Jesus are to persevere because of what He did at the Cross.

He then urges them to draw near to God with a sincere heart in the full or complete assurance of faith, and He also warns that if they deliberately keep on sinning after they have received the knowledge of the truth about Jesus and what He did for them at the cross, no sacrifice can be made on their behalf, and they were in grave danger of incurring the full wrath of God – verses 26 & 27 of Chapter 10

Finally, the writer reminds his readers of what they have been through and how they are to continue in the faith, and also how they do NOT belong to those who have fallen back into disbelief and are destroyed – which is a reference to those who, because of their disbelief, are separated from God for eternity – but instead they belong to those who continue to believe, namely the church, and are saved – verse 39.

Verses 26 – 39 of Chapter 10 are all about God’s people persevering in faithful obedience, whilst verse 1 of Chapter 11 is all about God’s people living out that obedient faith in the NOW; In the present.

And having reminded God’s people of what is required of them, the writer follows it up by describing what Christian faith is – what constitutes Christian faith. He writes:

‘Faith is being sure of what we hope for, and certain of what we do not see’. Now when it comes to verses like this, it is always helpful to see what other versions or translations say, and again using Google, I came across a version called the Amplified Bible, and this is what verse 1 said in that particular translation: –

‘Now faith is the assurance, the confirmation, the title deed, of the things we hope for, being the proof of things we do not see and the conviction of their reality, faith perceiving as real fact what is NOT revealed to the senses’.

As I have shared on many occasions, the Gospels and letters that make up the New Testament were originally written in ancient Greek, and for every English word, there was often several Greek words, each of which carried different meanings depending on how it was used. And this is something the Amplified Bible Translation takes into account.

In the Amplified translation of verse 1, there are 3 parts to it, and in the first part, we are told how faith is the assurance, the confirmation, the title deed, of the things we hope for’.

Those of you who own your home outright will have in your possession the ‘title deeds’ to your home. The title deeds, which will have your name on it, is a legal document that guarantees the property belongs to you, and you alone.

So, by telling us ‘faith is the assurance, the confirmation, the title deed, of the things we hope for’, we are being told that whatever we are believing God for, especially His promises to us, our faith gives us ‘title of assurance’ that we will receive what God has promised. That they will become our personal possession.

The second part of the verse tells us how faith ‘gives us the proof that the things we do NOT see, really do exist’. In other words, our faith gives us the conviction of the reality of the invisible realm, namely God’s invisible eternal Kingdom, and of God’s promises, provisions, plans, and purposes that originate from God’s invisible Kingdom.

And the third part of the verse tells us how faith ‘perceives as real fact what is not revealed in the senses’. In other words, it is faith that causes us to accept as fact – as truth – what we are told in scripture about God and the things of God, and once we have accepted them through faith, will our senses, our minds, which before faith were closed to these truths, be able to accept them.

So, faith is:

– The assurance, the confirmation, the title deed, of the things we hope for. It’s believing we will possess what God has promised us in His Word.

–  It’s the proof of things we do not see, and the conviction of their reality. It’s the deep inner conviction of the reality of God’s invisible Kingdom and of all the things God will pour into our lives which originate from His invisible Kingdom.

– And it’s perceiving as real fact what is not revealed in the senses. It’s faith, first and foremost, that will cause us to accept the biblical facts – the Biblical truths – about God, following which our faith will cause our minds to accept them.

That then is how we are to understand biblical faith, and what I want to do now, is I want to briefly consider two components of our faith, namely HISTORICAL faith and SAVING faith, and I will finish by briefly considering why our faith is so important.

With regard to ‘Historical’ faith, very simply and to quote the commentator, ‘it is a belief in the truthfulness and accuracy of the scriptural narrative and teaching’.

One of the ways Jesus built up and established the faith of his Disciples, was to remind them of their history, in particular of God’s involvement in their history. For example, in John Chapter 6 Jesus reminds his Disciples of how God protected and provided for their Jewish Ancestors during their 40 years of wandering in the wilderness – Exodus Chapters 13 – 40.

And in Hebrews Chapter 11, the writer uses the same technique, but in this instance, his focus is upon key figures from their history, beginning with Abel, who all walked with God in faith.

This reference in Hebrews to the faithful men and women of the Old Testament is known in theological circles as ‘The Role Call of Faith’, and similar to Jesus, the writer’s purpose is to build up and establish the faith of his readers – including us – by giving us examples of the men and women who lived and acted in faith.

Now another important thing to consider about the role of history in our faith, is that every time we open and read our Bibles, we are reading and experiencing history. Although the Bible is God’s infallible Word, it is also a history book. So whilst our faith can be built up by what God is doing today, it can also be built up by what God did in history.

Turning to ‘saving’ faith, I discovered this interesting definition from another commentator. He wrote, ‘Saving faith is the acceptance by our intellect, affection, and will, of God’s favour extended to man through Christ’.

In Romans Chapter 5 verse 1, the Apostle Paul reminds us of how we are justified by our faith in Jesus. How because of our faith in God’s Son and in what He did upon the Cross, we have been declared innocent by God; we have been acquitted of our sins and declared righteous by God; and we have been redeemed by God.

Now whilst we may question the commentator’s reference to our intellect playing a part in our saving faith, I would suggest that faith and intellect can still work hand in hand – that they can compliment each other.

For example, with our intellect we can do historical searches and find evidence of the truth recorded in the Bible. With our intellect we can witness God moving in our lives – we can witness things taking place in our lives that we could not do alone or in our own strength.

And with our intellect we can reflect back upon the proof of Jesus’ existence in the world, and our need for dependence upon Him. All this – and more – we can do with our intellect.

In saying all that however, saving faith – ultimately – is accepting the reality of God’s invisible existence and in particular, what He has done for the World – for you, for me – through Jesus WITHOUT being able to intellectually explain everything about Him and what He did. We are saved solely because we believe – nothing more, nothing less.

So historical faith and saving faith are the two components to our faith, and finally, the reason faith is so important is because faith pleases God. In verse 6 we read, ‘And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to Him must believe that He exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek Him’.

The context of this verse is the faith of Enoch recorded in Genesis Chapter 5 verses 21 – 24. In those verses we read:

‘When Enoch had lived 65 years, he became the father of Methuselah. And after he became the father of Methuselah, Enoch walked with God 300 years and had other sons and daughters. Altogether, Enoch lived 365 years. Enoch walked with God; then he was no more, because God took him away’.

In those 4 verses, twice we are told how Enoch ‘walked with God’ which tells us that not only was Enoch’s walk with God close and intimate, but that Enoch was totally dependent upon God.

Enoch was NOT simply a man who walked by faith, but he was a man who walked with God. He not only lived his life by faith in the God of heaven and earth, but he also lived his life in intimate communion with God. And ultimately, it was this intimacy with God and dependency upon God, that God found pleasing.

And needless to say, anyone whose faith mirrors the faith of Enoch, will also be pleasing to God. I firmly believe God is pleased with anyone who turns to His Son in faith, but I also firmly believe we must endeavour to please him even more by living in continual intimate communion with him, and by fully depending upon him.

Enoch – along with all those recorded in the ‘Role Call of Faith’ – ‘was commended as one who pleased God’. May that same commendation be said of us.

As I finish, the writer of Hebrews wrote, ‘Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see’.

Friends, with those words in mind and as a man and woman of faith, how is your faith? How assured are you this morning of receiving from God what you are hoping for? How certain are you of the reality of our invisible God and of the invisible things of God? How close and intimate is your walk with God? I’ll leave that with you to decide. AMEN.