Reading: Hebrews 11:1-16
Speaker: Tim Mountain
This Week’s Thoughts
Some words are like cream cakes. If you have them too frequently, you forget what was so special about them the first time. And in extreme cases when they are repeated ad nauseam, you can become sick of them altogether.
For example: love, joy, grace, mercy, salvation. They’re all nice words, I hope you’ll agree. Good words — important words. They are foundational for Christianity. They also make for pretty platitudes, song lyrics, colourful posters, and things to scatter into conversation to show that we really are Christians. But there is a great danger that that is all they become, and no matter how many cross-shaped hundreds and thousands are sprinkled on top, our appetite for them is lost.
Another foundational word in our faith is just that: faith. It too risks losing meaning with repetition. After all, it is important to have faith in this faith, more so than in any other faith, because it is by grace through faith we are saved, and so we should remain faithful and act in good faith as we remember Him who is faithful unto us… If your name is Faith as well, your headache is liable to be even worse.
So it is helpful then that the writer of Hebrews gives a clear definition of this important word and concept: ‘Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see’ (Hebrews 11.1). It is a firm trust in what God tells us, despite what our eyes do or do not show us. In fact, my study Bible tells me that the Greek word translated as ‘faith’ is ‘pistis’, which can also be used in reference to things that are completely trustworthy.
It is by this sort of faith — this being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see — that we believe in God, and ‘understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible’ (Hebrews 11.3). It is also how we are to live.
‘By faith Abel offered God a better sacrifice than Cain did’ (Hebrews 11.11.4), because he knew with certainty that it was worth giving up the firstborn of his flock to offer God a favourable sacrifice. Noah, ‘when warned about things not yet seen’ did not place his trust in those he could see around him, who went on eating and drinking and marrying, but ‘in holy fear built an ark to save his family’ (Hebrews 11.7). One does not build an ark 300 cubits long on a mere whim, or on the off chance that there might be a flood. Abraham, promised a land that would be his inheritance, being sure of what he hoped for, ‘obeyed and went, even though he did no know where he was going’ (Hebrews 11.8). And although he and Sarah struggled at first, when they did trust in God’s promise rather than their age and barrenness, Abraham became a father through Isaac to many descendants, despite being, as the writer of Hebrews puts it, ‘as good as dead’ (Hebrews 11.12). (Incidentally, when they met in Heaven, I would liked to have heard the first conversation between the writer and Abraham.)
It is by ‘being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see’ (Hebrews 11.1), that we believe in God, live our Christian lives from that point on, and then, when He decrees it, it is also how we are to die. Whilst living, the Old Testament exemplars of faith did not seek with their eyes somewhere to call home, or take opportunities to return to the place they were called from, but ‘admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth’ (Hebrews 11.13). They were sure and certain of something greater, and thus ‘God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them’ (Hebrews 11.16).