A woman, who receives a diamond ring, is a picture of faith. She has (if the man is a real man who keeps his word) an assurance of things hoped for and a conviction of things not seen. The diamond is a sign that there will be a wedding shortly forthcoming. She has a growing conviction, as the day draws near that she soon will be a married woman. And though she does not yet see the day with her eyes her mind is carried away to that day to come. She thinks about it, she dreams about it, she longs for it. There is a real conviction of things not seen, there is a real assurance of things hoped for.
Now in this passage the author defines faith for us. He introduces us to what biblical faith is. And we can say that our key idea for the passage is that real faith is a trust in the words of God and not in our own thoughts, actions, or abilities.
I. The Definition of Faith (v. 1)
The first characteristic description of faith the author gives us is the definition of faith. In verse 1, he says, “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” The author brings us to this point from the conclusion of chapter 10. He noted there that we were “not of those who shrink back to destruction, but of those who have faith to the preserving of the soul.” He wants his readers to understand just what this faith entails. He labors long on this point because of its extreme importance. Someone who does not have a genuine biblical faith will not endure to the preserving of the soul but will shrink back to destruction. A person who does not have true faith will find himself enduring the eternal wrath of God. There can be no greater issue than this with which to be concerned. Shouldn’t we expend our energy to ensure our friends, our family and every other acquaintance has faith that saves the soul? Shouldn’t we be engaged in being able to detail for them what saving faith is? Who wants to come to the end of their life and find that they had been wrong when the stakes are this high?
So what does the author say? Faith is the evidence of things hoped for, the proof of things not seen. We can say it is the work by which God’s Holy Spirit uses His Holy Word to convince us that what the Scripture tells us is true. Romans 10:17 says, “Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. This may occur in hundreds of different ways. God may help us to see the truthfulness of the Bible through His working in someone else’s life. He may cause us to concur with Bible history. Like Mark Twain said that the existence of Israel as a people is proof enough the Bible is true. Did you ever think about this? Here are a people so insignificant in number, yet they appear continually in the paper. Here is a group who, though they continue to be dispersed and persecuted, they remain intact as a people. Never in all history has this happened, that a completely dispersed people continue to maintain their language, customs, and religion. The Holy Spirit may also confirm the truthfulness of the Word of God through how it rings true in our own lives. Faith is a trust that the Bible is true. Though it is not like a science experiment where we can objectively review results again and again and determine a conclusion, yet it is a work of the Holy Spirit where we become convinced of what we were not sure of before and we can understand what we could not before, so we may exclaim with the hymn writer, “I once was blind but now I see.”
We must avoid unbiblical extremes when it comes to faith. One extreme we must avoid is what Kierkegaard called, “The leap of faith.” Kierkegaard was steeped in the dead formalism and creeds of the Lutheranism of his time. Because of it, he flew to the opposite extreme and embraced a system that was devoid of fact or creed and filled with the faith leap into the unknown. His leap of faith was really just a closing of the eyes and jumping into a belief system without checking its truthfulness. He was so sick of a truth based system without any heart that he grabbed for emotion and left out the truth. His leap of faith was into his so-called “Christianity” but it could have been into any other religion as well. This leap of faith isn’t valid because this is not how the Bible defines faith. It is not a leap without a look.
The Mormons use this kind of leap of faith theology, when they say that they know the Book of Mormon is true because they had a strange warming of their heart to show them it is so. Then they’ll tell you to pray and ask God to warm your heart as you read the Book of Mormon so you’ll see it’s true too, even though there are significant historical errors, archeological problems and other discrepancies with the book. Faith is not the accepting of a belief system despite evidence to the contrary. And I must say that at worst the Mormon’s warming of the heart over their book is a deception of Satan to bring people into error. At best it’s because they ate too much pepperoni pizza just before bedtime. Again, faith is not an acceptance of a belief system with no factual basis. Faith believes the promises of God that He gives us in His Word, not tradition that someone has made up. And the hope that springs out of this faith is found in God’s Word. There are two aspects of the definition of faith that we want to explore.
A. Its source
The first aspect of the definition of faith we want to explore is its source. Faith is the evidence of things hoped for. Again we want to see that the source of the hope we have in faith is found in the Scripture. Several times in the New Testament the word hope is used in connection with faith in the Word of God. In Romans 4:18 we read about Abraham, “In hope against hope he believed, so that he might become a father of many nations according to that which had been spoken, ‘So shall your descendants be.’” What we notice in this passage is the hope Abraham possessed that caused him to believe he would be a father of many nations was in accordance with the words of God. God spoke (in this case, directly) to him. And it was in this promise of God He believed. It was not something he conjured up in His own mind. He didn’t create it but put His hope in the Scripture. This is where we part company with those from the New Age Word faith movement. Their faith is in their own power to create reality. They misquote Scripture to say they have the power to create because they have the power of Christ living in them.
I want to note the trap we must avoid in understanding that our source of faith is the Bible. We mustn’t fall into the trap to say, “I am claiming by faith my father (or mother or brother) will be saved.” The Bible does not say your mother or brother or anyone you know will be saved (unless you know of a book of the Bible I don’t know about). What people do, who have a mistaken idea about what faith is, will claim specific verses of Scripture concerning themselves and say it directly relates to them or their brother or sister etc. In the same way they will say, “I am claiming by faith that I will be healed. Unfortunately this is not what the Bible speaks of when it describes faith. Now someone’s line of argumentation in the matter goes like this, “As I was reading the Scripture and thinking about my mission trip to Ecuador this verse jumped out at me, “carry no money belt.” So I am not going to buy an airplane ticket and I will walk into the airport and someone will buy one for me there and pay my way into Ecuador.” Unfortunately the person is ignoring the context and meaning of the passage. And it makes a mockery of the interpretation of Scripture. For if this is the way we are to understand Scripture then we cannot expect to say anyone’s interpretation of Scripture is in error, if God spoke to them in some other way. This, however, is not faith and it ruins the foundation of the Scripture we have to guide us into all truth.
The question that immediately, (logically) comes from this is “How then can we pray “in faith?’” What does it mean? There are two different ways to pray in faith based on two different levels of Scriptural promises. We might call the first, a direct promise or statement of Scripture. We cannot say that by faith we know our father or mother will be saved or a loved one will be healed because there is no direct statement with my mother’s name in there to declare she will be saved or healed. But there are passages of Scripture that say God desires all people to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. So we can pray this way, “God I know by your Word you desire my mother to be saved. And so I pray O God that you would save her because she needs you. I know this is what you want me to pray for her so I ask because it is your desire to see her saved that you work in her to open her eyes to the Gospel.” Or as we see in 1 Thessalonians 4, “I pray O God that you would give me victory over this immorality in my life because I know you say in your Word, ‘This is God’s will for my life, even my sanctification to abstain from sexual immorality.’” Or “Lord, I know by faith in your Word I am saved because you said ‘whoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.’ I don’t need to doubt because I called out to Your Son to save me.”
So we can see that from direct statements of applicable Scripture we can believe God’s promises to us. But the Word we see must be in context of what was written and not out of it. A second way to have faith in God’s Word and pray is through analogous promises. This is less direct than the promises of God written specifically to us in the church. Romans 15:4 shows us this truth. “For whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, so that through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.” These things have been written so that we might see analogous situations in our lives that would be applicable to us and pray according to them.
For example, often I pray from Isaiah 61:10-11. Verse 10 is a praise and verse 11 is a prayer. Verse 10 says, “I will rejoice greatly in the Lord, My soul will exult in my God; for He has clothed me with garments of salvation.” And in verse 11 he says, “For as the earth brings for its sprouts, and as a garden causes the things sown in it to spring up, so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to spring up before all the nations.” I know this is what God said He is going to do during the millennial reign of Christ so I pray, “God I know you are going to one day cause righteousness and praise to spring up before all the nations. I know it is your heart to see this take place. So do this here. In our community cause righteousness and praise to spring up. Cause the hearts of people in Plainville and the surrounding areas to seek you. Bring about a revival and awakening and restore righteousness to this region. Bring about a change in the hearts of those around us and bring people to know you!”
When I pray this, I don’t say, “God I know by faith you are going to do this today. But I plead in a heart of faith that this is what God wants because His Word tells me He wants this accomplished. So in this sense I am praying, “Your will be done” and this is praying in faith. Faith is acting in accordance with the Word of God whether in our prayer life or our daily life. So in prayer because I know the desire of my Father (from His Word) I ask Him to carry it out here. Let us believe God’s promises to us from the Word of God and live them out. And for those things for which we can pray make sure we are praying according to the Word of God.
B. Its focus
The next aspect of the definition of faith we want to explore is its focus. In the second part of verse 1 we see that faith is “the conviction of things not seen.” The focus of our faith is the unseen things of God. Though the physical eyes cannot see God, our spiritual eyes that have been opened to understand the Scripture can. The Word of God gives us a nonphysical view of God so we can, in this sense, see Him. Because God is spirit we cannot see what He looks like nor does the Bible ever give us any indication that we can see Him physically. But we can know Him in the eyes of faith for the Scripture causes us to see Him. And this is what is true. Faith allows us to see the invisible, not the non-existent. A system that sees the non-existent is superstition. That which sees the invisible is faith. Superstition is based on lies, faith is based on truth. Superstition is not wanting to walk under ladders, not going to the 13th floor, or praying to saints. Faith sees Jesus ruling and reigning over all creation, it sees the atoning work of Christ on the cross as efficacious to remove our sin, it sees God creating the world in six days and it sees a God who is holy, righteous, wrathful, yet loving and merciful. The objects of our faith are just not visible to the naked eye. But the believer can see it clearly because God’s Word says it.
We are like the blind man Jesus encountered in John 9. As he described his healing experience with Jesus he said, “One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.” We might not be able to explain how we came to see God’s Word as truth but one thing we do know we once were blind but now we see. Faith is the conviction of things not seen. We can now see God, who is invisible.
II. The Continuity of Faith
The second characteristic of the description of faith we note is the continuity of faith. In verse 2 the author notes, “For by it (faith) the men of old gained approval.” There is continuity in faith throughout the history of the human race. Sometimes there is a misunderstanding about faith in this way. Some note that those in Israel were under the law and so they were not saved by faith. But this is a misunderstanding about faith. The author here says the men of old exercised faith in the Word of God. The Word used here is “the elders.” These were men and women of God from the Old Testament as far back as the beginning of Genesis. And as he describes these people of faith in chapter 11 he starts with Abel. So here we have the continuity of faith. Those in the Old Testament were made righteous before God in the same way we are made righteous today. It was the scope or content of their faith that was different. They looked forward to a coming Messiah. We look back at a Messiah who has come and has accomplished His work on our behalf. But in this sense there is no difference. We both exercise faith. And this brings us to the final characteristic of faith.
III. The Necessity of Faith
Thirdly, we see the necessity of faith. In verse 2, the author tells us, “For by it the men of old gained approval.” The word “gained approval” is literally “received the testimony.” The necessity of faith becomes clear from this verse if we look at how this word is used in verse 4. In that verse, the author notes, “By faith Abel offered to God a better sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained the testimony that he was righteous.” We will get to Abel next time but note the same word in verse 2 here in verse 4. “He received the testimony that he was righteous.” Or if we translate it this way into verse 2 we could say, “the men of old gained the approval that they were righteous.”
Faith is necessary in order to make one righteous. In order for a person to experience the favor (or grace) of God one must be righteous. The problem comes in the fact that Scripture says, “There is none righteous, no not one.” How then do we know we are not righteous? It is by The Ten Commandments. The Ten Commandments show us that we do not measure to God’s standard. We could go through them now and show you how you fall short. You have lied, and broken the ninth commandment. God doesn’t differentiate between white lies or bold faced ones. The ones you tell to your boss or the person to whom you are returning that “defective” piece of equipment (you just happened to drop or leave out in the rain) are the same. They both condemn you as a liar. You have committed adultery by having a relationship with someone other than your spouse. Jesus said you have committed adultery by even thinking about starting a relationship with someone other than your spouse. The Commandments show us not only that our actions are corrupt, but also that our thoughts and attitudes are corrupt. This shows us that we will not find God’s favor on judgment day but His condemnation. It leaves us short and our mouths stopped.
This is where faith comes in. Faith recognizes the provision God has brought about through Jesus’ death on the cross. Romans 3:21 says, “Now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifest…even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe.” This faith gives to an individual a righteousness from God so they may now receive the testimony that they are righteous.
But it is not enough to simply acknowledge your sinfulness. Real faith, doesn’t simply acknowledge your sinfulness. Many people recognize how far short they have fallen of God’s standard but it doesn’t seem to faze them. They continue in living in their sin announcing, “We are all sinners. God will be merciful.” This is not real faith. Real faith produces repentance. And Jesus outlines this repentance in the beatitudes. What makes a person truly blessed? They are truly blessed, Jesus says, when they experience the repentance that comes through faith. Look at how Jesus describes this in Matthew 5. “Blessed are the poor in spirit…Blessed are those who mourn…Blessed are the gentle…Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness…Blessed are the merciful…Blessed are the pure in heart…Blessed are the peacemakers…Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness. Repentance produces a lowliness of spirit in which one recognizes how awful his sin is and how it has offended a holy God. Jesus said this person is poor in spirit. And those who recognize the poor condition of their soul and see how this has left them in condemnation before a holy God will then mourn. Repentance mixed with faith then causes someone to become meek, or gentle. They become humble before this God who they now understand would be perfectly right to throw them into darkness forever. And those who experience this repentance in faith, hunger and thirst for righteousness. They want desperately to be like their Savior. No more complacency in sin. No more excusing the little foxes that destroy the vines. There is a renewal of the conscience in this individual. And they don’t want to play with the fire that had so frequently burned them. They want no part of it. Then they become merciful. They are not vindictive any longer. They want others to experience the mercy that they have experienced. They see those who hurt them as people who likewise need to find the mercy of God. And so they, in their new life of humility before God, seek to show mercy because they have been shown mercy. And because of the faith working in their heart God gives them a purity of heart, the like of which they had never known before. And so in this they become peacemakers. They are not peacekeepers but peacemakers. They are not interested in calming every dispute (That is a peacekeeper). Their goal in life is not to bring an end to the wars on the earth. But these people are peacemakers because they want others to find their newly discovered peace with God. And what happens to people who have this good news of peace with God that they are desiring to share with others? They become persecuted for the sake of righteousness. This is what real repentance energized by faith looks like. It stops thinking about self and places all the emphasis of life on God.
This is why conversion is not simply praying a prayer it must come from a heart of faith resulting in repentance. Real faith produces repentance. And real repentance comes from a heart of faith.
If a person wants to become right in the sight of God there is a necessity for real biblical faith. And the author gives us this starting glimpse into what faith is. Faith lets us see what God has said in His Word is true. We share a continual heritage with those of yesteryear who also have placed their faith in the Word of God. And there is a necessity to faith. If you have never seen your need of a Savior, because you have never seen how corrupt your nature is then you need to repent of your sin before God and receive the sacrifice of Jesus Christ that was offered in your behalf for your sin. Perhaps you are here standing confidently in your sin. Perhaps you are here and only want what is in it for you. You don’t want to repent. Then the Gospel is not for you. There is no good news for you but only a fearful expectation of judgment.
But perhaps you have seen today that your sin offends a holy God and you want to be free from it. Then the Good News of forgiveness is for you. But let me warn you. If you only want to come to Christ because you think that the sin you are in is ruining your life then you do not understand repentance. You are still thinking about yourself. You may say, well if I stop this sin I will be happy. You need to turn from your self-focus in repentance. True repentance turns away from sin because it offends a holy God and because we see that our sin has separated us from Him. And only in this kind of repentance can we find God through our Savior Jesus Christ. Jesus doesn’t call people who are sick of ruining their life He calls people who are sick of offending a righteous God and realize their need for Him.
If you need to turn from your sin and self-centeredness and receive Christ today then you should come during our invitation. Humble yourself and come. Someone will take the Scripture and show you how to repent and put your trust in Jesus Christ