Heroes of Faith (1)

This is a series called Heroes of Faith wherein Prof. Herman Hanko discusses the celebrated chapter of Hebrews 11 known as the "Hall of Faith." 

INTRODUCTION – HEBREWS 11:1-2

This article is also part of the introduction to a closer consideration of the heroes of faith. But it is Scripture’s introduction. It reads: “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it the elders obtained a good report.”

Whatever is the meaning of these two verses?

Commentators have argued long over the question and have disagreed, sometimes violently over the meaning of the two words “substance” and “evidence.” I happen to think that  commentators tend sometimes to make Scripture more difficult than it really is. I think the translation in the KJV is correct and that all we really need to do is take the verse as it stands there.

So, first of all, in  this definition of faith that Scripture gives us, we may ask the question: What does “substance” mean here? The answer is: The substance of something is what that something is made of. The substance  of faith is, therefore, what faith is made of.

The text gives us the answer to that question. Faith is “made” of things hoped for. 

What  are  things  hoped  for?  The  things  we  hope  for  are  the  things  that  are  in  heaven:  Christ himself, the whole church from Adam on, all the blessings of salvation, moral perfection, the glory of a new creation, the angels as our servants, freedom from weakness and sin and death, glorified bodies and souls. We hope for those. We do not want to live in this world forever, a place where we keep on sinning and suffering all sorts of diseases. Even though we sometimes live as if things in this world are really the things we want, deep down in our hearts we know that heaven is infinitely better than anything in this world, and that heaven is the place we want to go.

 Faith then is “made up” of those things we hope for. Faith is the same as those things we hope for.

When we have faith we have those things. All the things of heaven we already have now when we have faith.

All that sounds like strange language, but it really isn’t. Paul, in his letter to the church at Ephesus, tells the saints that God blesses us with all spiritual  blessings  “in heavenly places in Christ” (Eph. 1:3).

Paul says that the blessings we now receive from God really put us in heavenly places with Christ.

The Bible teaches us again and again that faith is the bond that unites us to Christ. And when we are united to Christ we are with Him, and being with Him we receive from Him all He has to give.

Sometimes the Bible uses expressions like, faith as appropriating Christ, or as laying hold on Christ, or as making Him our own. We do have Christ! We have Him as our possession! By faith! We walk with Him  as Enoch  and Noah  did.  We talk  with  Him  and  He  talks  to  us. He  even  calls  us by  our names.  He strengthens us in our weakness and is in fact our strength – by faith! You who read this article ought to sit down for a few minutes and think of all this. Do you really and truly realize that when you believe in Christ you actually possess Him? And, possessing Him, you have everything that heaven is all about.

Let  me  point  out  to  you  that  the  object  of  our  faith,  that  which  we  believe,  is  always  Christ Himself. We believe the Scriptures, but the Scriptures are the infallible portrait of Christ. Every last word of it is part of the portrait of Christ.

This is also true of the Old Testament saints. Let’s try to remember that as we discuss their acts of faith. They did what they did because they believed in Christ  – even though He had not yet come. “All these died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them ... .” The promises are salvation in Christ.

Our one question in discussing these heroes of faith is: What did these people do because they

believed in the coming of Christ? They did remarkable things! And we must do the same.

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  Hebrews 11 also tells us that faith is “the evidence of things not seen.” What does that mean?

  You see, while we have Christ already now in this life, we cannot see Him; and while the blessings we  shall  someday  receive  are  ours  now  (although  only  partly),  we  cannot  show  anyone  that  we  have them. Peter talks about this as well: “. . . at the appearing of Jesus Christ, whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see Him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory: receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls” (1 Pet. 1:7-9).

Faith sees things that cannot be seen. Faith is proof that these things are real. Faith is a proof stronger than seeing. Faith is so strong of the reality of Christ and heaven that the one who has faith will stake his life on the reality of heaven and salvation. Faith is the ultimate proof. Job says, “I know that my Redeemer liveth.”

Faith is a wonderful power in the lives of God’s people. It is a whole new way of knowing and seeing things.

Let me explain.

Before Adam fell, Adam could see, know and love God, because of Adam knew God through God’s revelation in His creation; trees and birds, flowers and animals, stars and planets all revealed God.

But the fall of Adam into sin did two terrible things. The curse came on the creation so that the revelation of God in creation could barely be seen, for God’s curse brought death and violence to the creation. The creation was like a book that had been laying out in the weather for a year. Such a book, rained on and dried, rain on again and dried again, blown about by the wind, can hardly be read.

But something, happened also to man. He died as God said he would. He died spiritually so that he became totally depraved. He lost his ability to see God who has revealed in creation.

But even that was not the worst. The real reason for his inability to see God is the hatred of God that depravity brings. Paul says, “He [wicked man] suppresses the truth in unrighteousness” (Rom. 1:18). He will not confess God. He is like you and me: when we do something terribly wicked that every one knows about, and we regret it, we refuse to allow ourselves to think about it and we try drown the wicked deed in the bottom of our consciousness. And anyone that forces us to think about it again, we hate because we cannot bear to think about it.

Whether such hatred is characteristic of an atheist, or of a man who goes to church but will not believe the truth, both are hateful of God.

Faith corrects all that. It is a God-given power to believe what God says in the Bible. Faith takes away our spiritual blindness so that we can “see” and believe as true what God says. Faith banishes the effects of sin from our hate-filled minds and wills, and gives us the power, the spiritual power to love God so much that we take the Bible and study it as carefully as a young lady reads and studies a letter she has received from her boy-friend whom she has not seen for ever so long a time.

Calvin, in his Institutes of the Christian Religion, goes even a step further. He says that when by faith we put on the eyeglasses of the Bible, we can once again see God’s revelation in creation as well. God tells us in the Bible all He is doing and will continue to do in the creation.

By the way, this is why, we ought to appreciate the flowers, birds, trees, mountains and stars in God’s world.

In this way of faith, faith becomes the evidence, the proof of all the spiritual realities of God, His Christ, and the salvation of the church and the creation.

And finally, when a person really has faith, that faith does wonderful things in life – as Hebrews 11 tells us.

Prof. Herman Hanko